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tiredasexual-blog · 7 years

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Another untitled WIP that I.. uh may now be working so hard on right now. (its also old so probs not my best work)

Slowly the sun conquered the feeble starlight, its warmth overpowering night’s tranquillity. A few seabirds followed the wind to shore. Far beneath the sky, the ocean attempted to mirror the sun, shining as it battered the rocky coast. Growing above the sea was a city of spires and glass. Its dark outline cast a dangerous shadow over the land behind, but the glass sparkled as if it were diamond.

The city was called Mistbank.

Upon one lonely roof high in the city, sat a girl watching the spectacle. Her fragile figure gave a start and stretched. Unaware or unconcerned of her solitude she began to murmur softly to herself.

“They’re awake” she stood and sighed lightly. Hardly a heartbeat later, a regal voice called out.

“Zora dear, are you up there again, come now you have to have breakfast”. The thin, pasty girl turned. Zora had the distinctive green eyes of a noble, but the green was surrounded by a purple mist not belonging to anyone she knew. She wore a lemon yellow t-shirt, under her black hooded cloak, which was playing around her ankles. Zora’s black hair was hidden by her hood. Following the sound of the voice she entered the building she had been sat upon.

Inside was white - white walls, white tables, and shiny white marble floors. The whole building was like this, cold and clinical yet everything was elegant and frilly. Zora calmly made her way through the house, picking an apple from an ornamental silver bowl. Her mother was lurking around the corner and scowled.

“When you have finished taking a part the decorations Zora, we do have a schedule to keep to you know.” At this Zora longed to retort but bit her lip. Into silence the woman cut in again.

“I told Chef to make you crumpets, as a special leaving treat” Zora frowned slightly ashamed of this.

“You woke that poor man up this early, after last night?” The chef had been up all night tending to the guests appetites for Zora’s leaving party. This was not Zora’s idea of fun and she hid away on the part of the roof that overhangs, so any who did dare to venture up quickly left to vomit. In fact none of her few real friends were invited and as a result it was less of a leaving party, and more of a chance for showing off the house, and Chefs cooking.

“We do employ him you know” At this Zora gave in and left for the kitchen.

This was the one place in the house Zora liked. The room looked and felt warm, and as usual with kitchens had a wondrous smell of food. Chef was sat at a small oak table in the middle of the room clutching a large cup of black coffee. Although he was the only person in the house she felt at ease with, Zora never learned Chefs name. Her mother had forbidden the staff to tell their names to discourage unprofessional friendliness. This was only partially effective and most of the staff avoided Zora for fear that her mother would punish them. It never worked as well with Chef, maybe because Zora had to speak to him to order food or perhaps it was more due to his friendly, chatty nature. Either way Chef was a friendly face today.

“Thanks, sorry about waking you up”.

“No, you are very welcome. I wanted to see you off anyway” He had a deep calming voice that sounded like the food he made.

“Even so, from what I could hear it sounded like you went to sleep later than I did”. In response to this he became suddenly stern.

“You slept up there again?” Zora sat down at the table, and swallowed a bite of the crumpet replying.

“This is nice did you put butter on it first?” Her failed attempt at a distraction only earned her an irritated look.

“You know, one day you will move in your sleep and fall off, then where would you be?”

Zora had a whole suite of rooms but it was on the ground floor and furnished in the same style as the rest of the house. She much preferred to sit on the roof and watch the world than to stay indoors. This was worrying enough for most parents. Unfortunately, she also caused everybody no end of worry by sleeping up there too. Not being afraid of heights was not a normal trait in the highborn classes.

“No I won’t, I can’t now anyway” This comment brought a silence over the pair, neither wanted to have to think about that. Even though it was going to happen and there was nothing that they could do about it.

“And anyway” she said, pausing to devour the crumpet some more, “I could fly, you never know”

“You would fly, right before landing SPALT outside the door” He grinned, glad to be back on their favourite topic, Zora’s dream of flying.

“Imagine it though, gliding over the city from high above” She was one of the very few people not afraid of heights and one of the even fewer who enjoyed them.

