Nadia's Plan

The rays from the sunlight that shone through the window directly at Derek's face was what woke him up the next day.

The last thing he could remember was running away from the witches that had attacked him, but he did not know how he got on top of the bed that he now layed.

He looked around to see if he could see anything familiar but was shocked to see someone standing in front of him with a stretched out sword.

"Identify yourself stranger!" The guard shouted, still stretching his sword towards Derek.

At first Derek was scared but then he figured that if the man wanted him dead he would have killed him in his sleep, and besides the man seemed to be alone in the house, there was probably nothing that one man with a sword could do to him.

He thought of pretend to be human but he considered that the guards might have seen him come through the woods instead of the normal roads and he did not have any answers to give as to how he escaped the witches alone, so he told the truth.

"My name is Derek, I'm a werewolf." He stated as he watched on the man's face when he said that, he knew that he had to calm the guard down before he alerted other people.

"Relax sir!" Derek said. " You saved my life so I am not going to kill you, infact I think I owe you."

The guard stared at Derek for a while, he did not look that dangerous, so he gently lowered his sword and asked him to speak on.

Derek sighed in relief, then he told the man about everything that had happened to his pack and why he had to run away.

By the time Derek was done with his story, the man felt emphatic as he decided to give Derek a chance.

"My name is Harry and you can quit calling me sir." He stated. "You can stay with me for a few days or months until you figure out what to do to save your pack, but just so you know, not everybody in this city is as softhearted as I am, some of them would have your head hung in a stake the moment they realize who you are."

Derek nodded, he knew that they where people who did not like werewolves and by what the man had just told him, he could guess that he was in Camelot.

He turned to look outside but his eyes met a painting of two beautiful young girls on the wall close to the window the Harry's wall.

"Who are those?" He asked pointing at the pictures on the wall.

Harry smiled as he looked it. "Those are my daughter's Anniebella and Brianna they moved to the palace ever since their mum died, so I don't get to worry about their safety whenever I'm out there guarding the gates at night."

"Okay" Derek replied nodding quietly as he admired the people passing outside.

"I don't need to remind you what would happen if you go outside a d get caught. So sit tight while I go get us some food." Harry stated as he stood up and walked away.

**

At the palace Princess Nadia was woken up by the heavy knocking on her door, she sighed deeply as she looked at the time on her wall clock. It was 10:02am.

"Gosh! I overslept again." She said yawning widely. "Who is at the door, come in, I did not lock it."

The door swung open shortly after she had made the statement and Anniebella and Brianna that walked in with smiles on their faces, Having stayed long enough in the palace, they had become best of friends with the princess.

"Hey girls!" She greeted as they walked in.

"Hello, your majesty" they replied giggling as they took their sits beside her on the bed.

"So what brings y'all here this morning?" Nadia asked.

Ever since the coronation the princess had not come out from her room and they had come to check up on her.

"We did not see you at your birthday party, since you ghosted after the coronation so we were wondering if you are doing okay." Annie stated.

"We were really worried actually, everyone still is. Especially your mum." Brianna added.

Nadia gave a shy smile, she knew that one way out another she was going to have to tell them about her experience with the witch.

"Something happened to me at the ceremony. Swear to me that you will not tell anyone about this, not even my mum." She stated looking from one of the girls' eyes to the other.

"I swear." Annie and Brianna replied in unison as their curiosity increased.

Nadia nodded in satisfaction, then she showed them her palm which now had strange marks on it.. "A witch did this to me at the coronation, after she shook my hands these marks appeared."

"What the Bloody hell?" Brianna screamed ourt in shock, while Annie just stared on speachlessly, they thought that the princess must have been hexed or something.

Nadia raised a finger in order to calm them down, "Relax guys it's not a hex, I had to show you guys in order to confirm my doubts, the woman told me that I was like her, and since I'm the only one I'm this room who understands what the marks mean, I think she might be right."

The girls looked at each other not really agreeig the princess' thoughts.

"What if this is a trap?. What if she wants you to believe that you are a witch to lure you to come to her?" Brianna asked shaking her head negatively.

"And what if she's not?, There's only one way to find out." Nadia stated with a tone of finality. "I only told you guys about this because you are the only ones I can trust to help me, so you are either in this with me, or against me. You have to choose."

**

Later that day at Harry's house, Derek had started to feel Hungry and Harry had not yet returned. He put his hands into his pocket and discovered that he still had all his coins on him.

He walked up towards the window and looked out side, there was a woman that sold snacks across the street, He thought it would be better if he just went to the woman to get some snacks to help him wait for Harry's return.

So he opened the door and walked outside, ignoring the multitude of people that were returning from their farms.

"This was not so hard after all." He muttered as he arrived in front of the woman's store.

