Unfamiliar Place

Elaine rubbed her face on the soft pillow and smiled in her sleep. The morning sun came in through a window and the birds sang their song. Elaine grunted and turned over to face away from the window. Slowly, she opened her eyes. They adjusted to the brightness and surrounding. With her eyes now wide open, she realized she was in an unfamiliar place.

She jolted up in panic, looking around her as she sat on the bed. Everything looked expensive. The furniture, the floor and even the wall. The room was decorated with valuables that could finance her until she died. Maybe she won't even be able to spend all that money. Then she looked at herself. Her skin was cleaned off of any dirt and she now wore a clean white dress. Her wounds have been tended to and her hair was also washed and perfumed with a flowery scent. There were no more tangles and grime. She hadn't felt so clean in so long.

Then she suddenly remembered some other children talking about something. They said that children who slept unprotected would be taken away by big scary men and be eaten. They would never see that kid ever again. Elaine jumped off the bed and ran over to the door to escape. She pulled on the door, but it didn't budge. She tried again with more effort and this time, it moved a bit. She tried one last time and gave her all to pull it open. The door swung open and she smiled with relief.

She quietly peeked out and flinched back when she saw two big men standing by the door. They looked over to her at the same time. Her face turned pale and she quickly shut the door close. She had her back to the door and she heard people scurrying around. She was breathing hard now and she looked around the room for another way out, but there was nothing else besides the window. She ran towards the window and tried to reach for the handle, but it was too high.

She looked around the room to look for something to step on and spotted a chair. She went over to the chair and dragged it across the room. By the time she reached the window, she was sweating and out of breath. She climbed up the chair and carefully stood up. She then grabbed the handle and opened the window. She looked out and found out she was on the second floor of the building.

Elaine hesitated. She knew she would hurt herself if she jumped out of the window. She thought hard what she could do in that situation. There was a tree beside the window and it wasn't that far but still quite a distance. She could take the risk and try to jump on the tree branch and then climb down. She was scared, but she was even more afraid of being eaten. She took a deep breath and exhaled the air back out. She placed her hand on the windowsill to climb up.

The door slammed open before she could fully climb on it. She looked back to see who had opened the door and saw the duke rushing towards her.

"Grandpa!" she said with a big smile. Now that she was clean and well dressed, one could tell how adorable she looked with her glowing green turquoise eyes.

She was so glad to see him that she lost her balance. Her hand slipped off the windowsill and she was falling forward out of the window. Luckily, the Duke was quick enough to catch her. He fell on the floor with Elaine in his arms. The Duke hugged her tight. He was so scared out of his mind that she would really fall out. It was a really close call. Then he felt a tug on his clothes and looked down. He realised Elaine was trembling and he thought it was because she was in shock. But he noticed how she looked at the knights with fear in her eyes. He ordered everyone to go out of the room. The knights were sad she was scared of them and dragged their feet out.

"It's okay now, Elaine." He said as he rubbed her shoulder. "I'm sorry I wasn't there when you woke up."

Elaine shook her head and blushed. She was a bit embarrassed, for she had totally forgotten about yesterday's events. It had felt like a dream to her. But she understood now that it wasn't. The Duke stood up and placed her on the bed and sat beside her.

"What you did just now was very dangerous. You could have injured yourself." He said.

Elaine fiddled with her fingers, feeling a bit bad. She didn't dare look up at the Duke. He sighed and sat on the ground instead so she would look at him.

"You must understand that I was very worried for your safety. Please don't ever do that again."

Elaine nodded and apologised. The duke smiled and opened his arms and said, "Come here."

Elaine gladly jumped into his arms and hugged him. He hugged her back and asked, "But why were you trying to run away?"

"Uhm...," she wondered how she was supposed to explain. "I thought they would eat me."

The Duke was dumbfounded. He couldn't understand what she meant by that. Why would they eat her? Where did she even hear that?

"No one here will eat you, Elaine. I won't allow them to do that, so don't worry."

"But they said that b-big scary men like to eat young children!" she retorted.

"Who told you that?" He asked, now seriously concerned. If being eaten meant something else and if what she said was true, then he must investigate this.

"O-Other children like me," she mumbled.

"Okay, I believe you. I know you wouldn't lie to Grandpa."

She nodded her head vigorously and felt at ease that he believed her. Then she started to wonder where she was.

"Am I at your home, Grandpa?" she asked. And before he could reply, her stomach growled loudly. She blushed as she covered her stomach with her tiny hands. She wondered why she was so hungry.

"Why, yes," He chuckled. "But it's just one of many. My real home is somewhere else. Would you like to eat breakfast with me?"

"Breakfast?" she asked, confused. She had met the Duke in the morning and ate a lot of bread for breakfast and fell asleep right after. She wondered why it was breakfast again. She put out her fingers to count. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and breakfast again.

"Ah yes, you slept the whole day yesterday and just woke up today." He explained. "You must have been very exhausted."

Elaine's eyes were open wide with surprise. This was the first time she had slept for a whole day. It would have been very dangerous if she were still out in the streets. She tried not to imagine it.

The Duke stood up and carried Elaine in his arms like a princess. She was surprised, but didn't complain since she liked it anyway. He walked towards the door and placed his hand on the door handle. But then he remembered she was afraid of the knights. They did have scars on their faces and the way they looked would scare any child. He pondered what he should do about it.

"Elaine." He said as he looked down.

"Hmm?" She tilted her head while looking up at the Duke.

"Those men you saw earlier, they are knights. And knights protect the people, they don't hurt them without reason." He tried to explain. "They were the ones that kept you safe while you slept."

"Hmm..." She placed her small knuckles on her lips. "Are they like the knights that protect princesses?"

"Yes." He replied.

"What about the knights from yesterday?" She asked. "T-They wanted to take their swords out."

"Ah, them," He smiled unnaturally. "Don't worry about those two. They are being...taught a lesson."

"Okay!"

He opened the door and went out. He found the knights facing their back to the door. When he walked down the hall, they faced away from him and Elaine.

"...What are you doing?" The Duke asked. Elaine tilted her head.

"...It seems the little lady is afraid of us, so we will try not to look at her so she won't get scared." One of the knights tried to talk as quiet as he could, not to startle Elaine with his loud voice. He had dirty blonde hair.

"I see. I praise you both for your quick thinking." He paused. "If you keep up the good work, I might make you both her personal escorts."

The knights' faces lit up with excitement. Even the Duke could tell with their backs to him.

"But only if Elaine likes you."

Their body stiffened up and their shoulders drooped. The Duke started to walk away from them while they still faced the opposite direction. He was pleased that he was the only one liked by her. Elaine placed her arms over the duke's shoulder and peeked over it to see the knights. They still had their backs to them. But when they thought the distance was good enough, they turned around.

However, they were surprised to see Elaine looking at them and they panicked. Before they could turn back around again, Elaine smiled shyly at them and waved her hands. She quickly ducked her head right after as she blushed. The knights found that so adorable, it felt like an arrow shot through their hearts. They watched them go until they turned a corner.