“I am, its not nice. If you fell...” Zora cut in not paying attention.

“In the clouds whizzing past-“ But she too was interrupted by a drowsy voice.

“Are you finished? Only the driver has just come.” Zora’s farther sleepily wandered in helping himself to some food Chef had made for his own breakfast. Carefully not looking at either of them she replied.

“Yes, but why do I have to go this early.”

“We can’t have anyone else see you leaving they might guess…” He trailed off looking pale and feeble. Silence crept in again. Suddenly the ache of leaving hit her again, she had been trying to push it off but as distractions wore thin she had nothing else to think about.

“Well then I guess you should be off now then Zora”. At this she rose nodded goodbye to Chef and left the room without looking at her farther.

No one was there to wave her off. As she stepped out a magpie took flight into the sky. Summer was fading. The street was semi-permanently wet, in one month of summer the road dried up. Today, because of the suns blazing presence the street was only marginally soggy, small streams trickling downhill. Down the road a small black car was parked and an equally small driver stood waiting. Drawing her cloak around her she strode up to the car.

“Mornin’. Miss Winston?” For a government official he seemed simple.

“Yes”. Her throat suck and any polite reply she’d planned vanished.

“Jump in the back please Missy”.

“Wait”. Wanting one last look Zora’s head swivelled back, then hesitating she climbed into the car. Inside was comfortable, worn leather and a number of strange buttons, including a bright red one that seemed to glow. The engine growled and hissed to life. Buildings started to move, slowly at first, then faster. Zora’s whole city flew past. Zora’s whole life flew past. They pasted long winding street and narrow bumpy ones. Currently she knew exactly where she was, Clearville Road, Northbay Street, Petrus Avenue …

“Wait stop a minute!”

The car slowed to a stop. Keeping her head down she looked out of the window into the scruffy street. Playing Pulgbry (a rugby like game with a dummy as the ball) were 5 people, they were down a player. They were Zora’s friends and came from a background that differed greatly from her own. Due to living in The Pit (so named because once living there it’s hard to get out) they had ragged clothes and a thin scrawny look to them that only comes from to many meals denied to them. These people were the reason leaving here was hard; without her many they would eat less now. Without her friends’ knowledge, she gave food she stole from home to their families. None of them knew she was a noble, her green eyes had earned suspicion at first but eventually she became a part of the group.

The car moved along.

Still thoughts of her friends followed her. Days of exploring the city she had now left behind. But one day stuck in her mind. One Friend too. Arla.

How innocent had such a life changing day begun. Like most days they were exploring the city, the tall imposing buildings were their climbing frames. Zora was the best climber but Arla never even left the ground, the height of the buildings always left her head swimming. She was far more content watching them and telling them how high they were, or the safest way up. That day they were attempting a particularly difficult building (first one up wins) it was one of the many towering skyscrapers in the city. But this tower mostly consisted of glass and required skill to climb up. Summer was still bright but only high up could it be felt properly, most of the city was in its own shadow. Arla wasn’t the only one not wanting to take the risk but the other two stayed at home.

Only Zora and May would be climbing this and they would be greatly helped by Arla shouting advice at the bottom, until of course they couldn’t hear her.

With a start Zora realised that the driver was talking to her.

“-Well of course this is a punishment ‘n all but I do ‘ave to say it’s really rather impressive, say missy are you lissnin?” As he craned around the, car swerved dangerously.

“No.” She answered simply to quiet him, she knew that he was no to blame for this, that he merely represented the issue. But she couldn’t swallow the burning injustice of it.

For a while Zora watched the city she both despised and adored shrink behind them. Outside was a variety of greys, they were still trapped in the shadow of the tower. It wasn’t even that early any more. The land here matched the shadows, plain and unused. Crops didn’t grow here. A few houses dotted in the horizon slowly growing into fuzzy lumps of red white and grey.

