The Vale (Nanowrimo 2013)

Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

            I stared into her emerald green eyes, shocked at the news that was delivered to me. I was speechless, I wasn’t sure what to say, how to react to such news. I was shocked, but also excited about my new family member I discovered. This was my first step to finding my family, where I belong.

            I was snapped back to reality when I heard horrified screams coming from the outside; obviously the crowd was still fighting outside of the castle. They had no idea that the Queen had just vanished into thin air, probably transported to some secret location.

            “How- How did you know I would be here?” I questioned, trying to put my thoughts together to fit into sentences.

            “We have a lot to discuss, Clara. Alone.” Aria said, moving her eyes towards Ariella and Malachi as she mentioned we had to go alone.

            “There’s no way we’re letting Clara go alone with some random person she just met. She did that once, and was nearly killed in a troll camp as some sick form of celebration! You should just-” Malachi yelled as he stood up from his previous kneeling stance. I cut him off before he could speak anymore.

            “Stop… Malachi. It’s okay. I think she may actually be my sister, can’t you see the resemblance? I trust her, she did just save my life after all, along with your two lives.” I said, staring into Malachi’s gray eyes, before switching back to Aria’s beautiful green eyes, “I’ll go with you.”

            “Very good. Come on then, I have a lot of things you may find very interesting.” She said, before starting to walk towards the door, “You two, wait two minutes before leaving this room, I do not want to be followed. If you come early I will slit your throats right then and there. I promise she will be back at your home by midnight.” She threatened Ariella and Malachi, before continuing walking towards the door. I turned and followed her, but right before I stepped out the door, I turned around and made eye contact with Malachi for a second. He looked frightened, much more frightened than he was at the face of the Queen’s sword, swinging towards him. I broke eye contact with him before he could say anything, and left the room.

            I ran down the endless steps in the tower following close behind my sister, our steps on the stone stairs echoed throughout the hollow tower. It was so much faster going down the steps than it was going up, and much less tiring. We were leaving the tower in no more than a minute. I followed my sister all around the castle, until we reached the same window that Ariella, Malachi, and me had climbed through to originally get inside the castle. We jumped out onto the tree, and I watched Aria carefully as she climbed down with ease. I sat on a branch that I wasn’t quite sure where to go next. I am not trained well in climbing trees, or fighting. I’m just glad I didn’t have to fight the Queen moments ago. Malachi and Ariella thankfully did most of the fighting, and of course the two separate saviors.

            Aria stood at the bottom of the tree, waving me down instead of saying anything, since there were guards ever so close to us. I took a leap of faith and jumped onto a branch about ten feet below me, and I was thankfully able to grab onto another branch as I landed, otherwise I would have just fallen right out of the tree. I sturdied myself, before climbing down the rest of the branches with ease, some even formed something like a staircase. As soon as my feet landed on the grass at the bottom of the tree, my supposed sister ran over to the wall and took the same path I had taken earlier with Ariella and Malachi. Instead of going through the wall though, we went just a little bit farther and climbed down through a hole that went right below the castle wall, just enough space to climb under and end up on the other side of the wall. Aria then started running towards the direction of the front of the castle, following the wall that was only a foot or two away from us.