Rule

The journey continues

Lilliandil rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and sat up in bed. The first rays of sunlight were creeping through the windows, shining notice to the bits of dust that were floating around in the air. She yawned and stretched her arms. Seiji was waiting there, with a bag ready. "I'm glad you're awake, Lucy. You should get going now," he said. "What?" Lilliandil asked, still recovering from her yawn. "It's first light. Isn't that when you decided to leave?" Seiji questioned. "Wait, what?" Lilliandil asked again, then she realized what Seiji was talking about, and the exhaustion was immediately drained out of her. "Yes, YES! I really need to be going now! Of course!" 

She jumped out of bed and ran out of the bedroom. "Are you— holy god, did I oversleep?" She asked. "No. In fact, you woke up just in time," Seiji replied. "Now, you really must get going." "Why are you so eager for me to leave? Was I a serious disruption to you?" Lilliandil joked. Seiji chuckled. "No, child. This journey seems pretty important to you, that's all," he answered. "What's this?" Lilliandil asked, noticing the packed bag in his hand. "I took the liberty of packing some resources you'll need on the way to your destination," Seiji explained. "Food, water, and clothing." "Thanks, that's great. I really need to get going," Lilliandil said, taking it from him.

They walked to the exit of the monastery's cave, leading outside. In the first dawn of the morning, the valley looked beautiful as the sun just peeked over the hills. The grass was shining wet from last night's storm. The sky was a beautiful blend of peach orange and pink. Lilliandil stepped outside and smelled the fresh air. "Now I can travel without rain in my face," she said. Seiji laughed. "Well child, it has been great to provide a sanctuary for you. I hope our paths cross again," he told her. "You are a very interesting person, Lucy." She smiled and turned to walk off. "I hope someday you will tell me the truth of your travels and your identity," Seiji muttered. "What was that?" Lilliandil asked, turning around. 

But Seiji and the monastery were gone, and so was the mountain it belonged to. Lilliandil was alone now, all by herself once again. And so she was left to continue the journey she had begun, away from her kingdom. She thought about Judy, who was probably feeling very scared telling Prince Allard that she (Lilliandil) was dead. But then she thought of the kingdom, who was probably glad to hear that. They were probably glad to be rid of the "murderer" who killed her own parents. Lilliandil shook her head at the thought. She walked through the valley, admiring the beautiful sights. Soon she walked up to two huge mountains that were facing each other. They were forming a ravine in between them.

Lilliandil noticed tracks leading into the ravine. Possibly the tracks of another person . . . or some sort of animal. She looked back at the other path that looked more fit and less scary, but there were no tracks. The ravine was certainly more dangerous to go through, but it was apparently more traveled, by whatever had gone there before. "Animal or person, the ravine is more traveled. I guess it's the better choice," Lilliandil said to herself, she walked into it. Immediately, the sunlight was blocked out by the trees growing at the very top, and it became dark. Lilliandil dug through her bag to fetch a dagger or any sort of weapon, but there were none. Only food, water, clothing, and rope. Lilliandil sighed in frustration.

"Great. Seiji remembers to bring all the necessary resources, except for the most important thing to defend yourself," she muttered. She slung the bag over her shoulder and kept walking. Soon, she began to get bored. And as any person would do if they were alone for a long time, she began talking to herself. "Don't worry, Lilliandil. You'll find a place of inhabitants and they'll welcome you into their town. And no one has to know that I'm considered a murderer back where I lived," she said. "Oh god, now I'm talking to myself. Isn't that a jolly thing?" 

The darkness of the ravine started giving Lilliandil spooks. She wanted to be out of there as soon as possible and find some sort of town with people. Suddenly, she heard the bushes rustle behind her. She stumbled a bit as she walked faster. She didn't want anyone, or anything, catching up with her. Now Lilliandil wanted to be alone. She turned around and saw a pair of red gleaming eyes watching her from inside the bush. Something was following her. And it was hungry. Lilliandil immediately began running. A huge wolf pounced out of the bush and bounded after her. "Aaaaa!" She yelled. "Someone help me!" She knew it was hopeless.

There was not even a chance that someone was out this far in the middle of nowhere. And if there was something else out here, it was probably the wolf's buddies tagging along with it. Lilliandil ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She was gaining some speed away from the wolf, and it was almost out of sight. But all of a sudden, something tugged at her and she fell back. She turned to see what it was, and she saw that her cloak was trapped to a bush.

"No, no! Get off," she hissed, trying to pull it away. The sound of the wolves barking was getting closer, which only meant one thing: they were catching up. "Come on!" Lilliandil urged, trying to pull her cloak off. She couldn't wait any longer. If she kept trying to pull it off, the wolves would be picking her out of their teeth in no time. She removed her cloak and took off running as fast as she could. Her legs were giving away, they were weakening and wobbling. But nevertheless, Lilliandil kept running. She just wanted to get away from the wolves, but her legs didn't seem to agree.

She was running so fast she didn't notice a rock ahead of her, and she tripped on it. She tumbled to the ground. "Ahhh!" She cried, gripping her ankle. The rock had injured it. She kept running, even though a limp had been added to her run. The throbbing pain in her ankle was increasing with every step she took farther from the wolves. It pained her so much there were tears in her eyes, but she had to keep going. Finally, she began to see the end of the ravine.

She ran as fast as she could until she was out from between the two mountains, but the wolves still hadn't stopped. She had reached a huge rushing river of water. There was no way she could swim to the other side. The current was too strong. She looked through her bag and grabbed the rope. Maybe it can reach the other side, she thought, but she wasn't very hopeful. She threw the rope as far as she could, hoping it would wrap around a tree branch or something else, but it missed and rolled into the water. Lilliandil quickly pulled it back in. The wolves were coming.

"Come on, COME ON!" She shouted. She tried again, and she missed again. As a princess, her parents never allowed her to take any sort of training lessons or anything that might've helped her. Of course not. Her mother would always insist that it wasn't proper for a lady. Lilliandil couldn't keep hopelessly throwing the rope. She would just have to cross the river. She jumped in and the current immediately started pulling her away. "No!" She yelled. She tried to grab on to the grass, but it ripped off. All the vines and tree branches were far too high up for her to reach. 

The wolves stopped right before they fell into the river. They barked and growled as they watched Lilliandil be washed away. She was trying with all her might to stop the current from taking her, but it was useless. She exhausted herself even more. She let it take her, hoping she wouldn't meet up with any waterfalls. But something else posed a problem: rocks. There were many of them in the river: big ones, small ones, and the worst. Jagged ones. Lilliandil tried her best to miss them as they passed by. She didn't need another injury slowing her down.

She wondered if the river led to any sort of port or village. If so, then that would be great. She would finally have somewhere to reside in for a certain amount of time. She waited and waited as the river took her to who-knows-where. Soon, the current became stronger, and the river rushed faster. A jagged rock was coming in sight, and Lilliandil swam out of the way as fast as she could. She slammed her shoulder against it, cutting a deep gash. Blood was running out. Great. Just another thing to slow her down. 

Lilliandil was now in deep pain, on top of the fact that her hurt ankle had also been hit a second time. She screamed loudly as she held her shoulder in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. A small pool of blood formed around her in the water, but it was quickly washed away by the rapid current. That was it for Lilliandil. She couldn't take any more pain or running away from anything. Her vision was blurring and getting fuzzy. She slowly felt like she was drifting into a sleep. Her eyes slowly closed, and her body stopped fighting. Lilliandil blacked out.