Fairest (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale 2)

Mina dreamed of Ogres. Being chased by Ogres, eaten by Ogres, and finally caught and smothered by an Ogre. She dreamed that she was wrapped in its arms and it was hugging her to death. When she awoke, she was in the cave alone.

Sounds of a crackling fire drew her attention to the cave opening. Jared was cleaning a fish, and there was one already cooking over the fire.

“How did you catch those?”

“I was a Boy Scout.” Jared held up two fingers in imitation of a Boy Scout salute.

>“Holy cow! Did you hear that?” He blurted out.

Mina punched Jared in the arm. “I’m hungry, which happens to be your fault too.” Ignoring him, she crawled into the small cave and tried to curl in a ball to sleep.

“Hey, is there room for me?” Jared looked into the cave expectantly.

“NO!” Mina growled at him. “Don’t even think about it. And just because you got us into this, you can keep watch and tell me if you see anything. ”

“Fine,” Jared stated and leaned against the outer wall of the cave.

A few moments of silence passed, and Mina was almost asleep when she heard Jared speaking out loud in a droning voice. “I’m keeping watch, and I see the river. I see the moon rise over the trees. I see that the forest looks really, really creepy right now. I bet you there is some sort of killer vampire turtle slowly crawling toward us out of the woods. Yep, I can almost hear its little turtley steps inching closer to us.”

“Jared?”

Mina had no idea where Jared’s sense of humor suddenly came from, but it seemed to pour out of him in the most annoying boy fashion. Something about being outdoors and away from people brought out a different side of him. He didn’t seem so surly and angry. Maybe it was because something had changed between them, or he didn’t feel like he was hiding from her anymore. He was finally free to be himself. Mina would bet anything that there still were loads of things he wasn’t telling her…but it was a start.

“Yeah?” he answered a little too brightly.

“Are you going to shut up?”

“Nope,” he answered back. She could hear the grin in his voice.

“Will you shut up if I said please?”

“Probably not!” he chuckled. He was enjoying teasing her.

“Fine, then you can sleep in the cave if you promise me that nothing is going to eat us during the night.”

“I promise that if something comes to harm us during the night, I will eat it, instead.” Jared crawled into the small cave, being careful to not touch her. He turned on his side and faced away from her. Mina mirrored the action. She watched the dying fire cast shadows on the cave wall.

All of a sudden, Mina couldn’t sleep with Jared so close to her. For some reason, questions kept plaguing her and they were ones she was pretty sure he wouldn’t answer. She shivered again from the cold as her pants were still wet. But you could bet to high heaven they were staying on.

“So how come you never told me you’re an Ogre?” she asked quietly, her finger tracing circles on the ground.

“You weren’t ready,” he stated simply.

“And what made you decide to tell me now?”

“I was tired of you always being angry with me because there are some things that I can’t tell you. And, in a way, I wanted you to know. You also have to remember that I’m not gonna win homecoming king in my Fae form.” There was something in his voice that sounded vulnerable. Gone was the tough biker Jared, replaced by a young teenage boy who just wanted to be liked, to fit in. But she could tell he was still withholding something.

“So how come the Grimoire didn’t work on you? Isn’t it supposed to protect me when I’m in trouble?”

“It won’t work on me,” Jared sighed loudly, trying to sound annoyed, like he was the one that was almost asleep.

“Why not?” Mina asked.

“Cause, I’m cool like that.” He laughed.

Mina snorted. “Really? You’re going to evade the question? I actually thought that you were going to be truthful with me.”

“Mina, I don’t know what to tell you other than the Grimoire can’t harm me. Call it Ogre power if you must.”