The Lordly Ones

-Our Journey

The wind rose and fell in time with the Queen's changing moods, her face twisting into distaste and anger. However each time she reached the limit to her patience and rage, her assistant would soothe her back to her icy blank mood, his autumn leaf coloured hair glowing in the light with reassuring warmth. He, of course, was used to these sudden phases, but the few returned scouts were not. They shuddered, a few even daring to fidget. They were too young to know better. They saw the queen as beauty and power, they had no idea of how sharp it could be, how vengeful, how dangerous.

"So what you are telling me is that they escaped? That they got away? That those disgusing Ink Children killed our own?" the Queen spat as her servants cowered infront of her.

Caleb, her brown-haired kidnapper, once again reached around the throne to press his warm hand onto her thin, bony shoulder. As per usual, the result was astonishing and she almost deflated as she rested against the back of the throne. She waited for a while with her glazed bright grey eyes closed and sealed from the light as she listened to her servants' breathing. Their rude shuffling. For a moment her assistant's hand lingered before releasing her from the peace that came with it. Caleb stood straighter, she was so aware of him that she was no longer afraid of how far their relationship had gone. No longer cared what people thought. Her sweetest downfall. That was him. And soon she forgot about her subjects and thought of only him, only the beat of his heart determining her happiness.

He raised his head high and with a voice of soft persuasion he whispered as his voice caught on the breeze, "She knows of how badly you have failed. But how, do you plan to fix it?"

One of the scouts, a young boy with eyes built up in fear brightened suddenly and raised his voice to start to talk, "Please, Your Majesty may want to know of one thing that may help," the boy started. He was a slightly thing. Even the yellow light appeared to slice across his thin body, his weak smile as he shuddered. Once Caleb had dropped his head to a nod, the boy continued, "You see the girl, one of them. She- she had made a de-" his breath caught short and his head rolled from his neck towards the Queen's feet with a reassuring swoosh.

Shocked at the clunk of sound she had heard, the queen looked up towards Caleb, him arm raised and thrown across his side. A dark glint shone in his eye for a moment. Then, regaining himself he turned to her and with a voice dark and sweet like syrup he whispered, "I was sick of them wasting your time. Forgive me," he hand resuming its place on her shoulder, a little closer to her neck this time.

No-one must know.

Then when she turned her head back to face the other scouts she found but more heads at her feet, rolling in the breeze, a pile of presents at her feet with wide eyes and paling grimaces.

No-one.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The team of classmates despaired. No matter how hard they tried to walk towards where they needed to go, they would always end up back where they began. It was hopeless. 

"Wait guys," Jesse called to the front of the group, "She's waking up!"

Lucas tensed and strode over with long strides. He dropped his head close to her and watched her open her eyes, peeling her tightly clasped hands from around Jesse's reddening neck, hauling her into his own arms to hand like a doll. He asked her carefully, locking eyes with her, hoping she would understand the message, "Are you ok? None of us can remember what happened and we keep going in circles on our way to the bus. Do you remember anything?" 

The girl looked blank and opened her mouth to say something but Lucas hissed into her ear as he shook her, "I saw what you did, but they didn't. They should never know, I should have never known." as he slowly remembered what she had been. What she really was. He dropped her to the ground. The others didn't seem to be bothered by his intimidation, they were examining their own wounds, thinking of their own needs while they stopped to rest. All but Finn. He had no idea of the monster she was. Of that thing.

You're disgusting.

Shocked and confused, Darcey got up slowly with no help offered from any of the boys. Her eyes widened when she saw Lyra. "What happened to you? Are you okay?" she asked as she spied the blood that stained her impractical dress.

At this Lyra shrugged, "I'm fine, kind of. I think they wanted us alive. But it really would help if we got back," she urged, "It hurts like hell." She must have blocked out the event. There was no way a wound like that was harmless, they had wanted her dead.

At this, Finn and Jesse exchanged looks of respect and nodded at her, making her blush slightly and mutter again that it was nothing.

Soon the fire of jealousy Darcey usually felt was back. Lyra was always the one. Darcey was just a minor character Lyra's background. And she looked to check if Lucas' eyes were also on that brown-eyed girl but the odd thing was, her glance was met with his own steely blue look. And she was happy, even though it wasn't a nice look. His jaw was locked. His lips twisted in disgust at her and it reminded her of what he had said to her, what he had told her. And then, like a wash of a tide, the horror came back over her. She had to clamp shut her mouth to stop herself from gasping. The memory of that smell ran up her nose and she couldn't stop herself from checking Lucas' exposed arm. 

It had a large chunk taken out of it. A bite mark. Her bite mark. All of a sudden, her saliva grew hot and her throat grew bigger, as if it were swelling. Her stomach leaped. That chunk was inside her now, turning into her food. And she knew that if she checked each member's foot, neck, back or leg she would find identical marks. Her fingers scuttled, self-conciously over her shoulder, groping for the hole she would find in her shoulder. After healing herself with the power of their flesh she had healed them with hers. She had no idea what she was doing at the time. She was led by that syrup-smooth voice with its infinate knowledge of how to break necks and legs, how to destroy those monsters that had attacked them. How to become a monster herself. Was it worth it? Was it over?

And all she had received in return was Lucas's cold glare for all her troubles. Bending around, she cracked her back. It ached. Lucas jumped to his feet. His eyes were on fire and he was sweating and, if she had not have realised this imposibility, she could have sworn she could hear his heart, clanking away in his metal, unfeeling chest. And she smirked. It was the wrong thing to do but she was so amused, so proud that for once, she had a hold over him rather than what she had felt the years before. Even if this hold was negetive. It was better than indifference. Hatred could easily be switched to a positive, at least he was no aware.

"Hey, I read mythology and stuff... in some books things like this happen," Darcey started with her eyes locked on Lucas' sweating face, confident and yet also afraid of being made fun of, "You always have to walk not directly where you want to go. Then you get to where you need to go."

Finn and Jesse pulled a few faces and Lucas stayed frozen, the lack of his sneering stopping their jokes before the boys even started. They had nothing else to do.

"Yeah," Viola said smiling, "We'll try that."

Soon they were finally getting somewhere and the side of the woods was in sight. Viola ran and hurried to the end but stopped just at the edge with her long hair swept behind her. She turned towards them, there was a strange fear in her blue eyes.

"Where are we?" she whispered, so quietly that only a few of them heard it.

They rushed to the edge and stopped in their tracks, like she had done and their eyes widened.

The rush of the river had fallen into a huge lake that ran into a small sea of old and chipped boats and merchant ships. But the strangest of all was the small town on stilts in the distance. The only thing like it could be Venice with it's gondolas and streets which shifted to small canals and bridges, but the weather and sky was dark and gloomy.

Where the hell are we?