The walls of the castle began to shake. The companions looked around in alarm, and quickly saw that this was no passing tremor; it was steadily increasing in intensity. “Go!” Bela screamed. Too late. Debris began to rain down and Bela lost sight of her companions. Soon, blackness took her.
Her next recollection was of being lifted from the rubble by strong hands. She could not feel her legs, but oh, how her head throbbed. She lifted it gingerly to view the face of her rescuer, but what she saw only horrified her, and consciousness slipped away once more.
When she awoke again, she found herself alone and bound with thick twine, propped up against a wall inside what appeared to be a small cottage. She still could not feel her legs. Struggling, she wriggled on her belly to the nearest window, and with extreme effort, managed to sit back up to gaze through it. The cottage was not on ground-level; she was in a tree!
“Great,” she groaned. “Can things get any worse?”
“Beware of asking such questions; the answer may not be to your liking.”
She turned to witness her “rescuer” enter from an adjacent room, his hideous visage now thankfully obscured by a shadowy hood. Despite her situation and the fear growing inside her, she found anger to be the primary emotion rising to the fore. “What I have you done with my friends?” she snarled.
“Nothing. I know not and care not of their fate. I have need only of you.”
Bela drew back and shuddered. Despite his warning moments earlier, she could not help herself.
“For what?” she whispered.
• 
Ooooh. “Hideous visage.” I like that!
Careful. You might hurt yourself.
Because the story looked like it was finally going somewhere, and we can’t have that.
It’s still going somewhere, just maybe not where previous writers expected… which can probably be said for every previous installment, and is sort of the point of having every chapter written by a different person.
Have you written a chapter yet, Michael? Where did you want/expect the story to go that you think this direction precludes?
I wasn’t complaining. The less sense this thing makes, the better it gets.
I’m in the queue somewhere, and I hope for my chapter to be so incomprehensible, people will be unsure it’s even in English.
In a tree? Did Bela just get kidnapped by one of the Kebler Elves?
Or possibly a Wookiee.