"So how's the Kingdom? Last thing I saw was the inside of the throne room before stepmother stabbed me in the heart, cursed me and threw me into this little hole." The Prince stood up and dusted himself off, small shards of glass clattered to the ground.
"Erm..." I didn't know what to say, I was shocked by the Prince's attitude and how he seemed to be taking waking up after a ten year sleep so lightly and then to even begin to describe the destruction caused by the Evil Queen was an immense task.
"Well," I hesitated, watching the Prince stretch all of his limbs, "some of the houses turned to the Evil Queen's side and helped her take the Kingdom. Many close friends of your fathers died and their houses banished. She let the ForbiddenForest roam free and now its darkness has swept over the land. But apart from what I was told I don't know much as I was only six when it happened."
The Prince looked dejected but solemn for a moment while I rallied off all that I could remember my father telling me or what I heard passed around the local tavern.
Then he spoke, turning to me, "You're sixteen?" I nodded, "And it's been ten years since the Evil Queen took over?" I nodded again. "That makes me eighteen then." The Prince's face darkened as a shadow of woe crossed his face, "I never got to grow up. I was a child when she stuck me here. She stole my life from me." His voice grew with anger as the realisation of his situation hit him.
"She stole a lot of other people's lives as well. Her darkness has tormented the Kingdom and that's why I was sent here to get you." I spoke; I was still sat on the floor, too shocked by the Prince's presence to move.
"Who sent you?"
"The Teller. He's an old man, a fortune teller who's part of this travelling circus. Before he told me about you I thought you were dead and that by running into the forest I was running to my death- that was until I saw you in that coffin Your Majesty." I explained, my words were mumbled near the end as I remembered my manners and hastily looked to the ground.
"Please, call me Evander." The Prince said and offered his hand to me. It took it, placing my dark, dirty palm against his soft, white one. I felt embarrassed but the Prince –Evander didn't seem to care as he swiftly pulled me to my feet.
I stumbled onto my two feet, nearly crashing into Evander's chest and out noses bumped for a moment before I fell back on my heels. Evander was a full head taller than me and then a little more and his snow white hair fell a little past his shoulder's, barely scraping his collarbone's.
I mumbled an apology and stepped back.
"So what now?" the question caught me off guard and although I had my instructions from The Teller I too didn't truly know where to go from here.
After a few moments of silence I said, "Well, The Teller said we have three days to get to Black Castle and for you to kill the Evil Queen. It's almost been half a day so we really only have two left."
"Black Castle? Evil Queen?" Evander picked up on the names.
"Yes, Black Castle is what everyone called it since the Evil Queen took over and I don't think I need to explain her nickname..."
"No, you don't." Evander turned from me, "I need a minute...to process. This is all very unexpected."
"You didn't think you would ever get your Kingdom back?" I asked, scolding myself afterwards. I shouted at myself internally to let the Prince be. But I was so curious. Here was the lost, supposedly dead, Prince. How could I not ask him question after question?
"I never expected to wake up. When the Queen couldn't kill me she cursed me to sleep eternally as long as I was in that coffin. She unfortunately also cursed me to hear and feel everything around me so I would always know I was alone down here." Evander looked down to the ground and his face hardened with an emotion that resembled sadness but seemed to hold so much more under the layers, "I thought I would be alone for the rest of my life."
Despite my logic yelling at me to be silent and still my fingers reached over to Evander's and slipped around them, holding our hands together in a light embrace, "you're not alone any more."
Prince Evander looked up at me, his golden eyes holding mine captive as I saw an emotion I couldn't identify swirl through them mixed with flashes of turmoil.
If an almighty roar hadn't sounded in that moment I feared I may never have been able to look away from the Prince.
"What was that?" Evander said, his voice laced heavily with panic. If my mind and body hadn't been frozen from fear I would have paid more attention to the Prince and known whether or not the light squeeze of reassurance I felt on my fingers was imaginary or not.
"Probably a beast." The words tumbled from my lips as reality hit me and I pulled my hand from Evander's "we should get out of here."
"Well how did you get in?"
"I fell, remember." My reply had a sharp under bite as I remembered the Prince's sarcastic comments from earlier when he first awakened. How he seemed to change from one personality to the next in the blink of an eye.
From sarcastic royalty to a broken boy.
"From where?" Evander asked and I replied by pointing to a spot on the ceiling now covered completely by mud and roots. There was no way back up.
"Well that's perfect. We'll have to find another way. And if needs be dig our way out of this hollow grave." Evander grunted as he began to sweep his gaze across the room, moving from place to place searching for a secret door, a rabbit hole. Searching for anything that could give us a way out.
