Page 15 of Protected

Ididn't understand how it was even the slightest bit possible, but all this time, I hadn't been dreaming.

This.

Was.

Not.

A.

Dream.

"How did I figure it out?" the crazy side of my brain asked.

"Oh, well, you know, when ten-thousand mice crawled up my dress and bit me like a was the tastiest piece of cheese ever presented at the mouse Christmas party," the other crazy part of my mind replied.

"But thousands of mice crawling all over someone sounds more like a nightmare than reality," Crazy brain said.

"Sure. Until it fucking hurts so much, I couldn't do anything but scream." Crazy mind growled.

"Yeah. I suppose if I were going to wake up, that kind of pain would do it, where a little pinch to the underarm might not."

Leb tucked my head against his chest and stroked my hair. "Shh, lass. Everything is going to be all right now."

Wait. Had I said all of that out loud? Great. Now the hot Viking thought I was crazy too. Maybe I was, because only an insane person would believe I'd gone through a tree and landed in a wintery land filled to the brim with men who kept kissing the Christmas lights out of me, pixies with curative hot chocolate, angels who delivered messages, and thousands of attack mice.

Even if I had gone off my rocker, I was living in a reality where I could be injured or even killed. I needed to find my way out of this story and back home. Back to my pampered, if boring and subservient, life. Back to where father, Fritz, and Drosselmeyer controlled my destiny not nutcrackers, princes, cookies, and mice.

My stomach roiled as if I'd eaten too many sweet mincemeat pies. Having a permanent bellyache was still safer than staying here. Who knew when we would be attacked again?

One of those crazy voices in my head said I could be just as hurt living the life the men in my life back home had laid out for me.

The horses slowed a bit as we came out of the forest and to the edge of the foothills of some tall, snowy mountains. I could definitely imagine Vikings living here. "We're not far now. Just sit tight a bit longer and you'll be safe and sound in the arms of Mother Gingerbread."

Aha. That's what Leb smelled like. Gingerbread. "Who is she?"

He guided the horses up a spindly path across the hills, that I hadn't even noticed. "The matriarch of my family and leader of the Gingerbread Kingdom. She's been waiting on you a long time."

"Why would that be? She doesn't know even know me."

"Princess, we all know you, or at least of you. You're the hope we've been waiting for nye on a century."

A century seemed far too long since I wasn't a quarter as old as that. "You all keep saying I'm some sort of lost princess and that I'm here to do something for your realm, but how can that be if I didn't even know this place existed? I barely know how to cook myself breakfast. I'm certainly not going to be able to save you from creepy rat queen. You need a warrior woman, not a dancing princess."

Where was the Vivandiere from the stories? She's the one who could save them, not me.

"We shall see, my sweet. But whatever is going to happen, can wait until tomorrow. Tonight, we'll rest and heal and prepare for the inevitable invasion." He turned and gave a hand signal to Tau, who pulled out his bow, notched an arrow, and shot it into the snow beside our horse.

A ragged little mouse went flying and splatted onto a nearby rock. Leb's warning about an invasion and a mouse trailing us wasn't exactly making me feel safe. A life of lonely servitude was sounding better and better.

Leb cupped his hands and shouted up into the dark, craggily rocks above us. "Heil!"

Another face with a red braided beard that was definitely related to Leb popped up from behind the rocks. "Heill, Leb. You've got a stream of mice following ya."

"That we have. Send an angel up the mountain to let mother know there will be trouble."

The head disappeared back behind the rocks and a moment later, a sparkling golden angel fluttered up and caught a breeze, taking her up the hill. But a few moments later she and her trail of golden sparkles faded.

"Where did she go? She's not injured or shot down or something, is she?" I was already tired of seeing others getting hurt because they thought I was going to be some savior.

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