Took me a while to update, but here is chapter 4:

In the first few seconds nothing happens. I hold my breath. For a tiny moment I'm certain that I answered incorrectly and that I have to be a slave for the rest of my life. I want to collapse to the floor and cry, but I'm paralyzed.

I hear a rumbling sound from behind me and the cave is filled with light. I spin around to a cheering mass of strange people, and suddenly I scream in excitement. All the tension in my body is let out and my legs make me run outside. Tears are streaming down my face and a man lifts me into the air with his proboscis. I spread my arms and enjoy the sound of the people calling my name; hugging each other and reaching up to touch me, to thank me.

"He bought candles and matches! Candles and matches!" I exclaim. I sound crazy, but I am so light-headed that I have forgotten about social etiquette and how strange this place is.

After a while I am put back to my feet and Josephine comes running to me, her blue dress dancing around her legs as she moves. Suddenly I notice everything better, I see the clothes and the families and the nature and… I realize that it's still dark out.

"Why isn't the sun back?" I ask Josephine before she gets to utter a word to me. She laughs. Her laugh is beautiful again, it's like a river flowing by, so clear and wonderful.

"Sunrise isn't for another six weeks, silly," she laughs, and the people closest to us laugh too.

Amazingly, I accept this, and go back to enjoying the cheering and the people-here-love-me-ing.

"Ida, we are going to have a ball tonight, to celebrate that you have broken the curse," Josephine tells me.

"Okay," I say excitedly. I have never been to a ball before, and I wonder what it will be like. I remember the balls I used to see in the Anastasia-movie as a child and imagine myself in a glittering dress and pearls around my neck.

Everything is happening very fast. People run back to their houses to get ready for the ball. Everybody stops to thank me, and some give me small gifts, like flowers, hair decorations, a piece of bread and so on.

Josephine takes my hand and wraps her fingers in between mine like earlier. There's something very romantic about this girl. Her smell, her hair, and the way she moves… she's just so perfect.

I look at her when we walk. I don't care that I am staring, she is just so beautiful. I want to just look at her all day.

Something touches my calf and I force myself to look down. Something is sticking out from under Josephine's dress. Is that a… tail!?

"Josephine, you have a tail!" I exclaim in an untactful way. But she isn't mad at me. Maybe she's never mad?

"Yes, isn't it beautiful?" she beams. She lifts her tail. Except for the light brown color it looks like a panther's tail; the way it moves and the form of it. "You can touch it," she laughs when she sees that I'm staring at it. I carefully put my hand on it. It's slick and covered in small, soft hairs.

"Cool," I whisper, but I am a little bit freaked out. My little girl-crush on her fades a little, but she's still awesomely beautiful.

"I think we are the same size Ida, so you can borrow one of my dresses," Josephine says.

I highly doubt that we are the same size. She is clearly half a head taller than me, and her body looks very different than mine. She has curves in different places and in different sizes.

We arrive at a mountain shaped like a castle. There are towers and walls with guards on them, and everything seems to be just carved out of the mountain. Trees and moss is growing on the walls. It looks awesome and I throw my head back to take it all in at once.

We enter through a huge door and end up in the middle of something that looks like a marketplace and social area. It's a large open space with small stands selling meat and bread, and on the other end there were benches and tables. Women and men and children were sitting around, talking, eating, and laughing.

I wonder if I'm the reason everyone is so happy.

"Come on Ida," Josephine says as she drags me along, and I wave to the people we pass, who all seem to recognize me. I am so dizzy with happiness, and I can't remember being this happy in a long time. Maybe as a child, when my dad was still around and my mom wasn't such a spaz.

"This is my room," Josephine says and pulls me into a beautiful chamber. All the furniture looks like it should be locked in a museum; it is so beautiful and old-fashioned. The bed is enormous and has what looks like a hundred pillows on it. Heavy, dark curtains are hanging down from the tall windows. The sofas look like they are glowing in the corner.

"Are you a princess?" I ask, feeling childish yet again when Josephine laughs and says that yes, she is.

"Hurry and get dressed Ida, the ball has started!" Josephine urges me and hands me a red and golden dress and a pair of gold flats. Then she hurries out of the room and leaves me to change on my own.

Time certainly moves strangely in these places. When I met Derek it suddenly became night, but in this place there won't be another sunrise in six weeks. And now the ball has started, even though it can't be more than 15-20 minutes since I exited the cave.

I remember Derek talking about the Great Serpent and that we were going to start training tomorrow. When was tomorrow? Was it tomorrow in my own world? Or tomorrow in this place, which probably would mean six weeks from now.

If it was tomorrow in his world then the day had probably come and gone already. Had he been waiting for me to come back or something?

Everything is so confusing, and I have so many questions. I decide to concentrate on getting this dress on me and go have fun at the ball.

It is a beautiful dress. It is soft and sparkly and it moves the same way as Josephine's blue dress had moved when I walk back and forth. And, surprisingly, it fit perfectly.

