Day In. Hide Out.

Chapter 11

After spending an amazing night stroking trees, playing tag with fairies, and of course, being bitten by baby night trolls, Ascot and I are on our way and walk out of the forest and away from Grasmere. The last village is near.

The woman at the store just a week ago in my home village said that Lily, my so called "sister", lives here.

"Ascot, I have an errand to run," I tell him as we walk along the dusty path snaking through the forest.

"What kind of errand, Zanna?" he asks, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

"I need to visit my sister," I tell him and he stops. Turning slowly toward me, he leans on a nearby tree.

"Um....I don't think I heard that right, can you repeat?" he replies with a strange look on his face.

"I need," I say slowly with a nod. "To visit...." I continue even slower. "My. Sister."

He stands there with a confused grimace and I roll my eyes. "I'll tell you on the way."

And I do. I tell him everything about Lily and what the clerk said and if I believe her. "All I can do is try. It'd be nice to have some kind of relative to know is there."

"May not count for much, but I'm always right here," he says with a wink and I smile as he puts his arm around my shoulder with a returned grin.

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We walk. And walk. And we walk some more. And guess what? We walked even more than that. And then we reached Wenham, and I went to every shop I could to find Lily Moore. Ascot followed me claiming I was his crazy brother looking for an old girlfriend. I hated him every minute of it.

Finally, when we reached the last shop in the entire town, and she was standing at the counter--big shocker--buying a powdered wafer.

I walked up behind her casually until she bought her wafer and pretended to be looking somewhere else when she walked away. Then Ascot and I followed her out, covered her mouth, and dragged her into an alley. What a tag team, him and I. I'm sure my sister will thank me later.

Lily screamed, (or tried to), and thrashed around but Ascot's strong, restraining arms were too much for her and she gave up. We pinned her against the back of the candy shop and I explained my story. At the end, I pull the cap away and let my hair fall down from my head and brush the dust off my face.

"Oh," Lily utters softly, pulling her hand to her mouth. "Oh, Zanna," she says as she envelops me in a large hug. "I had to go. If I hadn't, they would've captured me. I was a terrible child. I stole, I tried to...I, I'm so sorry."

I pulled away with anger in my eyes. "I suppose you couldn't have helped the fact that you were leaving your infant sister!" I say loudly, wanting so badly to smack her. My hand even begins to raise, but Ascot reaches for it and squeezes it and shakes his head. I take a deep breath, a step back, and begin walking away.

Lily runs after us as we round the candy shop and stroll onto the street. And again, can you guess? Gunshots ring out. Carriage wheels roll on cobblestone and gravel, and dust kicks up around us. "Help!" screams Lily as she reaches her arms out for me. "Zanna," she says more softly, taking one last hopeful and loving look at me before being thrown, as I was, into the back of the carriage, chewing her wafer. She screams again and the guards slam the back door loudly, snapping the reins of the leading horses, and rolling away quickly with victorious cries.

"We caught the missing servant girl! The mischievous one is avenged!" the men sounded, climbing up and straightening their black coats happily.

"One adventure may just become another, Zanna," were Walter's words in the village only days ago. I consider his words and our current situation. Elders have a way of being wise at all times. I guess it comes in handy sometimes.

"Lily's the spitting image of me, Ascot. It's my fault she's captured. Well, Walter's right. One adventure does become another at just a moment's notice. Come on. We've got another adventure to tend to."