𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞

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Silence. 


The rest of the carriage ride was spent with the occasional cough or sniffle (all on my part, that is. I don't strike lady Yves as the type to even hiccup), conversation long gone. Every now and then I opened my mouth, words on the tip of my tongue just begging to be said. But the daggers she stared at me almost instantly had me stopping before I could even start. My, was this girl scary.

But perhaps I should've just bit the bullet and asked where we were going. When we didn't pass by the familiar large valley and green fields leading to the overseer's temple, I realised a little too late we were headed somewhere else. Oh god, is this where I die? Is the princess going to dump my body?

Just as I'm about to ask I instantly falter.

Following the princess' gaze outside the window I feel my eyes widen. For a moment it looked like we were going to crash right into possibly the largest tree I'd ever seen. The tree towered over us tenfold, unusually thick and tall. Shrubbery surrounded it so heavily I find myself jumping as realisation hits right at me.

"What.. What are they doing, we're heading straight for the tree!" I all but shout incredulously, pointing at the object in question aggressively. Sparing a glance at the princess' face I'm caught by further surprise when she doesn't even flinch.

Are these people crazy?!

Just as I'm about to poke my head out the window and call out to somebody-- anybody!-- I'm stopped.

I manage to make it half the distance to the window before a hand places itself on my forearm and tugs me back, so hard I collide against their body. A quiet wheeze leaves my lips when I fall into Yves' lap, my head briefly knocking against hers for the slightest of seconds. Before I can dwell too much on the ache in the back of my head, the feeling of her long arm now wrapped around my waist, her breath against my ear when she calls out a "Get off me!"-- I find my eyes squinting shut tightly as I brace myself for impact when the front of the carriage finally collides with the tree.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Nothing. I open my eyes. I can't believe it.

It's like the world seems to blur over. Like a camera lens shifting out of focus, like a motion blur on film when it pauses just at the second the main character moves. When I don't feel the carriage shake and crash against the tree but rather feel us go through it, my breath catches in the back of my throat. The world comes back into focus and we're no longer in the forest, no longer mere feet away from the tree. My mind is quick to catch up as I take in where we are now; horses pulling the carriage over a bridge separating us from a large body of water. So incredibly taken aback, I spare a glance behind the carriage and feel my eyes widen impossibly further.

In a formation of two straight rows, palace guards (at least sixteen of them) on their horses seem to morph through an invisible barrier-- the same one we came through. The barrier ripples as face after face emerge from its mysterious depths. The bridge we're travelling across seems to break off just at the edge of the barrier, but the further away we get I watch as the bridge slowly starts disappearing. I connect the dots. It must appear when it is needed then leaves when it isn't.

I couldn't wrap my head around it. It's a fantasy. It can't be real. It shouldn't be real.

But then I turn back around to face the front of the carriage.

The further we travel down the bridge the easier I could see, the more clear everything became like a masterpiece in a world so bland. We were approaching a sort of island, rain forest like trees as big as the one we morphed through framing its outskirts. But that wasn't what caught my attention, no. Incredibly large statues frame the edges of the island, at least eight of them, none the same. I couldn't make out their features but there was no denying how intimated I felt just looking at them. They were large and mighty, made from what looked like chiselled sandstone. They looked strikingly familiar to the statue in the university back home--

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