Eventually they escaped from under the city’s shade. They had entered the promising land beyond, life grew better here. As they zoomed past she watched interested by the people, tending the crops. Never before had she ventured out of the city, although she had seen pictures of the endless green, interfered with only by the gravely path that drove through it. Crops here were a way of life and the city got all but the most exotic of its produce from here. People looked well fed and friendly even the sun smiled upon this place. They drove on.

The journey seemed endless, her intimidating city was but a speck on the horizon now, growing fainter with every minute. Zora longingly looked behind at the city, going, going … gone.

Her breath caught, so she looked ahead.

The pleasant farming land stopped, it was simply interrupted by an angry forest that dared them to enter. It even managed to ward the farmers off apparently, the fields surrounding it looked abandoned. The dark branches leaned out, trying to touch the world.

As the car slithered through the opening a blast of fear hit Zora, breaking the silence.

“Where are we?” She tried to suppress a shiver.

“Oh this, creepy right? Just a forest. The locals, superstitious lot, think its evil. Most go around it. Me? I think it’s an easy shortcut.” His cheerful tone didn’t exactly calm her.

“Why do they think its evil?” She looked out the window, the forest may look sinister, but evil?

“Well look around missy- hardly pretty eh. That an’ some sheep and such gone missin’. Probably just lost ‘em, they aren’t that bright here” Zora was not a superstitious person but she could feel a hum warning her of this place.

Silence fell again.

In the forest, a hunter watched growling behind a twisted tree. The plant life here had triumphed over people, only a narrow winding path managed to break though the weakest parts. What little green there was, was at the tree tops, gasping for light. Branches seemed to fight for space tangling with one another. Everything seemed to buzz with danger.

What happened next seemed strangely inevitable.

Something very small and sharp flew past the front of the car. Followed by a complaint from the car.

“Tyre is bust by the sounds of it, this road needs doin’ it’s pretty uneven.” Zora squirmed as he got out of the car.

“Something hit the car and broke the tyre! Don’t get out it could be a trap!”

“Don’t be daft, tha’s your imagination missy, probably just a stone or twig” He replied in his cheerful voice.

As soon as he touched the tyre another object flew, from the left and hit the man in the arm. It was then that Zora saw what it was, a bit of wood, no bigger than a splinter, but very fast. The cabbie fell to the floor almost instantly and after a small moment of panic, Zora dived to the bottom of the car. Hardly daring to draw breath, she listened hard but there wasn’t much to hear for a while. Not a rustle or whisper, no wind or birds.

Until the window smashed as a rock punched into it. In horror Zora covered herself with her cloak to stop glass from tearing into her, it worked, mostly.

She would never be able to remember what happened next but there wasn’t much to remember. Shaking the glass of her coat Zora tried to check how many cuts she had, but the pain was so general it was difficult. Another splinter flew, she watched as it flew into her shoulder. Then blackness fell. There was an odd sensation of falling though a dark hole, she reached out in fear, the wall was soft. Suffocating darkness surrounded her, flailing against it, Zora landed.

First of all she felt, felt a warm pressure on top of her and a hot sandpaper scratching her face with water. Then she began to think, she was lying down, but what had just happened? It all came flooding back, the tyre, her cabbie then… blackness.

Zora opened her eyes. This did not help.

A giant feline was crushing her ribs, ready to strike.

No. She was being slow, the cat wasn’t that big, just heavy. Now she was coming to her senses it had a kind face, and was far too fluffy to be wild. Just as she began to see the cat imposed no real threat a voice shouted.

“OI Captain the girl’s awake!” Instantly forgetting about the cat, she struggled up, of course this resulted in hiss from the creature, who then shook its black coat with dignity.

“Hello miss, you feeling alright? Don’t mind Flash, he’s a big softie.” The remains of the drug (It was that which made her pass out) must have still been effecting her as she took some time to form her response.

“Flash?”

“That cat, say you don’t look to good the drug does that. By the way I’m Frank, jus’ Frank” He had a similar tone to the cabbie she noted.

Zora began to look around then and was surprised to see that she was still in the forest, In the centre of a large clearing. Light flooded the camp, which had around 20 people doing various things, from cooking on the large fire near to where Zora was, to supervising the 3 children, who were playing what looked like fencing with sticks. Tangled branches seemed to make the clearing unreachable, except for a human sized gap used to leave and enter.

