Unveiled

~ Prologue ~

Naya's lunges are burning and the chilly winter night does not help at all. It feels like shards of ice in her lungs, but she still keeps running. A few feet in front of her, she sees her eldest brother, Jake, running through the puddles of rain from today. She can barely see him, in his dark coat and boots.

"Get back here." She hears a man shout from behind her. She just keeps running trying to keep up to her brother.

Jake turns around the corner into an alleyway and draws Naya around the corner and holds her close. She peeks up to him under her cowl, he is a head and a half taller than her. She can just make out the dark, blue black hair and eyes, under his hood.

The merchants that were chasing them run past the alleyway, without a second glance. Jake looks at his younger sister and smiles. She smiles back. They stand there for a few seconds in each other's arms, until they can no longer hear the displeasured shouts from the merchants.

Jake and Naya sigh with relief and he peeks around the corner, up and down the street. As soon as he knows the street is clear they emerge from the shadows and head up town, towards the castle. As they start running towards the castle, they burst out with laughter, unable to contain it any longer. It starts to rain again and Jake and Naya have a newly found leap in their run to escape the rain.

They head to the river, where there is a secret tunnel leading to the underground catacombs of the castle. Jake and Naya have been using this tunnel ever since he had discovered it two years ago, to get out of the castle and just cool down and have some fun, like tonight.

Once in the catacombs, the siblings take of their cowls over their heads and they walk the maze that leads to their rooms. They have been walking this maze for two years and it still confuses Naya. That is a good thing, right?

The catacombs are dark, but Jake knows the way and Naya just follows him, through the maze. When they come across their normal fork in the road that leads to Naya's room the one way and to Jake's the other way, they wish each other good night and they walk their separate ways.