**_Chapter 5_**

_Ballari woke up in_ her bedroom with a clouded head that morning. It felt like the beginning of a headache.

But Ballari pushed that aside and looked around to see MISS looking at her with a distressed look on her face and the local town doctor, Dr. Habean, feeling the girl’s head with a cold hand.

When MISS saw that Ballari had awoken, she gasped. Ballari noticed that her eyes were red and raw and that her face was chalky from dried tears.

“Oh, Ballari!” The woman pushed the doctor away as she cupped the girl's face in her hands. “I was already worried about how late you stayed out, so when I found you sprawled out on the ground out in the meadow, I almost fainted. I called Dr. Habean right away and we both carried you back here.” MISS pressed her forehead against Ballari’s and rubbed her cheeks with her thumbs. “I was so, _so_, afraid.”

Ballari was confused. She thought that Alistarie had been with her when she fell asleep, did he just leave her there? Ballari thought a bit more and realized that if MISS came to the meadow, Alistarie would have run away. It seemed reasonable enough.

With that new conclusion in her mind she relaxed and let MISS weep over her and Dr. Habean did what he did best, and soon she fell back asleep.

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Ballari soon woke up again, but this time it wasn’t MISS or Dr. Habean sitting next to her. It was Alistarie.

How did he get into the cottage?

“Have you made up your mind, Ballari?” He asked.

Ballari, driven by the curious effect of sleep, shrugged.

Alistarie’s eyes then turned a dangerous shade of green and with clenched fists he said looking out toward the open bedroom door.

 “I have been patient, and nice, and even gentle, sometimes. _Now, _can we do things _my _way?” At that moment it looked as if he wanted to hurl something out of a window.

Without thinking, Ballari found a glass of water MISS had left for her and gave it to Alistarie, saying, “Here, throw this if you want to.” Then she fell back on the bed and went back to sleep.

❥     ❥     ❥

Ballari woke up again annoyed. Why couldn’t she just stay asleep.

The pine smell from the previous night was all around her, blurring her vision quite magnificently.

But she could tell two things: 1. It was night, and 2. She was on someone’s back. She supposed that it was Alistarie, as he was the last person she had seen, but as she moved further into reality, she realized that the hands that were holding her up were somewhat…feminine.

Ballari snapped back to reality and remembered what Alistarie had said in the meadow. ‘Ballari, I need you to come with me.’ Her answer was brief and then she went to sleep. She remembered what she had done in the early morning to his question and regretted it completely. She hadn’t given him an answer. Thus to why they were kidnapping her now.

Ballari felt her heart race and her head soar. She was being kidnapped. Alistarie never wanted to be her friend whatsoever, he just wanted her to come with him, that was all. And since she didn’t want to come he was kidnapping her.

Betrayal, depression and loneliness swept all through her. All she wanted was to curl up in a hole and die. She should have listened to MISS, for the first time in her life the old lady was right.

Suddenly, her captor stopped walking and brought her off of their back carefully, though their grip was keeping her from escaping.

“Ali, she’s awake, and quite scared. Though I wouldn’ blame her.” The person whispered, a very northern accent twisted in her words as she spoke.

As their face came better into vision, Ballari found that she had been right, it was a female. Her eyes were a soft brown and her hair was a dark orange; her skin was a light brown, like the inside of the peeling of bark. She was looking into Ballari’s eyes with such an intensity that it made her even more scared, nerves telling her heart to beat faster.

“Ali, she ain’t calming down!” whispered the girl. Then she looked back at Ballari and, her hands still holding her in place, stared again, harder this time. Ballari’s heart panicked even more.

Soon Alistarie came striding into view. He looked quite relaxed in this situation, unlike the lady friend of his. Sighing quietly, he said in a bored voice, “Did you try using _Lull_?”

“Yes,” she hissed. “Of course I did, but, as ya’ can _clearly _see, it’s not working!”

“Are you sure, Tyra? Or are you just bad at your job?”

Tyra glared at him and shoved Ballari into his arms. “Here, if I’m so bad at my job why don’ _you _take care of her, but ya better do it fast Ali, boy…” Tyra looked directly at Ballari, straight into her soul. “Before the Angest come.” Then, satisfied with what she had done, she strolled forward, deeper into the forest.

Alistarie turned Ballari to face him, gripping her shoulders tightly.

“What is an Angest?”

“Nothing Ballari, it’s all right now, calm down.”

“Where are you taking me? Let me go! Please!”

Alistarie sighed again, his grip never faltering as Ballari tried to flee. “_Calm down_, Ballari.”

But she couldn’t calm down, it was too much fear and troubling for her poor little heart; it beat hard, trying to gasp and contain her fear. She gasped for breath as she crumbled into Alistarie’s arms. He held her tightly as she shook and shook and shook. She cried out, squeezing her eyes shut, as she felt her heart burn with fire hotter than any furnace. Ballari bit her tongue as the excruciating fire spread from her heart to—

Then it all stopped.

Ballari opened her eyes to see Alistarie before her, one arm around her waist, the other on the back of her head, pushing one side of her face against his solid chest. He was rocking her gently back and forth, and she began to smell the scent of pine once more. It filled her lungs with fresh air, gave life to her weak limbs, it stopped her terrible shaking as well. Ballari sighed heavily as she felt the fire in her body extinguished, replaced with a feeling of soft snow.

Alistarie let go of her waist and head to cup her cheeks in his warm hands. His eyes were a soft green this time, not the hard green they were in the morning, which calmed her even further. “It seems like I’ll have to be soft with you, which honestly makes things harder than they already are. Now hurry.”

Alistarie squeezed her dark brown cheeks until her lips were puckered up like a fish. He grinned mischievously at that before he let her go. Then he went towards the woods that Tyra had entered into and disappeared.

Ballari could have gone back. She could have escaped. But wasn’t there one night where she said that she wanted to leave? That she wanted to find the place where she belonged? Wherever Alistarie and Tyra were taking her, it could be the place, it could be her _home_.

_Her mom._

That is what gave Ballari the iron strength to walk after them.

**_Chapter 6_**

A girl was in a_ library. A tall, wide library. It stretched on and on _

_and on _

_and on _

_and on _

_and on _

_and on _

_and on _

**_and on

and on

and on

and on

and on

and on.

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_(I like this chapter more than the other ones, but there is one chapter that is my FAVORITE! It introduces my favorite character more formally._**_

_**_Anyways, thanks for reading and have a great day!)_

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