The night was cool. Emily wrapped her arms around her abdomen and brought her gaze back from the sky above. She never got to see the stars as often as she wanted to. It was beautiful up there. She cocked her head to the side to hear her mother call her inside. It was getting late and it was about time she got to bed.

Warmth hit her as she entered the house and off the porch. Turning back only slightly to close the glass door, she bid her mother goodnight and went off to her room.

Her day’s schooling and other things left her tired. She went right to bed, not even turning to look at her computer, not tempting her to make contact with friends or get lost in some time consuming game. She moved straight toward her bed and got under the bed clothes. She was already comfortable in her night clothes and her school work was done. All that was left was for her to enjoy a night’s rest.

Emily awoke to an intense stench. Her face twisted in disgust. Her senses pulled out of sleep and she looked around her. She was carelessly thrown over a man’s shoulder and he was trudging down a dark, dank hallway. Fear clenched in her throat and her eyes grew wide. She couldn’t find the strength to even scream. Her attire had changed. She no longer wore her gray loose drawstring night pants nor her white t-shirt but a plain off-white dress, a nightgown maybe, which laced up her abdomen and chest. It was grungy, especially at the bottom where it was brown with mud and dirt. She noticed fleetingly that she was missing a shoe at the same moment she noticed she was wearing any at all.

She began to squirm in a slight panic. The thick arm around her waist tightened and she squeaked at her sudden loss of breath. Her hair fell into her eyes. She had gone to bed with freshly cleaned hair but it now fell clumped with grime and grease before her eyes. She plundered her memory for any small thought to where the hell she could be.

The stench that awoke her, she realized, was coming from the man carrying her. She fought the urge to vomit as her stomach churned with disgust from the smell and her fear. Emily strained to see who carried her and to see what lay ahead of them but it was no use. All she did was crack her back.

“Lay back, fool, you aren’t going anywhere. Your attempts to escape will be futile.” A gruff voice came from the man holding her.

“Who are you? Where are we going? What do you want with me?” Her voice was alien to her own ear. It held an accent that didn’t even seem to be from her lifetime.

“Bite your tongue, girl. Or I’ll cut it out.” That shut Emily up. She tried her best to relax despite pain in her side. She wondered how long she was there, thrown over this brute’s shoulder and how long it would be until wherever they were going. Her head ached suddenly and she quickly supported it with her palm. Her forehead felt dry and crusty, not like skin at all. She pulled her hand back and found deep reddish brown flakes which she automatically recognized as dried blood, her own.

She felt like crying. She was cold, sickly, bleeding (or had bled before), in odd clothing, had no idea where she was and was going, was thrown over a strange brute of a man’s shoulder, and hell, she didn’t even talk the same. It didn’t even feel like her tear ducts were up to the task of crying.

Suddenly she was hoisted off the shoulder. She didn’t even have time to gasp before she grunted in pain as she hit a cold stone floor. Her hips ached and she rubbed them pitifully. Her arms curled then around her waist, feeling the strange nightgown did nothing to keep her warm.

She looked up and then she did gasp. The stranger carrying her was no man. He did look as if he were once human but bore that look no longer. The being’s face looked scarred and burned and it held a green tinge. Her stomach churned again.

“You shall stay here until Jin calls to fetch you, mortal. Feel free to make yourself comfortable,” His smile was cruel and held no humor. It was as blank as his eyes, cold and feeling.

She whimpered as he heaved the rusted metal door shut. She heard a thick, heavy sliding that grated against her ears. She was locked in and she knew it. Even if she wasn’t she wouldn’t have done any different than she was then, sliding back until she hit a wall and curling against herself.

The chamber was smaller than she had realized. It was barely larger than a bathroom stall. With no toilet of course, yet she had a suspicion as to why the far corner was stained. Then, she did cry.

So many thoughts dashed through her mind and none of it was coherent enough to even place a rational answer to. She simply cried. She cried for home and for normality. She cried for friends and family. Even her dog, she cried for.

Emily sat in that stall of a room for a time she could not count. When her eyes dried, she rubbed her arms in a hope for the only kind of warmth she could in what seemed to be her dark fate. She looked at the metal door and noticed bars at the top. She stood on shaky legs and stared through the bars at the hallway from which she came. It was long and dark despite the fact that it was lined with torches. At the foot of the door was a small hatch, like a mail door she had on her front door at home. She hoped that is what food was slipped through for a time when she had the will to keep anything down.

