Over the Mountain (Book One)

Chapter Ten: The Dream

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Olivia

I run out of the kitchens to find Chloe waiting outside.

I can't help but grin. "Well that was actually pretty fun." I look around. "Say, where's Taylor?"

Chloe shrugs. "She must be grabbing a few extra things. What did you get?"

We share inventory for a few minutes while waiting for Taylor. Time starts to tick by though, and I begin to get a bit worried. "Um, do you think she might have gotten into trouble?"

Chloe glances at the sun, judging what time of day, and sighs. "Just the easiest task. Leave it to Taylor to mess it up."

I chuckle. "True."

"Well, you keep watch outside. I'll go back in and look for her." At that, she slips inside the bustling kitchens once more.

I stand outside awkwardly for a little bit, leaning on a barrel sitting outside of the kitchens. My back begins to hurt and I yawn, slumping down against the wooden thing. The sun warms my skin pleasantly, and my eyes begin to get a bit heavy. Everything begins to go fuzzy , and I realize that I'm falling asleep. Trying to slap my face, my arm drowsily taps my face in my brain's feeble attempt to get my body moving.

But suddenly, I find myself in a meadow. The breeze whispers in my ear, and grassy plains stretch out before me. I bend down, and the world tilts. I'm on the ground. The whisper of the breeze turns into mumbling voices, and I try to hear what they say, but I can't make out the muttering. A yellow butterfly flies in front of my eyes, and impulse makes me stand on my feet and follow the fluttering animal. It leads me through the meadow, and the voices get clearer. I blink and see a tree in the middle of the meadow, and the butterfly flaps towards it, followed by me. I know I need to reach the tree. My fingers almost touch its bark-

"Livi!"

I blink my eyes slowly, adjusting to the light. "Meg," I complain, seeing her  face, "I almost got to the tree-"

"It was just a dream," she interrupts. "We need to go. Taylor's missing."

"She is?" I say, hopping up. "Could Chloe not find her?"

Malik stands beside Meg, tying some horses to a fence. "No, she couldn't." He explains. "But one of the kitchen workers told her something peculiar. The long lost princess Emily was found toady. In the kitchens." He shakes his head. "How could that be coincidental?"

"Are you implying-" I start, "Are you implying that Taylor is the long lost princess?"

"That's- that's crazy!" Even as I say it, a feeling in my gut tells me otherwise.

"Why would she lie to us about that?" Says Meg.

"I don't know." Says Malik. "I think everyone thought the princess was dead, you know after all those years of searching."

"Where's Chloe?" I ask, looking around.

Chloe comes from behind a wall. "Here. I was just strapping the food to the trotters over there that Meg and Malik so kindly delivered."

"So what are we going to do about Taylor? And shouldn't Hale be back by now?" I say.

Suddenly I hear a banging from behind. Everyone is looking at something over my shoulders, and I turn around. 

"Help! Guys!"

I hear Chloe gasp behind me.

"What the crap..." Malik mutters, confused.

The barrel is shaking, the one I was leaning on. Someone is inside the freaking barrel.

Chloe hesitantly comes foreword, going up to a small hole in the barrel. "H-Hale?"

"Chloe!" His voice is washed with relief.

I look at Meg, my eyebrows raised. She shrugs her shoulders, focusing back on Chloe. She pries open the top with her knife, and looks inside.

Hale's long, muscular arms come out first, barely squeezing his broad frame out of the barrel.

He steps out, and brushes his clothes off, cheeks heated. He looks up to see us staring at us, and cracks a white toothed smile. "Heh heh... fancy seeing you here, eh?"

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Soon we are all camped around the fire in the woods near the castle. Hidden, but still close.

We are still undecided about Taylor, but figured we'd wait here for the night, just in case she comes back. I'm still doubtful about her being the princess. Why would she have run away from the palace?

Chloe is taking watch, but still in earshot while Hale re accounts his story of how in the world he ended up in a barrel. He decided to wait and tell us the full thing until we got somewhere safe, not having to worry about knights and stuff.

"So, the guards believed me and we went into the castle together. I asked them about the missing prince and they told me that he went missing only a few days ago, but to go ask Johnny in the were house for information. I claimed I was going to go get the supplies when I really went to see Johnny. He told me that he saw the Prince leaving through the doors. I asked him for more information but he didn't have any: only that the prince had brought his best friend named Warren with him."

"Huh. Do you know Warren's background?" Malik asks, the fire reflecting off of his cool blue eyes.

"No idea." Hale says to Malik, "but he probably has a royal background or something of the sort."

Malik nods.

Face lit up by the flames, Hale continues the story. "So I decided to sneak over to the prince's quarters. I met two guards there, and knocked them out, and dragged them into an empty closet. I stole the key from one of their pockets and ran into the room to find a letter on the table. It said, 'meet me in the warehouse.  I ran to the warehouse looking for clues, but guards came in. I told them I was scoping the area. They looked doubtful. So I got nervous, and one of them asked me what the password to get inside the gates was. I had no idea, so I said lemon drops."

Meg smacks her hand on her head.

Hale wipes at his forehead. "Yeah.. I know, lame guess. But anyways, they ran towards me. I knew I couldn't defeat all of them without a weapon so I tried to run out behind the stacks of barrels. For a while I dodged them, until finally I had time to hop into a barrel."

Malik laughs. "Good thinking."

Hale grins. "They left me there, but before I had time to get out, the top was sealed and I was being hauled into the kitchens. The steam made it terribly hot in there. Luck was with me though, because I heard your voices. I sure was happy to hear you!"

"Well," says Chloe from a distance, "it's time for bed kids. Enough story time."

Meg scoffs. "Okay mother."

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