Page 49 of Trapped to Tame
Eve had beenasleep for several Light Realm days while she healed, Priest told her after he shook her awake gently and thrust a plate of food in her hands. The portal was open once more. It was time to leave the Dark Realm.
Something niggled at her as she ate the food he’d given her. There was something she felt as if she should remember, but every time she got close to it, it would move further away from her.
They left the inn with what little they’d brought with them, and Eve found it was full-dark when they emerged out onto the street.
‘How long does the night here last?’ she asked
‘Many days go by in the Light Realm while all who call this realm their home live in darkness,’ he answered absently, keeping an eye on those around them.
They went through the market again, finding it bustling with the same sorts of odd creatures. But whereas during the day there had been a calmness to the place, in the night it was much different. Females stood outside doorways, dressed in silks and gauzes, transparent clothes showed their bodies to passers-by. Some looked human. Most were not.
Eve looked away. Though she had seen such females before, she'd never been so close. She stayed next to Priest, keeping her hood well up.
But as they walked down the street, a scuffle broke out next to her between two of the horned warriors who seemed to frequent the town and someone jostled her, knocking her to the ground. She went sprawling with a cry, her hood coming down to show him and his friend what she was.
‘A human girl.’
The horned beast stood over her, dressed in black mail and leather. Various weapons hung from his belt, but the way he looked her up and down made her blood run cold.
Priest was suddenly in between them.
‘Mine,’ he growled.
The warrior sneered at Priest. ‘She's only yours if you can keep her, elf.’
It appeared that ‘elf’ was a grievous insult because Priest’s countenance turned more menacing than even she’d ever seen it. He moved with such speed that Eve wasn’t sure exactly what he‘d done, but the warrior was suddenly on the ground, clutching his abdomen.
Priest laughed, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her with him. They ran down the streets towards the main square.
As Priest had said, the portal was open, and no one even looked their way as they went across the bridge – though Eve once again screwed her eyes shut and gripped onto Priest.
A moment later they were standing on a sunny hillside. It was late morning and Eve was sure she’d never been so happy to be anywhere in her life before.
Unless…
‘Weareback in the Light Realm, aren’t we?’ she asked Priest, looking around her. Everythingappearedas it ought, but what if there were Dark Realms that looked like the Light Realm? How would they know …
‘Aye, calm yourself,’ Priest said, ‘but we're not in the Ice Plains yet. Come. We have a journey ahead of us.’
Eve went with him, and they traveled the rest of the day on foot. By the time the sun was setting and they stopped to make camp, they were exhausted.
‘Start a fire,’ Priest ordered.
He was gone before she could tell him she had no idea how to do such a thing without a hot coal to start with. She couldn’t make fire out of nothing.
She sat in the middle of the clearing he’d chosen for a time, wondering if she should get some rocks together to make a circle as he had done before. She gathered what she could find, making a smaller boundary around where they would sleep tonight.
Priest returned not long after, a rabbit hanging from a snare.
‘Got lucky,’ he said. Then he scowled. ‘Why haven't you built a fire, woman?’
She looked away and he came to stand over her, clearly fuming.
‘Are you a fool? Is your mind addled?’
She shook her head, embarrassed to tell him that she had no idea how to do such a simple thing.
He took a step back suddenly, shaking his head and did it himself, starting a blaze in no time at all, giving her odd looks as he did so.