She sat again, shivering at the added cold from the stone floor and curled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She gained no warmth from this, not even much body heat but what she did gain was a sense of control. Over everything else, she had control her body even if she was forced to do something. She had control enough to hurt another. Control enough to take her own life if she ever grew so desperate.

She looked again up at the bars at the top of the door. She was startled to see eyes looking back at her. Human eyes. She held in a gasp but hope bloomed within her.

“M’lady?” A male voice whispered to her. “Are you alright?” She had no idea who would call her m’lady but they seemed friendly enough.

“As well as I can be,” Emily answered, again in a strange tone. “Who are you?”

“Who I am doesn’t matter. I am a simple mercenary being paid to keep you well.” Well didn’t that sound heroic? She fought the urge to scoff. But she was happy, no matter what form her knight in shining armor came in.

“Then complete your goal,” She answered, never no authoritative in her life.

“Yes ma’m.” She heard a smile in the voice and saw it in his eyes. She heard a tinkering on the other side of the door and felt the warmest she had since getting into bed what felt like ages ago. She door creaked loudly open and she winced. “Don’t worry, the barbarians are asleep and not much wakes them from such a state.” The man, who she looked at fully now, answered her thoughts.

“What are they?” He looked at her inquisitively.

“Surely you know...,” He sounded disbelieving then saw the gash in her forehead she had all but forgotten about and came to his own conclusion. “Princess, you must have hit your head. Otherwise you would know of the Feeders. Everyone in your kingdom knows of them.”

Princess? Kingdom? Where the hell was she?

“I surely have no idea what they are or I wouldn’t be asking,” Her voice sounded frustrated. She could tell that even when it sounded so odd to her own ears.

“I can’t explain now, Princess Aemelia. We must make haste to leave before sunup. That’s when the Feeders are due to awake.” She ignored the name, too confused to think about what he called her anymore. She just wanted to be home.

“Then we make haste,” She urged and he took her hand. His felt so warm around her own and she relished in it.

He led her down the dimly lit corridor and her bare foot felt damp on the raunchy floor. She strived to keep with him but her muscles didn’t seem up to it. He noticed and scooped her into his arms and he picked up speed. She squeaked in surprise at this move but her body relaxed against his in the first comfort she had felt all night.

She closed her eyes to keep them from seeing any offending creature she had no knowledge of. She could tell when danger approached at the tensing of her savior’s muscles against her body. She squeezed her eyes shut then to keep herself ignorant to what happened around her. Suddenly she felt him kneel, her back resting on his bent knee.

“You’re almost free, Princess.” He said softly, his warm hand stroking her dirty face. “You go through this grate.” He pointed to a grate on the floor below them. Emily eyed it wearily. “But I must not leave. I must keep up the façade of loyalty to the Feeders and their leader, Jin.”

“Mercenary, eh?” She jabbed.

“My loyalty to you and your kingdom changed that. Go home to your King and hope your memory returns. Your country needs you in this, the time of war.”

“War?” Emily, or Aemelia, squeaked.

“Yes, war. Now go,” He let her down next to him and pulled open the rusty grate. It was just big enough for her to slip through. She looked at it unsure what to think of all that had just transpired. She let her legs dangle into the grate before turning back to her savior.

“Please, your name?”

“It is no matter now. You will remember.” There was no room for challenge in his tone. She looked at him, staring at his face, his features, his eyes. And she accepted it. Before slipping down the grate she brought his face near hers and kissed his cheek.

“Thank you, kind sir,” And she disappeared through the hole. She tumbled down the thin passage blindly. Then Emily landed on her weak ankles with a whimper. She was outside and fell from an overhang above. The grate door she pushed through on her way down hung limply with promise to fall.

She stepped from the overhang and gazed up. The stars were clear above her and never had she seen so many in her life. Suddenly she felt over come with fatigue and her weak leg muscles gave way to her dead weight. She passed out.

She awoke warm. The moment sleep let her go; she sat up in bed quickly. Her bed clothes fell from her chest. She wore a clean white t-shirt and her hair still smelt clean. She was home again.

It had all been a dream. Though, in the bathroom where she splashed water upon her face she noticed a thin pink scar disappearing on her pale skin, high in her forehead.