a/n: Been a while since my last update. Sorry, everyone! Hope you enjoy the chapter! Please review :)

The Secret of the Mountains

Chapter Three:

Annie awoke the next morning. She did not feel very rested at all because her sleep had been fitful. She splashed herself with water from the washbasin to wake herself and wash away the memory of the dreams.

Annie emerged from her new room and saw that the dragon August was already up and moving about the various caverns. He seemed distracted, and he stalked by Annie several times before he noticed her.

"Good, you're up. The kitchen cavern is over there; go make yourself something to eat. When you're done, please try to tidy this place up. I'm not much of a housekeeper, so that will be your task around here. The treasure room is down that hallway. Clean it please."

Annie made mental notes of the hallways and caves he had indicated. Auggie moved toward the large entrance to the cave.

"Where are you going?"

"I have some...things to do," Auggie answered cryptically, "I'm be back before sundown, please have dinner ready to eat by then." He paused. "You can cook, right?"

Annie's first reaction was to be insulted, but then she remembered that the dragon thought she was a princess, and therefore knew nothing of the culinary arts. Instead, she waved him off, "I'll manage."

The dragon nodded and exited the cave, leaving Annie alone.

"Well, he's obviously not concerned with me running away or anything," she mused, "He seems rather high-strung though. I wonder why he's so stressed out."

She looked around, suddenly aware of how massive the caves were.

"Kitchen," she reminded herself, "Eating is a good idea."

Annie located a pot and some rice, no doubt stolen from some village, and began to boil her food.

This whole situation seemed so surreal. In the blink of an eye, Annie realized that her whole life was now inevitably and irrevocably altered. She stared down into the rice and blinked back the tears that threatened to blur her vision.

"I didn't want this," she said quietly. The sound of her whisper echoed dully off of the cave walls and rang in her ears as if to accentuate the words.

The maidservant's tears began to splash into the boiling water, "I just wanted to get away for a while, I never wanted this to happen. Now I can never go home..."

"Yoo-hoo! Is anyone here?"

Annie was startled at the high-pitch voice that echoed around the caverns and danced around her ears. She quickly wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her dress, one she had found in the wardrobe of her room. Annie then rushed towards the entrance of the cave to meet the source of the call.

Standing at the entrance was another young woman. She was wearing lavender dress and a thin silver circlet for a crown. She beamed widely when she saw Annie.

"Ah, so what Reva said was true, Auggie did get a princess."

"Excuse me, but who are you? And who is Reva?" Annie put her hands on her hips and stared the princess down. How dare she storm into someone else's cave without even so much as an introduction? Annie knew, on some level, that it was stupid and hypocritical to get angry at the girl for not bothering with a ritual that Annie had always hated to begin with, but she was still annoyed.

The princess tittered. That was the only way Annie could describe her laugh, was a titter. "I'm Princess Danielle, captive of the dread dragon Michael. Princess Reva is the captive of the dread dragon Jai. And what is your title?"

Annie had to stop herself from giving a simple introduction. As far as anyone here knew, she was a princess and had to act the part. "Princess Annie, captive of the dread dragon August," she forced out, "Can I help you with something?" Because if I can't, I really like to get back to my pity party, she added silently.

"I just wanted to see if the half-blind, misfit dragon actually did something right for once," Danielle sneered, "Who knows, maybe he is semi-normal after all."

Annie's temper flared. August may have kidnapped her, but there was no way this stuck-up little brat was going to come in here and insult him. Annie had run away to get away from one princess and was not at all pleased to find herself faced with another one.

"If all you're here to do is insult my dragon, then get out. I have things to do and no time to put up with you!"

Danielle seemed to puff herself up, "Fine! Good luck on not getting eaten!" She stormed off, presumably back to her own set of caverns, and Annie breathed a sigh of relief.

"What was that about? They way she talks, the other dragons must be treating August like a freak or something"

Annie brushed the incident off and went to go eat her now-overcooked rice.

Annie wiped dust off her face and bent back over the pile of books. Alphabetizing books written in Latin and Greek was not fun when she only knew miniscule amounts of either language. She had been in this dusty cavern for hours on end and the piles of book seemed to only grow larger.

August had arrived back some time before, with yet another scratch. This one must have been minor because he had vanished into the maze of caves before Annie could even suggest patching it. That was fine with her; she was in a bad mood too and didn't need to deal with his drama at the moment. If the reclusive dragon wanted company, he would just have to come to her.

What was with him anyway?

He seemed nice, but it was like he was hiding something from her. Annie was getting annoyed with the whole ordeal, and she hadn't even been there for a full twenty-four hours yet. First he had dodged her question about the red dragon, and then he wouldn't tell her where he was going that morning. And that was excluding the weird attacks and injuries he seemed to keep sustaining. Why was August always being attacked by the other dragons? It just didn't make sense, and what Danielle had said only confirmed Annie's suspicions that something was not entirely right here. Not that being mistaken for a princess and kidnapped by a dragon was in normal by any stretch of the imagination, but something was freaky nonetheless.

Annie shook her head. This was giving her a headache. She forced herself back to the book, and made a mental note to tell August about the incident involving Danielle later.