The Royal Flame

Through the city

“Were that gun shots?” Unsure if those even exist in this world, I look scared towards Eresa.

“What? Gun what?” Klyn obnoxiously leans further towards the window as Isbeil grabs him by the arm. Pulling him away from it.

“Iron pellets fired with the speed of arrows, which will crush anything in their track. Naturally when you leave your cave not knowing anything you lure immense trouble with you.” Isbeil further complains, as Mer runs inside the room.

“Soldiers are in front of our door. They are being held back for now by an up rise of the towns people but they are asking for that guy and his sister.” She points directly towards Klyn.

Eresa scrapes a chest over the floor bearing the wooden floor completely. She starts lifting a wooden plank, Klyn joins her and together they quickly reveal a hidden latch. Sliding it open, a narrow stair appears downwards.

“Go.” She sighs from exhaustion.

“I will try to keep them out a bit longer.” With that Mer disappears.

Eresa grabs Klyn who stands next to her by his shoulders.

“Do not go back to Nolltunga, or as you call it, Norhill. She is meant for so much more and so are you. She holds the power to change everything, protect her and find Dimlinn. He will be able to explain everything, that I do not have the time for now. Go!” Eresa finishes by looking at me. The urgency in her eyes convinces me immediately, I have no intention to go anywhere whit Klyn thus I hurry. Grabbing the stairs, I take my first couple of steps downwards. As I disappear half in the floor I look up to Eresa.

“Thank you.”

“I will see you soon again. Stay safe till then” Her eyes ensure me that these are not just words for comfort. I will be able to see her soon again. She will find me.

With that comfort, I move down the cold vertical stairs until my foot hits the ground. A quick look up shows me that Klyn is right behind me. I have to hurry if I want to lose him. No matter the strong words of Eresa. She is nothing to him. I expect he will be too stubborn and still drag me off to that forsaken winter land.

Eresa closes the hatch to the stairs. The hallway becomes pitch black but within the complete darkness as a small keyhole gives me the location of a door. The keyhole is not extremely lightened, but the difference between the light on the other side of the door and the pitch-black hallways is good enough to find my way to it. Stumbling to the hallway I get to the door, but so does Klyn. He grabs me by the shoulder as I place my hand on the handle of the door.

“Wait, we do not know what is on the other side of that door.” He pushes me a bit back. Pushing the handle down he opens the door slightly. Enough to see through a slit what is on the other side. A small street with the same cobble stones, that I slid over this morning. People run through it towards the right, to what seems to be a big crowd assembling at the front of the inn. Torches are lid and carried by some, others raise their voices as people wiggle through each other to the front of the inn.

“We have to go now.” I nudge to Klyn. Opening the door wide enough we slide through, moving in the opposite way. We quickly walk through the street that ends up at a T road.

“To the left” I whisper and surprisingly Klyn does not complain. We continue hurriedly, careful enough not to fall down, I grab the skirt from both sides to free my feet from any fabric. I slow down as my nerves settle down, we took enough turns for me to get lost and passed a couple of streets. We should be safe.

“Where to now?” Klyn notices that I slow down.

“Eresa said we have to find Dimlinn.” From Mer’s memory, I still remember the small man and his wooden stick that waved to Mer as she ran outside through the fields. But without any directions, her memory does not give enough hints how to find him.

“Let’s leave this town for now.” Klyn nods.

I turn another street corner which I immediately regret. Bumping into something I fall on my back. Pain shoots through my spine as my butt hits the cobble stones. Scrambling up I stroke my own behind, to sooth the pain. In front of me a man holds a wooden box.

“Jurian.”

“Ella, you have a bad habit of falling. Or is that because of me? Are you alright?” I sheepishly laugh, somehow in a situation like such he still knows the perfect things to say. In his hands, I now recognize the wooden box. It is the box he kept for us with his best potatoes. Although glad to see a familiar face, we are given no time for simple conversations. Right behind Jurian in the end of the street a man appears. Clothes different than usual, red vest and white pants similar to Klyn’s, reveal to me that he must be one of the soldiers which caused Eresa to urge us away. He looks at me and Jurian’s back, as he slowly approaches. With every step he takes I move slightly backwards. Unfortunately, Klyn is unaware of his. Stepping into view he looks to the left, right towards the man who immediately recognizes him. Shouting through the street he runs towards us. Without losing a second I turn around. My feet run over the cobbles, fully focused to place my foot vertically on the cobbles not to fall down I make it till the end of the street. Before turning to the left I look back, Klyn is running towards me but he is still far away. It seems he stayed besides Jurian for a while before he decided to go after me.

Jurian on the other hand dropped the box full with potatoes over the street. Potatoes, camouflaged by the street cobbles are scattered around. Smoothly Jurian moves over the cobbles, sliding his hands through the air as Eresa sometimes does. It is hard to see from afar, especially with Klyn blocking the view so now and then with his broad shoulders. From the potatoes, small roots grow with an enormous speed. Scattering over the road they lung towards the soldier who yells out as they get a hold of his foot. Wrapping around his ankle they move up his body, with his sword he is able to cut himself loose but they are too fast for him to get loose. Unfortunately, I am unable to enjoy the view of vegetables coming to life as other soldiers appear from the end of the street. I am sorry to leave Jurian behind as I am aware they will not leave him unharmed. However, I am useless, I cannot help him in any way. It is an easy excuse that I give myself to let go, to remove my feet from their position and to continue to run through the streets. Lifting the skirt up again I run forward, not looking back I take another couple of turns, leading me to a part of town that I have never seen before. Of that I am certain. This time I do not stop, they saw me now, they know how I look. Klyn however makes it far easier for them as he is literally a white light running around town raising attention. My feet do not stop, another turn, one more, between two houses I turn into a small alley. Against the wall, wiping my hands on my knees I allow myself to catch my breath.