Though with a beast roaring above us I wondered if leaving was the best idea. Probably not but I'd rather go out and die in a second than stay inside and starve to death over days.
Watching Evander search the place thoroughly my feet quickly began to move as I joined him in the hunt, running my hands over the walls but finding no tunnels or exits only hard packed mud.
"This is useless. There is nothing here!" Evander raged from across the room. He was stood in another corner, kicking at the mud wall with his feet as if the wall would crumble beneath his boots and reveal a magical entrance back outside.
It didn't.
I was crouched by the coffin. After a relentless search of the wall and floor on my side of the cavern I had wondered whether or not something, like a secret door, would have been hidden in the large thick stone holding the smashed coffin up.
So far I was wrong.
My dirtied hands ran across the flat grey stone, finding nothing but cold, nipping at my skin when my hands grazed the rock.
Pulling myself to my feet I decided to check the coffin for clues, maybe another golden note or just anything that could help.
My eyes racked over the shattered glass and creamy silk cushioned plank that the Prince had lay across when in his possible eternal sleep.
The silver light was still glowing strong, our only source of light in this dank cavern and as I peered closer at the coffin my eyes caught a flash of something silver caught inside the torn silk cushion.
I brought my muddy fingers to the coffin, no longer caring how dirty it became under my fingers. It was a forced prison and therefore did not deserve respect.
I tore at the silk, ripping it further and further until there was a long slit from one end to the other of the coffin. As I moved my arms from the coffin the glow intensified greatly, so much that I had to cover my eyes and turn away , blinking away tears that had formed.
By now I had caught Evander's attention and he had wandered over from the corner of the cavern to beside me. He stared down at the coffin, his eyes not bothered by the blinding light that I couldn't bear to look at.
I glanced at him however, when he leant over the coffin and his arm disappeared down the slit as he reached inside for something.
Pulling his arm out in one sweeping thrust, Evander's hand gripped tightly the silver hilt of a sword, its diamonds and silver gems shining brightly from the glow the sword projected.
When Evander touched the sword the glow decreased and I was able to turn fully and look at him, holding the sword high in his hands as he examined it. He looked perfect with the sword, like it was made for him.
Which it probably was.
"It's beautiful." Evander whispered as he turned to sword in his hand, his silver ring glinting in the light with the large L for 'Lumière'- the royal family name. And he couldn't have looked anymore royal than he did before me with his shining golden eyes and long, glowing sword. He projected an aura of power and confidence as a small smile spread across his lips when his eyes fixated on the curvaceous L on the hilt of the sword.
All he needed was a gleaming gold crown and I would have believed he had been King all his life.
"Why would the Queen leave this in my coffin? Maybe she didn't expect me to ever wake up." Evander answered his own question as his eyes remained on the sword he held close to his face.
"Or maybe it wasn't her who placed it there." I said and his golden eyes flickered to me.
"It seems we aren't the only ones playing on the good side of this twisted game." Evander spoke, his voice weighed down with the deep meaning laced into his words.
"But how many are playing on the dark side? How many people must be defeated for this game to end?" I asked him.
Evander replied, "I don't know. I only hope we are strong enough to come out victorious."
"Or at least alive." I added.
Another thundering roar sounded from above us and I felt the earth shake slightly under my feet and the mud crumbled from the ceiling above, showering us both like a spring shower.
"We should get out of here." I rushed, my fingers trembling against my skirt.
"Wouldn't it be safer to stay inside here, away from our impending doom?" Evander suggested, his voice laced heavily with disdain.
"And forget your destiny? To save the Kingdom? If you are alright with having the blood of thousands on your hands then sit down in this dank hole and wait for the world to burn above you." I spat back, surprised at my own bitterness and anger.
Evander looked impressed. "She does have fire. That could be useful." Shock took me for a moment as I had expected Evander to put me in my place, remind me who was royalty and who wasn't.
Then, as if talking about the weather or the price for bread at the market Evander spoke, "I found the exit by the way."
Evander pointed his sword towards something behind me and I turned to see nothing but the mud wall I had already searched.
"There's nothing there." I huffed as I turned back around to Evander, "maybe your eyes are playing tricks on you. You have had then closed for ten years."
This seemed to aggravate Evander as he stormed past me and pressed further, "There is an exit! Can't you see the tunnel? Right there!"
Evander placed his hand on the wall and I was about to speak out again when his hand went through the hard, packed mud.
My mouth was agape and a victorious smile spread across Evander's face, "see, I knew I was right. You can see it."