"How may I help you sir?" The woman asked as he smiled at her and quickly asked for some pie and a cup of coffee which she gave to him without hesitation and collected the coins that he gave her.

He took a bite from the tasty pie and sipped some of the coffee as he walked back to the house, the snacks tasted really delicious. As he got to the other side of the road, he raised his head and saw the beautiful palace afar off.

"Wow.." he exclaimed as he admired it's magnificence.

As he was anout to remove his gaze, he felt a heavy hit on his shoulder, He had probably hit a man that was passing by he wasn't sure but either way he apologized to the man That was frowning at him but the man seemed not to accept his apology as he pushed Derek hard on the chest causing him to pour all the contents of his hot coffee on some other person who stood by.

The guy whom the coffee had poured on gave Derek a heavy punch on the face causing him to stagger a few steps backwards.

"I don't want any trouble." Derek said as he held his face.

"Then who wants trouble stranger?. You don't look like you are from around here." The first man who had pushed him shouted.

"Yeah, you come all the way from your land for trouble?" The man drenched with coffee shouted. "Perhaps we should teach you a lesson no one comes here to look for trouble and goes free."

They both gatherered around Derek and were about to rush towards him to throw punches at him when a voice sounded from behind them.

"Leave him alone, that's my cousin you douchebags." They turned around o check who had spoken and when they saw that it was Harry, they ran away, leaving him alone with Derek.

"I thought I told you not to leave the house?" Harry asked as he held Derek's hands and led him back to the apartment.

**

It had already started to get dark but that was when princess Nadia thought would be the best time for her to carry out her plan to go see the witch.

She was still in her room with her besties and had decided to dress in Annie clothes to carry out the first phase of the plan which was to sneak out of the palace undetected.

"Annie you'd stay here until Brianna returns, while I'd go out with her pretending to be you." Nadia stated confidently as she arranged the edges of the Annie's gown that she had on to suit her comfortably.

"But what if someone finds out that you are not me?" Annie asked still unsure of the effectiveness of the plan.

Nadia scuffed. "relax no one will find out, besides it's already late."

"And she's going out with a Veil just in case." Brianna added wearing a smirk.

"Yeah, right. Veil" Nadia mimicked. "Come-on now Brianna let's go there's no time." Nadia stated as she opened her window to check if anyone was passing by her backyard and when she was sure that the coast was clear, she jumped out of her room through the window with Brianna following almost immediately.

They had decided to go through the back door to avoid answering the multiple questions about the princess' wellbeing that would have been thrown at them by the queen if they had followed the main door.

They walked as fast as they could go the palace stable where they took two horses and rode to the palace gate. The guard at the gates let them pass without much questions because he thought that Brianna and Annie were doing their normal daily errand routines.

But when they got to the main gate that led out of the city the guard on duty asked them to stop, he wondered why they wanted to leave the city without guards but they told him that they needed to get a particular flower that was just outside the gate. He noticed that the Nadia was wearing a veil but he mistook her for Annie.

"Why are you hidden under a veil?" He asked frowning slowly.

"Well.. uhm.. I uhm." Nadia stuttered having failed to have come up with a proposed answer to this question earlier should incase it came up.

"She has a face infection. The queen ordered that she wears the veil in order for it not to spread and that's why we need the flower, it's for her cure." Brianna answered immediately causing the princess to sigh in relief.

"Oh well, I thought.. well nevermind you can go and be careful out there." The guard shouted behind them as they rode away.

When they got to a certain distance Nadia stopped her horse. "Thank you for covering up for me at the gate, but I think I need to go alone from here onwards."

Brianna sighed not quite sure if it was fine to leave the princess alone in the woods. She knew that if the the queen or anyone finds out what she had done that, it would mean serious trouble, but then that was the more reason why she needed to go back to the palace and help Annie cover up the whole situation.

"Are you sure you'd be fine on your own?" She asked.

Nadia nodded with a smile on her face while she watched Brianna sigh deeply before turning her horse around and riding back into the city.

She sighed deeply as she followed the map on her palm, it lead into the woods. The weird sounds and thick darkness in the woods made her to feel scared, but she still rode on anyway.

Soon sho got to a point where Some witches had formed a straight line to block the pathway. Her horse stopped on its own accord when it got to where they stood.

Nadia fell out of her horse because of the abruptness at which it had stopped but she managed to stand up on her own accord.

"I'm looking for Selena". She managed to say, enduring the pain that she had felt from the fall.

One of the witches in the line scoffed causing the other witches to laugh loudly.

"There's no such one as Selena here, but there's someone we'd like you to meet" the witch who has scoffed stated.

At this point Nadia knew that she was in trouble, she turned around and tried to run away but the witches muttered a spell which made her feel dizzy, and then she fell on the ground enveloped in pitch darkness...