“Where do you think you are going by yourself? Trying to outrun me?” a little annoyed Klyn catches up with me, he doesn’t seem to be out of breath at all.

“It is better if we split up. With those white clothes, you are easy to spot from miles away. Furthermore, how can I trust you that you wont just ship me off to that godforsaken cold land of yours the minute you get the chance.” I narrow my eyes at him as I take deep breaths.

“You are stuck with me, if you like it or not, I am bound to you. Your pain is my suffering. I will protect you no matter if I take you home or if we go somewhere else, for my benefit as well but also yours. I don’t know these lands either, but at least we won’t be lost alone.” He doesn’t seem completely truthful nor certain about his own words, but wandering through these streets or unknown lands does indeed sound better with someone beside me. At least I know what to expect, any first signs of enormous snow covered mountains and I will know to get out.

“All right mister white pants let’s keep going before we will be both exploring some prison cell together.” I push myself from the wall to continue to the end of the alley. Poking my head out I look to both sides. The broad street looks empty so far, still filled with the wooden stalls it feels secure as some sort of coverage is given.

“Stay low.” I whisper to Klyn, who with his height would stand out even if the streets would be filled by a crowd. Lowered we move to the left with the coverage the stalls give us. Not knowing where this street will lead us, at least this direction will put some distance between us and the inn. From time to time I kneel down between the stalls to catch my breath. Klyn right behind me continuously urges me to keep moving, but the long skirts that restrict my steps wear me out. Spotting another opening between the stalls I move towards the small space, however Klyn stops me. With a push by the shoulder he pushes me forward, past the rest spot I was aiming towards. Trying to find another goal to make it bearable without a break, I look for the next wide enough opening. But the stalls are positioned closer against each other, instead the end of the road can be seen as a white church like construction shimmers in the light of the moon that appeared from behind the clouds. At the end of the road a couple of stairs lead to a white church which rests on a platform with nothing behind it. The rows of houses come to a halt, at the first steps. Ahead nothing but the sky behind the church, the end of the city and the way to freedom.

Hearing some shouts from behind us, our feet take off. Klyn seems to hold back his speed to stay besides me, not breaking a sweat at all, seemingly he could have run past me hours ago. We arrive at the first steps of the stairs. As we run up we soon realize our biggest mistake when besides the church a small square comes into our view. A square with a low stone stacked fence. The sky, the earlier nothingness that we assumed would be our freedom and way out now turns out to be once again the ocean that spreads out before my eyes. Coming to a halt on top of the stairs we look behind to see the six soldiers nearing us, to close for us to go down the stairs and into a different road. While some town folk follow them with torches, there is nothing between us and them. The dead ending road and houses trapped us in. Two of the soldier’s halt, removing their guns from their sockets they point them towards us. We automatically lower with the sound of the shots. A brief look into each other’s eyes, we run over to the stacked stone fence, only to be confronted with the steepest plunge there is, off a cliff into an ocean with rocks piercing above the waves, created by the ocean clashing into the rocks.

Turning once more around the soldiers are now appearing onto the platform as they take the first couple of steps. Klyn prepares himself, pushing me behind him. I can feel the stone fence poking into my knee pits. Over his shoulder, he gives me a look.

“I know it is early to do so, but you will have to trust me.” He has nothing to defend us with, meanwhile the soldiers run up pulling their swords and guns out.

“How?” I didn’t mean to sound doubtful, yet I did.

“Don’t be too surprised. I won’t hurt you.” Klyn smiles reassuringly at me as black hairs grow before my eyes from his neck. Tension grows in his clothes. I can hear the threads snapping under pressure, as they give in. Dropping the left over white pieces of cloth on the ground as black hairy limbs grow in size. The soldiers stumble backwards on the sight of the creature that Klyn slowly becomes. His hands are now fully covered, turning into soft but huge paws. My eyes widen to see such a transformation right in front of me, I can literally touch the fur while his body extends itself. Falling forward he grows within seconds to his full size. His back paws push into me. He looks immediately backwards as he felt the sudden object against him, which was I. Who now tries to regain her balance. Grabbing around in the air I try to grab his fur. My fingers slide through his thick black fur. With not enough grip I slide through, the low fence pokes into my knee pits that give in to gravity, throwing me backwards over the fence. I can see the shocked black wolf’s green emerald eyes before nothing but the evening sky is in my view. My hair is blown from behind. A dark stone wall moves quickly besides me as I fall downwards. A black shadow appears over the edge of the wall. Instead of accepting such a fate after a second or two my reflexes take over. Pointing my toes, increasing in speed I redirect my body. Faced towards the wall I stretch myself vertically, my body tensed, filled with fear, braising for impact.