"Um, no, I don't see anything but your hand stuck in the wall."
The smile fell and Evander pulled his hand from the wall, a questioning look falling on his face as his gaze fell to the floor.
He began muttering to himself, so low I couldn't even pick up words until his head snapped to me and beckoned me over with a nod.
Reluctantly I walked over to the Prince and the thought I had earlier about him being insane and the Kingdom never being saved came back to mind. I wondered if my fate was to die trapped in here and I felt the thought of home itch at the walls of my mind. I pushed it away, knowing that memories of the home I had left not long ago would only make me weaker, only slow me down.
Breaking me from my thoughts, Evander's hand grabbed my own quickly and he looked at me expectantly in the eyes.
"Do you see it now?" he asked, his words rushed as he nodded at the wall beside him.
I glanced over at the mud wall.
"No."
He huffed and released my hand, letting it fall back to my side. For a moment I missed the warmth and the feeling of his hand holding my own.
"So it's not me..." he said to himself and I could hear his mind try to work out why he could see something I could not and I felt it would be rude if I told him it was his imagination.
Which it probably was.
Evander's head fell against the mud wall as if he had given up, his eyes staring at the stone floor beneath him. I felt a tang of sorrow for him as I tried to grasp the idea of missing ten years of my life and what it was like to be thrown in a world you didn't understand around my head.
However, that was one thing we had in common. Here I was, in the ForbiddenForest, a world I didn't know nor understand.
But as quick and sudden as his shoulders had slumped they rose once again and Evander snatched my hand and thrust it upon the sword. I tried to pull back, fear jumping through me for a moment, but Evander latched his hand over mine and held it firmly, and a little painfully, to the sword.
"What-"
"Look again!" Evander cut me off, urgency in his voice and swore to myself that I would tell him he was insane, the Kingdom's only hope at beating the Evil Queen or not, I would tell him he was insane until he realised he was.
But then I saw the tunnel.
I noticed it from the corner of my eye first, a black darkness that seemed to go on into the distance. Pride surged through me and for a moment I didn't want to believe it, didn't want to admit that Evander was right.
But he was.
"It was the sword," Evander spoke from beside me but my body was turning, my attention on the tunnel and not him, "the sword shows the exit."
Which means we can leave.
And continue this dangerous journey.
The pit in my stomach sank a sweat formed on my brow.
"You go first." Evander said and I pulled my hand from the sword, the tunnel still there, as if it realised there was no point in hiding now.
"Afraid of the dark?" I mocked, my voice light with humour, hiding my own fear beneath.
"My eight year old self was." Evander said and reality hit home and went to apologise but he waved it away.
"I meant you go in case you fall. I can catch you but I don't think you could catch me." Evander said I nodded my head rapidly as if agreeing to everything he said would make him forgive me for forgetting that the last time he was 'awake' he was only eight years old.
Hesitantly, I turned my body fully towards the tunnel, moving in front of Evander. I started to pull my body into the gap, which was surprisingly roomy, with enough space for me to pull myself up by my hands and push up the sides with my feet. As I began to climb, my feet slipping slightly as I pushed myself up the sharp diagonal tunnel, I wondered how many tunnels there were under the ForbiddenForest.
It seemed to be the only way of escape from these underground chambers.
As I dug my hands into the mud and scraped my bare feet against the tunnel walls, I heard a shuffling behind me and glanced for a moment to see Evander, paler than usual, start to enter the tunnel himself.
I didn't know how far it was to the top, I realised as I looked back ahead of me. The swords glow was the only light in the tunnel and I couldn't see daylight pocking in the end of the tunnel anywhere ahead. I hadn't fallen far from the tree and mist above, less than a second, so I thought it wouldn't be long till we reached the top.
But nothing about the ForbiddenForest is normal, that I had learned so far.
"How are you doing down there?" I asked, my voice echoing in the tunnel.
I risked another glance below, making sure I was rooted in place, and saw Evander struggle up the tunnel a little behind me.
His arms wobbled as he pulled himself up and his feet slipped repeatedly. He looked sweaty and nervous and fear widened his eyes as he drew his hard gaze from his feet to my face.
"I'm okay." His voice wasn't steady, far from it. It held a nervousness that shook his voice and caused him to stumble over the simple word. The scratchiness in his voice from before had gone and was now replaced by stutters.
"I'm not going to lie and say that there's nothing hiding in the darkness because there usually is." I said ad Evander interjected sarcastically, "Well, that's reassuring."
