THE ENCHANTED GROVE

The Heroic Plan

I hurriedly sneaked out of the prison, trying not to be suspicious. I remembered the way from the King's throne and sneaked there.

Some workers looked at me but didn't really pay attention. Probably only few of them knew I was supposed to be in my prison.

I stood at the door which led to the entrance to the king's throne and put my ear close to it to listen for any conversations.

To my dismay, the door was also soundproof. I opened the door a little bit and peeked. Luckily,  nobody saw me, except Zephyr.

She was in a corner of the room in her palace guard form and it seemed amusing to me that she was present when she was the object of search.

" King Viperis, we searched everywhere in the forest and couldn't find her. " I heard some palace guards apologize to Viperis.

" That's a minor problem, fetch me my mirror of vision. "

I could sense that Zephyr was troubled where she was. The mirror could even sense her even if she wasn't in her original form.

I gave her a thumbs up to reassure her that everything was alright and she seemed unconvinced.

" Distract them. " I subvocalized and hurried down the corridor.

" Uuhm, sir, there are some issues you haven't attended to yet" Zephyr was trying to think of something.

" And what is it that is more important than defeating Zephyr once and for all ?"

Meanwhile, I couldn't even think of where to find the mirror. I stood near the door and listened to Zephyr's conversation with Viperis. She was really bad at distracting.

Few minutes later, I heard the guards coming towards the door. They were probably going to take the mirror.

I quickly hid myself behind a statue of Viperis and waited to walk a distance before following them.

I tried my best to be as careful as ever. They kept looking back occasionally but I I hid just in time before they could see me.

They got to a safe, looked around one more time (I was hiding behind another statue which was very far away from them) before entering the password. 5629. I saw it all. I just had to stop them from giving the mirror to Viperis. That will be easy.

" Uhm, King Viperis said you shouldn't worry about it. He said you should understand what I mean by 'it' " I wondered if what I said was convincing enough.

" You! How long have you been here, did you see anything? " They were suspicious, couldn't blame them.

" Like what? "

They looked at me as if that could get them answers to their questions. One of them locked the safe behind it.

" The king is waiting for you, you wouldn't want to go against his orders "

" Wait, aren't you that human who was helping Zephyr? "

" Well... she has been found! " I exclaimed.

" If we find out this is a lie, you're in trouble " One of them said, looking back as he walked away.

I pretended to go away the opposite direction but came back to the safe once I saw that they were gone.

I entered the code and YAY! It opened. Stupid snakes.

I quickly took the mirror to escape being found by them once they realized it was a trick.

I cursed Zephyr in my heart, cause I would have kept the mirror in my purse. I observed the mirror and saw that it was foldable. I closed it and put under my shoe. It hurt but I had to endure the pain.

I hurried back to where I was coming from and on my way, I even saw the snake guards but sneaked past them. I was faster than them so I got there first.

I opened the same door a little and saw Zephyr still standing there. She was shocked to see me and I signaled to her to come over. She gave an excuse to Viperis to leave and he replied that he didn't need her anyways.

Before I knew it, Zephyr was already beside me and we went to a secret corner of the palace. I gave her the mirror and she was surprised and kind of thankful.

" I knew you could do it" She said holding the mirror like it was the most precious thing to her. She didn't even care to ask how I got it.

I told her to hide it and keep it with her. She hurried back to her position and
not long after, news had gotten to the king that they couldn't find the mirror.

" Sir, it was a young human who told us that you called for us. So when we went back there, we couldn't find...the m-m-mirror. " The terrified guards told Viperis.

" It was obviously the human who took it you dimwits!!! How could you believe her? That was why I couldn't trust her and put her in that prison and how did she even escape?!" Viperis was burning with rage and frustration.

It was announced to the entire kingdom that the mirror was missing and whoever found it would be rewarded.

A wide grin spread across my face as a troubled Zephyr narrated everything to me.

I knew if I stole the mirror and gave it to Zephyr, they'll come looking for it. I knew how important the mirror was to the king and how frustrated he'd be to lose it.

I'll allow the search to go on for sometime, then tell them I know who took it. I'll expose Zephyr to them as the thief. Since the mirror is with her they'll search her and find it. Then at the end of the day, I'll be the heroine and be rewarded.

" Don't worry Zephyr, I know what to do. " I consoled her.

I told her to go back to her position and hid myself for two hours, then came out to see how everything was faring.

The whole kingdom was in disarray as everyone tried to find the mirror so that they could be rewarded by the king.
I went straight to the king.

" You! You're the one who deceived us the other time!" The same guards accused me.

" Me? It wasn't me! I just came out of my prison. I found the key in my food,  surprisingly" I lied.

The king was present and had lost his calm nature. He kept getting more and more frustrated.

" If it wasn't you, was it-" He seemed to have realized something.

" I know the person and I also know who stole the mirror of vision. "

" Who is it? " Viperis was eager to know the person but it looked like he had an idea who it was.

" I saw Zephyr transform into one of your palace guards and she had been with you all this while. I guess she transformed into me to trick you guys and steal the mirror. I saw her as one of your palace guards with the mirror of vision "