Two Taken

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

- the escape

Grati is not what he seems

Lemon lifted his head, and wearily glanced at the clock.

11:03.

He sighed, then lightly stepped onto the polished star floor. The cushiony and soft bedspread did nothing to help his nightmares, even though it was made of the finest fabrics and most expensive materials in Darlian.

Now, he had no explanation for why his sleep consisted of such horrible things. Grati, the medicine keeper, kept advising Lemon to take the medication that he received from him, but it only seemed to work for the hallucinations. Oh, they seemed so realistic! One minute he was his normal self, with unruly fair hair his mother always tried to keep in order, his rounded statuesque,his one jade and one sterling grey eyes, and then the next he felt like he was turning into some sort of creature.

Luckily, these things had only happened when he was alone, and the only person that he had told was Grati, (he told his parents about the nightmares) and Grati had said that the hallucinations were the same as the nightmares, so he didn't need any more medicine. Lemon wasn't so sure, because the medicine was only 50% working.

Lemon begrudgingly got ready for his late breakfast, and quietly tiptoed out of his room. He was trying to think of a reasonable excuse for why he got up so late that would not worry his parents when he stumbled into Grati.

He smiled modestly at Lemon."Oh hello there, my roeyael! How are you doing today?"

"Fine," Lemon grunted.

Grati seemed to always be able to know how Lemon was feeling, though, and focused intently on Lemon's facial expression for a moment before drawing back slightly in surprise.

"Oh my! Did the medication not work again?"

"No," he said woefully.

"What a shame...the Star People have not been speaking with me recently, so I have no way to get the shippings here faster by the Star People's will. I'll try to fix it by tomorrow, as most of the ingredients for curing extreme nightmares are shipped in then. I used up everything on what I thought were normal nightmares! Enough about that; did you just wake up?" Lemon nodded. "We should get a meal in you. I, in fact, have not eaten either as I have been quite busy. Would you care to join me?"

Lemon felt the sadness of the morning lift off his shoulders as he joined arms with Grati and strolled towards the dining room.

Once the breakfast had been presented and eaten, Lemon politely continued to sit and wait for Grati to painstakingly finish his meal. It took a trifle too long for Lemon, though, so he made his way over to Grati to read what the morning newspaper had written, as it was placed in Grati's hands by the maid once he had sat down. He had seemed dejected as soon as his eyes started to move. Lemon was often locked away in the extremely large palace that was his home, and this was usually the only way to know what was going on in the outside world, so that had made him grow increasingly curious. It was almost the only thing that stopped him from feeling like a bird without wings. The headline was in bold, and his eyes quickly examined what it said.

'THREE TRELIANS KILLED BY THE WATCHERS ON THEIR FOURTEENTH BORNDAYS'

He started to scoff, but stopped as Grati made a murmur of distress.

"That is wretched. Your fourteenth bornday is coming up in only a few weeks, but thank St-ar you won't be a trelian. I presume everything is going normally? The Watchers don't know this, but sometimes trelians become themselves a trifle before their fourteenth bornday."