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heard of grolls speaking their language before, although not many people lived to tell the tale of their attacks, either.
    They grunted in what appeared to be their own language, then three of them dove in towards the two guards. The third, the one who spoke common, watched the battle intently.
    One of the grolls raked a claw across one of the guard’s legs, sending him sprawling to the ground. He whimpered as blood gushed from his wound. The groll cut the guard’s arms up as they wrestled on the ground together, but didn’t kill him. He left him there, immobilized.
    Nayla squealed and backed away. Aaron wrapped his arm around her, and pulled her to him as the other guard threw himself at the oncoming attack.
    But, they were all exhausted, and the grolls were not. The second guard was easily taken down with a claw to his chest and bite through his neck, leaving only Aaron and Nayla in the fight. Neither were skilled in fighting.
    The grolls stopped attacking then. Two of them grabbed hold of Aaron by circling around behind him, and the third snatched up Nayla. The one who spoke before stepped up to face Aaron.
    “You are the one Master wants.”
    “What do you mean? Who is your master?” Aaron tried to sound tough, but he was scared down to his core.
    The groll snarled. “Take the boy. Kill the girl. Leave the guard that isn’t dead. Someone will need to live to tell the tale.”
    The one who spoke walked up to the terrified and injured gu ard. “I have a message for the Princess. This must reach her ears only. If anyone else hears it, I’ll personally hunt down your entire family and eat them alive.”
    The guard stuttered and shivered. “I s-s-swear. I … I’ll only t-t-tell her.”
    “Good. Tell Princess Veronica we’ll take care of him until she comes to get him. Tell her to head straight east beyond her borders. I will find her and guide her to my master. Do you understand this?”
    The guard nodded fiercely then scooted away from the groll.
    The groll in charge turned and headed east, gesturing for the others to follow.
    Aaron and Nayla both screamed, as he was dragged away kicking and screaming, unable to watch the beast descend upon Nayla.
    Her screams grew horrified and frant ic before suddenly cutting off.
    Aaron kicked, screamed, and cried until he passed out from exhaustion and despair .

Chapter 12
    Veronica woke to the sound of a teakettle whistling on the stove. She scrambled out of the bed and out into the main room of the little home.
    Marissa and Clarissa were in a corner set aside as a kitchen. Each of the women scurried about cooking up some breakfast.
    Veronica slid into the wooden chair and watched the two move about silently. A moment later breakfast was done, and she was scarfing down the most delicious batch of spiced bread and fried eggs that she’d ever tasted.
    Still, neither of the women spoke to her. After they cleaned up, they sat back down on the bench seat together and dived back into the book.
    Veronica sat watching them for a time, wondering what she was supposed to do. Finally she got brave enou gh to interrupt their whispers.
    “Will you tell me what happened to me yesterday?”
    Clarissa looked up to her with a glare, but Marissa smiled sweetly at her. “We don’t really know, child. Give us some more time to figure that out, will you?”
    Veronica spent that day dreaming about her last night with Aaron. She found she could pull up the details in her mind quite easily and found herself missing the touch of his fingers on her skin. She tried to imagine what Benard’s fingers would feel like, but quickly shoved the idea out of her head.
    She couldn’t replace Aaron so quickly.
    She went to bed early that night, both thankful and regretting the peace the women had given her for the day. It was nice to get time away to think about where her life was headed, but it also gave her time to grieve over Aaron.
     
     
    Veronica woke the following morning to being slapped in the