The Forbidden Lands (Wattys 2015 Winner)

Chapter One-The Forbidden Lands

Chapter One
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When in a frilly, billowing dress, it is hard to climb trees. My dress was so fluffy, with ruffles and sheer material, that I could barely get a leg up onto the tree. After two failed attempts, I made it onto the branch. I climbed higher, putting an annoying piece of fabric in my mouth, so as to keep it out of the way. I reached the top, and brushed my wild brown curls away from my face. They were wet with perspiration. Gross.

I stared out towards the west. Fallbrooke's finishing school was near the Western Sea. Across those waters was a mysterious place. No country claimed that land. It was wild and overgrown with trees. No one knew what lurked in its shadows. No one wanted to know. Except me. I had always loved the Forbidden Lands, planning to escape there someday. I would have adventures and become famous for my miraculous discoveries. Or I would discover a paradise within that thickly wooded area, and stay there forever. Bu not yet. As of now, I was trapped in the Fallbrooke finishing school with twenty-two other girls, a few teachers, and a headmistress. I did have friends, I guess, if you count sisters as friends. I didn't. But I had five of them. Five sisters that I shared a room with. It was a living nightmare. They were always arguing over whose hairbrush was whose, and which boy from town could be whose future husband.

That's why I had to escape to the tree behind the finishing school. I couldn't survive another minute in there with all those girls, who were trying to get ready for that day's festival.

I moved my leg, because it was starting to fall asleep. My dress scraped against the tree bark, and a nice line of dirt marked the skirt of my frilly dress. Headmistress was going to kill me. Really. She was the scariest lady I had ever met, and it was rumored that she owned a nice collection of knives. They were embedded with jewels, and therefore acceptable for an accomplished woman.

A woman accomplished with those knives. I shuddered.           

Glancing back at the scene in front of me, I pulled out my sketch book from the sash of my dress. That was the advantage of having so many ribbons on a dress. I could tie things to it, so I didn't have to hold them while climbing a tree. They should have had pockets, in my opinion, as well.

Fallbrooke's finishing school offered some artistic classes, so the school was bearable, thank goodness. I snatched the quill out from behind my ear and started sketching the land across the sea, trying to capture the way it seemed to radiate and reflect onto the water.

It took about an hour, but I was satisfied with the results. I added a few more details here and there, and-

"Evelin!"

I dropped my sketch book and nearly fell out of the tree. "Hey!" I called, looking down. My face broke into a smile once I identified the person. Girec, my elder brother. I practically scampered down the tree and hugged him tightly. "What are you doing here?"

He smiled. "I had to see my sisters before the festival, that way you girls would know I'm here." I frowned at the way he grouped me together with my sisters. I hated that. "It just so happened," he continued, "that you were missing when I arrived. I could not find you. Then I remembered: you have to look up to find a Squirrel."

Squirrel was Girec's nickname for me. "I told you to stop calling me that." I scowled, hands on hips.

"And I told you to stop climbing trees. You might hurt yourself, Squirrel."

"Only if I was in one of these." I pulled the sides of my fluffy dress out.

"Aww, it's not so bad. It makes you look older."

"Really?" I said, eyes wide. Everyone always mistook me for younger than my true age, even my parents and sisters, because I was so short and scrawny for fifteen years.