Pandemonium erupts. The audience all try to run away from you and towards you at the same time. The guards, who you've always suspected are loyal to sir Truffle, storm the stage and grab you. You try to wrestle away, but your mother only hires the best of the best to work in the palace, and they are too strong. They carry you out of the room, and, as you look out at the audience, you realize that your mother is doing nothing to try to stop them. She's out in the audience, trying to calm the people. You growl. You should've known she wouldn't help you. She's always been too loyal to the rules. If they told her to step straight into a huge fire, she would. The guards finally manage to get you out of the room against your struggling and the rush of the crowd. They drag you into the maze of halls of the grandiose palace, and down, down, down.
In the small dungeon where the guards dump you, probably until your mother and sir Truffle get the public calmed down and an executioner ready, you stirp off the stifling dress so your only wearing the small, brown underdress. You arrange the dress so you can sit comfortably on it, and think. How could this have happened? You were so careful to make sure everything was perfect for your coronation. You'd thought nothing could go wrong. How mistaken you had been. Everything had gone wrong, and in the worst way possible. According to the laws of your kingdom, strict and set in place thousands of years ago, a crown breaking at a future rules coronation meant that they were unfit to be ruler and needed to be executed. Whoever had set the rules in place had thought it meant that there was a demon inside whoevers crown broke trying to take over the kingdom. Different types of breaks meant different ways of death, to make sure the demon didn't come back. A shattered crown meant death by drowning. If any of the points break off, it means death by hanging. If it breaks perfectly in half, which is what happened to you, it means death by burning. You sit thinking for a long, long time, until you notice the small window above you. This dungeon was probably built for strong war prisoners, but a small thing like you could easily fit through. It stinks in here, you think. The reek of ancient prisoners who died in here and rotted is strong. You think of a way to get up to the window. You use your discarded dress as a rope to get up to the window. But when you make it out the guards catch you running and start chasing after you into the enchanted forest that your mother had planted inside the castle courtyard. The guards catch up to you and start tying you up with a thick rope so you couldn't escape. Then they start yelling out to the other guard. His name is Grunt. He is the head of the guard. He tells one of them to go get sir Truffle, and you inwardly groan. He'll throw you right back in a dungeon, this time with no windows, and then you'll never be able to escape the flames. After several minutes, the guards get tired of watching you menacingly and start chatting. As you hear them talking you see a mysterious figure open the door then run off. You wriggle quietly out of the ropes and chase after them. You catch up to the figure and when you catch them you see its your mother. "Mom" you say surprised. "Tasmin im so sorry that i didn't help you before. Here is some supplies so you can get to a village not to far away from here. Its quite small so you should not be recognised. I love you Tasmin." your mother says. She shoves a small bag into your hands and darts away, leaving you wondering. Did your mother really go against the rules, the ancient laws, everything shes been taught, to save you? Either way, she's given you an opening. As much as you want to, you can't trust your mother. You'll take the supplies, but you won't go to the town she wants you to. You are too afraid that sir Truffle will be waiting for you there. You sneak to the gate, a rush of thrill running through your body. This will be the second time you leave the palace, and this time you hope to stay there for longer than five minutes. The only other time you've left was when you were just four years old. It was when your mother had finally realized you weren't going to be the perfect princess she'd wanted as a daughter. You wanted to explore, and that wasn't what your mother wanted for you. This was before your mother had set the magic on the gate to make sure you couldn't escape. You'd climbed over the wall and run into the huge forest surrounding the castle. The guards had caught you in a matter of minutes, but it was the only taste of freedom you'd gotten, until now. You thought magic was fake. You stand in shock. As you try to understand the gravity of the situation you can hear the clanging of the suits of armor. You start to kick the gate but you turn around and see your mother. She's running towards you with sir Truffle and an army of guards. You knew you couldn't trust her. There's only one thing you've read in the stories about magic that you think could work, and it's risky. You open your mouth wide, and eat the magic. Just like that, the gate opens. You run out into the forest and, taking your first breath of fresh air since you were four. You climb up a tree, knowing the guards can't climb in their heavy aromor, and jump from tree to tree through the forest until you reach the town your mother wanted you to go to. You know stopping there is risky, but you dropped the bag your mother gave you while running from the guards, and you wont survive long without water, or food. You climb stealthily down from the tree, and start skirting around the edges of the town. This town is decently rich, so you find several hundred ﷼ on the ground