Twisted Worlds

Chapter 11- Astral Body

The darkness opened out into light. I stepped forward out onto the burnt planes of Syltyn. "Grandma! Grandma!" This was very strange, I did not go through a portal but I am standing on Syltyn. Okay so I am in fact hovering over Syltyn and I am in fact not really here, I am glowing just like grandma was but I am sea green, "this is so weird" but I knew where to go, I saw the faint orange glow of grandma climbing the mound up to the castle. It was dark, very dark but I was my own light as I floated a few inches off the ground towards the Palace. Grandma had obviously spotted me as she stopped next to the wall waving me over. Luckily I was invisible to the guards, grandma wasn't so lucky. I reached the bottom of the mound and before I began to climb got a good look at myself, I no longer had clothes, but my entire body had become a see-through moving glowing light, with only my pendant left around my neck. Floating I can say Is far easier than walking up the steep mound and soon enough I found Grandma pinned against the wall.

"Ella, Ella" she was shouting in a whisper, trying to stay as quiet as possible. But I glided over to her with ease, "Ella you must put you pendant around me too"

"But Grandma if I do that then I will be sent home..."

"No my baby, this is your astral body, you can only go home when you want to go home". So I took one loop of my long chain pendant from around my neck and put it around grandmas, and in an instant the pendant split; forming two separate pendants. The chain around our nicks dissolved into nothing and we were divided. Grandma now glowing the same ocean blue as I was. "Come on, I need to show you something". 

We began to move around the side of the palace, sticking close to the wall the entire time. As we reached the front wall we were only metres from the nearest guard. A ten foot tall Troll, his tarnished metal armour covered in dents and scratches and solid large shoulder-pads full of razor sharp spines. These were the deadly guards that ended many an attacker's life; yet we managed to glide by with ease. 

As we entered the double doors of the Palace, one thing shocked me more than anything. How smelly it was; if it had been this smelly when I lived here, I wonder what I smelt like when I left. We glided along through the entrance way and the corridors before entering the Drawing Room, following our noses more than out intuition we stumbled upon, guess who? Kind Dioret. But he wasn't alone, there were more; Chito and hundreds and hundreds of dark haired, red eyed people..."Hoooah" I gasped before covering my own mouth....these were not people, these were the Serentali.

And they happened to be very good at seeing blue.

Chito was the first to turn towards me, he just looked, his mouth wide as though he had seen a ghost...or an Astral Body. But he didn't say anything, but he didn't need to; once I saw him, i saw the sadness in his eyes; he was so handsome why did he have to be an evil snake person!! The anger flared up inside me and made me glow brighter, resulting in the blue glow from me lighting up the whole room and the entirety of the Serentali turning to hiss at me.

"Princess Arabella, how good of you to visit; too bad this will be your last. Did Grandma Herilone not tell you about Astral Bodies yet?"

I could only look on in awe as my King and step father hissed the words hat me, glowing green and transforming before my very eyes.

"If your astral body dies.....so do YOU!!" And then he stormed at me. I took my cue and pushed of upwards from the floor, just in time to watch Dioret crash into the Drawing room wall. But I knew I had to leave flew or floated out of the room with the Serentali in close pursuit. 

"GRANGMA! GRANDMA!" I was really panicked now, I could not die....not now not on Earth, I couldn't...Not Yet.

"ARABELLA! ARABELLA!" it seemed grandma had watched the entire scene from outside the huge windows of the corridor, hidden from the guards by her blue glow. But as I reached the door there was an added problem; A serentali guard, and he could see me. So I took off down the opposite corridor, turning off before I reached the Chapel doors and headed down the old sandstone stairs that lead to the dungeons. I had picked up my speed and was ahead of the pursuing mob. The spiral stairs really made my head spin but I reached the dungeon all the same, the rows of metal bars went on for miles in every direction. I had been here only once before, when my mother and I had been kept in a cell before her marrage to King Dioret. "Oh no , my Mother" I sped off, flying down another row of bars towards the only other exit. I had gotten the hang of flying, it is as amazing as everyone hopes but I lost control and came tumbling back down onto my none existent floor outside a filled cell. And there sitting at the back was Mother.

"NO, mother, why are you In here?" I clung to the bars my blue glow lighting up the dark cell.

"Because he is taking over, my beautiful daughter. He wants the Kingdom to be dark and to remove all beautiful and pure creatures. The unicorns are already endangered and he is locking anyone against him in here.." she beckoned around the dungeon and as I looked I could see every cell had an inhabitant, whether a human or a creature. "Darling, listen to me....they have sent an assassin after you. You must escape here and then save yourself before you come for us...please my daughter go, before they strike you down like the rest of us" she had been clutching my face before the echoes spread out across the dungeon.

"ARABELLA, YOU CANNOT HIDE DOWN HERE FOREVER AND THERE IS NO OTHER WAY OUT!!" Dioret was yelling from somewhere in the darkness, but the echoes distorted his position, So I flew for it....literally.

Looking back over my shoulder at mother as I flew out away from her I could see the familiar silver tears of our family running down her face, but there was no time to stop. In the trail of blue light I left in my wake I could see the rows of the snake like people appearing behind me. I could see the light ahead, a small circle falling from the low ceiling of the prison. I was almost there.... almost there.....but I felt something crab my ankle and pull be back down to the invisible ground with a thump. And then he was on me like a starving wolf, the Leader, the King, my apparent last memory. He pinned me down like a butterfly was pinned to a board in a museum. 

He pulled back his clawed hand and swiped it at me, in that moment, I saw everything then. My mother trapped in the cell, my grandma stuck outside unable to leave without me, my old friends, the assassin. And then the pain started, I opened my eyes to see blue blood pouring from a huge gash across my shoulder and chest, it wasn't a deep wound, but I could see the blood falling from Diorets hand. "My Princess, your demise you will not be so simple.....the Princess of Syltyn will die in agony and sorrow, I will make sure of that!" He spat at me before whipping my blood on his long cape and slithered away, along with the rest of the smelly lot into the darkness.

I was alone, injured and fading; I could see the my light fading, the blue glow beginning to loose its colour, its brightness. It was over for me...

Your demise will not be so simple, you will die in pain and sorrow and that was exactly what was happening.

"ARABELLA! ARABELLA!" I could hear grandma faintly, I was directly below the hole looking up at the sky and slowly that too began to fade, getting darker and darker until even the faint glow of grandma finally disappeared........

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