When she next awoke, it was to sunlight pouring through the fabric of the bag still tied on her head. She reached up to rub her eyes as they opened before realizing the bag was in her way. With an exasperated exhale, she instead pushed herself up into a sitting position. In the back of her mind, she knew she should feel rather more frightened than she did, but to be honest, she was too tired to care.

    The cart had stopped, she noticed then. How long it had been at a standstill was beyond her, but she assumed it hadn’t been very long; even the most amateur kidnapper wouldn’t leave their captive unattended for long. Whether these men were amateurs or not, of course, she had no idea. They seemed to know what they were doing, and particularly where they were going.

    As she was thinking this, she heard footsteps coming and immediately became more alert, her body tensing. The person - presumedly one of her captors - was speaking to someone else, but she couldn’t make out what was being said. As they came closer, they stopped talking, and for a moment all was silent. Then the cart lurched, and she heard a gruff voice speaking.

    “Hey there, sweetheart,” the voice said, clearly speaking to her. Involuntarily, she flinched back. He was closer than she’d thought. The man chuckled. “Slept right through breakfast, you did.” His voice was rough and gravelly, as if he’d been around a lot smoke in his life. She recognized it as the voice of the second driver from the previous night.

    A second voice broke in, one she didn’t recognize. “Just give the girl her meal so we can go, Boris. We still have a lot of ground to cover.”

    “Fine,” sighed the first man, who she now knew was named Boris. She felt rough fingers brush her neck, and she flinched. A moment later, the bag came off her head, and her eyelids squeezed together against the blinding light. She lifted an arm to block the sun so she could see.

    Before her crouched a large man. His shoulders were so broad that, had he stood, his figure would have almost entirely blocked the sun. His blue eyes were crinkled in amusement at her plight. A bristly brown beard covered the lower half of his face, hiding the smile that was no doubt there. Another chuckle sounded from him.

    “Here,” he said, handing her a bowl. Inside was a gloppy mixture that was probably meant to be porridge. Her nose crinkled a bit at the sight. “You’re quite the creature, aren’t you?”

    “Boris-”

    “No, I mean it. Look at her, all white and silver.” He turned to the other man behind him, allowing her the first look at him. “You can’t say you’ve ever seen anything quite like it.”

    He looked so different from Boris that she was startled at first. Where Boris had a beard, this man was completely shaven, his entire head bare of hair save for his eyebrows. The sun glinted on his smooth scalp. Like Boris, however, he was huge, probably over six feet tall. He stood a few feet from the end of the cart, arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face, his thin eyes narrowed.

    “She’s wearing a white nightgown, you idiot. Of course she’s all white. Now shut up and let her eat,” the bald man said.

    Boris humphed in annoyance and leaned back against the wall of the cart before looking over at her. “You heard ‘im. Eat.”

    She looked down at the warm bowl in her hands. Swallowing hard, her nose wrinkling again at the sight, she picked up the spoon and began to eat the poorly cooked porridge. Despite her misgivings about the meal, she was hungry.

    Trying not to look at either of the men, she tucked her feet underneath her gown, her knees to her chest. She felt uncomfortable eating while her kidnappers were watching her so intently. She’d never thought of herself as anything particularly exotic; in her kingdom, most everyone had blonde hair. Admittedly, her hair was more silvery than it was blonde, but surely that wasn’t enough to make her an oddity.

    After a few more minutes of the uncomfortable torture, she had finished the porridge. She’d been so lost in her thoughts she’d barely tasted it, so when she felt her spoon scrape the bottom of the bowl, she was surprised. Scooping the last bite into her mouth, she set the bowl and spoon aside and finally looked up at the two men.

    It occurred to her then to wonder where the other two men were. The night before she’d counted at least four. But now she only saw two. Her eyebrows knit together in slight confusion. Had she miscounted?

    Boris had climbed out of the cart and was standing beside the other man now, discussing something. They were speaking too quietly for her to hear what was being said, but she was sure it had something to do with her. While their eyes were off her, she glanced around at her surroundings.

    They had clearly reached the forest sometime during the night, she thought. The cart was sitting off to the side of a clearing surrounded by tall trees, the remnants of a cooking fire visible further off. The ashy remains were surrounded by a circle of rocks, she noted with a small degree of approval.

    As she sat there, she realized that not only was the bag off her head, but her hands and feet were free as well. They hadn’t taken the time to tie them when they’d abducted her, it seemed. She glanced around quickly, her eyes wide as her heart began to beat faster with adrenaline.

    The two men were still turned away, and she very quietly made her way to the end of the cart. They stood only a few feet away, still deep in discussion. Slowly, she swung her small feet over the end of the cart and paused as it wobbled. She swallowed hard, her heart pounding in her ears. When the two men still didn’t turn around, she ever so slowly began to slide off the cart, gently placing her foot on the grass.