Then Zora’s view was blocked by a smiling face, The Captain was a surprisingly small man, with wide eyes and a big smile, he had grey hair and an old face. She was shocked to see no trace of cruelty there.

“Sorry, the boys gave you a bit of a fright eh? We didn’t know you were there, else we would have been a bit less frightening in the approach.” Zora blinked, his tone was of someone talking to a patient at a hospital, trying to cheer them up.

“What are we gonna to do with her sir? She’s young enough to keep I suppose bu’ she looks like a poshy type, we could end up with her parents stringing us up.”

“Hmm” The Captain pondered this a while, taking time to think this over, and all the time watching Zora.

“What’s your name, it’s alright we won’t hurt you. No need to be frightened” Zora looked at the man, calculating his intentions. She drew herself up like she had seen her parents do when addressing a person of authority.

“Zora, Zora Winston sir “.

He gave a pleasant laugh at her attempt to sound grand.

“Just call me Captain, Zora, everyone else does, not because I’m in charge. W-“

The Captain was interrupted by Frank.

“We call him that because when he was little he was obsessed with boats, weren’t ya?”

The old man did not look angered but continued patiently.

“Lovely too meet you anyway Zora, feel free to ask questions and move around, while we figure out what to do with you.” But Zora was still confused.

“I-I don’t understand…” Her voice trailed off as she tried to figure out if she was angry at her kidnapper, who appered just to be forest dwellers, they had a name back in the city in the few fables they were in, the Siefolk. Zora never really believed they existed.

“Of course, your pardon, we attacked your car, well your driver that is. We are sorry that you got caught up in that, although where you going? The driver is one of our enemy’s.” He did not raise his voice, but looked sternly at Zora, sat on his bed in his camp.

“A work camp, I got into trouble in the city, I had to leave.” Her short response raised questions, but The Captain did not ask them. It was a show of how much authority he held the Frank, who looked curious, held his tongue.

“Well your government escort took a couple of our guys a while back, he doesn’t know we live in the forest, they were out in town. He said that we were flooding the meats market. But that’s not why they got put away.” Zora momentarily forgot where she was and became entranced the sadness of his voice.

“Why?”

“Our guys were going to sell him some fancy meats, when they refused to sell for an inordinately low price, he got nasty.” Somehow she just couldn’t imagine that, her simple minded cabby.

“Where is he now?”

“Oh we’re going to organise a prisoner trade with them, he will be kept safe and well I assure you. Look there he is.” In a large wooden cage that looked rather comfortable, lay her cabby, still sleeping. The bottom of the cage was leather and the bars were big enough for food to be pasted though, but not for him to escape. It was well built and sturdy.

“Oh”

All of a sudden she wanted to look around, this was a strange place. Uncertainly, Zora rose to her feet. Again she attempted to give the impression that she knew what was going on.

“Well I will leave you to… deciding what- what to do with me…”

“Very well, I will of course run any decision by you.” The old man smiled as he mimicked her grandiose air. Zora nodded and walked off.

Of course she had no idea where she would go, the camp was a decent size and the people, although looked friendly, were busy. For some unfathomable reason she trusted the Skogfolk people instantly, it could have been from the fairy tales of wandering soles in the woods, who grouped together to help each other. But there was something else, she had a knack for just occasionally having the vaguest of vague feelings, which turned out to lead her the right way. Zora decided to talk to the children, who were still happily playing. When she walked over they stopped and looked at her. Feeling a bit self-conscious she addressed them, and they smirked at her.

“Hello, what are you all playing? Tag? Hide and seek?” The group of kids looked at her, confused. The youngest, an angry looking little boy, spoke.

“Why do you speak to us like we are babies? I am seven and a half years old now.” Taken back by this comment she couldn’t find her voice to respond. She was saved the bother by what looked like the eldest, a small boy of around ten with black hair and an intelligent face.

