The Curse

Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Audrina's POV

"Blondie...blondie come out come out wherever you are," Ember said, looking around as if we were playing hide and seek.  I rolled my eyes, and crossed my arms.  She was clueless at the fact that we were going the wrong way, and I didn't mention it until now.

"Ember shut up, and stop being an idiot," I hissed, and grabbed her arm, pulling her in the other direction. "Plus, we're going in the wrong direction."

"I thought when the woman gave us directions, she said left?" Ember said, making it sound like a question.  I shook my head, the woman said right.

"Left is where the Dark Forest is, if you want to go back in there.  The woman said right.  Open up your ears for once," I argued, and let go of her arm.  Ember sighed, and put her head down, following me.  We were now headed toward the kingdoms quarters to go look for Peter, or 'blondie' as that was the first name that Ember and I have thought for him.

We continued to walk away from the hospital in search for the boy, soon reaching the village we lived in. When we stood on the pathway that lead to the kingdom, I noticed that people were giving the both of us strange looks.  Was it because we were gone for a long time?  After all, everyone did know each other, and word spreads like wildfire in this small town.

"Ember, look at everyone," She immediately did what I said, looking side to side at every villager that had stopped to look in our direction.  Besides the fact that they were staring, something was different.  Everyone almost looked scary looking...what had happened while we were gone?

New people had arrived, and so the village's image had changed.  There were less woman, and more men with large beards.  Their attire wasn't all that great as it used to be, as we were known for our wonderful work with fabric.  Sure, we were poor and small, but everyone looked decent. Not dirty and burnt up.  Ember and I have sure missed a lot.

I have also noticed more guards, and knights roaming the village.  We weren't that important to look after.  Just a small town that had an alliance with the good kingdom.  The larger city that actually held the castle was much more better to look for.  That is unless we were attacked.

Ember and I continued to look at the harsh glares that were aimed at us, and observed everyone as they ran away in hiding.  People stood behind wooden boards, or sat under broken tables.  No one was ever frightened by us before.  Was our reputation damaged?  I didn't understand.  We never took anything from this place, only from the rivals.

"It's Ember and Audrina!" A man shouted, throwing a stone at both of our feet.  I jumped back to avoid it, but that didn't stop the rock from landing on my toe.  It throbbed in pain, though I ignored it.

"What are they doing here?  Aren't they supposed to be at the rival kingdom?" A woman hissed, grabbing her young child to get them away from us.  Someone must have made up lies about us while we were gone.  There was no other way that we would get this much hate just by walking down the pathway to the kingdom's quarters.  "They betrayed us!"

When a crowd suddenly started to form on both sides of us, Ember and I started to walk quicker. We didn't want anymore conflict to happen, and we for sure didn't want ourselves to die in the midst of finding someone.  The both of us still had our families to find, and reunite with.

People were shouting, and arguing, more stones being thrown at us.  At that moment, we started to run.  I could just see the training grounds that Peter was most likely staying in.  If there weren't any rumors with the knights, we'd be safe.  They wouldn't let the villagers hurt us, or, at least Peter wouldn't.