Enchantment

Bonnie! Bonnie!

The words hit the insides of her head, coming out an echo. Bonnie rolled over as she continued sleeping.

The sound of a twig was what woke her up, imbuing her with the feeling of alarm. She sprang up. The sun was already up in the sky and was beating down on her through some space in the forest's canopy. She realized she was just noticing the heat of the sun since she had been lying there. Looking around, she realized that there was no one there with her.

Buckle, Tum and, the annoying princess were gone. A frown sent lines crisscrossing her face as she took her mind back to the events of last night. The last thing she remembered was fighting off the trolls. They had decided that they would not sleep that night till the morning when they would continue on their mission. She did not know when she slept off.

She must have been dreaming for Tum's voice was still in her head, fragments of it. Or was it real? Were Tum and the others in some sort of trouble? Had they been kidnapped by the trolls while she slept? Why did the trolls spare her?

She got up quickly and was glad to realize that she still had her weapons with her. However, her companions were gone. The only sign that they had been there in the first place was the dead fireplace where flames had once danced before the attack of the trolls.

"Buckle?" She called.

There was no response. She already felt there would not be one. If her companions had been taken against their will, then there was no way they would be free to reply her. They could even already be dead, she realized, and her heart sank.

She walked away from where they had slept, looking for a sign or a trail to follow. There was none. The sound that had woken her came again. It was the sound of twigs breaking, ruffling in a nearby bush.

Before I count five… Buckle's voice said in her head.

"I'm out!" the princess screamed as she jumped out of a nearby bush.

Bonnie was taken aback and stumbled, almost falling to the ground before she got a hold of herself.

The princess turned towards her. The young lady staring at her had all the features of the princess, yet Bonnie felt that all was not right. The feeling tugged at her mind until she saw the princess' eyes turning black all through. Black liquid began dripping from her eyes as well.

"You don't like me, Bonnie," the princess said. "You want Tum all for yourself. Maybe you want Tum and Buckle and all the men you will never have."

The princess had started approaching Bonnie. Bonnie moved back, frightened pantsless. She knew now that the person in front of her was not the princess, but she did not know who the person was.

"What manner of sorcery is this?" Bonnie muttered to herself as she moved back and away from the princess.

"You cannot have all those men because of what you are, a peasant! You want your knight in shining armor, and Tum looks like the one, does he not?"

"This is not real."

"You can touch me," The princess said, reaching for Bonnie.

"Don't touch me!" Bonnie screamed. She hit her leg against the root of a tree and fell to the ground.

The princess was upon her in an instant. She jumped on top of her and pinned her hands to the sides.

"What about me? Do you like me? Would you love to do the forbidden? You could kill off the boy knight and have all of me."

The black eyes were close to Bonnie's face and the princess's lips were moving close to hers.

"Get off me!" Bonnie screamed.

The princess took her lips and held them with hers. Bonnie struggled and pulled her face away from the princess. Her grip on her hands was ironclad and was proving impossible for Bonnie to free herself of.

"Why you love loneliness?" the princess asked. Her voice had changed. It sounded like the chorus of many voices, eerie and frightening. "You could have me. You could have Buckle your brother. You could have anyone, but you refuse to do what needs to be done."

"Let me go!"

The princess bared her teeth, and Bonnie watched in horror as the teeth turned into fangs, wicked, long fangs looking as sharp as they were long.

"I could let you go, or I could feast on you," the princess said and bent towards Bonnie's neck.

As the princess bent towards Bonnie's neck, a surge of energy went through the peasant girl. She struck the girl on top of her with her knee and pushed her over. The princess rolled off her, fangs and all.

"If I don't have you, no one else will," the princess roared and charged towards her.

This time, the princess was met with a gunshot to her forehead. It froze her to her halt. The blackness in her eyes started to fade. Her fangs disappeared. Bonnie could not bring herself to shoot again. Before her very eyes, the princess disappeared into nothingness, slowly sailing away like smoke on the evening wind.

Bonnie got up to her feet and checked all over her body for any injury. There was none. She had not been bitten. She had heard of werewolves and vampires who could take on the image of others and would not age a day. 

But she had not expected to meet anyone in the forest. The fight with the trolls last night and the encounter she had just had this night reminded her that their mission was a dangerous one.

She walked around, looking for a pathway or signs of her companions.

"Tum! Buckle!" she called, refusing to call the princess for fear it could be a summoning call. The forest was full of enchantments. It was a warning she had heard over and over again, but one she had not really taken to heart. She had felt the young, able-bodied men who were assigned to giving her baths just liked telling stories. Well, she had one herself if she survived the rest of the journey.

The enchantment, they said, got stronger when one got closer to the crystal sword. It was the most difficult thing to do.

"Tum! Buckle!" she called again.

The forest replied to her with silence. There was only the sound of her footfalls and the birds singing overhead.