around the circumference of the huge town. Thats enough for you to buy a gallon of water and a few pieces of bread. You skulk back into the woods, drink half the water, and eat one of the pieces of bread. You decide to get on the move as soon as possible. You go back into town and find a few more ﷼. Then, on a wall right before your eyes, a wanted poster appears with your face on it. The reward is more ﷼ than you can count in your state, and you need to get out of here as soon as possible. You go to the side of town on the opposite side of the castle and start running. Running is harder than you think it is while carrying half a gallon of water, but you make it about 4 miles before you break down. You then set down your water and the remaining bread, and walk slowly aroud a small area around your food, making sure to always keep it in sight to make sure that no animals steal it. In the area, you collect all the large sticks you can and build a small shelter out of them. Inside, you dig a small hole and store the food and water. You collect a few leaves, and use them to build a bed. The shelters small, and not waterproof, but it will keep you safe from wild animals. If it rains, you're fucked, but night is falling and your exhausted, and you won't be able to keep moving tomorrow if you don't get some sleep tonight. You know from the stories that magic takes more effort the farther your trying to reach it, so your trying to move away from the palace faster than the magic. You eat another piece of bread, the fall literally onto the bed of leaves, and figuratively into another dream. In the dream you are walking down a hallway full of doors as you are walking one of the doors swings open. You peek your head into the door and you see the same dream from before but as it started to end you see your brother turning hes head to you. You get scared and slam the door shut. Then another door swings open and you see your brother in a forest. But you realise its the same forest your in, and you see that he is looking directly at you once again before awaking in a cold sweat.
When you waken, you pass off the as just that, a dream. You drink a little more water and get moving. When you make it to the next town, wanted posters are everywhere. You are desperately low on supplies, but you can't stop long enough to find a way to get money and spend it. Instead, you skulk to the darker looking part of town, and find a man who will sell you a decent bow and a few arrows for the little ﷼ you have left. You buy it, making sure to keep your face down, and run into the woods before he gets suspicious. You've never hunted before, but it proves easier than you thought it would be. Maybe your aim is good because of all the days you've spent bored out of your mind locked in your tower, trying to hit the guards heads with small objects. You smile a little at the memory of the time you hit sir Truffle. You got yelled at, but the look on his face when the high heel hit him. It was hilarious. Ah, memories. You've m managed to shoot a squirrel and a larger than average rabbit. Luckily, you do have experience building fires. Unluckily, you don't have anything to light it with. You decide to worry about that later, and gather yourself a good sized wood pile, making sure to get some smaller twigs for kindling. You remember reading a book about ancient history and in the back of the book there was a guide to lighting a fire. In the guide all you needed was a stick and a piece of wood. You grab a stick of a tree and a log and place the stick on top of it. Then you start to spin the wood back and forth until it finally caught on fire then you quikly threw the log into the wood pile and then you had fire. Finally, sitting by your warm fire, you begin to roast the squirrel. It takes almost longer than you can stand it for it to cook all the way through, and the you have to pull the skin and fur off, but the first bite is worth it. You haven't had anything to eat besides bread since breakfast the day of your coronation. Was that only yesterday? It feels like ages ago to you right now. After you finish the squirrel, you want desperately to roast and eat the rabbit too, but tomorrow you're going to need breakfast, and you know you won't be able to just get up and hunt. You drink a little more water, and then fall asleep by the fire. In your dream your walking there town wearing peasant clothes. Maybe to hide yourself from the guards. As you walk down the street you turn and walk up to a weapons shop. You walk up to the owner and ask him for a bow. At that moment you suddenly hear glass breaking before waking up. When you wake up, you feel that something is wrong. You see a figure in one of the trees above you. The figure looks familiar, but you can't quite place them. "WHO ARE YOU?" You shout, hoping to get their attention. The figures response confirms what you had been thinking. "Oh, I think you know me. If you've already forgotten me, then you really shouldn't be queen of this kingdom." Something clicks in your mind at the sound of their voice. "Aeshna? But... you're dead!?!?" "Sorry not sorry I want to kill you. I'm in cahoots with sir Truffle have fun dying. I'll see you in hell sis." At that moment aeshna ran at you with an intent to kill. But then you dodge out of the way and he falls into the river you've been camping near. He has surprisingly fast recovery, but not so fast that you don't have time to grab your bow and string an arrow.
As you are running away, you hear the squelching sound that must be Aeshna pulling the octopus off his head. Then you hear his ferocious yell. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME! I'LL BE BACK IN CHAPTER FOUR!"
