“I am a princess on the way to my throne.”

Alanis Morrisette

A month had passed, Alianna kept track by carving notches into a tree. They dried off from the soaking mist with a fire in the morning. They had constructed a rope from some vines they had found and used it to hoist the backpack’s up above the mist each night. This kept their change of clothes dry and gave them something to wear while they waited for the other set to dry. Everyday more and more small animals could be found near the camp. Jaius would kill one or two and she would skin and clean it. They went for walks in the woods, and spent time gazing out across the expanse of the “Hole”. They each began to smile a lot more as they became more used to, and resigned to staying in, Paltophern. They would play hide and seek, and tell each other stories from the books or movies that they enjoyed, and then each morning they would wake up soaked through by the same mist, and the cycle would start all over again. On the first of the new month, something entirely different happened.

Alianna was standing with her back to the privacy bushes while Jaius put on his clothes , when she heard a branch break off in the woods. She jumped at the noise, and felt her heart begin to race. “A rabbit or squirrel wouldn’t be able to break a branch, It must be something larger.” She thought as she instinctively took a few steps backward. She held her breath and waited. A minute later she heard something moving nearby. It was followed by a low growl. Instead of freighting her more, the growl brought with it the last lingering shred of hope that this wasn’t Paltophern. She took a step toward the noise. She froze before she took another, for stepping out of the trees was a large tiger. It had large teeth and a hungry look in its eyes. She couldn’t even scream, her throat had closed up with fright. She lost control of her bladder, and in that moment didn’t care. “Where was Jaius?” Was the only thought that would make it through her fear addled brain. She was able to twist her neck enough to seem him standing by the bushes frozen in place just like she was. He looked like he had just finished getting dressed and stepped out onto this scene. She also noticed that he hadn’t had any better luck with his bladder then she had. There was a twinge of disappointment deep inside of her. She had hoped he would jump in front of her, to risk his life for hers. Just like the Knight from her book. She knew they had no hope of escaping, for the tiger had begun moving toward her.

It began pacing back and forth, sniffing the air. It picked up speed with each pace and began to angle for her. All she could do was pray silently for God to forgive her. She could not close her eyes, no matter how hard she wanted to. Some morbid curiosity kept them open, some sick desire to watch her own death. She began to hear singing coming from behind her. In her mind she imagined Angles coming to take her to Heaven. “Angles are a good sign.” This seemed a somewhat odd last thought to her. She had no time to mull this over though as he great cat suddenly pivoted and charged her. She barely had a chance to open her mouth to scream. As the beast lunged at her everything began moving in slow motion. The cat opened jaws big enough to fit her entire head inside. As she gazed in terror at the gleaming teeth she caught sight of something else flying toward her. It was a red beam of light. Just before those jaws clamped down on her the light struck the tiger. Its head was enveloped in a crimson aura. She could feel the heat that emanated from the light as it struck. As the slow motion effect ended, and she rejoined the normal flow of time, the beam of energy caused the cats head and upper torso to explode. She was blown backward to the ground and was showered with blood and gore, as the rest of the cat’s body was thrown away to the right, by the force of impact. She sat there stunned for a few moments, then she lost it. The sudden realization that she wasn’t going to die, mixed with the grossness of what she was now covered in was too much. She let out the ear splitting scream that had been building inside her since the tiger walked out of the woods.

“Silence!” Came a very deep voice from off to her right. It was so deep and commanding that she found herself shutting up almost immediately. She also realized that that voice was too deep to be Jaius’s. Her blood turned icy at the thought of what that meant.

She turned to see who had spoken. Emerging from the forest opposite from where the cat had come, was a very tall man with a bushy black beard and extremely large arms. He wore furs for clothing, but woven into the furs were crystals, like the ones they had found. He carried a staff with a large red crystal fixed to the end. That was the last full glimpse she got as gore from the creature began to ooze its way out of her hair and down her face. All it took was the smell hitting her nostrils and the next thing she knew she was on the ground throwing up. At one point she thought her entire insides were going to exit through her mouth. Then the dry heaves started. She couldn’t stop, no matter how hard she tried to hold it back, that smell was all around her, creeping further into her nose with each gasping breath.

She felt her self being lifted off the ground by two very strong hands. For the briefest moment the image of her Dad finding her laying in the clearing jumped into her head. In her vision he scooped her up and held her close to him, repeating that it was all OK now, that she was safe. That moment of peace was washed away as she landed in the middle of the creek and the water closed in around her.

Jaius watched as the man picked Alianna up and walked a few paces toward the creek. Oddly enough she wasn’t fighting him. Embarrassment and indignation burned within him. He knew that his body had betrayed him, and not just his bladder. Bones, muscles, brain, they had all let him down. All this time Ali had been saving him, being strong for him, and right when his moment came to be there for her, to risk it all for her like the knights in the movies did, all he did was stand there and wet himself. He’d seen her look back at him, he knew that he’d seen disappointment in her eyes. Anger replaced everything else he’d been feeling. Anger at that stupid tiger for ruining the peaceful life they had started to build. Anger at the man for rescuing her, when it should have been him that had done it.