"You didn't let me finish," I replied. I moved my hand to a mound of mud and rock sticking out from the tunnel wall and used it to pull myself up, digging my toes into the mud wall. "I was going to say that there are things out there but I used to be afraid of the dark when I was younger and my mother always told me that where there is darkness there is always light and the light will protect you."
Evander was silent for a moment before saying, his voice small and timid, "but what if there is no light? No candle or lantern to light your way, to protect you?"
"I asked her the same question and she replied, 'then you must be the light. The flame in the shadow of smoke. So although you may not see the light, you must always know it is inside of you. And that as long as there is light inside of you then the darkness has not won.'"
Evander hesitated for a moment before saying, "So you are telling me that is shouldn't fear darkness until my flame has come out?" I nodded and he continued, "And when my flame is out I'll be dead anyway and wont have to fear anything."
I let out a small laugh, angling my foot so I could boost myself higher, "You could look at that way as well."
Evander let out a throaty laugh and as I glanced his way I saw his hand reached near my lower leg at the tunnel wall, alerting me he had gained on me. As if a confidence boost had transformed him for a weak eight year old boy to a strong, muscular man.
Evander's comment and diverted gaze had caught me off guard and my feet slipped for a moment, sending me falling-
-into Evander's arms.
"I told you I could catch you." Evander said. One arm was wrapped around my waist, stropping me from falling back to the bottom of the sharp tunnel and the other held the sword in his hand as he pushed it hard against the tunnel wall to support both of us.
In the semi darkness his eyes seemed to glow even brighter and I caught myself lost in his gaze only released when a groan of pain emitted from him.
"Oh, sorry." I apologised swiftly noticing the muscles in his arms shake from holding up two people and I strategically turned in Evander's arms before securing my grip and the wall and pushing myself ahead of him.
The climb resumed in a slightly awkward silence as Evander and I focused on pushing ourselves higher up the tunnel without falling back to the bottom.
I had grasped a tuff of mud and grass prodding out the tunnel wall, which gave me hope we were near the top despite the lack of light, when my other hand reached up and came into contact with hard, packed mud.
"Evander, pass me the sword." I said and pulled my hand down to grasp the silver hilt hovering by my hip.
I lifted the sword back up above my head and the glow confirmed my dreaded assumptions.
"Dead end." The two words filled the pit in my stomach with defeat and the dark, consuming feeling of giving up and letting go of the wall and falling down to the cavern and letting starvation consume my life.
"Are you sure?" Evander asked and I felt his body press against mine tightly as he pushed his head in between my neck and arm to look at the mud in front of us.
He swore. "Now what?"
"I don't know. Give up? Die? Try to fall back into an eternal sleep?" my sarcasm was a defence against my exhaustion and depression as my filter disappeared and I spewed out whatever came to mind.
"Or punch our way through."
I turned my gaze to Evander, my look questioning his motives.
"Well," he continued, "it might not be that thick. This could just a trick the Queen placed in our way to see if we would give up."
It was a good one, I decided, for if Evander hadn't suggested that it was merely a trick then I probably would have given up myself.
Evander took the sword from my hand, wrapping his hand around the sharp end as he thrust it upwards, and a large sprinkling of mud dropped onto us. We looked down for a moment as the earth above us crumbled and I brushed the balls of mud from my eyes.
I kept my gaze down, watching Evander as he relentlessly hit the mud with the hilt of the sword, determination etched onto his face.
After a few minutes I thought that maybe Evander was wrong but then a single spot of light hit his cheek and I snapped my gaze above to see a hilt-sized hole in the mud above.
A smile spread across my face and Evander began to hammer the hilt around the hole, forcing it to become bigger. When it was large enough to fit a hand Evander sheathed the sword in his belt and began to pull at the mud and grass with his fingers.
I joined him, my fingers quickly pulling tuffs of grass and earth apart and flinging them into the pit below. Mine and Evander's fingers bumping into each other as we rapidly, excitedly, tore the ground above us apart.
Then the mud was gone.
A large bright light shone down on us.
The sun.
Evander and I were stunned into silence for a moment till he nudged me and urged me on with a nod of his head.
Grasping the edge of the hole tightly, I pulled my body from the tunnel, my muscles groaning in relief when I collapsed beside it, no longer having to hold my body up as I climbed a never ending tunnel.
The sunlight warmed me as if I hadn't felt the sun kiss my skin in years and I relaxed against the patchy, dry grass, basking in the rays.
When I heard Evander emerge I didn't look up until the gasp that left his lips floated to my ears.
Pulling myself into a sitting position I turned my gaze to Evander and watched the awe cross his face.
Then I remembered.
This was the first time Evander had seen daylight in ten years.