Elemental Kingdoms ch1&2

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Chapter 1
Kidnaped

~Eria~

I took one swift look around me, not that I needed it to tell me that escape was near to impossible. At least fifty imps were surrounded me,in other words I was completely out numbered. The one in front of me (the leader by the looks of his clothes) stepped forward.
"Well, well, well look what we have here," The others chuckled at this; his voice was cold and filled with an obvious humor that ticked me off.
"Now," he paused and took a step closer to me "What would a pretty little thing like you be doing here?" He twirled a stray strand of my hair around his finger as he leaned towards my face.
"This is imp territory," he whispered sinisterly in my ear "Do you know what we do to human trespassers?"
His voice was cold and relaxed; it sent a row of shivers down my spine that I hoped he hadn't noticed. I stifled a gulp not wanting to show my fear. He stood up again releasing my hair and chuckled, it took every ounce of my will power not to slap him. He then turned back to one of his friends, muttered something to them and walked off back into the Forest, then they turned to me. I knew what would happen next, but I was not about to be kidnaped by these things if I had anything to say about it. I quickly drew my twin swords out and prepared to fight. They laughed for a moment as I took my stance then drew their own weapon, most being small knives, whips, or staffs...weapons that could knock you out but not kill you. As the first few approached I began to worry that there were far to many for me to fight alone. I made quick work of the first ten or so using the sword techniques taught to me by my swords master. But after that I think they began to realize that I knew what I was doing and began to team up on me. Things became harder, I began trying to kill off more of them in small sections. But even as I began to push myself even harder, the lashes on my back could not be ignored, even if they were trying not to "damage" me. I fought wildly, but to know avail, a small group was able to knock my swords from my hands leaving me with large painful gashes on my knuckles. Soon one of them delivered a painful final blow with a club that connected with my back. I was knocked to the ground, bruised and beaten. They then (despite my efforts to keep them away) bound my hands and feet together with rope and carried me into the dark forest. At least I was able to kill about...half of them.
This is it...It's over...I failed, said a voice in my head. Any normal person would have probably just given up and surrendered to the fate that lay before them. But I know what will happen to me if and when I reach their village. It was blatantly obvious, the leader would take me as his "personal pet." I remembered horror stories about humans captured by imps and shuttered. That would not happen to me. There had to be away to escape their just had to be. We were approaching the village now, I could tell because the ground looked more flattened and stepped on, a sure sign of a settlement. I closed my eyes and tried to think of what to do. Once I was in the village it really would be impossible to escape. Imp villages contain no buildings, only small tents and are normally surrounded by large thirty foot walls made of sturdy rock guarded by imp archers. Not to mention the physical make-up of the imps; they're remarkably human like, (in fact if it were not for the fact that imps are heartless, soulless beings the two races might have actually been allies) with pale skin, red or no hair, pointed ears, and long slender bodies. Their hearing is very acute and their eyes keener then any bird. All in all, the perfect predator. But the main thing that divides imps from the other races is that there are no imp females, they mate with other races, and their favorite just happens to be humans...lucky me. That is why I wasn't planning on sticking around. But my time to think was cut short as we entered through the stone doorways. I was dropped unceremoniously onto the ground with a "thud." I groaned, as if my back didn't hurt enough from the kidnapping. I rolled myself into a sitting position on my knees and stared upward, directly into the eyes of the leader. His hair was long and a blood red color that stood out against his pale, white skin.
"It's so lovely to see you again." he mused, everyone around him laughed, they were probably to afraid not to.
"I hear you gave quite a show coming here," he snickered, "They say you took out some of my best men." I shot him a hate filled glace that told him just exactly how much I loathed him at the moment, but he merely snickered again and continued.
"But I'm sure now that you're here, you'll behave, right?" as he spoke he crouched down to my level and his face came down to mine. I felt that familiar urge to slap him, and I probably would have this time if my hands were tied behind my back. So instead, I satisfied myself with turning my head away from him as far as I could.
"Oh," he said with a fake disappointment "And I was so hoping for you to just go along easily. It could be very...painful for you to continue to act like this," he paused for a moment, "For you see, I have very powerful means of persuasion." He then griped my chin with his cold hands and sharply turned my face towards his. I felt his cold lips touch mine as he kissed me. Then he pulled back standing up leaving me in a mixture of complete shock and disgust. He chuckled again in his cold voice and seemed to be satisfied with my expression.
"See...now was that easy?" It took me a few more moments still to recover from the shock, but when I did, I spat on the ground next to him. He frowned and his dark auburn eyes creased as he looked at me.
"That was not so wise," he said in a serious tone. He kneeled back down to my level and continued to hold his gaze. He leaned back down at me and griped my chin again. I stiffened. His grip relaxed and his hand moved downward to the side of my neck. He wore a smirk on his face as he leaned toward me again.
"Don't worry darling. I wont hurt you. I know this is all still so new to you," he whispered in my ear with a sarcastic tone, his forehead now resting on mine. I glanced around and saw to my horror we were alone. Then his head moved his check against mine. I suddenly remembered something, a small knife my mother had given me for my fourteenth birthday that I kept in my left boot for emergencies. But the blade was small and I would have a difficult time cutting through the thick rope that bounded my hands and feet unnoticed. His face turned to mine.
"Will you promise to behave now?" He said in his cold sarcastic voice. I only had one option and I would probably hate myself for it later if I ever got out of this mess.
"Umhum" I nodded "I promise to behave...I'm sorry for my behavior before...Um but if it's not too much trouble could you loosen these bonds they're rather uncomfortable. I looked up into his eyes putting on my best cute face hoping that (like most human males) he would be too distracted to be suspicious.
"Sure sweetheart," he said and moved to the back of me and began to cut at the ropes with a short sword he had with him. Once finished, I immediately went for the knife in my boot, but to my shock and horror it wasn't there. I heard him chuckle.
"Now, now, now...what do you take me for? I presume you were looking for this?" he then held up his hand and in it he held my knife. The bastard must have taken it when he was untying my ropes. Run! said a voice in my head, Run while you still can! But what would be the point? There would be no way that I could outrun him, let alone fight him with no weapon. The knife had been my last hope. No, it was over...I had finally been defeated...Ugh, but I had to try, I just had to. I lunged forward using the few fist fighting techniques I had bothered to learn, but he was ready and easily blocked my punches. Then he pushed himself onto me, using his body to trap me on the ground.
"Don't fret now. Being human it was obvious you would lose." his face leaned even closer towards mine "But you won't have to worry about being weak anymore, because I'll be here to protect you." His icy lips touched mine again. I won't let him beat me, I won't stay here!
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" I pushed up on his chest with my hands and with all my might pushing him away from me. He glared at me.
"Fine," he said. As he spoke he scooped me up and began to carry me toward a small area off to the side of the village. I instinctively fought, but it was useless without my swords. "You will sleep here tonight and we'll see how different your attitude is in the morning." He literally dropped me into a large cage-like cell made from what looked like in the dark, like Brim Wood, which meant it was nearly indestructible. He then locked the opening on the ceiling with multiple keys chains and locks.
"I'll see you in the morning dear," he gave me one last smirk and was off.

