“What’s going on?” Danielle has to raise her voice above the whisper we’ve been keeping our voices at in order to be heard above the ever-increasing ruckus. From the din, few words are distinct. I believe I hear “catch him, catch him!” But I am unsure. Could I doubt Korin? He’s a good man. On the other hand, Danielle didn’t even know him. Scelerisal could have instructed him to kill Danielle on the road and drag me back. There wouldn't be shouts to catch him if he had betrayed us. He must have been found out. Or not. My head swims with these thoughts and others as I answer my sister.
“I don’t know but we can’t wait for Korin anymore let’s go.” Danielle take my arm and helps me as we hurry off. “Head toward the forest.” . When we reach the wall of blackness that is the forest, we plunge in. Already my stomach begins to heave. I must master this fear of dark I must. Danielle does not seem to notice that I stumbled and presses on with a determination that I have not seen in her before. On and on we go. Deeper and deeper and deeper into the forest the black black black forest. Darkness Darkness Darkness. I am not aware of moving anymore although we must still be running away. I only see the black, black, black I only see the lack of the beautiful light I only see the pain of the cell I was in. My head throbbed where the soldier hit me. Soldier? What soldier? Oh, who am I? Who am I? Where am I? What does the mysterious woman want with me? Oh I must sleep. In sleep I will escape. For a short time at least.
“Natty. Snap out of it.” Someone is shaking me. It must be Her, the queen of evil of all that is pain. Why won't she leave me alone? I feel the thousand and one chains binding my chest again.
“What's wrong?” I hear a deeper voice this time. It must be one of Her guards to take me away somewhere.
“Oh Korin. I don't know what's wrong with Natty. It's like he's in a trance of some sort.” The words sound familiar but the Darkness clouds my mind. Oh how it presses upon me. Slowly the pain in my head increases and I begin to feel the pain from things in addition. A stabbing in my side, foot, arm, and leg. Aggravating this, strong hand seize each of my shoulders and shake me firmly.
“Your Majesty, this is Korin. Your protector. We are here behind a bush that doesn't hide us very well from the eyes of the Queen's men. You have to wake up and protect your sister. She is here also. Prince Nathaniel, Do you hear me? We have to get out of here.”Oh why do they treat me so? What if I'm an important person? The way I feel at the moment, there is no way that I am. “It's too dark. Maybe it would help if he could see us.” Dark, dark, dark.
“But how can we get a light without the soldiers seeing us.” Pain, pain, pain
“We couldn't even get a light with them seeing us.” It is all torture. The dark stretches before me like a tunnel. I groan.
“Hey, Korin maybe he's coming out of it.” It's all so unfair. What do these people want with me? No, I will not cry. I will not.
“I don't think so. Let's go look for better shelter.”
“But he won't even try to walk.”
“Then I'll carry him.” The Strong hands that shook me are picking me up. I don't want to go wherever they are taking me. I struggle with all of the little might that I have
left in me. If there ever was any in the first place. “Hold still. I'm not gonna hurt you.” I kick, kick, kick but the hands and arms are too strong. They are taking me somewhere! It will not be pleasant. The Darkness is so horrible. It hates me. Why does I hate me? “He's struggling too much I hate to do this but I think I'm gonna have to knock him out
“How? His head is too injured for you to hit.”
“This is an old trick I learned.” The hands and arm lay me down. I stop struggling and try to breath deeply but the thousand and one chains inhibit me. In addition to this, one of the hands, covers my nose and mouth. I can't breath! I would struggle more. I would kick, I would scream, I would hit, but I have no energy left. Slowly, my thoughts fade out one by one and I think no more.
^^^^^^^
I am not longer in the dark, damp forest. Instead, I am standing in the midst of a crowd of laughing, chatting people in a grand ballroom. No one seems to see me and I am shocked to watch one laughing girl walk right through me. I am a substantialness apparition. At the front of the room, on a raised platform I see five people on thrones. They are dresses even finer than all the people in their fine apparel surrounding me. There are three women. The one with a crown is kindly looking and seems, at a guess, to be in her early forties as is the man with a crown on her left. She has a kind, maternal expression. On her right, I recognize Scelerisal looking like she did when we first met in the dark cell minus the air of being the ultimate ruler and the black gown. The third women, sitting on the man's right is Danielle looking happy. She leans over and whispers something to the boy who is nearing the lake of manhood and only needs a little push to be plunged in the waters. But, that boy is ME.I guess the man is my father, the king and the woman on his right, Adele, my stepmother and the queen. This must one of the balls Danielle said there was at the return of Adele's daughter to her. I remember that I was told that the king and queen died six months later. My father stands and all goes still, everyone waiting on the word of their beloved king. “My people, when my first wife died, there was great mourning. But when I found this lovely woman to stand where she had stood and be mother to her children, we found joy in our hearts again. Adele did not
replace Isabel in our hearts but merely came to balm our bleeding hearts and give us new joy.” His voice is rich and deep, loving, and calm. His brown beard has only the faintest hinting of gray. “Alas, with that joy came a little more sorrow. For her daughter would not come and live with us she chose, for her own reasons, to live elsewhere. But celebrate! For she has returned!” The ballroom fills with cheering but the king hold his hands up and silence again is returned. “Therefore, I ask to dance the first dance this evening, not with my queen, but with her daughter.” He holds out his hand to Scelerisal and she takes it with a quiet smile I shudder to see that ice snake touching MY father. They walk together to the center of the ballroom. The music begins to play and they begin to dance.

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Hey look I'm 16!!!!!!!!!!! My first post as a sixteen-year-old!