Freedom's Heart

Chapter 6

"Father, please don't do this," I can hear my father pleading, but I cannot see him from the inside of the carriage. "If she dies, what will we tell the king."

"If she dies, then she is unworthy to be a member of our family, and we will tell the king she died in a hunting accident," Grandpa coldly replies, climbing into the carriage. He stares at me, looking like he might kill me himself. "You better not mess up today."

We leave my family home when he closes the door, and I quickly get hold of Noah's hand. We are powerless. We cannot run away, and even if we did, we are too young to find work. It will be even worse if we kill or hurt grandpa with the amount of power he holds. I have thought about making sure an accident happens, but I could not bring myself to do it. As much as he deserves it, I just cannot bring myself to hurt him. I do have a backup plan, but that depends on how fast the messenger father sent gets to his destination. One good thing that came out of this is that I have spent more time with my father last night than I have my entire life.

Looking at Noah, I give his hand a reassuring squeeze as I feel him shake. I will protect him. I will make sure he gets out of this alive no matter what. I glance at grandpa, who is still glaring at me and quickly look away. I will not let him have his way.

After about an hour of travelling, we finally stop, and grandpa forces us out of the carriage. We are in the middle of the forest. It is the same forest I go to practice magic, but grandpa must have taken a long way because walking her only takes me twenty minutes tops. But Grandpa does not join us. Instead, he looks out of the carriage and addresses us.

"You home is that way," He points off into the distance. "You are to make your own way home and defend yourself from the monsters living in this forest."

With that, he leaves us and rides away in his carriage. I cannot help but feel relieved that this is his idea of training. I do this all the time, and I know for a fact the monsters in this forest are not dangerous. There are goblins that attack in small groups with clubs and bows, giant wolves that travel in packs, and finally, there are bears. None of them posed a threat to me when I came here to practice magic. Unfortunately, Noah does not realise that as he collapses, looking like he is about to cry.

"Don't worry," I smile as I bend down and put my hand on his shoulder. "I have been here before, and I know how to get home."

"Really?"

"Really," I help him stand and take his hand. "I can even show you a little trick."

"What trick?"

"Just close your eyes," I continue to smile as I picture the look on grandpa's face when we beet him home. Out of all the spells, I know this is the one I wanted to learn the most and a spell I have found very helpful in sneaking out to practice magic. "Open your eyes now."

"How... how are we...." I giggle at the look on his face, and I hope grandpas is just as good. "How are we back already?"

"I told you I would show you a trick," I tell him as I start to lead him inside. "Now, let us go inside and wait for grandpa to get back."

In reality, I teleported us back. The teleportation spell was a pain in the ass to learn but worth it in the end. Even if I did have some embarrassing accidents along the way involving leaving my clothing behind when I teleported. But once I learned the spell, I could do it with ease as long as I knew the location of where I was and where I was going. Of course, there is always the chance of teleporting half my body inside a wall. Still, if I am careful and make sure to teleport only to places I know are empty, I do not see that happening to me any time soon.