CH 14 ~ Saved

Eleanora tried to open her eyes but her eyelids felt very heavy and her body was becoming numb as the person continued to pull her up.

Her chest started to feel heavy and she gradually gasped for breathe, unable to distinguish between memories and reality.

She was losing her breathes and felt suffocated, wanted to be saved but wanted to drown at the same time.

Eleanora sensed the force that was pulling her up to stop suddenly and something strong was wrapped around her waist, which felt like someone's hand.

Did someone really heard her prayer and came to save her from this?

But before Eleanora could react, she felt something soft pressed against her mouth and she was able to breathe again.

Someone was passing her air to breathe, by mouth to mouth.

She wanted to open her eyes to see who it was but she couldn't and let that person pass her air to breath.

Is it another memory of hers that she doesn't remember?

Her cold body suddenly started to warm up and her body was slowly losing its strength.

Eleanora was feeling so weak that even when that person pull her up from the water and laid her on something hard like ground, she still couldn't open her eyes to see that person.

'Wait... Where am I?'

Eleanora could hear birds chirping sounds and a anxious voice calling out for her.

Someone was shaking her violently, shouting her name again and again.

She slowly tried to open her eyes and response to that person but everything was white in front of her because of the sunlight.

'Sunlight…how can there be sunlight in abyss?'

'What's happening?'

Eleanora vaguely saw something red with her blurred vision and her warm body started to turn cold again because of the last memory of the emperor.

'Those bloody red eyes…'

Eleanora's sparkling blue eyes filled with tears as she started to tremble with fear once again.

Still she put some more force into her eyes to see clearly and then suddenly heard someone yelling her name.

This time, the voice was much clear and loud; echoing in her mind again and again.

"Elee!"

Eleanora turned her head slightly and saw a man with familiar silver hair and blue eyes running towards her.

The man looked so young and handsome, exactly how she remembered him in the past.

'Wait… the past?'

Before she could react, Duke Alexander De Xavier Dalton rushed towards her as he hugged her tightly.

Shoving aside someone in the process, and took her in his embrace like she is the last reason of his existence.

Duke Dalton was wearing his official clothes that he always wears in the imperial palace or during official works and didn't mind her drenched body.

"Are you all right, Princess?"

A young lady with wavy brown hair rushed towards her too and Eleanora immediately recognized her.

It was Maria. She looks quite young too.

'Wasn't Maria beheaded? Did he kill my father too? Are we all in heaven?'

Eleanora couldn't think of anything else but what she knew was she wanted to hug and cry in her father's arm.

Death was scary… very scary then she thought.

She thought she was fearless, but the moment she recalls her own sword pointed at the sky and then it falls on her neck with a fast pace; she feels suffocated.

Eleanora started to sniffle as she clenched her father's clothes and Alexander hugs her tighter to feel secured.

Only she knew how much she missed this warmth of her father.

Why did she only have to know about his love in the end?

Eleanora buried her face and cried into his chest.

"Elee?? Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Alexander asked and Eleanora shook her head in reply.

No, she wasn't hurt. She was just feeling a little cold and afraid.

But she couldn't use her voice to say anything.

Maria came back with a blanket in a short moment and wrapped her up with it, as they knew about her sensitivity to cold.

But even after feeling the warmth, Eleanora couldn't control her fear that she remembers when her own sword fall on her neck and separated it from her body.

"Elee… Don't cry… Papa is here princess. Papa is here now, nothing will happen to you now. You are safe…"

Eleanora timidly looked at Alexander as he finished speaking, before she buried her head into his embrace.

'No, you are a liar! You said the same back then too but then left me in the imperial palace all by myself!'

'I won't get fooled by you again…but,'

"Papa... I missed you... Don't leave me again..."

"It was scary... I was so scared... please don't leave me alone... Take me with you…"

Despite her disappointment on her father, Eleanora found herself clinging to him more tightly.

Because, he is the only person who had truly love her till the end.

The man she loved, the people she took care of all betrayed her, except her father who never asked anything in return from her.

"Shush, it's alright; Papa is here now my princess..."

Alexander kept stroking her damp hair and she kept on sniffling, shuttering as she talked.

"I want to go home...Papa ... Take me away from here."

Eleanora didn't want to stay in this dark and scary place, full of bad memories anymore.

She finally got to meet her father and Maria again, which is enough for her.

She doesn't need anybody else.

He was actually here to save her; this isn't a memory of hers, which she couldn't believe.

It was her father who listened to her prayers and came to save her.

He saved her from that scary place and took her in this heaven.

Alexander turned his head towards one of the attendant knights, whom Eleanora only just realized was in the scene also.

He said something to them and they looked back at him with confusion, then nodded their head in agreement of something.

Eleanora looked at them with confusion. Are they all dead like her?

She become more terrified and hugged her father more tightly, wrapping her small legs around his waist.

Then she heard them saying something but she couldn't focus as her mind was in a mess.

What the hell is exactly happening?

So, everyone in her duchy really died because of her?

"Don't think much my Princess, sleep now…"

Alexander carried Eleanora to their carriage as he spoke in a soft voice, which lured her into sleeping in his arms defenselessly.

'Oh God, Please don't let this illusion of mine to disappear. Don't take my long wanting father's love and warmth from me again.'

Alexander strokes her silver hair gently and kissed her head, as her breathing become relaxed.

Eleanora's small body was wrapped up in a white blanket as she was drenched and Alexander remembered the time when she was just born.

That day, right after Eleanora's birth; the usual silent duchy become lively with a child's crying sounds.

Maria had wrapped the newborn Eleanora into a white blanket and takes her out from the delivery room for the duke to see the baby first.

Duke Dalton, who was anxious about his wife wanted to go in to check on his wife first.

But as his gaze fall on the tiny white bundle on Maria's hand, he froze.

Silver hair like him, the baby girl looked so adorable and cute that it made his heart skip a beat.

He stopped on his tracks and took the newborn baby on his arms carefully.

Her crying stopped right after she came to her father's arms and slowly opened her blue eyes to stare at him.

Alexander was stunned to found her physical traits exactly the same as him.

The baby smiled so brightly at him with her sparkling blue eyes that, he named her 'Eleanora' which meant shining light.

The priests wanted to name her Ariadne according to their prophecy.

But under Duke Dalton's death glares, no one dared to speak.

He vowed to protect the tiny girl on his arms at that time and looking at the same girl who has grown up into a little lady now, he felt the same possessiveness over her again.

'This time… I won't let anyone harm you, my Princess!'