The Worst Fairytale

Chapter 4 - 5 Elements

"You label it love; I deem it captivity. You cling to your promises while disregarding my emotions. I am not your wife; I am a blood-bound oath made to the unknown."

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Narrator's POV

As the night deepened, Jiya succumbed to sleep, leaving Rue to her solitude. Memories of her time in Fae land washed over her, mingling fear with longing. Though she had enjoyed moments of her time there, the yearning to return, to see *him* again, was overwhelming.

He was the chaos in her life, bane of her existence, yet the desire to see him was irresistible.

Who was "HE", in Rue's story?

Let's delve into her tale, picking up from the moment she tumbled into the pit.

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The mist could not be seen, but its oppressive weight hung in the air, suffocating yet not lethal. The taste of its blandness lingered on the tongue.

Fuelled by fear and a fierce determination to rescue her grandfather, she followed the sound of his voice. Clutching the shawl close and wielding a wooden branch, she dashed forward. Then, without warning, she plummeted into a deep trench.

Her left ankle snapped, and her cries of agony tore through the night, echoing across the barren wastes and into the fae forest. She lost consciousness there, in the pit's depths.

As the harsh rays of the sun scorched her, she stirred, a searing tingling sensation bring her to her senses. The direct sunlight was a human's bane, capable of burning flesh if there is no shield to ward it off.

In this trench, the saving grace was the sparse vegetation - a smattering of shrubs and weeds. Thorny they may be, they were worked as a breather in this situation.

She crawled under the shade cast by an overhanging cliff, assessing her escape. Whimpering in pain, she covered her scratches with soil and leaves, she tore a piece from her shawl and tightly bound the wound.

Attempting to stand, she was overwhelmed by pain, her cry echoing off the trench walls. Her ankle was broken.

Desperately seeking for relief, she wedged her leg between two stones, bit down on a cloth for the pain, and with tears streaming down her face, she twisted her ankle back into place.

Though this brought her ankle some relief, it left her in lingering agony.

In a single moment, she had lost all she held dear. There, beneath the unforgiving sun, she lay contemplating her plight, a stark contrast to the Fae Land of her childhood imaginings.

As a child, faery tales were woven with beauty, love, and joy; where even the animals joined in song. Those cherished memories were now eclipsed by the grim reality of the true Fae Land – a place far harsher than she ever could have imagined.

And the bitter irony? She hadn't even crossed into the Fae realm yet.

Rue's throat was parched, her voice a broken whisper, appealing to any spirit that might be listening to grant her some reprieve.

Mustering every ounce of her will, she attempted to rise. Eyeing the trench's overhanging walls, determination set in—she would climb out. The pit, though only ten feet deep, posed a daunting challenge for her injured state.

She draped the shawl over her head for protection and firmly grasped a protruding stone with one hand. With her other hand, she wedged the wooden branch into the wall for leverage. Gradually, painstakingly, she began her ascent.