Nesaliani - A Glimmer of Hope

Chapter 4

That warm summer day Tracey was still thinking about the burning house. It had been a week since the event and she couldn't shake that the last of her family was gone.

Tracey decided to take a walk, it was what she always did when she was frustrated.

It didn't work though, she only kept thinking more of what she had lost. As Tracy stroked a soft leaf on a tall tree, a bolt of realisation hit her.

Tracey was so upset about her having nothing that she never thought she would find something in the the ruins of the house that could be of use to her.

"I doubt anything is still in good shape," Tracey proclaimed, "but I guess I can still look."

It was going to be hard to get in there with the government claiming the land. Tracey thought for a minute,

"Well, I guess i'm an outlaw now. So, I can break the rules."

Sneaking over to the construction site, Tracey could see why there was rings of caution tape around it.

The roof was hanging by a thread for it could fall any minute, the stairwell had broken, splintering planks that were sure to go through bare feet, and the floor was a mess of ash, stone, and wood. Horrible.

Using all of her courage, Tracey took a deep breath and crawled under the constrion tape.

It took so much of her strength just to make her way in the piles of wood that used to be the orphanage.

As she walked deeper into the rubble her feet turned as black as night from steeping in all of the ash and coals. The ash was also making her cough. Zoey had told her never to breath in stuff in like that for it could cause harsh damage to your lungs.

Still, she pressed on, pushing her way through piles of ash and wood almost as tall as her.

Suddenly her foot got stuck under something, and that something made her trip face first into the ground. Now she really looked like a dark sky. When Tracey sat back up she noticed what her foot was stuck on.

It was a small metal trapdoor that had faint colors of green and purple on it.

It was as if someone polished it with a touch of watercolor. What was also strange was that there was a small vine neatly carved into it. Tracey decided to go down there, maybe that was were Mrs.Stoat kept all of her jewelry so the children wouldn't get to it. When she opened the door she tumbled down into the room.

It was definitly not a room with jewelry.

Tracey looked back up for the exit, but it seemed to have replaced itself with the same surrounding cave walls. It was a small cavern, about the size of a bedroom. The only source of the faint light were two torches with purple fire hanging on the walls. In the corner of the room there was a small stone fireplace. It seemed as if it was for some small people or some large dolls. Whatever it was for Tracey didn't care, what she did care about was the large bed made of pure cotton.

Tracey delightfully leaped over to the bed and layed down on the fluffy cloud.

It had been a long day and a little rest wouldn't hurt, would it?