Climbing up back hill was so much more harder than climbing down. Her eyes felt tired. Today had been very mentally taxing for her. From finding a shiny frozen rock to dueling with the class Rep. She felt like she had been drained out of energy.
For the first time, she did not want to go to the forest to sit there for while, she wanted to just get back to her bed and sleep it off, not to mention her favorite spot didn't exist anymore, she remembered the blackened out clearing with a heavy heart.
No! she couldn't do that. Nadia reminded herself that her freedom was already limited as it was. She couldn't afford to sleep now! Once high school got over and she had no reason to get out of her house, she could sleep all she wanted then.
She turned away from the paved road and made her way to the meadow.
She wondered if there were any people around at this time, looking for the stone. What if they found her lurking and started asking questions ? That would not be good. Nadia approached the area and got closer to the spot. She swept the area with her eyes making as little noise as possible.
There was silence everywhere, no sign that there had been anyone since she left. That was what was so strange about the whole situation. Even though the area felt sacred it was so deep into the mountain that she was surprised people had not only found her spot but also managed to destroy it.
In all her time in the forest, people hardly ever went so deep into the woods intentionally. There were lost children all the time, but she doubted it could be found that easily.
Judging by the grass and nearby small bushes she had never sensed any human presence. Either her radar was really off or this stone really had come from far away, there could be no other explanation. It simply couldn't belong here.
Nadia stepped closer to the blackened crater. Still nothing. It was exactly as she had left it.
She sat at the edge with her back leaning against a tree trunk and gazed at it for a long while.
This place that always smelt like home she never knew and had felt serene . Now it had been turned .It felt different somehow. The aura of the place felt unfamiliar. Well the entire landscape changed so no surprises there but somehow she knew that even if she was sitting here blindfolded, she would have been able to tell that something was amiss.
She put her backpack on the ground and picked out the stone from her glove again for the second time that day, hoping that now she could do so with peace. The numbness in her hand was gone, she felt foolish but she wanted to touch the rock and its cold surface again.
She touched it with the tip of her finger. Earlier today, she had touched it with her whole palm for a long while and while it had singed at that time, her hand was all better now. So whatever the stone was doing it couldn't be lethal. Hopefully.
Maybe because she had been touching it so often but the rock felt a little warm now. Not warm, per say, but comparatively less colder. Or it was just her imagination.
What had Olivia said earlier, it was not special? Was she lying? it didn't show on her face or maybe she was that good of a liar and Nadia got hoodwinked. But if it was that, from even earlier on in the conversation she clearly showed more interest in Nadia than in the rock. If someone saw a golden shining pebble in front of them that was freezing to touch, people wouldn't just sweep it under the rug and focus on something else.
Something was strange. Was she the strange one? Had her desperation to get out of her confined and restricted life taken a tangible form? Was everything only in her head? the coolness? the glow? the weightlessness? What about the charred grass around her? Was that her hallucination too?
YOU ARE READING
The Caged Princess(Book 1)
Fantasy"If her head wasn't stuck under water she would have wailed and cried. Her body trembling. She had no sense of self. Hardly noticed that the water's temperature had dropped further to a freezing degree. "There was just one thing. One solid thing. T...
