Chapter Two

I walked along the river and breathed in the fresh air. I felt connected to the nature. Walking barefoot so I can feel every vibration. The birds chirped a beautiful melody. I walked to the shore and sat down. My gown was already dirty. Dark stains were visible on my once green fabric. The ruffles on my upper part were torn.

I put my feet into the ice cold water. A shiver ran down my spine. Since the last meeting the weather became colder. As if the whole kingdom was shutting down.

"I can do it."

Tingles spread across my whole body. My breath became rapide and I could feel my heart trying to break out. I supported my upper body with my forearms. I looked at my gown and saw it moving weirdly. Before I would rip it apart I quickly took everything off and threw it behind me.

As the cold wind hit my bare body I got goosebumps everywhere. I let myself fall. All my bones broke and started to adjust to my new form. I let out a cry. Shape-shifting was painful if you haven't mastered it yet. I looked around and saw the whole world getting smaller. I was shrinking.

Soon I was sitting there in my new form. I perked up my ears and could literally hear ants crawling. I hopped towards the river and looked into the water. I could hardly recognize myself in the reflection. Instead of a human, a rabbit was staring back at me. I had a light brown fluffy fur and a set of dull black eyes.

I heard a rustling behind me and quickly turned my ears towards the noise. The noise vanished. I slowly hopped towards the place where I heard the noise and stretched my neck to see better. There was nothing.

Either way it was the wind or someone or something was in these forests. As I was turning around to go back to my spot I felt the earth trembling. I got startled and quickly hid myself in one of those bushed that were near the shore.

Suddenly two majestic creatures trotted towards the river. Centaurs. What were centaurs doing in our kingdom. They both stopped as soon as they reached the shore. One of them turned around and scanned his surroundings. He had shoulder length curly black hair. His whole posture stiffened and he slowly walked towards the place where my clothes layed.

My heart started to race inside of my petite chest and I tried to breath as quietly as I could.

"Normos! Look what I found", the curly-haired centaur shouted to the other. The other one turned his head around and cocked it.

"Fairy..", Normos whispered but due to my high hearing ability in my rabbit form I could hear his voice clearly. Then they said something that I couldn't understand. I only understood a few words.

Find. Woods. Now.

Izdorian and estranese were two pretty similar languages. It was somehow as if they just spoke in a different dialect and changed a few words.

Normos walked towards the other centaur and sniffed at my clothes. He then looked directly towards my hiding spot. Did he know that I was hiding there? Normos looked to his centaur friend and then a devilish smile was on his face. He could smell me. He knew where I was. My whole body stiffened. I needed to somehow get away. I tried to "walk" backwards but I tripped over my own paws and that was the moment where both centaurs knew exactly where I was hiding.

My whole body jerked up and I started hopping away. I tried to hop faster but I still didn't know how to fully control a rabbits body.

I didn't even turn around to look where the centaurs were. I felt the earth vibrate heavily and I could hear their hooves hitting the forest ground. They were faster than me. I started to hop in a zig zag pattern. It worked. They fell behind and I soon reached my village. They wouldn't dare to enter a village. If they did, our kingdom would see this as a sign of the possible upcoming war.

I saw the gate from my village and sped up. I was soon there. As I raced towards the gate I saw Kyllan standing at the gate looking confused. I hopped towards him and shifted back into my human form. His eyes widened and took his shirt of and threw it on me. Like a gentlemen he turned around and I quickly put his short on. Thankfully it was long and reached just below my knees.

"What happened?", he sheepily asked. He turned around and I was dusting of the dirt off of the shirt. "Centaurs, there were centaurs near the river", I panted. His whole face hardened and he had a serious look. He grabbed my arm and yanked me towards his body. He trapped me with his arms and hugged me tightly. I barely couldn't breath.

"Are you hurt?", he gently asked. I shook my head.

He then released me from his embrace and took my hand in his. I blushed at his gesture.

"We should see the council", Kyllan said and started walking towards the stalls. I barely could keep up with his pace. As we reached the stalls he went inside and got his horse. He then walked over to me and lifted me up by my hips and placed me on the horse and after that he climbed up himself.

He was sitting behind me and I could feel his hot breath on my neck. I was still half naked. This boy was so concentrated on getting to the council than letting me get appropriately dressed.

He grabbed the horse leash and we galloped to the castle. The ride was extremly awkward. My both thighs hurted and even my private part.

"Kyllan can we please stop. You can let me jump off and I'll just go back while you go to the council", I pleaded. Kyllan yanked the leash and the horse halted.

"No I won't leave your side", Kyllan murmured. He sensed that I was uncomfortable in my current position and lifted me up once again. He then swiftly turned me around so I was facing him. My breath hitched and I felt embarrassed. He placed me between his legs so that both my legs were dangling down on one side of the horses back.

"You need to hold on to me." Hesitantly I snaked my arms around him and pressed my whole upper body into his. I tugged at his shirt signaling him that we could keep going.

The whole ride was way more comfortable. I enjoyed the rest of the ride in the embrace of Kyllan. Sadly we reached the castle way too soon. I nearly was falling asleep and Kyllan looked somehow weirdly at me. There were many emotions in his ocean blue eyes. Maybe one of them was adoration, love and happiness? I wished for that.

He picked me up bridal style. I opened my eyes and shouted at him to put me down. He was startled at me reaction and I screamed that you could see my private parts. His eyes widened and he quickly put me down and sheepishly rubbed his neck.

I quickly looked away. Not wanting to look into his eyes after this embarrassing moment. I followed Kyllan and we knocked on the big wooden door. The door opened and a guard was standing in front of us in his shiny armour.

"We had intruders."