A Journey's Revelations

The Heist

It was a dark, dank, and cool night in the middle of autumn. He closed his eyes and released his breath, rolling his shoulders back. Everything had to go perfectly. He watched his wife scale the wall.

The woman scaled the wall of the Royal Nuvannian Family Palace with apparent ease, in her black, tight leather one piece, soft soled black leather boots, and leather gloves. The leather gave better traction. Laila smiled as the new leather suit made gripping the handholds easy. The nursery window was 14 and half feet to above her and slightly to her right. To guards watching the castle, she was invisible. Her heart pounding, she scaled higher, and finally reached the window edge, slinging herself up in one movement. 

She moved like a faerie elf might. Ash smiled mischievously as he watched. The race of the endless ones, the Faerie Elven or the Elven folk, were the longest living race. They moved with grace and precision. A faerie elf, commonly known as elf, had incredible strength and speed. As a race, they went beyond legendary. Comparing the blonde woman to them was entirely unfair to the Faerie Elven, but it was the best compliment Laila could receive. She swung up to the window seal, picked the lock, opened the window and slipped inside. Ash was to meet her outside the servant’s quarters. She had gone ahead to take out the guards, as she was quieter than he was. He scampered up the pole, swung into the opened window, and landed somewhat heavily on his feet.  He ran more light-footedly to the nursery, stopping briefly to meet up with Laila. From there, they ran together.

         When they reached the nursery, the first step was to quietly take out the internal guards as to not wake anyone. Rayne, just 9 months old, was sucking on the bars of her cradle, fast asleep. However, her young brother was not sleeping. He stared wide-eyed at these strange adults he did not recognize, his 3 year old mind processing the danger. Before he could scream, Ash clamped Kinley's mouth closed and tied his hands while Laila fashioned a gag. Then Laila scooped up the baby Rayne and headed out as Ash grabbed Kinley. They slipped out of the east wing of the palace, knocking out or otherwise decapitating anyone who would stand in their way. Waiting at the exit was a third, a man, who held a squirming, gagged child. Blake, the heir to the Scarvannjan throne, whom their counterpart had been sent to collect from the west wing of the palace where royal guests stayed. Now that they had Blake, they made for the edge of the forest where a cache of supplies was waiting their arrival. Then, they had to make their way to the southern edge of the forest where the rest of their supplies were waiting. Then, they ran like never before. They ran hard, fast and kept it up for as long as possible. However, first they had to outrun the King’s Cavalry. Dealing with the constant barrage of guards  at the palace had cost them precious time and daylight. The Cavalry were pushing their horses hard-- they were going to be nearly impossible to outrun. By the time Ash, Laila and the children made it to the supply cache where the carriages were and had started on their way, the cavalry were less than a half day away at the current pace. 

They rolled along in the carriage, not quite fast enough to keep the cavalry at bay. Nervously, Ash ran his hand through his caramel hair, hoping that they would make it. Laila sat across from him, naive and arrogant. She had no doubt that they would make it across flawlessly. As they neared where they would cross over, the ground began to shake. At the same time, they heard hoofbeats in the distance. The ground heaved, shook and cracked.