The Princess of Light and Dark

4.The escape

Having lived in Lord Lupus ‘ Palace for over 3 years, I had enough freedom to move around the rooms without being punished or arise suspicion, the only rooms I was not allowed into were Lord Lupus’ private chambers and Sarnarel’s sleeping quarters. I had found that sitting in the grand hall as the sunlight appeared at dawn was not only beautiful, but also peaceful. And so after accidentally witnessing a sunrise in there, I sought refuge in there whenever I needed time to rest or think, I had found a lovely little nook on the opposite corner to the grand doors of the hall from where I could see everything, but couldn’t be seen myself, I had discovered that as I sat there one day watching a guard fondle the maids breasts, she had looked around the room twice and never spotted me. I sat disgusted as I heard their soft moans before stopping abruptly as the doors banged open. I shuddered at the memory, just as the doors swung open again and I heard the commander tell Lord Lupus that Blue Forest elves had been spotted near by. The moment I heard that I knew the time to escape was now. I had carefully memorised the guards habits and I knew where the secret exit was after I had possessed a guard and searched his memories for that secret place. It wouldn’t be easy, but as I stood from my nook and slipped out of the room without being noticed, Thuria murmured her approval of the plan. Tonight we would escape.  

** 

After everyone had retired for the night, I sneaked out of bed and slowly opened the door of my room, as usual, the guard who sat outside my door was slumped over snoring softly. I had had all day to plan this with Thuria, and we had decided that the simplest of plans would be the best course, and so we possessed his sleeping mind, forced him awake and twisted his grasp on reality until he believed his wife was secretly meeting another elf in the Palace. We projected images of his wife and another warrior onto his mind, making him follow the imaginary sounds of her infidelity all the way to the kitchen, where he fought an invisible foe, pots crashing, plates flying and breaking, causing a commotion big enough that most of the Palace guards, along with Sarnarel and his father rushed to see what was happening. Among the confusion, I slipped out of my room and out the Palace unnoticed, I went down on the elevator slowly, and reached the old dungeon gates in the cover of night, unscathed and slightly confident. I would escape tonight and find my father’s elves and return home.  

I ran towards the dark forest, knowing the secret gate was in there, well hidden behind thick bushes and dead tree trunks, I had just started pulling away at the thick leaves and sticks when I heard the tell tale sound of a horn; s**t, they’d noticed I was gone. I had to hurry, my hands pulled and ripped away at the leaves, my legs trembled in fear, stars know what they would do to me if they caught me. I finally managed to uncover the gate and had to use a small spell to blow the lock open, hopefully with the horns blowing no one had heard that, I threw the gate open and ran, I ran as fast as I could through the dark tunnel until I could see a faint light at the end, I ran faster as faint shouts filled the air behind me. They knew. I had to be fast, I reached the end of the tunnel and pushed the thick long vines out of the way, only to stumble onto another thick forest. The voices grew louder and the light from the torches was now visible, I knew they were close. I ran, this time I had no idea where I was going, the guards' memories held nothing of this place and so I was blindly running through a dense forest in the dead of night.  

Low branches scratched at my face and arms as I ran through the trees, at Thuria’s advice I had worn a simple camisole and cotton trousers, with some old worn boots I had stolen from the kitchen.  

My chest hurt from exertion as my raged breaths fought their way out of my mouth, my legs and feet felt heavy, I looked around me noticing the quiet and calm of the forest. There was no one following me. Had they given up? My hopes crashed into oblivion when a whistling sound whizzed and an arrow pierced the tree next to my head, I spun around in fear my eyes darting around the trees looking for my attacker. Silver hair glinted in the moonlight as I slowly moved back, my feet shuffling carefully, my eyes never leaving those cold sparkling eyes, my heart suddenly flew into my throat as I felt my foot slide and gravity pull my body down, I realised with a grunt that I had fallen down a small ravine and had landed awkwardly on my ankle and bum. I stood and looked up just in time to see Sarnarel’s feet flying over the edge, I turned and ran, my painful ankle making my whole-body shudder painfully with each movement, but I couldn’t let him catch me. My breath knocked out of my chest as my body collided with what felt like a giant boulder and I flew into a tree, startled and disoriented I shook my head as I opened my eyes to see a ginormous warrior standing in front of me. He had tackled me into the tree, I stood up slowly, Thuria already whispering spells into my mind, my hands shot out in front of me and a bolt of purple lightning hit the warrior in the chest sending him flying backwards into a giant boulder. I slid down onto my knees, exhausted from the sudden use of such a great force, my heart galloping in my throat as I watched Sarnarel round the giant monster and smirk. I hadn’t seen Sarnarel face to face since well over two years ago, I had heard him around the Palace and seen him from a distance, but as his body slowly crouched in front of me and his hauntingly beautiful silver eyes looked into my violet ones an intense shudder went through me. I raised my hand as fast as I could to launch an energy attack on him, but Thuria remained quiet in my mind. I gazed at him; desperation clear in my eyes as his smirk grew bigger. I kept trying to conjure as much power as I could to send him flying, but it was like my whole body and soul fought me on it. Suddenly, his eyes turned black and I watched as an older version of Sarnarel sat on a ledge with a small baby in his arms, I watched him stand and turn and drop down to his knees and catch a small silver haired little girl. I saw her black eyes shine up at him, a great big smile on her face, the word daddy whispered from her lips, his eyes turned silver again and he smirked and whispered  

“Finally, you know the truth, you, Elvira, are my fated.” 

My eyes rolled into the back of my head and everything went dark as I fell limply into his chest.