“There you are little one.” A man’s voice entered into Aria’s head that sounded like Morgan’s.  She stretched against the stone near the hearth breaking away from the fog of her dream.  It was cold against her body, the fire must not even have embers burning.  She slowly opened her eyes and turned her head toward the male voice.  A few inches from her face was the tip of an arow drawn in the strings of a tight bow held by a sneering Prince Philip.  Her heart leapt into her chest and her eyes widened.  How was she going to get out of this?  He snickered at her alarmed expression.  “You didn’t think I’d let you get away with what you’d done, did you?”  He paused as if to let it soak in, though she knew he didn’t believe she could understand him, “I saved your life.  I invited you into my home.  I gave you food and a warm place to sleep.  The

Feeling confident in her gown, but hoping the wrong person wouldn’t see her in it, she strolled out onto the gallery overlooking the mass of guests exiting the dining hall.  It would seem she’d missed the meal, but she was counting on Morgan to save her something or at least ordering the servants to bring a tray to his room for her.  She stood on the gallery surveying each person.  She didn’t see Morgan and assumed he was still in the dining hall talking with other guests that enjoyed extended drinks at any hour.  She slowly descended the stairs, her first time doing so with only two legs.  One step at a time, she watched her feet and took the descent slowly, careful to hold the banister railing for support.  The action felt strange and she was sure she’d trip over the dress and fall the rest of the way at any moment, but no sooner than the thought crossed her mind did she reach the bottom.  As she looked up, she noticed a man watching her,

By the morning of the third day, Aria had regained enough strength to stand up in the bed.  She wasn’t about to let Morgan shove that contraption down her throat again, so she decided to try and drink on her own.  After he smeared the jelly onto her tongue, she grimaced but set to trying to drink a bowl of water.  With his support around her ribcage, she was able to lap up a quarter of the water in the bowl – exactly enough to satisfy his judgement and get him to stop threatening to force more water down her throat.  She lay down next to the bowl to give her body a rest while he put everything away and left the room with the promise to send up some food and give her a chance to eat. Food, however, was the last thing on her mind.  She was more worried that Morgan didn’t trust her and to be honest, she no longer trusted food from the kitchen.  She wondered if it would be horrible to ask Morgan to hunt for her and ju

By the time Aria stopped running the pads of her paws were raw, cracked, and bleeding.  Her legs quivered beneath her threatening to collapse as her heart pounded the blood through her body at a rapid rate - blood full of panic at the violent attack from Philip and her near failed escape.  She stood in the clearing of some trees with her head barely above the ground, gasping for air and resisting the urge to collapse where she was.  She knew that if she lay down now, there was a chance she’d never rise again.  Her body needed water and food, soon, or it would fail her. As she stood, her breathing slowed but her legs still shook.  She lifted her head slightly and took in her surroundings.  The forest was dark, almost black.  The small bit of moonlight that did break through the canopy of dense tree cover was hardly enough to illuminate more than the few branches it touched on the way down.  Her ears twitched atop her head try

The glow of the sun was beginning to fade and the night before had been black as pitch so Aria set to looking for a safe and hidden place to sleep for the night.  She hadn’t eaten a morsal since the rabbit that morning, but it was too late to hunt and with all these strange creatures following her, she was reluctant to risk safety for food.  As she walked, the eerie feeling of eyes on her left her flinching at every noise, but she saw and smelled nothing.  She wished she could shake that feeling and willed her skin to stop crawling under her fur because it was making her cold, but her skin wouldn’t obey.  She gave herself a violent shake, but it only helped for a moment and soon her skin resumed its cascade of shivers under her white coat.  She hefted a sigh as she walked past another failed burrow for the evening at the base of a large tree trunk.Aria looked under each bush she passed, shoved her head in various holes, and placed her paw