PART
THREE
When
Anise awoke she thought she had fallen out of bed, (she had once and
hadn't woken up until someone had stepped on her.), because it was so
cold and the ground was so hard. Then she remembered what happened
last night. She opened her eyes. She was lying on the ground in the
dark and her hands and feet were tied. She looked around and saw two
glowing spots which had apparently come out of nowhere and which were
coming closer. As her senses started to recover from the shock they
had received the night before Anise made out that what was coming
toward her was a lady in a green dress crawling on her hands and
knees.
“ Where am I?” asked Anise,
“That is what everyone says.” said the lady, “you are in my cave. Some kidnappers disguised as a prince and his escort put you in here. You are in Nearfair forest and it is the second nine o'clock.” (owing to the outer earth days being 48 hours long the day and night are split up so the first half of the night which starts at the first one is spent as an earth day is spent and the rest of the night is spent in sleeping. It is the same with the day except the first hours are called A and the second hours are called B.) The lady bent down and started untying Anise's hands and feet.
“ Where am I?” asked Anise,
“That is what everyone says.” said the lady, “you are in my cave. Some kidnappers disguised as a prince and his escort put you in here. You are in Nearfair forest and it is the second nine o'clock.” (owing to the outer earth days being 48 hours long the day and night are split up so the first half of the night which starts at the first one is spent as an earth day is spent and the rest of the night is spent in sleeping. It is the same with the day except the first hours are called A and the second hours are called B.) The lady bent down and started untying Anise's hands and feet.
“Is there a light?” said Anise, who was feeling strangely relaxed,
“No, but I can see in the dark.”
“So can I...” said Anise, nothing seemed to matter any more.
“I hope you do not fall asleep because if you do, it will be very boring when it is time to eat you.” for some reason this did not disturb Anise in the least. “and I might wake you up enough for you to scream and then someone else might come and I could eat them too.” the lady's hands were looking more and more like claws now but Anise hardly cared. “I think I will sleep and then I will eat you.” the lady crawled to the far end of the cave and disappeared. With a great effort Anise got up and looked around, she was beginning to realise that her situation was actually rather dangerous and so started to look for a way out, before she could find one however, the lady woke up and crawled lazily into view. She was now much larger than before and was almost entirely covered in scales, her hands and feet were more like those of a lizard than anything else her teeth were very pointed and most of hair had gone. “You're properly awake. That means you will scream and then there will be lots of fun.” she sounded as if she wasn't used to speaking English. Suddenly she lunged forward with all her sharp teeth and claws showing.
Anise did scream, in fact she screamed so
loudly that everyone for two kilometers around must have heard her.
Then the lady knocked her over so hard that she lost consciousness.
Anise's first thought on awakening was that it must not be good for
people to get knocked out as much as twice in a night and that she
hoped she didn't get consumption. Or was it concussion? she couldn't remember. She felt as if she was sinking into
something and getting flattened in the process and also slightly
sick. She opened her eyes and looked around. Someone was sitting on
one of the large rocks, which seemed to be very plentiful just here,
watching her with interest. Anise glared at him, which she soon had
to stop because of her headache and the fact that she was very tired.
He grinned which seemed to make everything in Anise's world worse.
“Are you better?” he asked,
“No”
“You're sure?”
“Yes. My head hurts and so do my arms and legs. I think I should know if I'm better or not.” she sat up and looked around, “What was that thing?” she asked,
“That was a Drahgohlah. It eats people and animals and is very smart. When something gets into its cave it puts them half to sleep and then eats them. It's like a small clever spider except more playful. it is also very dangerous but a good hard whack on the nose makes them go limp and you can just walk away.” (on outer earth there were large animals which looked and behaved like spiders and so were called spiders but these animals had lungs and they didn't spin webs. Their skins were also very valuable.) “you'll feel a bit depressed for a few hours but it's just the after effects.” he got off the rock, “By the way my name is Patrick. What's yours and where do you come from?”
“Anise. I'm from the mountain maid school”
“Oh. Do you want to come to my house? It's not far and I can carry you.” Anise had been firmly told not to trust strange men who offered her lifts to their houses.
“No thank you, I can walk.” She stood up and walked to a nearby tree and turned to Patrick with a defiant look. “see?”