    The sound of nickering horses echoed through the still air; the horses were getting restless. She froze, one foot on the ground and her hands still gripping the edge of the cart. The men turned, and her eyes flew wide, her breath catching in her throat.

    Boris was the first to speak. “Oi! Stop right there, princess!” He lunged for her and she darted out of his way. Unfortunately, she hadn’t noted the other man’s position, and found herself standing right in front of him. She froze as he reached out and grabbed her arm, dragging her the few feet back to the cart.

    “Boris, grab the rope.” Boris quickly complied, striding over to a bag sitting on the ground beside the cart. He rummaged in it for a moment before pulling out a coil of rope.

    The other man waited until Boris had the rope and then turned to her, still gripping her arm tightly. He shifted his hands and lifted her easily back into the cart. He then turned back to Boris, who had cut two lengths of rope from the coil.

    “Tie her up,” he said simply. Boris nodded. Starting with her feet, he took a length of rope and wrapped it around her ankles, tying them together tightly. She grimaced at the discomfort. He then did the same with her wrists, tying them just as tightly.

    Silently, she cursed herself for not moving quicker. It wasn’t likely she’d get another chance to escape, not now anyway. That was her one chance, and she blew it.

    After Boris had finished tying her up, he pushed her to the back corner of the cart, where she couldn’t roll herself out. Satisfied that she wouldn’t be able to run away while his back was turned, he walked over to where the other man was standing, staring off down the path.

    She sat there sullenly while the men stood, waiting. But waiting for what? Boris had picked up a stick and begun whittling it, but the other man still stood staring down the narrow road. After another minute or so, two figures emerged from the trees.

    They were both tall, sturdily built. One of them walked with a limp, causing the man beside him to walk slower. He had a small, well trimmed beard and long hair that was scraped back into a tail at the base of his skull.

    The other man had only slight stubble on his face and a head of messy hair. As they came closer, she could see that he had a large scar running from the corner of his left eye down his cheek and all the way to his chin, slicing through the stubble.

    From the reactions of the two waiting men, these men were who they had been waiting for. It dawned on her that they must be the other two kidnappers who had seemed to be missing earlier on. The only question was where they had been.

    “What took you two so long?” called the bald man. Now that they were no longer whispering to each other, she could hear what was being said.

    The man with the scar just shook his head. “You sent Dmitri with me, what did you expect?” he said with a nod to the man limping beside him, clearly Dmitri. “His damn limp will slow any task down.”

    Dmitri elbowed the scarred man in the ribs, but it seemed more playful than anything. It appeared that his limp was the butt of some joke amongst the four of them. She was sure that if anyone else had made fun of his limp like that that he wouldn’t have taken so kindly to it.

    All four of the men headed for the cart, Dmitri limping behind. It wasn’t a horrible limp, but it was enough to make walking more difficult than it should have been. She wondered what had happened to him. Probably a casualty while kidnapping some other unfortunate soul, she thought.

    “So this is the lovely Princess Mirabel, is it?” Dmitri asked, and she recognized from his voice that he had been the one driving when she was kidnapped. She realized that he would also be the only one who hadn’t seen her before the bag had been shoved over her head. She shuddered at the recent memory. It was all too easy to forget that these men were evil.

    “I’d expected someone a bit, I don’t know, older maybe?” Dmitri continued. He came closer so he could see her face better. “She hardly looks of age to be married.”

    The bald man spoke up. “You know as well as the rest of us that’s her. There’s only one Princess of Lucerne. Assuming you drove us to the correct kingdom, that’s her. Now shut your mouth and start driving. You’ve wasted enough time this morning,” he said, already climbing into the back of the cart himself. “We still have to get across the border. They’ve no doubt noticed she’s missing already.”

    “Aye aye, Captain,” Dmitri said with a lazy salute before climbing into the driver’s seat. The other two climbed into the back of the cart as well, and with the crack of a whip, the cart lurched and they were off.

    Mirabel couldn’t help but wonder about the men as she sat there in discomfort, watching the trees fly past as the horses galloped along. Who were they exactly, and what did they want with her? She could only hope that she would be rescued before she found out the answer to her second question. If they truly were evil, it couldn’t be anything good.

    The bald man’s words came back to her then and her eyes widened in alarm. Across the border. They were leaving Lucerne.

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A/N: Hello again! Here's the second chapter of my entry for NaNoWriMo this year. I hope you're enjoying it so far :) Please do let me know what you think in the comments below, or at least leave me a vote :) I would appreciate it so so much. If you guys seem to like this, I'll be sure to post the next chapter sooner :3 Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Loves xx