Chapter One: Why I Hate Public Events

Chapter 2: A Series of Unfortunate Events

In case you were wondering, there are no nicely furnished holes in Mindread forest. Trust me, I looked everywhere. After elegantly bathing my sister in wine, the whole party stood at a standstill. No one moved or spoke, they only stared. Before anyone could say or do anything, I had hitched up my skirts and ran. I ran straight towards the forest only looking back once, to see Hagen start after me only to have Kaylub grab him by the shoulder and sit him back down.

Lungs burning I finally stopped in a clearing about two miles from our house. The clearing was damp and cool, but with streams of blue sky creeping in. Thirsty from my flight I knelt down by a stream and drank deeply. The water was crisp and clear, so clear in fact that I could see all the rocks and pebbles stirring at the bottom. The stream was deep and wide, and ran through out the whole forest. Kaylub and I used to play in it when we were small, now to think that Kaylub was married and I almost sixteen. Having no intentions of returning home, I looked around for a place to spend the night. After much searching, I finally settled on a thick comfortable tree branch not far from the ground on the eastern side of the clearing. Climbing up, I curdled up in a ball resting my head on my knees and wrapping my arm around my legs. Closing my eyes I slowly began to replay the dinner scene in my mind. It was pretty painful. It truly had been an accident, any sensible person would come to that conclusion, but the problem was that sensible people in Mindread province were few and far between. We lived in a rather poor community were the farming was horrible, but iron, steel, and ore were in abundance. Unfortunately the most popular trade in our village was farming. Many of the people were stubborn and set in there ways. The previous generations had been farmers, so that means that this generation would also be farmers. I am of the option the constant poverty, and lack of vegetables have started to mess with people's minds, making our community stupider then average, and common sense rare. These thoughts gave little comfort though, I still felt embarrassed and stupid. Surly some person in all of history had made this mistake before, surly someone. With my final thoughts, trying to shake it off and let it go, I finally drifted off to sleep.

I awoke ravenous. The sun was just starting to peak over the trees. I climbed down from the tree, stretching my cramped muscles and joints. I followed the stream north about half a mile where I knew some berry bushes grew. My feet were numb, and my shoulders shook from the cool morning air. Still being early spring, the night had been a chilly one and I had struggled to keep warm, especially in my thin lacy dress and my best silk slippers. Wishing for a cloak was no use, and I consoled myself with promises of warm stew when I returned home that night. Reaching the bushes, I quickly picked and ate all the ripe ones. They were few and far between. I soon resorted to eating even the under ripe ones as well, in order to satisfy my enormous appetite. They were horrific. They tasted like the local bakery's sugar-free health nut rhubarb bars, and believe me those bars are nasty! So bad in fact that Hagen (who will eat my cooking) thought they were gage worthy. We ended up feeding them to Bacon; the sad part is that even he wasn't touching them with ten foot pole.

After my extraordinary scrumptious breakfast, I began to walk up stream. Quite a few years ago, before my parents died, Kaylub and I built a fort in the northern end of the forest. It had been years since Kaylub has been out there, but on frequent occasions, (often when I did something humiliating) I still used the ramshackle hide-out as a fortress. It was about a five mile walk from town, hence why I did not attempt to reach it the night before.

The sun started to rise as I trudged onwards, the warm rays caressing the forest in a golden glow. I reached the fort in about an hour. Sighing I surveyed the damages- I had not been there since last fall- I found that the winter rains had not treated the little shelter well. Branches were everywhere, sticks and leaves scattered the muddy ground and half the southern wall had collapsed. I slowly began to pick up the fragments of the hut, it took me an hour make sure the southern wall was secure. "Rorie!" With a start I whirled around, Hagen stood there dubbed over panting, his clothes were ripped and dirty, soot and dirt streaked his red face. A knot began to fill my stomach, and my legs suddenly felt weak.