59. A new toy.

Winifred wiped the sweat from her forehead, exhausted. Her long legs broke from beneath her and collapsed onto the nearest stone. It had not be long before she ran away and she was scared that this might have been discovered which meant that she might get caught soon enough. These people were animals on four legs afterall, they would catch up to her in no time.

Her heart started racing and she knew that she had to keep going. Branches constantly attacked her, leaves crunched under her feet and big, brown logs seemed to appear out of nowhere as if to try and stop her. She had to stop before her lungs gave out on her. Her bleached blonde hair was matted with a crimson liquid, her arms and legs all bruised and cut and her clothes looked like rags, dirty and tattered. She looked like a leaking pipe but she knew she had to keep running.

She wheezed as her burning lungs gasp for air. Her legs felt numb and unsteady, painfully sore. Her throat felt dry, so uncomfortably dry. Clothes long blonde-brown hair clings to her form, no different that if she ran through a rain-storm. This was her fifth time running around looking for people, anyone, or even a house. Unable to go on, she stopped running gasping for air. No person, not anywhere in this forest that seemed to also look like a desert. Not a soul, not one house.

Winifred wandered around, going up and down, looking for a way to get back to her land. She had no idea where she was going, but one thing she knew was that she could not turn back. Going back to where she had just fled from only meant one thing; she was going to die. And she was not ready to die. She still had a lot to do with her life than to die in a foreign land and a foreign world that she is yet to understand.

She wondered if Arthur would have been looking for her by now, or if he didn't notice at all that she had vanished. She wondered if the other slaves would notice that she wasn't with them in the slaves' quarters. Then, she scoffed. "Why would they even notice? They don't like me anyways. Even if they heard, they would be glad that I'm gone. Many of them would even wish me dead, the happiest would definitely be Alice, she thinks I'm her greatest enemy or something. So I'm stranded." She said to herself and sighed. She was definitely done for.

There were no houses or buildings whatsoever in sight, and she could not help but wonder if she had gone to another town entirely while trying to escape. "Where the fuck am I?" She asked as she began to get angry, sad and frustrated all at the same time. This wasn't supposed to happen to her, not again.

She had finally tried to settle in that stupid lycan kingdom all because of how she felt about the king and yet it had all tumbled again. It was almost like she was back to hw time when she first came to this world. She hated feeling like this, she hated being like this. She felt like screaming a name, Arthur's name.

She knew not why she was getting angry, but she knew she was hungry, thirsty and extremely tired. Her head also ached her alot, as the side of her head that had was hit still hurts. The sun did not help matters too. The sun shine brightly in the sky and it was very hot. There was literally no full nearby for her to rest and hide herself from the sun, the trees were scanty, they had littek to no leaves. She was in a dry land, and she could not see any traces of water either. It was as if the land was caused, full of no animal, nor water yet having plants growing in the environment.

"I guess this is my end." She muttered as she began to stagger. By now, she was very drained and had begun to get very weak. At some point, she could not stand it again. She started getting dizzy, and after a few seconds, she fell to the ground.

The vampire prince and his men were on their way back from a trip. They had gone in search of a mighty medicine man that was described to them to live at the far end of the vampire kingdom. The vampire prince, Xavier, had gone to seek the help of the man. He was ordered to do so by the chiefs of the palace because of the king's— who is his father— sickness.

"My lord, would you like to take a break? I want to give the horses some water. They are not going at the normal pace anymore. I think they are thirsty and we all are too." One of Xavier's men said to him.

"Sure, do that but be fast with it, you all act like weaklings. Can you not go hours without water?" He said to the man sternly as he came down his horse. The other men also came down their horses as they brought out water from their various loads and began to give each horse of theirs water and themselves too.

"I'll take a walk while you do all of that, meet me at the front with the horses, you all are dragging me down." Xavier said and turned to leave.

"Yes, my prince." The man said to him and bowed, even thoughPrince already had his back to him.

"We're almost home anyway, so take your time. But don't let it take too long, we have to get the medicine to father as early as we can." Xavier ordered again.

"Yes, my prince." The man replied and bowed his head again. He then returned to the horse he was giving water.

Xavier walked slowly down the dry land, one of his men following him closely behind. He was a prince after all and also the next king of the vampire land, so he had to be protected even though he could fend and fight for himself. They said nothing to each other as they walked under the scorching sun to nowhere in particular. They were still going when they noticed something on the far side of the road they were treading.

"What's that?" Xavier asked the man that was following him.

"I have no idea, my prince, I'll move closer and check on it, it might be a dead animal."

"That will be new since I haven't seen any animal thread this land in years that I've been passing through." Xavier said to his man.

Immediately, both of them brought out their swords from where it was kept behind them. They had to be alert, in case the body they were looking at was an animal who wants to attack them.

"It looks like a body." Xavier said to him. "Like an animal. Is that a lion?" He asked the man following him.

"I'll check it out, my prince, you stay back." He replied and they walked closer to the body, although slowly. They noticed that as they walked, the body didn't move at all. "I think it's dead," the man said.

"It might be pretending. Probably waiting for us to move nearer, then it attacks." Xavier replied as they kept moving closer to the said body.

When they got nearer and nearer and the body was close to their sight, they realized that it wasn't an animal, it was a human being. "Wait," Xavier said as he returned his sword where he had removed it behind his back. "That isn't an animal."

"Yes, my prince. I was going to say the same thing. It's a human being!" The man shouted as they both jogged to meet the person on the floor. "It's a female. She unconscious, my lord." The man said to Xavier as he bent down to check the lady. He turned her face upwards. Lo and behold! Winifred was the lady on the floor.

Xavier paused to look at that face. He knew he had seen her somewhere before, so he racked his brain to try and recall where he had seen her. Suddenly, he remembered. Then a large smile appeared on his face.

He's had fantasies about her for days after seeing her, but because she didn't belong to him, he forgot about her after a couple of weeks when he didn't have a cause to come in contact with her again. But here she was in front of him again. He was elated. And this time, no one would be able to take her from him, he thought as he stared at her on the floor. "But how did she get here? She was probably trying to run away again," he muttered to himself.

"Should I carry her with us, my lord?" The man asked Xavier.

"Yes. I have just found myself a new toy." He said and laughed heartily, his laughter resounding in the environment.