<div class="floatright">(http://i62.tinypic.com/2uorvhc.jpg)</div><br/>It was cold.  Too cold.  Althea wakes with a start, her elegant chin jerking upward, her deep green eyes blinking.  "What..."  The word slips out, not quite a question, her delicate lips pinching shut.  Althea's green eyes grow wider, partially to take in more of the dim light, partially in slowly dawning horror.  She remembered... there was an attack.  Not an attack.  A sudden ambush.  The guards had died almost instantly.  She'd scarcely had time to reach her blade, safely packed away; Althea's teeth grit lightly in frustration, remembering.  If only she'd... well, it was too late now.<br/><br/>Grimly, Althea begins to survey her surroundings once more, the cold reminding her.  Looking down, she stares in mild surprise at bare legs, resting against the cold stone, shapely and long, toned by years of dancing and fencing practice, her skin pale, smooth, and feminine.  So, while she was unconscious, someone had stripped her?  Dressed her in this, this prisoner garb?  Althea's cheeks redden, more with anger than with shame.  That any would dare to handle her so was nearly unthinkable.<em>Someone is going to pay for this.  My family will see to it.</em>A tiny shock of fear goes through her, quickly suppressed.  Doubtless, whoever had captured her would try to use her against her family.  She would do her best to resist whatever torture they had in store for her and her friend.<br/><br/>Her friend... Althea's eyes go suddenly wide as she remembers.  Her elegant chin jerks again as she cranes her neck, her luxurious black hair tumbling down her shoulder as she tries to see into the other cell, easily spotting the elven princess.  Her breath hisses through her teeth, a mixture of relief and frustration.  Relief, in that her friend was alive, frustration in that they seemed to be trapped together.  "Lia?  Lia!"  Althea calls softly, her voice clear and modulated, pitched low.  After all, she did not yet know who her captors were, nor what they intended for the pair once they were awake.