“Chirp, don’t be rude. Introduce yourself first, she is a noble daddy taught me how to recognise them from their eyes. But you are different from them I can see that to.” The youngest, Chirp glowered at the speaker but did as he was told.

“Sorry lady, I’m Chirp” Although he was already half her height, he bowed. Then the others, followed suit.

“My name’s Poppy, but you can call me Pop.” Pop curtsied and looked to the oldest boy as he did the same.

“Sorry about Chirp lady, he’s too young to know how to treat a noble. I’m Frank, but people call me Flip.” Flip bowed and bopped back up like a spring, before tilting his head at Zora, who was stunned. Pop noticed this.

“I think we were supposed to let her talk first, her being the lady.”

“No, don’t be daft we address the lady” Flip and Pop argued a while until the youngest stopped them.

“Shush both of you. What’s your name, lady? Where do you come from?” Zora blinked as the older two had stopped to listen. She tried to live up to their admiration.

“Zora Renton, I came from Mistbank.” Before they could ask any more questions the man who was looking after them before came over.

“Master Brave! This is Lady Zora Winston. She’s from up north” Chirp exclaimed then addressed Zora.

“You the one they picked up got with him then?”

He gestured to the imposing cage where her cabbie sat. She did not follow Master Brave’s gaze.

“Yes.”

Zora looked at the man, he seemed a strong no-nonsense person with green eyes and an intimidating lean build. He was missing a leg, arm and had a nose that looked like it had been broken numerous amounts of times. He seemed that way at first glance, but another look would tell you otherwise when Master Brave smiled despite his missing teeth, it became obvious that he adored the children.

“Is that so, well lovely ta meet ya Lady”

“Just Zora” They all seemed to have nicknames and it only occurred to her after she said this that she was probably going to get one to.

“Well either way, lady or not, I just wanted ter see if you wanted some grub. I gotta load of meat today an’ you aint eaten while you been out. Fancy some? I aint got anything fancy, posh food gets sold. You kids welcome too of course.” This lead Zora to realise how hungry she was, she must have had those crumpets… How long had she been out for? The low grumble of her stomach responded. Zora readily accepted a roasted chicken leg and some interesting looking berry’s which they assured her were edible. It wasn’t quite what she was used to but was nice enough. After they had eaten she watched the group of men and women in the centre, and wondered who was allowed in the discussion and why? Brave did not attend the meeting, so Zora decided to ask him.

“I didn’t want ta go, all adults are allowed to attend the meeting but I ain’t much use to them.” Brave smiled at her, while continuing to sharpen more small splinters.

“So other than kidnapping the wrong people, what do you use those splinter things for?” Zora questioned Brave, who looked up, but Zora’s smile showed she was joking.

“Well, how’d you think we get meat? Our main money earner is selling meat and leather.” But Zora had read stories about hunters.

“Why not use arrows?” Brave smiled back happy to get to a topic he was passionate about.

“We do, for the bigger prey, only thing is you can farm bigger animals, cows, sheep even pigs which is almost boar-like in taste. So for the most part we target smaller things, so arrows get messy and aren’t needed to kill them.” This seemed to make sense so she nodded. Brave chuckled to himself.

“I suppose a Princess like you just gets it given to ya on a plate eh?” Zora looked again embarrassed, it was fairly accurate.

“I guess, I’ve never had to think about how it is acquired.” Brave grinned at her.

“You really are a little Princess”

At this point however the council ended and the various men and women dispersed.

“Looks like you gotta go talk to Captain now, look” Brave gestured, she glanced over to so see the wise looking old man waving her over. She said bye to Brave and walked to the middle of the clearing. Captain smiled at her.

“Well Zora you’ve stumped us alright, we could have just give you back to your parents in the city, but you can’t go back there, right?”

“Not until 25th of June no” Zora frowned wondering how he knew. But he answered the unuttered question.

“The government have to alert the people in the surroundings land, so they can report back if you have been spotted. I happened to see one of the posters.” Zora nodded, a little taken back by how much they knew. Of course they had alerted everyone, no privacy for a dangerous deviant like her. This was one of the few times she really considered herself a murderer, the image of her clasping a glittering knife and blood pooling around a disfigured corpse made her shiver. She was not that person. The shrewd veteran watched her face and read it like a book, but he put aside his curiosity to finish.

