The Shadow Wanderers

Chapter 12

After placing the dishes of dumplings in the carriage, the servants walked back to the palace gates to retrieve more.

After placing her dish, Calista looked around for a minute, searching for an escape route. She suddenly realized she hadn't seen Twinkle in a while. In a moment of panic, she ran her eyes everywhere, noticing a red sparkle in the distance, moving in circles to grab her attention. Calista sprinted towards the red sparkle the moment she noticed nobody's attention was on her.

"Twinkle, you can change colors?" she whispered, reaching her. "Alright, get me somewhere out of sight."

Twinkle glided through the air, Calista at her back, eager to reach the population as soon as possible. Everything outside the palace gates seemed to be filled with grass and moss, greenery everywhere Calista looked. She realized she was on a hill, descending down with Twinkle. In a moment of rush, she noticed Twinkle's spark fading, thinking it appeared faded under the sunlight. But she suddenly fell, her spark faded altogether, the little sphere tumbling down the hill. Calista gasped and tried to get a hold of the sphere, speeding herself down the hill. Her cloak caught up in a thorny bush, her arm grazing its side. Steadying her fall, she outstretched her arms, bumping in the mud as her hands caught up on Twinkle's sphere.

She laid there a moment on her stomach, catching her breath, her head spinning. She inspected Twinkle's dull sphere in her hands, wondering why it had shut down so randomly.

Looking at her surroundings, she suddenly remembered that she was outside the safe boundaries of the palace. For you, it's limited to the palace, as you are not allowed to set foot outside its walls. Claudia was clear about its limited function. Calista rolled over in the grass and groaned. It looked like she would have to find her way around in Vakenes all on her own now.

She sat up, untangling her cloak from the thorned bushes and inspecting the gash on her arm. It would need a bandage sooner or later.

Twinkle hadn't led her down through the main road that led to the population as it was too exposed. Royal carriages, goods, and servants arrived through the road and she was more likely to get questioned if she went on that route, so she'd have to settle going through the bumpy hills to reach the population.

She could see the tiny houses at a distance from the bottom of the hill. Faster and faster, she made her way down, the buzz of activity filling her ears, excitement filling in her veins. Before she knew it, she was at the bottom, jogging to reach the first signs of population.

Before she knew it, she was there, looking eagerly at everything around her. The population opened up into a bazaar; shops and buzzing people everywhere; people with purposes, people with ambitions, and people with intentions. She found herself surrounded by immortals possessing powers she could never grasp the strength of. She walked into the streets, smiling at everyone and everything. She received glances from a few people who smiled at her radiating enthusiasm. She found herself wondering if they could tell that she was only eighteen and not over a hundred years old, that she was not an immortal, that she was not one of them; that she should be in the safety of the palace right now.

Her nostrils filled with the sweet aroma of food; food that she did not recognize. Walking among the first street swarmed with people, she suddenly wished she had about eight more eyes. She turned her head in every direction, trying to look at everything at once; the shops, the things outside them, the people buying things. A plump woman was furiously shaking her head as Calista passed, scolding a little girl with two blonde braids dangling at her sides. A few boys, who appeared to be ten, had their noses pressed against a window with strange-looking toys stacked behind it. There were shops selling cloaks and robes of different colors, shops selling weapons and knives, and shops selling sweets and dumplings.