Princesses Don't Despair

Chapter 6:

Rosie, Ghim and Hood had reached the mountain after walking for a couple of hours. The old man had sent them along on their journey with packs filled with food, a change of clothes each, and other numerous items he promised would be helpful.

The three stared up at the mountain. It was quite intimidating. They knew it was tall, but at the base of it, it seemed nearly impossible for them to reach the top. The climb would be a steep one. Large trees sprung from the ground at odd angles, twisting upward and causing it hard to see too far in front of them.

"Well," Rosie took a deep breath. "Guess we should...go now." The other two nodded silently. Hood kept craning his neck in an attempt to see how far the mountain went, but wasn't very successful. Ghim was scowling at the ground as he kicked at a rock. "Good." Rosie muttered under her breath. She started forward.

The three walked carefully upward. It was a slow march as they had to be careful with their footing. If one of their feet slipped they could end up tumbling back to the bottom of the mountain, that is if they were lucky enough to miss the many trees.

Rosie was glad that the man had supplied her with pants, a shirt and boots. The pants were slightly too big for her, but she'd used a belt and tucked the bottoms into her boots. Climbing a mountain in slippers and a dress was incredibly impractical.

Rosie was finding it harder and harder to breathe and the sun felt much to warm, while the shade was much too cool. She hated this dream state more and more by the second.

"We should take a break." Hood suggested when they'd reached a flatter area. It was a small jut out in the mountain. Flat for a few feet and then instantly returning to the steepness they'd been battling before.

"I agree wit' him fer once." Ghim grunted. He sat down against one of the trees, panting in hopes to regain breath. Rosie nodded and sat down to join them.

"Yes I do too. I think I'll rest a bit." She laid herself down, closing her eyes and attempting to catch her breath.

Rosie awoke at home. She was in her own room. She turned searching for Nathan, but he was no where to be found. She sat up and immediately regretted it. Her head was spinning crazily. She forced herself to stand.

"Nathan?" She yelled, her voice was hoarse. "Nathan?" She tried again, moving towards the door. Her dizziness increased, but she ignored it. "Nathan!" She tried once more, at her door this time. The door opened and a guard stared at her in shock.

"Princess?" He asked incredulously.

"Where's Nathan?" Rosie asked as she began to sway on her feet.

"Princess are you alright?" The guard stepped forward just as Rosie collapsed to the ground.

There was tale of a peddler in the enchanted forest that sold unusual items. His newest item was a unicorn horn, or so the rumors said.

This peddler happened to live in a small stone house beside a well. It was a small, comfy house that gave the idea of coziness inside.

Nathan, Mary, and their other companions were headed to this house. It seemed simple enough, except for one problem. The enchanted forest was tricky to work out. It moved all the time. It was an ever changing, confusing mess.

The man's house could be anywhere one minute and somewhere else the next. Prince Nathan wondered how that could possibly be good for business. Surely, if no one could find you, they couldn't buy from you either.

The group had been walking through the forest for hours now and Nathan was growing quite tired of the endless trees surrounding him. They all looked the same to him. He suspected they were actually walking through the same stretch of forest the whole time and the forest was laughing at them as it made sure they never escaped.

"Well that's different." Mary commented in a clear voice. The others followed her gaze and saw what she was talking about.

The trees weren't so thickly dispersed anymore. They'd opened to a circle of smaller plants. The plants had greyish-brown leaves that unfurled from the dirt.

"What do you think they are?" Nathan asked with a frown. He'd never seen plants quite like the ones growing in the glade.

"I'm not sure…" Mary began with a frown. "I think I've seen them before, but I can't remember where."

Nathan shrugged and moved forward towards the plants. He grabbed at one bunch of the leaves and yanked the plant from the ground. A blood curdling scream split the air. Nathan dropped the plant quickly, and clamped his hands over his ears. The others in the groups had done similarly.

A couple of the guards had dropped to the ground in a faint, not managing to cover their ears soon enough. Those who plugged their ears stayed awake. Nathan glanced at Mary, whose eyes were wide in surprise. She walked forward quickly, and glanced at the still screaming plant.

It had an ugly dilapidated face, with a large hole for it's mouth, which was letting out the wailing terrible noise.

Mary stomped her foot down hard on the brown twisted root. She stomped again and again until the creature's wails were cut off.

Nathan dropped his hands from his ears cautiously and looked at Mary questioningly. Her face was flushed bright pink.

"We've found a mandrake root." Mary said and attempted a smile. Nathan waited for her to continue. "I read up on them. The picture showed these leaves I just didn't remember until it started screaming. I'll wrap it in paper and we can put it in the sun at some point to dry. The scream of a mandrake can knock someone out." She glanced at the three fallen guards. "They'll wake soon." She assured everyone.

Nathan nodded and hurried to help the guards, who indeed were waking. They all seemed a bit dizzy. Nathan offered them food and drink, but was hasty to return everyone to their search for the unicorn horn. He wouldn't allow anything to deter him from getting every item on the list. Rosie needed him.

I'm so sorry! I've taken a ridiculous amount of time to update! My summer has been rather crazy I traveled a lot. I hope your summers were fantastic. What did you do?

School has started up again so my updating is not gonna be fast still, but I will definitely try harder to not let it go this long again. Sorry for the wait. Truly.

Lollypops101: I adore Harry Potter so much! This October I'm volunteering at a Harry Potter haunted house thing. It's like a mini Hogwarts with Qudditch and performances and cool activities.

RandomAngel123: Glad you liked the last chapter. I liked both Harry Potter and the Hunger Games. They are both great book series.

TheVioletContradiction: Of course she won't sit and wait! She's not a sit and wait kind of girl. :)