“Well we could keep you until that point, I know you were supposed to go to the work place, but I can assure you that we will work you just as hard. The only problem would be the work camp are expecting you, would not attending that affect how -“

Zora had been making her mind up.

“I don’t want to go back.” At this Captain frowned and looked calmly at the ground for quite awhile. Unsure if he had understood, she expanded on this.

“I mean, even if I have to travel very far away from here, I don’t have to go back to the city.” A few more seconds of silence followed before he gave a reasoned response.

“What of you parents? Your friends?” He did not ask how she was going to travel. Zora had half an answer, but had not thought about her friends, she couldn’t just abandon them to a city that would sooner they were dead then help them.

“My parents, are fine, they won’t mind that much I don’t think.” Seeing the look of confusion he gave her at this comment, she explained

“They are very well off, the scandal that… that I caused… won’t have put them in good stead to the government. So they will jump on the opportunity to tuck me up somewhere far away.” As cold at it may seem it was true, they didn’t hate the girl, in fact she was a prized possession until that day.

They were high up on the glistening skyscraper, resting on a ledge, Zora could look down and see nothing but mist.

Extraordinarily however she saw something else, something far more real than any vague feeling she had gotten before. The dark figure of her friend was unmistakable but another shape she didn’t recognise stood far to close by. Zora watched, helpless as the monster grabbed the girl and dragged her away from where Zora’s vision stood. Arla started to scream, it rang out in the air swirling around destroying everything, including the vision. When Zora’s eyes burst open she was screaming too.

Arla, May, she couldn’t leave them behind. Zora shook her head, coming back to earth. Shaking she looked up to see the old man’s knowing face.

“So what are we gonna do?”

“I think it may be best for you to stay with us, and then go back when you are allowed.” He leaned on his cane, which was as simple as he was old. Meanwhile Zora nodded, pawing the ground with her foot.

“Meow” The regal cat slithered over to the pair of them.

“Ah Master Flash, come on then, lets get you some food. As for you Lady Zora, just talk to Frank, he’ll have some work for you to do.” Nodding she turned and took one step before…

“Come on then lovely, shall we get you some food? Come on, there’s a good little cat” Laughing quietly to herself she strolled over to the cheerful man who spoke to she before. As Zora wandered she passed the children, who had gone back to fencing they looked up as she passed smiling and, for some reason bowing.

Life in the camp was like nothing she had ever experienced. Zora was expected to pull her weight, but it became clear, rather quickly she couldn’t hunt anything. Never before had anyone asked her to aim or fire, or even walk silently. It was all much harder than they made it look. Hopeless as she was at hunting, she couldn’t cook, was far too shy to entertain and although she learned the basics of sewing at school, had no idea what to do with real leather and fur.

Zora looked to be useless, until they found out how well she could climb.

She was out helping carry some bags for Frank, he was collecting water from a stream, quite a trek in the Tangled Forest as they called it. Despite the sun’s disparate attempts to shine though the vegetation, down on the forest floor it was only slightly brighter than usual. Unfortunately Frank had managed to get them lost; they had been stumbling round in circles for around half an hour when Zora had an idea that the smoke from the camp fire would make it easy to find. Poor Frank limply offered to climb a tree, but slipped and fell every time he tried. Zora watched, rolling her eyes. Fed up of this and hot from the trapped heat Frank snapped.

“Alright then, Princess, you ave a go.” At this she smiled and rubbed her hands together, climbing trees may be a bit different from buildings but she figured she still had an advantage over the slightly chubby man.

Taking a running jump she found the bark easy to grab and braches good resting spots. It really was remarkably easy for her, in no time Zora hopped back down to report the direction to an open mouthed Frank.

“How’d ya do that?”

Zora shrugged back smiling

“Trees are far easier than buildings, and that’s what I did for fun at home”

When they got back to the camp Frank walked straight over to Captain (leaving Zora to heave the large water bags over to the fire), and started talking to him excitedly. Just a few minutes later the shouted her over.

