The Heart of Shadow and Gold

Chapter 20

Ashley's POV

It was a vast difference comparing the two sides of the great wall, on one side all there is, is chaos.

Fire, crumbling buildings, blood, and screams.

On the other side of the wall there is something that I have never seen in my life, calm, tranquil, still.

Peaceful nature, calming sounds.

When I escaped from the shadows under the wall the first thing, I noticed was the greenery. It was unlike anything in the pictures, it was several different shades of vibrant green, each leaf a different size and shape.

It was... "unusual."

I noticed the texture of the bark, how it pops out and caves into itself in random places. It was disorderly, it was random, it was...strange to say the least. Sure, it was pretty, but how do you know what will be where? How do you know how to find something?

"What's unusual?" Ajax asks, a little bit of smoke coming out of his mouth that I found a little funny. I tried to push the memory of Leyla's face drowned in hurt and sadness to the back of my head, and instead tried to convince myself that this is for the better of our world, our kingdom.

I breath in, and out. It smells funny. "Everything."

"That may be the side-effects of you never even having a life outside these walls." Ajax comments, Walking into the trees.

I catch up to him and walk beside him, every passing tree I graze my hand along the rough exterior of the bark. "Ow!" I exclaim, holding my finger.

"Yeah, that happens sometimes." Ajax laughs.

"Why are you laughing? It attacked me! What did it do? did it shock me? No, it spiked me, it poked me with something! Is it poisonous?" I freak out, these are not plastic decorations.

I only watched as he laughed so hard that he fell to the floor.

"This isnt funny!" I shouted at him with emotion. Maybe Im being overdramatic but I hate this place, its pretty but its so unusual. Its not planned, not ordered, not clean. I hate it, I hate hearing weird noises around me, I hate smelling things Ive never smelt before, seeing things that are seemingly placed wherever they want to be, it isnt how things are supposed to work. The trees should be clean, neat and tidy, in lines and rows. Bushes should be tended too, bugs should be contained, and grass should be cut.

This isnt how I expected nature to look like, it was all chaos.

He looked at me, got up and looked at me, and when he saw that I meant it, he looked at me with guilt. "Oh, youre being serious. No, its a splinter, its just a piece of bark that got stuck in your finger." He spoke. "Here, sit down Ill get it out." He ushered me over to a rock to sit on as he inspected it.

"Look, Im sorry, its rude for me to assume how you are taking all of this. I guess Im just so happy to have completed the mission we have all been trying so hard to do, to get you home safely, that I forgot how you must be handling all of this." He apologized.

"So, how are you taking things?" he asked, pinching my finger in different spots trying to locate the wood piece.

"Its weird. Its, messy, its strange." I say as I look at the trees.

"Nature?"

"Yes. Why is nature so disorderly? How do you know where everything is?" I question.

"I guess thats one of the mysteries of life as to why nature is like that. but think of it this way, each living thing growing on this earth has special needs specific to them. And they need those things to survive, so if they all line up and look the same, sound the same, move the same, limit themselves, and stay in the same place, then they wont meet all of those needs. So, they have two options, stay in an orderly line, survive, and be miserable their whole life, or they can be free. Go where they want, when they want, meet all their needs and live. Be happy."

"But then its just chaos. Thats why we have laws."

"Being free doesnt mean chaos, freedom means being able to act without limitations. Freedom is a privilege that everyone deserves to have. Its when the person takes that privilege and misuses it for bad is when the law gets involved." He explained.

"Since when were you a professor?" I smirk.

"I'm a prince, and as such I must take lessons at home, private learning. So, I get all the lectures over and over and over again about laws and whatnot." He complained.

"That sounds fun." I tease him.

"Aha!" he shouts as I feel a sharp pain in my finger. "I got it out, finally! I swear I was ready to just cut your finger off."

My eyes widen and I pull back. "Thanks."

"I wasnt actually going to cut it off, I was being sarcastic." He reassured me. "Oh, yeah, I knew that." I say as we stand up and I look around.

"So, umm which way do we go?" I change the subject as I look around me.

He looked at me with concern before answering, "this way." as he pulled on my arm to get me going in the right direction before he let go. "We are somewhat almost there."

"Somewhat? And where?" I ask.

"Well, we moved past the River that will come up soon, and our camp is just a little ways past that, a 10 minute walk from the river."

"And how long of a walk from here?"

"30 minutes?" he tilted his head as if counting invisible calculations in the sky. "Yeah, about 30 minutes, maybe less if we hurry it up." He speaks.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." I grumble. We walked and talked about random things; it was more just like talking to talk. We thought about something weve done, and we shared it, more just to pass the time we have than anything.

But then there was a new sound. Not creaks or croaks, not screeches and snaps, but a roaring sound. Something moving fast, multiple things.

Maybe a stampede? We walk closer to the sound and Ajax pulls away the big branch in front of our faces, and I see that it wasnt an animal herd at all.

It was the roaring river.