Saving Her Kingdom

♡ Chapter 28

Chapter 28 (Edited)

The next morning, I was woken up by the loud noise of the door. "Rise and shine, children!", chirped the voice of the woman.

I heard the woman open the curtains and I slowly opened my eyes, immediately blinded by the already bright light coming from the windows. I propped myself up on my elbows and looked beside me to find Thomas rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"What time is it?", I asked the woman as she opened a window.

"It's already half past ten, children! Time to get up!", she sent us an overly excited one-tooth smile.

"What?", Thomas and I exclaimed in unison. He shot up from the floor, I sat up and we stared at the woman incredulously.

She cackled. "You two really looked like you could use a bit more sleep than usual," she explained.

I silently cringed. What a sight we must have been, all sprawled over the floor at ten in the morning. Thomas cleared his throat. "Thanks for letting us sleep for the night," he said while extending his hand towards me to help me up.

"You're welcome, you're welcome. It's not every day that we have visitors," she replied as she walked to the kitchen, "Come on, children! Have something to eat!"

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An hour later, we had eaten and were ready to go. Since we already had the map and the key, we decided to look for the rose at the burnt cottage of my parents. I felt my chest tighten when I thought about it. That place held so much pain for me... I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I had to focus on our mission.

I stepped outside the house, following Thomas. The woman closed the door behind me and turned to face us. She had agreed to lead us back to the entrance of the maze. She walked quickly in front of us and exclaimed over her shoulder, "Be careful not to lose me!"

We followed her through the bushes and every complicated turn. I searched for the red cloth where Robert had stopped guiding us, but didn't see it anywhere. We must have taken another path, I thought.

When we reached the end of the path, I sighed with relief. We burst out into the sunlight and stopped, turning to the woman. She grinned at us. "It now begins, children! I wish you both good luck."

"Thank you so much ma'am. We will always be grateful," I said, to which Thomas nodded in agreement.

She waved us off. "It's nothing. I knew someone would come for the secret at some point. After so much war in that kingdom, it was to be expected...", she sighed, "I sincerely hope you will succeed."

She squeezed my shoulder and patted Thomas' cheek, to which he looked a bit annoyed. "I hope so too. Thank you again," he said.

She nodded. "Now go. You have a lot to do."

We smiled at each other and she waved as she walked back into the darkness of the maze.

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We arrived at the village and immediately went to the inn, where we had left Apollo and Belle.

I knocked at the door and the old lady opened up. She looked surprised to see us, curtsied and stepped aside to let us enter. "Oh, you came back! How fortunate! Please have a seat, I will serve your lunch."

When we were seated and she had served us with an omelet, she questioned eagerly, "Have you found the recluse?"

I nodded. "Yes, or rather the woman found us, and led us to her and the old man's house."

"Oh, how lucky are you! I hope they helped you with what you were looking for."

"Yes, they have," I smiled at her.