“HEY PRINCESS COME ERE” Startled Zora turned, but became more relaxed when she saw the bright grin on his face. As she got closer she noticed the hunters had gathered too.

“Hello Zora, Frank was just telling me about your climbing talent.”

“Excuse me, but why are we here?” One of the hunters, called Henry was looking at Zora as he spoke. Captain responded patiently.

“You said the birds have been nesting to high on the hill for you to reach, correct?”

“Aye” The men nodded, not entirely satisfied with his explanation as of yet.

“We can’t get to them from the bottom, or leaning over the top.” Eggs were good to sell, but hard to reach.

“Well, Zora here may be able to help, she has shown an aptitude for scaling trees, and says at home she can climb buildings, correct?” Zora nodded, and they all saw where this was going. Henry intervened.

“What if she falls? If she gets hurt…”

“I won’t” the men looked sceptical of her confidence. But Zora wanted to help them. Up until now she had be useless. Twirling slowly on the spot she turned her back on the hunters. Zora quickly spotted the biggest tree near the camp, and made toward it. The forest had a few such trees, they dwarfed all attempts of life nearby drowning the land beneath in shadow.

It was this monstrous tree that she chose to make her way towards, and after some confused mutterings, the crowd followed after her.

As they reached the foot of the giant tree the others began to try to dissuade her.

“What are you doing child? You can’t possibly hope to climb it. She can’t possibly hope…”

“Zora if you die we get invaded, please be careful; come back to the camp…”

“You utter moron”

Zora did not stop for one second when she reached the tree, but everyone else did. As soon as her foot mounted the side of the tree silence fell. Her audience watched with bated breath. Grabbing one branch after another, she looked spider like scuttling up and up, the long cloak swished and flicked behind her. Zora enjoyed far this more than she expected to. The bark was rough on her hands but it made it easy to grip. Once she passed the ordinary trees there was an instant blast of air that almost knocked her off. Deciding to sit and check her progress, Zora found a sturdy looking branch, and sat down carefully, close to the trunk. The view here was pretty good. The forest stretched out before her, the only break was where it stopped and the farmland began. With a jolt she realised on the horizon was her city, a mere silhouette this far away. How were her friends faring? Did they wonder where she was? Shouting broke her thoughts.

“Hey are you okay?!”

“Zora why have you stopped?!”

“Are you hurt?!”

Leaning over the side of the branch she smiled at the unusually small figures below her.

“I’m fine, just admiring the view!” As if to prove this she got to her feet, carefully balancing on the thin wood, and began to climb again.

The branches got smaller and smaller the closer she came to the trees top, so she had to be cautious about where she placed her feet. But everything went smoothly as she knew it must to prove herself; Zora reached the top unharmed. She called down to the people who now looked adorably tiny.

“Hey look I did it! You all look like ants from here!” After a few indignant replies telling her who, in fact was the ant, they started to tell her to come back down.

This proved slightly trickier as it’s harder to judge the distances between the branches whilst looking down. So it took a little longer than getting up. When she got down to about 5 foot from the ground she jumped and landed on her toes like a cat would.

Silence followed. The hood had fallen from her head as she landed, so they all saw was her grin at their astonished faces.

“So can I help you now?”

A deep, slow laugh sounded at the back of the crowd, causing them all to turn and look at Captain who continued to chuckle.

“Take that as a yes Princess, go on show her the cliff”

“Tomorrow. It’s getting late and the birds have only recently started nesting. We’ll need to teach you as well” Henry turned to leave without looking back to see who would follow. As it happened all the hunters did, leaving just Zora and Captain behind.

“Never mind him, Henry will grow to like you I’m sure. As long as you work hard for him.” The old man smiled and left towards the camp, leaving Zora to her thoughts. Instead of following them she sat at the trees trunk, thinking. It had been awhile since she had thought about the city. Her reminder today had left her more certain than ever that she must return there. But how simple would that be? The Government hated her, and feared her. So It wouldn’t take them long to organise a reason for her recapture. Zora was only partially aware as to why she was such a threat.

