The coach rode along over sticks and stones as the foxes easily jumped and evaded, and the coach followed without pumps thanks to a big bubble that Bubbles had put around them.
"I don't know if we are safe here," Bubbles said, speaking the thing they both had not wanted to say.
"I agree," Flora said, "but I don't have any other suggestion than to keep going."
Bubbles moved over to look out of the window, her hand resting on Flora's knee for a second for balance. "I can't see anything - but then again, twilight has passed, and we have moved into the night."
The princess hunched forward a little as well, "Let me see - I have good night vision," she explained.
Bubbles took a deep breath, getting a hint of the perfume Flora was wearing; it was indeed a floral scent, and not a dark and rich scent she had expected from the princess's dark look.
"No, you are right," the princess sighed, "pitch black out there."
"AWUU!" came another howl, and they both scrambled together on the floor of the coach, their hearts beating at a million miles an hour, their palms sweaty, and their eyes as big as those of a deer.
"Did you hear that?" Bubbles asked more in shock than as an actual question.
"You bet I did," the princess whispered, "but quiet now, I think we might be passing it."
They sat still together on the floor; their heads bent down so that they could not be viewed from the window of the coach. Bubbles grabbed Floras' hand and squeezed it, trying to calm both her and her. The carriage kept going, the sound of the foxes' feet on the ground louder than it had been before. A while passed without another howl, but just when they thought they had passed the wolves, their coach came to an abrupt stop.
Their eyes met, but still none of them made a sound. The foxes might just have grown tired, Bubbles thought, or maybe there was a fallen tree in the way that they were assessing how to get past.
"Go check the carriage," a voice said from outside, "I will keep these delicacies calm."
Flora held her hands in front of her mouth to prevent a scream from escaping her.
"As if you could keep anyone calm," another voice laughed, "with that face of yours, you repulse the calmness away."
"Ha!" the other one laughed, "as if your face is any better!" the voice said, it seemed as if their bander was a common occurrence for the other voice did not answer, but instead footsteps approached the coach door.
Bubbles wished she had had time to pull the curtain in front of the window. Not that it had mattered in the end, of course.
"You were right, we have a nice little prize waiting for us in here," the voice laughed.
"How many?"
"Two."
"Well, drag them out so I can get a look at them," the first voice said.
Bubbles and Flora took a deep breath, not daring to look up.
The door of the coach opened, and the girls were dragged out by a pair of soft paws, but a claw firmly pressed against them to keep them obedient.
They both looked up at the same time and saw a pair of bright yellow eyes set in the face of a giant wolf with grey fur and a truly hideous face.
"Hello there," Bubbles said, her voice shaking, "pleasure to meet you."
The wolves both broke out in a howling laughter, "pleasure to meet you she says. The wolf that was holding them by his front paws laughed, "Well, ain't that a delight to hear?"
"It sure is," the other wolf said, who was indeed as ugly as the first. "Now, who are you, might we ask?"
"What does that matter?" the wolf said and lowered the girls a little, "we should just bring them back to the camp and eat them."
The first wolf nodded, "True enough, but they might have something to bargain with."
"Alright, alright," he sighed, "you always were the better haggler."
At that, Flora let out a sigh, "Excuse me, can you put me down. Now!"
"Put you down, darling, out of the question," the wolf said.
"I AM THE PRINCESS OF THE KINGTREE!" Flora cried out in a high-pitched tone, "And I will NOT be treated this way." She was really turning on her stubborn entitlement - something every fairy possessed.
"Oh, the princess, are we?" the wolf, by the foxes, said, "Well, what right does that give you to behave like a little brat?"
Flora snorted out a disgruntled sound, "Well, every right of course, and you better treat me and my lady with some respect." She looked up at the wolf with the same intense stare Bubbles had met before. "So, you PUT. US. DOWN." She pronounced each word with an emphasis that seemed to have some effect on the wolf, as he lowered them and placed their feet on the ground.
"I am sorry, miss," the wolf found himself saying without thinking. "What do we do with them now?" he asked, looking at the other one, who was clearly the smarter of the two - at least a little smarter.
The wolf pondered the question for a moment, "I say we make a deal."
Bubbles, Flora, and the other wolf all lifted their eyebrows in surprise. "A deal?" bubbles asked.
"A deal," he said with a nod, "hopefully of advantage to all of us."
"I have a horrible feeling that that wolf will cash in on our deal at the worst possible time," Flora said as they drove on in their coach, now led by the two wolves running alongside their foxes, guiding them towards the wolf camp.
"I think you might be right about that, but I don't see that we had any other option."
"Still," Flora said, "making a deal with a devil is always the wrong choice."
Bubbles sighed, "A problem for another day, nonetheless."
"A problem for another day," the princess agreed, but her mind seemed to be off elsewhere entirely. She had never been in such a dangerous political situation before. The wolves had been somewhat kept at bay with promises of magic in exchange for them not eating any fairies. But if Flora and Bubbles were eaten for dinner, how would their families in the Kingtree know? The wolves could get away with it if they wanted to.
"We will arrive at our camp in the morning," the wolf yelled to the girls in the coach, "you can rest for now."
"You will need it," the other wolf laughed.
And Bubbles rather suspected that he was right, but how could she know that the wolves would not harm her and Flora as soon as they went to sleep?