The Vanished Kingdom

The vanished kingdom-escape

Behind Audrey was a tree with moss covering a hollow bottom. Audrey crawled a bit back, then using her fingers, she uncovered some of the moss to reveal a opening in the tree! She then crawled inside the mossy, damp and dark opening. She didn't have much strength left, so she sat back and rested for a while. In the meantime, footsteps passed her, and left her unseen.

*** 

When Audrey woke up, it was already mid day! She felt a bit more refreshed, so she jumped out of the tree. She wiped off any moss and dirt which she had sat on. She didn't think, nor did she talk. She felt expressionless. Sure she had escaped, but Mary had taken her place. They could have taken her into custody, and so she would have to live with them forever! Or even worse, the men could have killed her since she helped Audrey. Audrey felt terrible, she felt as if she was responsible for Mary being in the state she was in. Hence, Audrey knew that if she went back, they would have both been in imprisonment, and Mary wouldn't have wanted that. So Audrey started walking ahead. She took unbalanced steps forward. She felt glum, as she didn't know where to go. Once for her birthday she had gotten a map of north and south Claristin from someone. In the map it showed a forest in the north which looked like if walking, it could ache on for hours.

Surrounding Audrey were long and old trees. Most of which were stories high. The sun shown between the branches. Having no idea where to go, Audrey headed south. It was a different path in which the kidnappers had taken. Also she had hope that if she moved more to the south, she would soon find south Claristin, her home. Spontaneously, Audrey started into a sprint. Her still sore knees just got worse and she got cramps. The wind blew her scrawny hair, which felt so different, so short. She just kept running even if she knew that south Claristin was miles away. Twisting and turning she avoided the trees, but still managed to go south. Her stomache ached, since she was running with a really empty stomach. And her knees wobbled with despair. Though that didn't stop her. She was desperate. She didn't know why though. Even though her body groaned, she kept pushing it to run. She wanted to get away from all that had happened in the past few days. And only thinking about what might have happened to Mary. She felt responsible, and she knew Mary was in worse condition then her.

Suddenly Audrey's mouth became dry and all the saliva from her mouth disappeared. She slowed down and started coughing. It felt so dry and waterless. She covered her hand with her mouth as she started wheezing frantically. Then to make matters worse, her legs gave out on her. She wobbled from side to side. Then she didn't even feel it when she started collapsing. Her side landed on a small tree root that had popped from the middle of the ground. Her side coursed with pain and she slowly rolled over to her back. Now she was panting breathlessly and dryly as her legs had broken down, and her side ached. Suddenly, only one thing was in her mind. Water. She had to find the nearest water source. She had to clean the small trickle of blood that came out of her side. And refresh her mouth with the fresh and cool water. Also, it would have put some energy back into her legs. Painfully, she dragged herself so her face was facing the floor, and she was in a crawling position. Walking was not even in the option, but she had to do something. She pulled her hands to slowly crawl forward. But when she motioned her feet to follow, it just dropped back down! She winced with more pain, but now had more determination. She scoured her memory to reveal where she had last seen the nearest water source. She stopped and thought for a moment. She remembered that while she was running, she stepped on moist soil. 

"Did that indicate water?" she asked herself.  

It was only a meters back she had felt it. Again she grabbed all her strength and pushed forwards. Her utmost stubborn feet and legs wouldn't budge, but she pushed them to keep going. Shooting pangs of agony overwhelmed her, but she ignored it. Talking small baby crawls, she stepped forward, feeling sore all over.  

"I can do it!" She optimistically told herself. Slow steps were taken, but then she paced a bit faster. Though it was still the slowness of a turtle racing. A smile spread across her face as she felt the ground getting a bit cold. This made her greedy and go faster. She fell flat on her stomach a couple times, but she kept pushing herself back up. Then up ahead she saw moist soil! This time she tried getting up and hastily running to it. But only in a short moment she was pulled back down. The soil was really moist now. She turned her head sharply from side to side looking for anything to drink. When she saw nothing, she felt broken. Something had to be around! But all she saw was land and trees. Then from beside her came a small rabbit.  

"This rabbit must be here to find something! If I follow it, it might lead me to that something." 

Audrey quietly stayed behind the rabbit, watching its every move. The rabbit slowly hopped passed a tree, carefully looking around its surroundings. It shook its head side to side, feeling highly suspicious. Audrey was close behind the rabbit, not daring to make a sound. As the rabbit was her only way to live. When the rabbit was sure that no one was around, it slowly started hopping ahead. Audrey wriggled her way, following the rabbit. Pain overwhelmed her and she felt massive weight, but she knew that the little creature knew something. Minutes passed by and Audrey slid on the ground using her stomach to move, following behind the creature. But she made sure to keep a distance.

She passed through trees, and suddenly she heard a sound of...rushing water! Excitedly, she forgot about the massive pain, and how dehydrated she  was. All she thought was about how thirst quenching the water would be. She stood up and ran to the stream. It was small and thin, but water was coming out if it! And that was all she needed. When she reached the steam, the rabbit was long gone, most probably wishing it had listened to its suspicion.

 Audrey fell to her knees when she got close to the stream. She greedily crawled to the water, and started admiring the fresh beautiful water. Sure it looked like a normal stream with leaves and dirt inside it, but it looked wonderful in her eyes since she hadn't had water in days. Her eyes lit up, and without thinking, she took scoops of water onto her hands and quickly drank it. It brought life back into her, and  her stomach started becoming a bit filled. Her mouth was again filled with water and not dry. And her wound got a bit better when it touched the water. Occasionally she would feel dirt and it didn't taste as good as the water at home, but she was highly thankful for what she had.

An hour passed and she felt as if she drank the whole stream! She was sitting beside a tree and watching the sun with daze. Then suddenly she started coughing! This time it wasn't because of the dryness settling in her throat, but because of the contaminated water! She coughed and coughed until her face turned red. The water she drank was not purified or cleaned. But she had no other choice. Her body was hunched down and she felt the dirt in her mouth. She loudly coughed until no sound was left in her! She went to her knees than started vomiting the last bits of anything left in her. Suddenly, she heard distant, but loud voices from behind. She held her breath to restrain herself from becoming anymore nauseated.

"You heard something?"

"Oi! It might have been the girl! She cud av' run that way!"

Just the sound of Rustic made her sick. She loudly groaned. They were not too far from her. She had to make a run for it, to get more far away in distance as she could. She regained her body and counted under her breath,"one, two...three."

She started off in a slow sprint as she still felt pain, but then she receded into a faster run when she heard shouts again from behind.

"Follow the noise!" The voice loudly yelled and it seemed as at least a dozen people were following behind her.

She was weak and slow as a runner, but had a head start. Her head span and her vision got blurry. But she went dead straight, not even seeing the large tree branch in front of her. Then suddenly head forehead made hard contact straight into the branch! Her head hurt and she had blood pinching out from the sharpness of the branch. But worse than that, she felt herself falling once more, slowly to the ground. And she fell into unconsciousness. Everything around her felt quiet and dark, but before she could go she heard a loud BANG! As a trigger was pulled.