The golden flats are surprisingly comfortable, and I stand in front of the mirror for several minutes and look at myself, twirling in the beautiful outfit, feeling like a princess.

I finally decide it's time to get going, and I go back into the hallway. I follow the sound of an orchestra playing a romantic and chirpy tune.

I feel like every part of me is bubbly. Even my hair feels fluffier and happier, and it's almost like I can feel my blood running through my veins. I am so amazingly happy!

I walk through two great doors that lead to a wide set of stairs. At the bottom I see the ballroom. It is more beautiful than I could ever imagine. The walls are golden and there are columns all around. One of the shorter walls is just one large mirror with heavy dark red curtains draped on either side of it.

I almost run down the stairs, excited to get a closer look at everything. It's lucky I'm wearing flats and not high heels, or else I would have been rolling on my head right now.

Three steps before I reach the floor I spot a man with longish dark blonde hair and piercing blue eyes standing next to the stairs on the floor. I stop and gape at him, and then I squeal like a stupid fourteen year old girl.

"Derek!"

He grins and reaches for my hand. I give it to him and see that it is shaking a little.

"Hello, Ida," he says to me and carefully leads me down the last steps. "You look beautiful!" he informs me, and I know my face now must look like a tomato with eyes.

"I, uh, the dress, Josephine, yeah," I press out, and he chuckles attractively. I look at his clothes. He's wearing a princy outfit, dark pants and shiny shoes and a ruffled shirt. He's just simply gorgeous.

Without asking me to dance he pulls me out on the dance floor. I don't know how I'm supposed to dance, so I look at the people around us.

A man with eight spidery legs is swinging an enormous woman with tentacles for arms around, lifting her off the ground and just spinning. Some couples are doing something similar to an ordinary waltz, and some are insane, doing advanced gymnastics-moves and jumps.

It seems Derek isn't that fond of dancing either, and we end up just holding each other and swinging back and forth.

"Can we talk about the Great Serpent?" I ask him after a few minutes of doing nothing but looking into each other's eyes.

"Yes, we can," he replies. "What do you want to know?"

"The thing in the forest that like… flew past us or something, was that it?" I ask.

Derek nods. "Yes, that was the Great Serpent. Despite being extremely dangerous and rightfully frightening, he seems to have grown a bit arrogant. He likes showing off these days, with his speed and strength. That makes him unaware of his surroundings, and he didn't even see you."

"Why, would he… I mean, was he supposed to see me more than he was supposed to see you?" I ask uneasily, awkwardly trying to make my question understandable.

"Yes, Ida, he should have sensed that his destroyer was in his lands, but I think he is forgetting to be on guard. Or maybe he doesn't believe the contract counts now that he is the president."

"How can a serpent be a president?" I ask, trying not to blush at the way Derek says my name.

"What do you mean?" he asks me.

"I mean, isn't that a job for a man?"

"And what is the difference between a man and a serpent?" he challenges me with a sly smile. I think the difference is quite obvious, but I shut my mouth. Just one glance at the people around me reminds me that nothing is the same as back home. And here I guess it is okay for a serpent to be a president. Or, not okay, since they want me to kill him.

"Well, alright then," I say, and Derek gives me a quick, triumphant spin. I giggle stupidly. "But you said that the training is starting tomorrow, and then I fell asleep and I was home and now I'm here, so when is the training really starting?"

"It is starting tomorrow, like I told you," he says simply, and I decide that I don't want to ask more questions tonight. Whenever I need to be somewhere I'll trust some higher power to get me there. The said higher power has been dependable so far.

"Tell me about yourself, Derek," I ask him, and he grins.

"What do you want to know?" he asks me flirtingly. I blush, hating that I seem like a stupid teenage girl with a crush. But I guess I am just that.

"How old are you?" I resort to asking, and realize how childish that sounds after the words leave my mouth.

"I am nineteen years old," he replies, and I am surprised. I would have sworn he was a lot older, but now that he says it, I see that there is something immature and boyish in his sly smiles.

"And… do you have a girlfriend?" I ask, and regret that question too. Maybe I shouldn't be asking questions at all.

"No, I do not, but I know a girl that I want for my own," he says. Is his tone suggestive? I blush even harder, and my cheeks almost hurt from all the blood in them. "My turn to ask the questions," Derek announces.

He suddenly holds me a lot tighter and starts spinning us around faster. And faster, and faster, and so fast that he has to put his arms around my waist as my feet are lifted off the ground. I squeal in excitement as we spin, feeling my dress dance around my legs. I press my face into his shoulder, secretly smelling the musky scent of his skin and hair.

Eventually he puts me down, and I feel flustered. My hair is crazy and my heart is beating so fast I'm positive it will soon break through my chest and end up dragging itself around on the dance floor at our feet. It's a disturbing thought.

"So, Ida, have you ever been to a ball before?"

"Never!" I laugh.

"Have you ever saved an entire village from an evil sorcerer before?"

"Nope!"

"Have you ever danced with a man like me?" he asked with his eyebrows raised slyly. I laugh flirtingly.

