Eric's PoV:
I COULD KILL THE QUEEN MYSELF  if I had the ability to stand up against her. I had my words, and my stubborn attitude, but I didn't  have magic. If I could take a cannon, and blow it up her ass, then I would, and no one would mind me doing it either. That Queen hasn't  seen the last of me.

All of a sudden, as we were walking, my chest began to tense up, and the tension squeezed the air out of me as I stumbled to the ground. I was regaining my breath when Salaria came over.

"Are you alright? Here, let me help... do you have heart problems or something?" She asked, it was a wild guess, and I wondered if she knew somehow. Though, I played it cool and shook it off.

"Yeah, something like that. I'm fine. Ran into a bad man with a bad gamble a few years back, he jabbed a blunt wooden weapon into my chest. No big deal," I said to her as I gathered my breathing some more. At least, Chronic hadn't  dealt with any 'heart' problems as of yet, and I wondered if the Evil Queen could read my mind when she was holding my heart or something. Though, there might be other ways, where she knew what I was thinking, but I didn't  give a damn, and I didn't  give a damn if I died. I would prefer to die, we age very slowly here in our world, and it really pissed me off how we can't  age any faster.

I've  already spent more than enough years trying to make a living while being a merchant, and it was a pain in the ass. I don't  care what others thought, but traveling was something I did in the past. So, not much of it bothered me, and Avangeline seemed to be crying? Why was she crying, it was fine, we were going to be fine? Was she always crying? Though, she had been quiet for awhile, and I wondered how everyone else felt while we were literally walking to our doom. It bothered me, as I thought about our deaths and what was going to happen, and how it was going to happen.

The thing that annoyed me the most about all of this was the person who was going to kill me. I may be overreacting, but I wasn't  expecting my death to happen by the hands of the Evil Queen, it could have been anyone. The butcher from down my old street from where I used to live when I was living with my wife, the gamblers that I used to gamble with a few years ago. It was a good thing that I had left them, but now as I thought about it, one of them was being an asshole. Main reason I left was because he was making fun of my wife, and so I left. He was doing it because he was jealous, and envious of my wife. So, I when I returned from my travels across Gan'Dor, I've come home to my wife and child dead, the neighbors explained to me that there was a pox going on, and my family had been ill just after I left. I found that suspicious, and after awhile, my suspicions were correct. My two good friends were poisoned in front of my very eyes, and I tried to chase the culprit down, but he got away. I've  been trying to find him ever since, he was just a plain arrogant bastard who grew jealous and stubborn by a single word. He would kill if he lost a game, and it was just straight up bad sportsmanship.

"Should I teleport us there instead?" Chronic asked, and he woken me up from my daydreaming? I looked around as we were about to head into the forest ahead of us. It seemed that I dazed off longer than I should have.

"I mean, if you really want to?" Salaria said with a shrug, she really had no preferences. It was something that I liked about her. She didn't  really care about what she did, as long ad she would get it done. So far, she was consistent, but earlier it looked like even Salaria was crying. I could have known, by the way her eyes looked after she opened the door to her horse. I was just glad to see her.

"I- I don't  want to go back to that hell-hole!" Avangeline crooked with Lilly behind her. Young Lilly sidestepped away and closer towards Salaria. I wonder what it was that gathered the young girl's  attention with Salaria, but I didn't care at the same time.  Chronic was the one who killed James, technically speaking. Still, Lilly was content around us, but then again Salaria had told me awhile ago, that she had found Lilly in a cage locked up with the other children in the slave department. It was upsetting knowing that a pirate would lock his own child in a cage, and not let her out. Though, she was surprisingly educated when she spoke, which amused me. She was a little stubborn, and I admired that about Lilly.

"But, we need to Avangeline." I hissed at her and looked at Chronic. He just shrugged and waved his hands without the continuous protest. We immediately reappeared at the Queen's  Castle. I frowned, and my stomach churned. My chest heaved, and it felt heavy as we all walked slowly towards the gates. Two guards on horseback came trotting up towards us and stopped us.

"The Queen's  Waiting for you." Unintentionally, I followed the guards on foot, and so did everyone else except Salaria as she still had her heart. It still pissed me off that the Queen hadn't  chosen to take her heart either, even if it still sounded selfish. You can't  believe how vulnerable you feel when someone has control of your heart.

Eventually, we made it to the Queen's  castle, and the Queen came out with a stern, expressionless face more or less with a large box in her hands.

She smiled at the five of us, and I shifted uncomfortably.

"Welcome back my lovelies. Take them inside and bring Salaria to me. I need to deal with her first."

Author's  Note: Please comment, and vote if you'd  like. It would be greatly appreciated!