Secrets of the Trees

18 - I Get A Natural Face Exfoliant

Bewilderment. Anger. Sorrow. A thousand emotions welled up in me. I sank to the floor, not caring if the master himself would walk in on me at the moment, and laid in fetal position crying silent tears. No loud sobs, just the huffing from my chest heaving air up and down uncontrollably. This is not my best moment, laying here unguarded. Crying doesn't come easily, but when it does, it can come over me like a tsunami.

When my whimpering gradually calmed itself down, my head stopped spinning for a matter of seconds before it rewound and spun twelve times faster. Why does Kael have a secret portal here? Is he keeping something from us? Did he even know it existed? He must have, right?

Panic was now prominent in my mind. How do I get back quick without being noticed? Of course everyone had to know about the portal now. This kind of thing could be a key role in our revolt. Which brings me back to inside information being literally in our grasp and why it was beneath Kael's house.

I stood up already feeling hopeless, panicked and defeated as to how I was going to get out of here unseen. An idea flickered in my mind, as I remembered the balcony, where my mother was murdered, but I tried to push it out of my memory for the moment. Tip-toeing to the french doors, and cautiously turning the handle open, I stopped dead in my tracks.

This balcony must have been ten stories high. That isn't what impressed me. It was the green-gray sea before my eyes. Waters choppy, wind blowing in torrents. Now it made sense why sea traveling was near impossible. Luckily the balcony faced the sea, and there were only maybe two more floors above so sightings of me were improbable.

 Flying would be the best way out of here, but I don't have wings. Magic is my next resort.

"Noitativel." My feet now slowly began to lift from the ground, making me lose balance, making my weight shift me upside-down. With a hard kick, I managed to flip myself back upright and used my fingers to dictate how to move in the air. After a minute or so, it was finally safe to try and levitate out of this place.

Getting to the beach was probably my best option since the palace was crawling with enemies from the other side where the road is. Deliah said the Mora flows out to the sea, so I flew carefully over the little strip of trees before the sand. While my flying was pretty smooth, my landing sucked. I tried hard to land straight, but ended up tumbling face first in the wet sand, rolling at least three times before skidding to a stop in front of a tan colored rock formation.

Natural face exfoliant. Nice... With a rub of my now sore nose, I sat against the rock, trying to recover from getting the wind knocked out of me. Even though the sky was grey, the sea was almost as equally, and the winds so vigorously spraying misty salt water in my direction, it was almost a nice change-up from all of the green.

Some sort of water bird screeched and flew over my head, high above the into the horizon. Somewhere that bird was flying, and as choppy as these waters are, there must be something worth flying to. A mental note was made to ask more about the sea.

Alright, time to get up now. Yes the sand feels nice, but there are more pressing matters to attend to. 

The strap of my dress had a little sand on it due to my fall, so I brushed it off, and started making my way down the coast, away from Lilwen. Possibly less than thirty minutes the sound of crashing waves now met with a rushing sound: the Mora river. Delight washed over my clouded mind when I saw it. 

Nobody has told me stories yet about this river, so I'm not sure if it is safe to cross, but in desperation to get the heck out of here, I ran down the direction of the river, back into the forest. This way I could get closer to the road near the market and find everyone. When I felt nearest to the road, I jumped in the surprisingly cold water.