Breaking a tale

Dawn - A runaway, a traveling merchant, the prince and me.

The next day I woke up excited. The festival was still going on until tomorrow so Guinevere had no work for me to do and I could go and explore again. I had organised to meet up with Orion and Biron at the well in the centre of town. I went along a path I don't usually use, and I spent a lot of the walk marvelling at all the amazing decorations that had been placed upon the walls of houses.

Even though it was early the square was already filled with people. I made my way over to the well where the boys were already waiting for me. We sat down on a bench and discussed what we were going to do that day. I suggested wandering around the festival, but that idea was quickly shut down as Orion stated he had already seen it all and Biron reminded me what happened yesterday when we decided to go exploring. Orion wanted to go back to the dragons and check up on them, he seemed very fond of the creatures but neither I nor Biron thought this was a good idea as neither of us wanted to get turned into a kebab by a protective mother dragon.

Just when we had almost given up and were thinking about just lazing about in the cottage for the whole day I spotted a figure out of the corner of my eye. She was young looking, maybe in her early twenties and was wearing all black. I pointed her out to the boys and when Orion saw the girl his eyes lit up. He stood up and motioned for us to follow him. Orion then crept up on her and pounced, causing both of them to fall to the ground. It was a rather amusing sight but incredibly confusing. The girl let out a yell of surprise before hugging Orion. Once they had finished their over the top greeting Biron coughed.

"Care to introduce us?" He said with an eyebrow raised.

"Guys this is my sister, Niobe."

I was shocked. I had known Orion for quite a long time now and he had never mentioned a sister before. She was also the complete opposite of him. While he had a large clumsy frame, she was sleek and elegant, apart from their startling hair, the one thing they both shared was an intimidation factor. You wouldn't want to meet either of them in a dark alleyway.

She smiled at us and shook both our hands. "I hope my little brother hasn't been getting you into too much trouble."

He winced before muttering something about not wanting to be embarrassed in front of his friends. The four of us decided to go out to a pub for lunch. Most of them were full of cheerful villagers catching up with old friends from the other villages nearby, but we eventually found one that had a spare table. Inside the pub was dark and smokey but not in a bad way, it felt like the place you might remember going to as a child. We sat down at the table and began talking to Niobe. She seemed incredibly nice but every time we asked her why she had come to Hemlock she managed to change the subject. She even avoided questions from Orion.

Eventually, she reluctantly decided to tell us why she was here, but she stopped when the waiter came to take our orders. Turns out, she had broken the golden rule of the tales by abandoning her given role in favour of an adventure of her own. And was now being hunted by something! She wouldn't say what.

She had been found by an organisation that helps people who want to make their own way in the tales and she now works for them, getting people out of situations they feel uncomfortable in and to a place of safety.

"Then why are you here?" I asked confused. As far as I knew everyone in Hemlock was pretty happy, apart from me of course but I felt like I couldn't just abandon the people I had formed friendships with here, at least not without a proper reason to...

"The organisation is hoping to reach out to the prince today," she said bluntly.

We all looked at her in confusion, Biron seemed to shuffle uncomfortably and went slightly pale.