“Alright, this way.” Patrick walked past Anise and into the trees. Anise stared after him in disbelief, how could anyone be so rude? She would just go and tell him what she thought of him. He turned as she came up behind him,
“Good, I was beginning to think you had decided not to come at all.” Anise opened her mouth to say that she had decided not to come and that she was very annoyed at him and didn't want to go anywhere with him in the first place but she was interrupted, “by the way why were you in that cave?”
“some very nasty people put me in there.”
“Do you know who?”
“no, but I wouldn't be surprised if you were one of them. Also-”
“Oh no, I'm not a nasty person, in fact I'm quite a nice person. What on earth put such an idea into your head?” (the phrase originally coming from earth was at that time popular in the places on outer earth settled by humans.)
“The fact that all men are wicked except the married ones.”
“that's a bit hard on the men though isn't it?”
“I don't think so. But-”
“if we hurry we'll be there in time for lunch. Mother said we'd be having pancakes today.” Anise wondered how much it would hurt Patrick if she kicked him or if it would hurt him more if she just slapped him. Patrick continued to talk. And talk. Soon Anise lost patience and yelled at him. “EXCUSE ME SIR! I have been trying to speak to you for the last ten minutes and did you notice? Oh no. You were too busy thinking what a nice person you are to rescue a poor helpless girl from a... a...”
“Are you better?” he asked,
“No”
“You're sure?”
“Yes. My head hurts and so do my arms and legs. I think I should know if I'm better or not.” she sat up and looked around, “What was that thing?” she asked,
“That was a Drahgohlah. It eats people and animals and is very smart. When something gets into its cave it puts them half to sleep and then eats them. It's like a small clever spider except more playful. it is also very dangerous but a good hard whack on the nose makes them go limp and you can just walk away.” (on outer earth there were large animals which looked and behaved like spiders and so were called spiders but these animals had lungs and they didn't spin webs. Their skins were also very valuable.) “you'll feel a bit depressed for a few hours but it's just the after effects.” he got off the rock, “By the way my name is Patrick. What's yours and where do you come from?”
“Anise. I'm from the mountain maid school”
“Oh. Do you want to come to my house? It's not far and I can carry you.” Anise had been firmly told not to trust strange men who offered her lifts to their houses.
“No thank you, I can walk.” She stood up and walked to a nearby tree and turned to Patrick with a defiant look. “see?”
“Alright, this way.” Patrick walked past Anise and into the trees. Anise stared after him in disbelief, how could anyone be so rude? She would just go and tell him what she thought of him. He turned as she came up behind him,
“Good, I was beginning to think you had decided not to come at all.” Anise opened her mouth to say that she had decided not to come and that she was very annoyed at him and didn't want to go anywhere with him in the first place but she was interrupted, “by the way why were you in that cave?”
“some very nasty people put me in there.”
“Do you know who?”
“no, but I wouldn't be surprised if you were one of them. Also-”
“Oh no, I'm not a nasty person, in fact I'm quite a nice person. What on earth put such an idea into your head?” (the phrase originally coming from earth was at that time popular in the places on outer earth settled by humans.)
“The fact that all men are wicked except the married ones.”
“that's a bit hard on the men though isn't it?”
“I don't think so. But-”
“if we hurry we'll be there in time for lunch. Mother said we'd be having pancakes today.” Anise wondered how much it would hurt Patrick if she kicked him or if it would hurt him more if she just slapped him. Patrick continued to talk. And talk. Soon Anise lost patience and yelled at him. “EXCUSE ME SIR! I have been trying to speak to you for the last ten minutes and did you notice? Oh no. You were too busy thinking what a nice person you are to rescue a poor helpless girl from a... a...”
“yes that thing, well I am not entirely helpless let me tell you, I could knock you out if I wanted to, and I didn't want to come with you anyway, I was going to tell you but you didn't listen, you were too busy talking. I feel like killing you!” she kicked him and he fell over. He got quickly up and Anise rushed at him, he caught her and shoved her down and she rolled among the roots of a nearby tree. Anise leaned against a root and started to cry quietly. For a while there was silence except for occasional sniffs from Anise, then Patrick said, “Are you a fairy?”
“Yes.”
“Ah. I'm a half fairy.” there was a pause, “we should be getting on.” said Patrick. Anise stood up and followed him into the trees.
END OF PART THREE
