"My grandmother gave me that before she passed away..." Ann looked over the edge heartbroken.
Sondra leaned over the edge only for Rosalina to pull her back.
"I have to get down there!" Sondra insisted to her sister.
"There is no way!" Rosa told her firmly.
"Guards?" Ella suggested.
"Yes, they follow us everywhere!" Ann exclaimed.
Sondra turned and looked around yes there were guards about 50 feet away, no problem. She ran, luckily the guard caught wind of her urgency and met up with her.
"It's princess Ann's sketchbook, i said something to surprise her, it was dropped over the falls."
"We'll get her a new one right away, miss," The guard saluted.
"No, she wants that one, it was a gift-we have to save it." Sondra insisted. Her heart was pounding, she felt responsible. "Please, sir."
"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do, it's a 30 ft cliff and we don't know how thick the ice is, even if we got someone down passed the cliff. we don't know if the ice would be stable enough to walk on. If the ice were to break and someone gets sucked under it's-"
"Deadly, I get it...yes, go get her a new one. That'll be fine." Sondra sighed.
She turned back to the group, upon arriving back she saw Ann looking over the edge shaking from the cold and crying.
"Guard?" Ella signed and asked.
"He's going to get..." Sondra looked at Ann, "help." She forced a smile.
"Come, let's get you inside, you're freezing." Rosa suggested.
"I can't leave it here!" Ann panicked.
"I'll stay here until they get it back." Sondra smiles reassuringly, "trust me."
Ann let out a long breath and nodded.
"Can you take the girls back?" She asked Rosa.
"As long as you don't do something stupid." Rosalina took ahold of Ella's chair.
"I promise." Sondra insisted she watched the girls depart, she noticed the smaller they got the colder she felt.
She shuddered as they vanished in the gardens. She turned back to the guardrail of the bridge and peered over it. She hated how small the sketchbook looked. She knew she couldn't just leave it there. She wiggled out of her lace wrap skirt; she went to set it on the guardrail but thought better. She folded it up and gently set it on the stone of the bridge.
She walked along to the edge of the bridge finding where it connected to land. She hopped the gate that blocked off the cliff side and began to walk along the rocks near the falls. The ice was slick but she held onto the stones of the bridge to keep her balance sturdy.
Underneath the bridge was a beam that overhung the falls. She eyed it before reaching towards the cold steel to make sure it was sturdy. It was stable. She smiled and managed to sit on the beam and wiggle out onto it. She looked down seeing her feet dangle over the falls. She was right over the book.
For some reason being here so high up so detached and alone. It felt peaceful. She shook off the feeling and began to study the cliff side to search for some way down.
It looked like if she was careful there were a few places she could gain her footing if she just looked a bit closer-
Her hand slipped on the beam and she lost her balance slipping from it. The wind felt like ice along her cheeks. She flailed trying to reach and grab at the cliffside to hold onto something.
Her hand wrapped around, what she thought was, a long cold metal pipe, and as she fell it slowly pulled her to a stop.
Panting inches above the ice she looked up realising she had grabbed onto a sword that cut through the cliff. She tested one foot on the ice, it seemed to support her, but she didn't let go of the sword needing its support.
She took a deep breath before placing her other foot on the frozen falls. She was okay. She sighed in relief and pulled the sword from the rock. It had a beautiful shine about it. How did it get there?
She heard Ella's voice in the back of her mind say it was "magic," but magic wasn't real. With the sword in hand she turned and was able to dust off the snow from the sketchbook and pick it up. Sondra smiled at it. It looked undamaged, good.
She slipped it into one of her pants pockets and turned back to the cliff. She stabbed the earth with her sword and pulled herself up finding her footing. She did this the entire way up. When she got to the end of the bridge she almost collapsed. Her heart had been pounding since the book fell. Now she could breathe.
"SONDRA!!!" She jumped hearing the loud shout. She turned to see Ashton running at full speeds down the bridge.
He looked mad.
"I'm sorry," Sondra tried to explain, "I know how much it means to her I didn't mean to make her drop it I jus-"
Ashton wrapped her in the tightest hug.
Sondra felt her cheeks turn red. She looked up to see their siblings behind him.
"I had a hunch you'd do something stupid." Rosalina mumbled.
"I-" Sondra began when Ash pulled back.
"I wasn't worried about the book, I was worried about you. Believe it or not, you're NOT replaceable." Ashton told her in a steady unshaken voice.
"I'm...I'm sorry..." Sondra said, she reached down and unbuckled her pocket pulling out the book.
Ann gasped and grabbed it hugging it to her chest. "You got it!"
Ashton stared, "you got it...?"
Sondra smiled sheepishly, "I got it."
That's when Ash noticed, "Where'd the sword come from?"
YOU ARE READING
The Third Wedding
AventureThis is my story, essentially these are real events I've lived through and I'm processing it by writing it down as a fairytale. It's probably fine. THIS IS DEDICATED TO MY FRIENDS: You are the ONLY ones who got me through all of these struggles! Tha...
