The Wings of the Beautifully Fallen

Chapter 34: Illiana

Chapter 34: Illiana

How long have I been walking?

I questioned myself, without really knowing the answer. I had left shortly after breakfast without saying a word to anyone and I realized now that it was a foolish thing to do, but I couldn't just sit there. I had to find it.

My fingers slid around my left wrist, brushing against the naked skin as my heart broke once more. I needed that bracelet, no matter how foolish it may sound to the others. It was the last thing that my siblings had ever given me and I had carelessly lost it.

But where?

I had searched all over the palace, retracing my steps from the time that I had gotten back with Reginald to the point where I realized that it was gone. It was no where to be found. My only hope left was that it was at the cottage, that it slipped from my wrist when I was practicing flying in the back.

My gaze searched the hundreds and thousands of trees surrounding me, looking or something that looked familiar. But there was very little that set the trees a part even amongst themselves. All the ones that I could see stood tall, towering over the ground and animals below, their leaves and branches shaking as if attempting to catch my attention with a friendly hello.

The silence around me was deafening and only the occasional crackle of a leaf or snap of a branch would echo around me. Other than that, I was alone.

I had thought, sworn, that I headed in the right direction, towards the lake that Reginald had shown me yesterday, but could I have gotten to far off track and ended up lost? I sighed darkly, shifting from one aching foot to another, wanting the pain to disappear even though I knew that I wouldn't. I scoffed at myself, there was a time that this pain would not have effected me, when I was so used to throbbing injuries that it was almost second nature. Now? Now the pain was worse than I remembered. Ice fire shot up legs at every step and I knew that it would not get any better if I continued to push myself. With a heavy heart, I slid over to a tree, pressing my back against it and sliding down, feeling the rough wood of the smooth tree against my back. Throbbing pains echoed in my feet and dancing up my legs, and I groaned in frustration and relief.

I should have insisted on speaking to Reginald or someone else who could help me, but it was to late. Now I was lost, somewhere in the middle of a forest with no real idea of what was happening. Then again, even if I had insisted on it, there would be little that anyone could do. I was told that he left the palace as soon as sunrise began, muttering on about how he had to do something in the village.

Lizzy's voice sounded in my mind, coaxing me to wait for his return that was sure to happen. But I couldn't wait. Not for this and now I had no idea what would to happen to me.

My head fell back and my eyes drifted upwards, barely being able to see the sky from above between the tightly woven branches in leaves. It was like another world down here, a world that I was not sure that I could survive in on my own.

*

"Mommy! Mommy!" A small little girl's voice screeched, followed by small arms wrapping around my leg and a small body huddled beside me. She looked up at me with dark blue eyes, her long dark brown hair reminding me of my own. Both of us were wearing purple dresses made of silk with similar embroidered patterns around the bottom of the skirt and the top of the waist.

We were in my room, the one back at the palace, but there were no children there, none except for Rebecca. However, this girl was no more than six years old and the look of glee in her eye reminded me so much of my little siblings back home. In a way, she reminded me of me as well. Of how I used to be before my mother had died.