Hail White

Chapter 3

It’s today! Today is my birthday even tho it wont be official until 5 pm I already feel older.

I get up and hurry down the stairs, today I want to help harvest the food for the ball tonight. I walk outside of the castle through the back doors that lead to the gardens. The castle gardens were a lush oasis, bursting with vibrant colors and fragrant scents. Located just beyond the castle walls, the gardens stretched across a rolling hillside, their terraced levels creating a picturesque, stepped landscape. Neatly manicured paths, made of crushed stone and lined with tiny, white flowers, wound through the gardens, allowing easy access to the various sections. The air was alive with the gentle hum of bees and the soft chirping of birds, as they flitted from bloom to bloom.

To one side of the gardens, a vast, rectangular plot was dedicated to growing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Row upon row of carefully tended plants stretched towards the sun, their leaves a vibrant green and their fruits a rainbow of colors. Juicy, red strawberries ripened on the vines, alongside crisp, green lettuce and plump, purple eggplants. Nearby, a smaller, walled garden was home to an array of fragrant herbs, including rosemary, thyme, and lavender. The herbs were carefully pruned and trained to climb up trellises or spill over the garden's low walls, releasing their heady aromas into the air.

As the sun shone brightly overhead, the castle gardens came alive with a flurry of magical activity. Delicate, iridescent fairies flitted about, their wings glimmering like stardust as they tended to the vibrant blooms. With gentle, ethereal touches, they coaxed even the most reluctant flowers into radiant, full-blown beauty. I got to work and started harvesting some carrots for tomorrows celebration 10 full baskets were on the list as well as some other vegetables, like potatoes, onions, and cabbage.

With the back of my hand I wipe the sweat from my forehead and look around to some nearby, elves with pointed ears and mischievous grins worked tirelessly to maintain the garden's lush, emerald-green lawns. Using tiny, shimmering sickles, they harvested fresh herbs and grasses, their movements swift and precise. As they worked, they sang softly in a language that sounded like the gentle rustling of leaves.

Amidst the bustling activity, 2 witches in long, flowing robes moved with purposeful strides, their hands at the ready. With a flick of their wrists and a whispered incantation, they nurtured the garden's most magical plants, coaxing forth rare, glowing blossoms that shone like tiny lanterns in the fading light. The air was filled with the sweet scent of blooming wildflowers and the soft, musical hum of magic.

As the day was dying and the sun was setting the fairies, elves, and witches worked in harmony, the castle gardens began to transform into a dazzling, enchanted realm, and everything that was harvested was seeded again and nurtured for next season. Vines burst into bloom, cascading colorful flowers down ancient stone walls. Trees were tall and strong, their branches twisted and gnarled with age. And the very air itself seemed to vibrate with the pulse of magic, as if the garden had become a living, breathing entity, infused with the collective spirit of its mystical tenders. And as always I tried to be like a little ghost wandering around and doing my chores without getting in others way.

As night approached I went to get my food to the kitchen but this time not only had I gotten a bit more of food but also there was a piece of chocolate cake that I loved, my mother used to bake it in my birthday. This time I don’t feel like eating in my room and decide to eat here in the kitchen. A few of the maids come in and pick up the rest of the dishes that were left to dry, as I’m eating I can hear their hushed voices.

“Poor girl… she won’t make it to tomorrow” one said and gave me a sympathetic look.

“She will suffer her mothers fate” another added

“Or her dads if she’s not careful” she said lower than the others

*Well Happy Birthday to me*

They think I cannot listen to them, but I’ve always had a great hearing even if I am not close to hear conversations if I really focus I can hear them. I hurry up with my cake and take a empty spot was my dishes, dry them up and put them in the cabinets, then I scurry away to my room.

I’m sitting at the window when The Queen makes her usual appearance and into the woods she goes. There’s something about what they said that I can’t get of my head, why would someone want my mother dead, she was the nicest person, my dad, well he might have been a threat to the neighboring kingdom, but still he was always defending the ones that couldn’t defend themselves. He didn’t believe in differences between species.

At last I feel sleep take me away.

I’m awoken by a body straddling mine, and a hand pressing my mouth while the other holds a cloth to my nose. I’m struggling to get free, but he is strong and both my arms are pinned underneath his legs, I trash and turn trying to get free. I’m holding my breath as long as I can, a lot of possible scenarios run through my head. They knew something was wrong they have always known and I was to naïve to realize the danger I’ve always been in. Ultimately I can’t hold on any more and I need to bread, the moment I take air in the stuff that’s in the cloth burns my nose and my lungs, its as if they were on fire, I can feel my body losing strength and it starts to feel limp. I try to fight the blackness that tries to take over me, until I can’t no more and succumb to its embrace.

I don’t know if its a few minutes or hours but I can feel my body and start regaining consciousness and I can feel I’m being carried somewhere. My eyes flutter and now I can see the man that’s carrying me. He is not just any man but my fathers personal guardian, a vampire, and he was left in charge of The Queen’s, my stepmother, security. Not that she needs one she is powerful enough to do that on herself, but then again my father was killed and he was stronger.

“Where are you taking me Lucien” I ask my mouth feels like sandpaper

He doesn’t answer and just keeps on walking. I look around and see that we are approaching the boundary of our kingdom, just were the forest begins. I start to feel like panic rising again and he looks down at me.

“Stay calm, I can feel your heart panicking”

We reach the trees and he puts me down right next to a dead deer just about my size.

“You need to leave princess” he looks at me with hope in his eyes

“Why? You promised mom to take care of me and never leave me or hurt me” I look at him in disbelief

“The Evil Queen wants you dead,” and he just looks down

And you Volunteered” I am starting to feel rage

“I was the one to take the task and kill you, if I didn’t she would have done it herself, and this conversation would not be happening, I’m trying to protect you like I promised your parents” he looks me dead in the eye

“No!” I shout

“Yes! And this is what would happen you run into the woods and never look back, you live the life your parents wanted for you, prepare yourself and maybe you can come back and finish what we can’t” he turns around and starts opening the deer down de middle.

“And what is that for?” I point to the deer.

“She ordered to take her your heart, so this will have to do and act as your heart, once you cross the border, take of that pendant she gave you, it is suppressing your vampire abilities, but if we take it now she will know what happened here kill us both” he looks at me in complete seriousness and I don’t know what to do I’m petrified.

She has been weakening me all this time on purpose keeping me as a maid behind false promises.

“RUN” he shouts

I turn around and bolt into the unknown, after a few strides into the dark forest I take off the pendant and throw it as far as I can a head of me and I run.