Run, run, run.
The screams bounced from wall to wall of the large palace, quietly clear in the distance. Even at my young age, I had come to the conclusion that the privilege of calling it "my" or "our" palace was no longer at my disposal. Another dead? The thought no longer shocked me.
Run, run, run.
That's what Matilda had told me to do, and I always listened to Matilda. In fact, I loved her more than I did my own mother. Mother was never around. If asked to pick her out of a group of women, the only things that would help me make the right choice are the many paintings rendered of her that hang along the winding palace corridors, and the rare occasions in which I am summoned into the Throne Room to see her.
One, two, three.
Three angry voices raged from the direction of the stairwells that I had long ago left behind. Where is Matilda? She told me that she would be coming, but to go on without her. When I protested, that's when she had yelled at me to run.
I could hear the heavy, unfamiliar footsteps charging up the stairs. Did these belong to the three angry voices? If so, they had brought friends.
Swimming in my thoughts took my mind off of the growing strain in my small, seven-year-old legs as I dashed through the halls, trying to recall the order in which I was told to take them if the palace was ever invaded.
"Split up! Left, right! Find the girl!" A new, equally hostile voice rang in the distance, muffled by the many passages between it and myself. I knew that they were talking about me. But I had to keep running, and never stop until I reached the Link.
The Link was the tallest tower of the palace. It was on the far right side, and it was the highest point in all of Terralux. It seemed to never really end, although when you've looked as far up as the eye can see, the tower fades behind a large cloud that's always there. No one really questions it.
I've never been up there. The only people that have the ability to do so are in the royal family (like I am) or top advisors. Of course, it has always been an option for an emergency escape, but had never been used for that purpose until now.
I was glad to have gotten such a head start. If I hadn't, I would undoubtedly be dead by now. I whispered thanks to Matilda in between the heavy gasps of air that I took from running so fast.
I remembered that I had to take the first door from the seventh portrait of Father, leading to the long, cobblestone passage between the main structure and the Link. How many portraits of Father had there been? It felt like six, but I knew that it was seven since the seventh one came right after the picture I had drawn of Matilda a few months ago. She helped me pick the perfect spot, and I hung the paper there with care.
So with my eyes strained, the pictures passing in a blur, I waited to approach the next door I saw. Almost the same color as the wall, I almost ran past it. But with my head barely passing the doorknob, I summoned all my strength to open it.
I willed it not to give off a loud creak, which thankfully it did not. Stepping through it, the biting, cold wind of the night seeped into almost every nerve in my body. Shivering already, my floor-length dress was not enough to keep me warm, so I quietly shut the door and looked to my right, knowing that I was up very high. Directly over the wall, that I was thankfully too small to be seen over, many invaders probably stood guard, watching and waiting to kill anyone who managed to make it outside alive.
Just to be safe, I bent down a bit as I continued my dash, with the cobblestone bricks shielding me. Going against the hard winds made my eyes tear, blurring my vision, but I kept going. It was life or death now. Trembling, by the time I reached the other side of the passage, it felt like I had just run the whole length of the Great Wall of China.
My small, numb, and snow white hands groped around for the doorknob of the wooden door, concealed by the night, until I felt the round metal under my fingers and turned it. Nearly falling into the room, I almost didn't catch the door before it would've slammed behind me. For good measure, I located a loose, rather large stone and pushed it up against the door. Maybe the fear of the moment is what gave me the strength to do so. Still, if I had been seen, any small strength left in me for fighting back had been stripped away by the freezing winds.
Once I had sat on the stone floor for awhile, I began to observe my surroundings. The room was small, of course, circular, and completely made of stone. There was a thick layer of dust, which had been expected. So when I stood, I made sure to knock it off of my dress. In this train of thought, noting the unstirred dust, I wondered if anyone else had made it through tonight.
About a yard in front of me was a long, stone staircase. Still tired, I dreaded climbing it, but I knew that I had to. My red curls bounced as I hopped up the steps one by one, set on reaching the top. As I climbed, I thought about what I was leaving behind.
All that I had ever known was falling farther and farther away from me, and I wondered if I'd ever see it again. Something in my heart told me that it wouldn't be much to come back to, anyway. All of the people that I interacted with on a daily basis were probably dead.
As I got higher up the winding staircase, the steps began to get slippery and wet. But I wasn't thinking about that. What I was thinking about was the absence of stairs further up into the tower. I was coming close to the top.
Channeling all the fight left in me, I increased speed until I was finally there. As I stood on the top platform, which had no rail or anything to prevent someone from falling off, I didn't dare look down to see how far I'd come. Instead, I kept my eyes straight ahead, looking into a large, circular door that resembled the kind on a vault. Taking the equally round, steering-wheel-like handle in both hands, I turned it around and around until finally, the door emitted a large click. I jumped, fearing that someone had heard me. Once all was clear, I placed my hands back on the wheel and pulled, nearly falling over the platform's slippery edge from the force with which the door opened.
