Julia

  Shadows ride through the darkness. Fire. A vilge ihe angry cries of the queen. Torsten and Annemarie. Babette in a big house. Fire. A forest. A vilge. A dragon.

  She heard something ctter. Wheels? The hooves of horses? But sleep held her captive. Her eyelids felt heavy. She smelled something. Raio her, someone was wailing quietly in his sleep. Strange voices were talking, but Julia was too tired to listen to them. There was thunder somewhere. A door ehen she sank bato a deep, silent sleep.

  Leopold

  The weather had gotten worse in the early m. First, it had only rained, now it was st. So he had sat down in the carriage. The princess slept and leaned almost motionless against the carriage wall. Prier's sleep was restless. Now and then he moaned or whined softly. Ironically, the two people o Leopold monitored their forced sleep, as if they could jump up and defend themselves at any time. But their hostages looked anything but dangerous.

  The princess in the nightgown with thick, colorful ringed wool socks on her feet and the prin a wedding dress, which adorned a rge chocote stain. They were kidnapped like that? There was almost something humorous about it.

  What would the prihink of him if she woke up and realized that she had been kidnapped? What would the two wolves think? And was that still important? Why did he worry about it? Why did he feel guilty?

  He leaned against the carriage wall ahe howling storm sing him a good night song until he fell asleep.

  Someone shook his shoulder. Leopold opened his eyes in fusion. "We're here!", said the man with the long nose. "You overslept almost the entire ride, boy!"

  "Oh!" He looked out of the window of the carriage and smiled. There were the familiar houses of his homend. His vilge. Suppressing a cry of joy, he opehe door of the carriage and stumbled out. He was at home. The air smelled of forest and herbs. Of moss and moist earth. And apple pie. Someone in one of the houses robably baking.

  "And where shall we go with the four?", asked the long-nose.

  "I’m looking for our elder. He must have had something pnned. It will probably take some time before the four wake up." Judging by the location of the sun, it was afternoon.

  "Good. We will guard the four then." The redhead, still sitting in the carriage, crossed his arms. "Man, I’m hungry! I hope someone has something to eat for us!"

  "I'll be ba a heartbeat!" Leopold hurried away to the vilge elder's house. It was not far away. But before he was there, he heard a familiar voice.

  "Leopold!" His mother ran towards him. Her purple wings trembled with joy as she threw her arms around him. "Are you okay? I saw the carriages!"

  "I'm fine, mom." He let himself sink into her arms. "Everything worked out. The princess is here!"

  "I don't like the pn." She sobbed softly. “Not when I finally have you back!"

  "Mom!" He sighed. "It has to happen. Someone has to do it. Is the eldest at home?"

  "Franz? Yes. It's here. Let's go. He's waiting for you." She took him by the hand, as she used to when he was a child.

  "How's the stoing?"

  "Oh, as always." His mother smiled. "But we have way more to do without you. And arden misses you too. Your father did his best, but he doesn't have yreen thumb."

  Before they arrived at the vilge elder's house, the man rushed to meet them. A few elves followed him with grim faces.

  "Leopold! I heard that you had arrived. Did the ride go well?"

  "I think? I overslept most of it. But our hostages are not awake yet", he replied, letting his gaze wander over the elves. Three, for elves very muscur man, and two tall women who looked identical. The eldest's two daughters, Inga and Ilse, and his three nephews, Johann, Elias, and Emil. They were all between thirty-two and forty-two years old sihe eldest and his one hundred years younger brother had remarried very te.

  "Wonderful! We have already prepared a pce for them. Somewhere, where she has it nid cuddly!" Ilse poio the vilge shop. "A ste room was free."

  "Oh. I wouldn't mind hosting uest!", his mother objected.

  "She's not a guest", Johann tradicted. "The ste room is suffit."

  When they arrived at the carriages, several elves had gathered in front of it and talked excitedly. The two en, Leopold knew by now that their names were Jürgen and Uwe, kept the onlookers away as much as possible. The four others blocked the view into the carriages for the onlookers.

  The group made their way through the crowd and the eldest g the unscious princess. "So that's her?" He frowned. "She doesn't look like a cruel witch... And who is the ... young man?"

  "Is that a wedding dress?", asked Leopold's mother quietly. He nodded.

  "That's her brother. He showed up uedly, so we took him with us." Leopold shrugged. "Now we have two hostages. And... The princess is not cruel."

  "She’s not?" Inga didn't believe him. "She is a witd the Queen's daughter. You are her property. Iher carriage are two more sves!" She stood in front of the other carriage in which Marko and Finn were lying. "Werewolves! Ensved wolves, Leopold! And that's not cruel? Where do we want to put them?"

  "I'm happy to take them in!", announced Leopold's mother immediately.

  "Would they try to free the princess?", the vilge elder asked.

  "If we lock the princess in a ste room, yes. I don't think she would try to escape. She doesn't know her way around here." He didn't like the idea of the ste room. This was not a pce for such a lovely person.

  "I have a guest room. We lock it off! If that's so important to you, Franz! The poor child!" His mother crossed her arms. "That's where the four stay. I won't let you lock a child in a stuffy ste room!"

  The eldest sighed. "All right. Then we'll take them there." Then he looked at the mortals. "Thank you for your help. If you like, you all stay with me in the house. I have space."

  "Thank you." The blond, Sebastian, as Leopold now knew, nodded grimly. The other three were Jona, Ge, and Hans. Ge and Hans were brothers and looked very simir, except that Hans's red hair had given way to a half-bald head, while Ge's hair was very dense. Jürgen had told him their names during the journey.

  "Our horses are tired", Jürgen said. "Where we put them? They had very few breaks. We couldn't risk more. They also need food and water."

  "I'll show you our stables", Emil turo him. "Of course, we also have food and water."

  Then, they brought their hostages, which the four humans carried again, to Leopold's parent's house, where they id them on the old guest bed. They made sure that Finn had enough distance from the others. As far as the bed allowed. Leopold insisted. His mave them water and fruit. The eldest was satisfied with the space. There was a window but it was too small to climb through and the room could be locked. There was also access to a small bathroom. Again, the window was too small to escape.

  Leopold sighed. So that's it? He had made it... His gaze went to Julia. She slept peacefully and suspected nothing. He resisted the urge to get her out of this prison when his mother relutly locked the door.

  "They're children!", she murmured.

  (c: sasi)