Princess in tennis shoes

Chapter 8 "I am trapped. So now what?"

I feel as though I am floating. I open my eyes to see that I am surrounded by a forest of trees. I see a little girl with big beautiful green eyes and ringlets of brown curls. She runs and hides behind a rock. The girl is wearing a bright yellow dress with shiny black boots that lace up. I hear a voice in the distance. The voice sounds familiar.

"Alexandra. My little Alex where are you?" The voice says in a hushed tone. "Come out, come out where ever you are." A woman peeks out from behind a tree. She has big brown eyes and red-orange hair that shines in the sunlight. The woman is my mother. And the girl is me as a child. The child starts giggling. Mother sneaks up to the rock and jumps behind it. But the little me was not there. I had climbed a tree and was hanging upside down right over mother.

"Alex I know you don't want to leave but we have to before your father finds out. And you know what happens when he finds out." The girl jumps out of the tree and lands in mother's arms. She takes me to a little wagon and sets me down on a big soft pillow.

When mother disappears with mini me in the wagon. I lay down in the soft grass. I hear a bird chirping, slowly the bird's chirps turn into a man's voice. And the grass turns to cold hard dirt.

I jolt straight up to see bars and the old man starring at me through the bars. I am in a dungeon. 

"Well hello, dearie." He says. His voice is high pitch and squeaky. That's when it hits me. The bandits, and Zamira that was no dream. "I reckon you slept well. Your friend over here, well he doesn't look to well." I look over and Finn is laying on the floor. He moans. 

"What did you do to him?!" I exclaim. 

"He tried to let you escape so the boss punish him. The boss is cruel, I tell you. You don't want to get on his bad side." Someone yells on a different language. "Oui monsieur, elle est sillage." The old man replies. They are speaking french. I hear boots walking down the stairs leading to the dungeon. A man appears. He wears a black cloak that conceals his face. 

"Eh bien, c'est la fameuse princesse emballement." The man says. I wish I had listened to my french tutor. I know some but it's all the basics. I think he is talking about me though. "Avez-vous perdu votre papa. C'est dommage que le roi est gravement malade." He said something about my father the king, and how he's ill. Anger boils inside me.

"What did you do to him?!" I yell and I try to attack the man through the bars, but something is holding my leg back. Then I see the chain on my foot. The man chuckles. 

"So the little princess is angry. Well madame you cannot escape me. I poisoned your papa, and he is going to die. Slowly and painfully." The man says in a slippery accent. He was just trying to tick me off. It worked. 

"What do you want from me?" I ask in disgust.

"I want you. The most wanted. You have a expensive prince tag on you. Your kingdom has turn against you, you ran away when you were most needed." He spits at me. 

"I didn't run away. I was kidnapped."

"Yes, but they don't know that." He whispers. "Good day madame, well it's a good day for me, not you. Au revoir!" He turns away

"Au revior, monsieur. I hope you choke on your lunch." I mutter under my breath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The old man was supposed to be a guard of some kind. But all he did most of the time was sleep, eat, and sometimes sing when he was in his drunken state. I learned his name was Duke. When Duke was napping for the millionth time, I checked on Finn. Finn was in bad shape. He had bruises everywhere, and had a big gash in his arm from the whip. I tore a piece of cloth from my shirt and managed to wrap it around the wound. All he did was moan, and every once in a while mutter in his sleep. 

At the end of the day, a maid came down and gave Duke some food. Then I realized that I haven't eaten  for two days. I have been here for a whole day. And they kidnapped me the day before at dawn, during the storm. 

"Please Duke. Just a grape. I need food." I begged him. 

"No. The boss, said no food for you."

Finally I hear foot steps, big boots. It was the so called boss.

"Bonjour, monsieur." I say in my best french.

"Hello. Princess." He snaps.

"Hey. So are you going to give us food, or do you want a dead starving princess." I say in my most annoying tone. He glares at me.

"Fine. You can have your food. Just don't expect anything else." He pulls out two wooden bowls and slides them through the bars.  

"Enjoy." He chuckles. Then walks away. 

I run to the bowl but the chains don't reach far enough. I fall on my face. The bowls are about a foot away. I try stretching out on my stomach to see if i can reach it. Nope, still to far. Duke starts laughing.

"Do you need some help dearie?." He mocks. 

"I can get it on my own. I wouldn't want you to get your filthy hands on my food anyway." I snap. That's when I get an Idea. I start digging in the dirt until i find a stick, then I slip off one of my boots. I tie the stick to the boot with the laces. I now have a hook. I lay on my belly, with the boot hook I slide one of the bowls towards me with out a spill. Duke just stares at me, and then turns back to his bottle of wine.

I look in the bowl, in it there was some kind of broth with chunks of meat and rotten vegetables. I didn't care. I immediately licked the bowl clean. Then I get Finns and I slip the stuff down his throat. When I finish feeding Finn, I see a piece of parchment stuck to the bottom of a bowl. I open it and it says...

 Alex,

I know where you are. I have a plan. In two days time, I will come for you. But I need you meet me on the main floor. I know you are in a dungeon most likely chained. There is a hairpin in the left corner of the cell. I want you to pick at the locks. (I figure you know how) Then to get past the guard (there always is one) there is a loose brick in the same corner as the pin, use that. I might need some help, so grab a weapon if you can.

Zamira

I look in the corner, and sure enough there is a hairpin and a loose brick. I am going to escape. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey guys!!! Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments!!!! You guys are awesome!!!!! Well keep and eye out for my next chapter!!!! Thanks!! :D Since I took so long here is a funfact about my book. The name Alexandra means mans defender. And I finally came up with some kingdom names!!!! They are french names...

Alex's Kingdom:

Bonté
(In French it means) Goodness, kindness, kind, kindliness, loving kindness, gentalness

And the the kingdom they are at war with:

méchant (may-chant)
wicked, bad, evil, nasty, mean, dark