"And what kind of man are you?" I ask. I am starting to relax and I feel like he's easing me into the conversation. Maybe he knows that I am completely ridiculous when it comes to, like, socializing. I suck at not being socially awkward.

"I think I will just have to show you," he replies. I feel like I am in a bad movie again, but again his cheap tricks leave me flustered and giggly.

I notice that we have stopped dancing. We are awkwardly standing in the middle of the ballroom, staring at each other, while the people around us throw us curious glances.

"We should dance," I press out.

"Let's go somewhere else," Derek suggests. Or, it's more like he announces it, and he doesn't leave me much choice in the matter. He takes my hand and hurriedly starts walking off the dance floor. I giggle loudly and then pray that he didn't hear me. Why do I always have to sound so retarded?

I am breathless when Derek finally pulls me into a dark, empty corridor. I haven't been paying attention to where we went, but we can still faintly hear the sound of the orchestra playing and the people talking and laughing.

I smile and my eyes widen as Derek holds my shoulders and pushes me up to the wall. I look into his eyes. They're to blue and heavenly, and they seem to look straight through me. His thin but well-formed lips are pulled into that sly smile of his.

"What are we going to do now?" I ask him in a soft voice. I hold my breath when he takes his hand to my face and carefully pushes some stray straws of my hair behind my ear.

"You are so beautiful Ida," he says and every part of me turns to liquid. I feel squishy and I can't concentrate on trying to look or act attractive. The corners of my mouth are pulled into a huge, stupid grin. I think I look like a hyena, and that makes the fact that he just called me beautiful hilarious. I try to hold back a laugh, and naturally a gag-sound escapes my mouth.

Strangely Derek doesn't change his mind about me. One of his hands find the back of my neck and he guides it so that my head falls backwards. The other one grabs my back and pulls me in. And then his lips meet mine.

There are fireworks and sparks and electricity running through ever cell of my body, and I don't know what to do. I can't move, but his lips meld into mine and I just follow his.

He hugs me close to his body and eventually I force my arms to move and I drape them around his neck, his perfect, strong neck. I am faintly aware that a fantasy prince is kissing me and holding me. It's just all too amazing to be true.

Finally he pulls back, and I look up at him with starry eyes. We just look at each other for what feels like an eternity. In the end a beautiful voice interrupts us.

"Ida," Josephine calls and we turn to look at her. "Ida, you should go back to the ballroom, everyone is here for you," she says. Her voice sounds almost sour. I must be hearing it wrong, because her face still has that angelic glowing smile plastered on it.

I am a bit confused and taken with the kiss, so I just sort of follow the orders I get. Derek lets go of me and walks behind me as I go to join Josephine.

Everything is blurry, and I almost can't resist the urge to turn to Derek and kiss him again. But I'm not sure if Josephine is supposed to know or not. She must have seen us though. I think.

I mean, even if she didn't see the kiss she saw us holding each other.

But none of them have said anything. I don't even know if they knew each other.

I decide to ask them, but when I turn around I am too shocked to utter a word.

They had stopped walking several seconds ago. They are entwined in a picture-perfect pose. She is holding her arms around his neck and is standing on her tip-toes. His gorgeous muscly arms are wrapped tightly around her small waist and they seem to melt into each other bodies. I notice Josephine's tale waving softly in the air.

I just watch them at first. I am waiting for my heart to break or something, but I am too shocked to feel hurt. Then I suddenly feel angry. I stalk towards them.

"Hey!" I yell. I feel my face scrunch into an angry grimace. I forget all about the flustered and happy feeling from earlier.

Josephine and Derek pull away from each other and turn to look at me. I expect them to look embarrassed, or even afraid, but they don't. Josephine smiles at me, that sweet, beautiful smile, and Derek grins stupidly, like he did that first time I met him.

Are they going to pretend this is all okay?

I am fuming and smoke might as well be coming out of my ears. My vision is getting foggy and for a second I think I am starting to cry. But then everything is getting darker and suddenly colder.

I can't see Josephine and Derek. The ballroom and the people are gone. I can't feel the soft fabric of the dress around my legs and I'm barefoot again.

I collapse at the edge of the dock. I'm alone. It's dark, but it seems the sun is just coming up. I guess time passed here too this time.

But that trivial little fact doesn't distract me for long.

I hold my arms around myself, like I'm trying to stop my body from falling apart. I know my body is fine, and that it is my heart and my pride that are breaking into small pieces. I try to take slow breaths. They sound ripped and uneven.

I don't understand what happened. I was falling fast for Derek, and he had been falling for me too, right? Where did Josephine fit in?

I am so angry at her. I wish I could go back and pull her pretty hair and scratch her stupid face. Then I want to punch Derek for what he did.

Mostly I am angry at Josephine though. She is the bitch who stole my man, my prince, my fantasy-guy. My perfection.

She was so paying for this.

In the next chapter I will mostly focus on Ida's normal life in the normal world, so you will get to know her mother, Jan and her friend Kayla better. Hope you still like my story!

Review and I promise to review yours too!