Pulling it back just far enough so that I could fit, I squeezed myself through just in time to hear the banging begin on the tower's sturdy wooden door. Panic overtook my senses, and I was about to flee without shutting the vault door until I heard a man's yell cut through the air.
"Leave it! Obviously, the entrance has been blocked. It's unnecessary work to try any more to move it. If anyone did escape through the Link, there's no chance that it was the princess. She does not possess the strength to move something heavy enough to pose such a problem."
I smiled despite myself.
"The whole royal family is dead. Even if the girl was not killed tonight, she will die without care, and nowhere will be safe for her in Terralux. When found, she will be executed."
"What about whoever escaped through the Link?" Someone asked, a hint of fear in their voice.
"I do not plan on sending anyone through the Link to capture them. The surface is uncharted and unfamiliar territory, and anyone who could've escaped is not a necessity. However, from now on, I want sentinels standing guard in and outside of the tower at all times, just as soon as we find a way to get the door open."
With this, the sound of heavy footsteps drowned out any remaining conversation amongst the invaders as they made their way back to the main structure of the palace. I stood where I was, still processing what I'd just heard. Although I didn't understand some parts of it, one thing rang true.
There would be no going back to Terralux.
Finally stepping back to pull the door closed, I said one final goodbye to everyone and everything I had ever known. Upon the click of the door, much quieter this time, tears had already made their journey halfway down my pink cheeks.
Turning, I was looking down a cylindrical tunnel. It was wide, but just tall enough for a child my age to walk through, standing straight up. Anyone else would have to duck or crawl to make it through without bumping their heads. There was a light coming into the tunnel from the very end, and I decided to go towards it. I had always been taught to follow the light, simply because that's where I had gotten my name.
I was named after one of the deities of a legendary land called Rome. She was Aurora, goddess of the dawn. Some of the scholars of the palace disagree, and say that I was named after the literal definition of aurora, being "a luminous atmospheric phenomenon appearing as streamers or bands of light." Either way suited me, because I loved the light like almost nothing else.
About halfway through, the tunnel broke off into a second tunnel on the right, but looking down it, I saw nothing but darkness. I shivered both mentally and physically and turned back towards the light streaming in from the end of the tunnel.
Soon, the end was only about two yards away. As I stepped into the light, I noticed that it was coming in through some sort of metal grate in the ceiling. The ground I stood on sloped upwards, so I figured that I would be able to get just high enough to jump and push the grate out of the way.
My calculations being correct, the light streamed in with full power. There was a blue, cloudless sky above me, and the light that currently warmed my skin belonged to the sun.
I gripped onto the edge of the opening and managed to hoist myself up out of the tunnel within about thirty seconds. My dress, by this time, was almost unrecognizable. Although it was fully intact, the colors were complete strangers to the ones they were before the wind, dust, dirt, and wetness of my recent journey.
Standing up, I looked around me. People walked along the sidewalk at a constant rate, and cars that I'd never seen before sped along the street ahead. One nearly swerved into me.
As I squealed, I jumped back onto the bustling sidewalk, nearly stampeded by the busy people that sped up and down it.
"Watch it, kid!"
"Stay with your mommy, will you?"
"This isn't a playground; get somewhere!"
Being pushed around by all of the walking people, I lost all sense of direction and soon just went limp. This went on for about a minute, and I just wanted to go home.
The tears were bubbling up, as my whole situation was already too much for a seven year old to handle. The crowd had managed to push me off into the opening of an alley on the inside of the sidewalk, where I dropped onto the ground and began to sob.
After a little while, I opened my teary eyes from where I knelt on the ground. Looking up, my eyes met those of a blonde-haired woman in a soft blue dress. She stopped walking for a moment, angering the people behind her. Apologizing, she proceeded towards me.
"Why, hello." she said, in a mixture of concern and kindness.
I wiped my eyes and stood up, barely passing her knees. "Hello," I replied. "Am I in your way, too?"
"Oh, no, dear. What would make you ask something like that? Are you lost?" She knelt down to wipe a stray tear from my cheek.
"Yes, I'm afraid. I'm not sure where I am, but I have nowhere else to go. My whole family is dead." The tears threatened to return.
Her eyes widened in shock. The woman paused, as if in consideration, then said, "I'm so, so sorry. And now you're on the streets? That's not right. Such a terrible thing to lose family, but you must have someone to take care of you, don't you?"
I shook my head softly.
"My own parents died when I was your age." She paused again. "I'm Emily. What's your name, dear?"
"I am Princess Aurora Evangeline Luxor of Terralux."
She smiled. "Princess, are you? Is that what you'd like me to call you?"
"Yes, please." I said with a courtesy.
"Alright, Princess Aurora. What do you say we go find you someplace to go?" She held out her hand and I took it happily.
"Thank you." As we walked away, I turned back to look at the opening in the ground from which I'd come. I prayed a silent prayer that Terralux would one day be avenged.