It was all down to what happened that day in the city, after the strange vision Zora had only just managed to stop herself from falling off in shock. Her climbing buddy, May was keeping her from falling and looked extremely frightened.

“Zora? Zora are you okay? We should go back down.” She looked at May and in explanation only uttered two words.

“Its Arla” Then Zora moved Very suddenly climbing not up but down. Luckily they were able to reach the ground quite quickly by helping each other down. But Zora didn’t stop as soon as her foot touched the ground she turned and ran, May had seen her do small things like this before and followed instinctively.

“What do you mean?”

But she never received an answer.

Before they turned a corner Zora turned to her confused friend and told her to stay put. May could still hear everything that happened in the empty street that Zora just ran into.

“OI!”

The shadowy figure stopped, and turned. Poor Arla was no more than an unconscious heap slung over the man’s shoulder. The man should have ran at this point but shock left him stock still until it was too late. Zora was already less than a couple of meters away.

“Give her back”

The strange scene went unobserved by any except its participants. A kidnapper having someone stole from him by a child.

This, decided the man, was a good opportunity to grab another. Zora’s hood covered her face enough to be unrecognisable, he had no idea of her family’s importance so he decided to drop the other child and get this one as well. After all who would rush to help a girl from The Pit, but another girl from The Pit?

Arla’s body made a splash on the pavement as it crashed into a puddle.

This act caused a rather unexpected happening. Zora became enraged, this man did not care about Arla, and was treating her like a bag of bricks. As he stepped forward she caught the white of his teeth, smiling. Slipping a rag from his pocket he leaped at Zora. But time stopped. He never reached Zora. The last image he saw was the child with the cloak. A mist of pure power formed and pushed forward, sending him flying, and then back down into the wall.

After the crunch of his bones breaking, the wall crumbled.

Zora was a murderer.

When the thin sheet of silence was shattered by Arla’s awaking, the moon had risen above the ally. It gave an eerie glow to the white walls. Zora slowly turned to face her friends, who were clinging to each other. May had been watching from the entrance to the ally, and for last few hours had been nursing Arla. To Zora, however no time had passed and so she was very confused when she looked round to semi-darkness.

As soon as Zora stepped closer May flinched, looked up with bright, fearful eyes. For a painful moment Zora thought May was frightened of her, until she got up and hugged her. Arla swayed as the world came to focus.

“I’ll take Arla home, you… don’t worry.” May words were muffled though Zora’s shoulder. Nodding, Zora helped get Arla to her feet. They began to trudge back to the main road where their convoy split.

The next few days where stressful, would the police know what she’d done? If she had been more cunning, she would have thought about that back in the ally.

All it would have took was a camera hanging over the road to trace who was there except Zora was hooded, that might slow them down. The investigation was surprisingly efficient, the best had been summoned to find the hooded girl. From that they could identify her from eyewitnesses from inside the building.

All of this was very, very public. News reports flashed from screens everywhere, Arla and May’s family had had been taken in for questioning but they didn’t say a word, they apparently had no idea who their children had been playing with. As for Arla and May they had put in prison for assisted murder. Neither of them would tell who the figure was.

Everyday Zora came down to breakfast and watch in a hidden horror as some new development had been made. Some new pang of guilt felt over the trouble she caused. She ended up stopping eating, eventually she stopped coming down from the roof. Her parents where too busy to notice much. Chef was the only one who got her to eat or talk and he share her concerns.

Ultimately it was pretty mysterious, how they found out it was her. All they told her was that they had “An anonymous tip off” with “Crucial evidence” leading to her arrest. She thought it very curious not least because their informant was so knowledgeable. Had Arla or May finally given in? Zora couldn’t believe that of them but who else could possibly know?

It wasn’t until she sat there a month later that she though it odd that such a fuss had been made to capture her. Murders weren’t particularly uncommon especially in The Pit, and anybody watching the footage would also have seen that the man she killed was kidnapping Arla.

#writing

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