Chapter 2
Forest Flight
~Edward~


I ran through the town, not daring to stop to catch my breath. I ran directly to the town’s stables, where I quickly looked for my horse. She was fairly easy to locate, being the only black horse in a stream of white.
“Haaaay there girl,” I coxed “How have you been.” I stroked the side of her long neck, taking only a moment to admire her beauty. I quickly saddled her and everything ready. I had only bought myself a minute or so by losing the guards in the alleyways. I mounted the horse and took off on a full gallop towards the gates. The watchmen had no time to react to me speeding out of the city. Once out side of the gate, I kept galloping towards the Forest. The guards could still catch me outside the city, but I knew I had nothing to worry about. There was know way that those palace horses could keep up with Gaia, she was the fastest horse that had ever been seen by mortals. Not to mention once he reached the borders of this land and into the Forest they couldn’t arrest me. It wasn’t like I even did anything criminal. In fact it was, in my opinion, the right thing to do. The king of that land was hurting a young kitten, and I had every right to intervene. I lead the kitten out into the streets (cats have natural survival instincts) just before taking off. But in doing so I had kidnapped one of the king’s pets and was therefore a subject for capture. I sighed...Oh well there goes my vacation. It took less than three hours of hard, rocky, excruciatingly difficult, traveling to reach the beginning of the forest. Once there Gaia stopped and reared as if to stop me from going. Once she had settled down, I got off and did my best to try and calm her down.
“Shhhh” I whispered as a patted her head gently not wanting to spook her even more then she already was, “It’s all right girl, there’s nothing in that forest that’ll hurt you.” I did my best to retain a steady voice. In truth, I trusted Gaia’s instinct more then anything else and since she was worried, I was worried about what lay ahead. I thought of the horror stories about the Forest that I had heard as a child. They had always fascinated me, the creatures, deadly plants...all the people that had disappeared. I began to mount Gaia again, this was no time for me to get frightened, the guards could still be here any second. Deep down I knew, though, that not even they would dare to go into the forest.
“Come on girl” I whispered to her leaning into her ear. “Lets go...” Then I began to tread off into the dark thick forest.