Sun and Star Academy: Book 2: Star Kingdom

Chapter 1: Crossing The Barrier

Seth and Kareena ran through the forest, it felt like they had been at it for hours, her body ached and her lungs burned before Seth finally let her stop; she dropped to the floor with her back against a  tree, weary of even her breathing. Seth kept an eye out, “Aren’t you tired?”

Seth didn’t seem to pay attention to her question; he seemed to be checking what Kareena assumed was his watch as it was his wrist area

“How much further do you think?” Kareena spoke again

Seth pulled his sleeve down and looked at her, “We’re close- just a matter of the patrol and border security”

Kareena looked to the direction they were running towards and frowned, they seemed to be dead centre of the forest, it was too dark but that much was obvious, “Are you sure? I thought a border would be a little more obvious than to share a forest...”

Seth noticed a guard patrolling not too far ahead from where they were, “Stay here”, he said before he walked off into the darkness to follow the guard

Kareena got a bit of energy back and appreciated the rest, she stretched her legs out and massaged her ankles for a bit, she stood up and looked around, a more accurate choice of word would be squinted because she couldn’t make out much other than trees, the darkness mixed with the eeriness of the wind freaked her out, even more so when she remembered what they’d been running from. The sound of footsteps snapped her out of her thoughts, she peered past the tree and noticed a guard, heading in the same direction Seth went in, Kareena panicked and snuck from one tree to the next, trying to find Seth before anything happened, the guard made his way until he reached the first guard, they spoke for a moment and Kareena was about to swap trees again when a figure caught her by the arm and pulled her back, it was Seth- he covered her mouth and kept her hidden by the tree, he turned her to face him and she stopped panicking, he removed his hand from her mouth and watched the guards for a moment to see if anything changed, when he was satisfied that everything was the same, he motioned for her to head back and he followed

“Their Security and Intel building has been attacked, so they won’t be able to monitor the camera footage of the border” Seth said when they were back at the tree he left her at, “Once the first guard heads the other way, that will be our window to cross the border”

Kareena nodded, “So you followed him to find out about the cameras?”

Seth nodded, “Their comms are down meaning the building was attacked, so we don’t need to worry about the cameras”

“You’re not upset that I came after you?”

“I assume you came after me to warn me about the other guard?”

Kareena nodded

“I’m not upset, but don’t make going against things a habit. I’m here to help you, not the other way around...”

Kareena nodded once more and waited for their window

Ten minutes later, the guard was spotted heading in the opposite direction, Seth’s gaze followed him with every step, “Let’s go”

Kareena and Seth made their way forward, they passed the route the guard was on and continued more forward but something was different once the route had been passed, the air felt dense, it started getting more difficult to move, as though they were trying to walk through hot sand that consumed them from knee down, Kareena brought her hand to shield her face from the invisible heat as she pushed through with Seth, he squinted and even he had a few drops of sweat on his face now

Seth had his eyes locked on a pair of identical trees ahead of them, if you didn’t know about them or exactly where they were- you’d have missed them entirely, the forest was a brilliant way to mask them. The closer they got, the harder it got for Kareena to push through, but they made it. Seth stopped, so did Kareena. The second guard was now making his way to the opposite direction, Kareena started to panic but Seth took her hand and reassured her, “He won’t see us here...trust me and don’t let go off my hand”