The Vanished Kingdom

The vanished kingdom-drowning

"I don't know if I can do this anymore," Audrey said dryly.

"Do what?" Ace asked bitterly.

"Run around like this while being chased and having to see more people die!" tears automatically burst out of her eyes.

"Do you think I want to do this? I'm trying to help you for heavens sake! And we are so close to finding your parents to back out now," he looked pleadingly.

"They'll die anyways, why do we have to stop them if they made a mistake and deserve to be treated how they always treated the north side," it pained Audrey to say those things, but she knew it was true.

"I'm not doing this just for them you know, they might die, but they'll kill innocent lives at the same time. And your parents won't back down without a fight, if they have to send whatever little army they have, they will, just so they can keep the throne," he sneered.

"So what do you suggest we do now?" Audrey mumbled out the words.

"You just have to try and stop them, that's all im asking," his words were simple and clear.

"Which way do we go?" Audrey finally made contact with his fierce and dark eyes.

He pointed at the east side, "well the sun is coming from that side, therefore we must head south of that to get to south Claristin."

It was already late afternoon and they started walking when suddenly Audrey's stomach started grumbling.

"I'm hungry,"Audrey blandly stated.

"I thought princesses were trained to never eat 'till they are skinny as a stick," Ace joked but his face remaned unchanged.

Audrey glared at him,"you dont seem very hungry, so why aren't you 'skinny as a stick'?"

"I'm used to not having food for days. Once I went without food for a week because I got lost in the woods and me and my dad got seperated. But of course once the patrols found me, they took me back and I ate like a pig for days," he smiled glumly.

"Show off," Audrey whispered.

Ace stopped beside a bunch of bushes. Audrey watched curiously as he started plucking something out of the bushes.

"Ouch," he yelped backwards.

"Are you okay?" Audrey wondered.

Ace looked at Audrey and then opened his hands. In his hands were squished berries that had juice leaking onto Ace's hand.

"Thanks," Audrey mumbled, surprised that he actually cared for her starving stomach.

For the longest time it seemed like they walked in silence while Audrey quietly munched on her berries.

"Are you always so moody?," Audrey suddenly blurted out, "I mean one second you act like you hate me and the other second you're trying to be nice to me?"

"Who said I was trying to be nice to you," he smirked, "the berries were so you wouldn't starve to death. Trust me, I don't really wanna carry you again, for a princess you're heavier than you look."

Audrey tilted her head down, "thanks."

Ace laughed, "for what, calling you overweight?"

Audrey smiled, she was happy she could loosen him up a bit, he always seemed so tense to her.

The wind blew Audrey's hair so she could see strands of soft blonde hair slapping her face. Audrey tried to put her hair behind her ears but the wind was too strong, which annoyed her.

"Oh no," Ace stopped, "no, no, no."

"What?" Audrey sharply asked.

"I just remembered that the way we are heading leads to a lake," he replied back.

"So?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well to get to south Claristin we have to swim over the lake," he said.

"Is there a boat?" Now Audrey was also worried.

"No," he said it like it were obviously, "and you can't swim so..."

Audrey looked taken aback, "who told you that?"

"Lucky guess," and he shrugged.

"Don't make assumptions when you don't know the facts. I can swim just as well as you can," she snapped and then she confidently walked in front of him.

A couple minutes later they arrived at a clearing. A lake lay in front of them. It didn't have too much of a strong current, but the wind made sure the lake wasn't still either. The lake was navy blue and a little murky. Audrey gulped.

To be honest Audrey wasn't so good at swimming as she had admitted to be. She just hated it when someone thought she was weak because she was a princess. She had only swam once when she was seven years old, and that didn't end well. When she was younger her parents would take her to annual swimming competitions since swimming was a famous sport in Claristin. After seeing a swimming competition Audrey had decided to try the fearless sport herself. The rest is self-explanatory because after that incident, swimming competitions were no longer permitted in Claristin.

First Ace took a step into the water and Audrey followed. The first couple steps weren't too bad, the water only rose an inch with every tiny step she took. She could feel the sand beneath her feet and the seaweed get tangled between her toes.

"See I told you I can swim," Audrey said proudly.

Ace chuckled, "correction, you can walk in water."

"Whatever," Audrey rolled her eyes and laughed.

Suddenly as Audrey took another step the lake got much deeper and Audrey shrieked before she started sinking.

While Audrey was in the water she couldn't see much because the water stung her eyes. She waved her arms vigorously but it just made her sink deeper. As her arms stopped moving she started inhaling the dirty, contaminated water.