His spiral into self loathing was halted when he saw the man fling Alianna high into the air. He saw the arc of her flight and it was going to put her right in the middle of the creek. He’d always had a knack for judging angles. The sudden realization that she could hit the bottom, where the crystals were, that she could still die, broke through all the layers of paralysis. He broke into a run and when he reached the edge of the creek, he lept out toward the middle. He saw her hit the water and disappear, just before he got there. He dove downward and was able to grab her leg before she touched the glowing lights at the bottom. He pulled her upward, kept at it until her head broke the surface. She was coughing ,gagging, and flailing her arms about at the same time. The back of her hand hit him right in the cheek and he saw little motes of light dance before his eyes, just before the pain began to radiate out from the point of impact. Her fist hitting him seemed to stop her flailing. She looked at him as if he were a complete stranger for a very long moment, before the hand that she wasn’t treading water with flew to her mouth.

“Oh my gosh, Jaius are you OK? I’m so sorry.” It was taking longer then it should for what had just happened to sink through her brain. Slowly, however, she began to remember the past three minutes. Jaius standing there not coming to rescue her from the Tiger. Then the man appearing and then her being tossed into the creek. Someone grabbing her leg and pulling her away from those malevolent crystals at the bottom of the creek. What she was realizing was that it had been Jaius that had just saved her. His failure to protect her from the Tiger still left an empty spot in her heart, but his risking his live to save her from the dreaded crystals was able to cover over most of it.

Relief washed through him. Not just for the fact that her speaking was a sign that she was OK, but that the concern he heard in her voice denoted that she didn’t hate him for not coming to her aid. “Yeh…Heh, not a problem, tis but a flesh wound.”

She looked at his cheek and the back to him. She let her confusion seep into her starre. “I don’t see any blood.”

He chuckled sullenly. “Sorry, it’s a line from a movie.”

“Oh, sorry.” She said as her cheeks flushed red.

They both heard the crunching of the mans boots and turned to see him standing at the water’s edge. He was removing the red crystal from the staff and replacing it with a golden one. It looked like a larger version of the one they used to start the fire. Once it was affixed to the piece of wood he raised it and aimed it at them. He began to sing a haunting song in a deep bass. Jaius could swear the man was speaking English. He saw Alianna’s eyes get larger as the crystal was leveled at them. He wasn’t going to let her down again. He'd seen that same look of disappointment in his parents eyes too many times to ever see it again in hers.

“Take a deep breath! Ali! Take a deep breath!”

She didn’t look at him the first time, but when he said it again she scrunched her face up in confusion. Thankfully her confusion lasted mere seconds. She drew in a deep breath and held it. Jaius looked her in the eyes. “Ali, I’m gong to distract him. You go under water and swim as far down stream as you can. I’ll lead him away and then meet you where we were gathering wood this morning.” He could see that she was about to open her mouth to protest so he didn’t give her the chance. He put a hand on each of her shoulders and pushed downward, hard enough for her head to disappear but nowhere near hard enough to send her to the bottom. When he saw her treading water beneath him looking at him in concern, he quickly jerked his head downstream. She tilted her head downward in resignation, looked. up at him one last time and then started to swim away from him. He breathed a sigh of relief and then turned to head toward the shore, up stream from the man. When Jaius was halfway there the man finished his song and a golden light shot from the crystal and enveloped him. Trapped by the beam that had enfolded him like a bubble. He floated there, waiting for the end to come. The beam did not kill him, It did however lift him out of the water and begin to pull him to the shore.

He felt as light as a feather as he floated within that light. “Great he’s got me caught in his tractor beam. Where is Obi-Wan when you need him?” The beam carried him over the water and then brought him to the shore about ten feet from the man. Jaius tried put on a brave face as the man circled around him, he wasn‘t sure how well he succeeded. The man then turned this way and that as if searching for something. He sniffed the air and then grunted. He pointed the staff at Jaius, the crystal at the top glowing like a mini-sun, and Jaius rose into the air again. The man turned and laid the staff on his shoulder with the Crystal still pointed at Jaius. As the man began to move so did he. Jaius looked back at the campsite that had become their home. He had thought that Paltophern had been a place of complete safety, a place where Ali and he could live a happy life, devoid of bullies and pain. It looked as if bullies existed in every corner of the universe. Then he saw her, soaking wet and hiding behind a tree, but it was her, it was Ali. She had her hand over her mouth as he floated away from her. He could see her eyes clearly though they were brimming over with emotion. Then he swore he read something in them. He could almost hear her saying “I’m coming for you.” “Great, yet again I’m the knight but the princess has to rescue me. I suck at this whole chivalry crap.” He tried to put as much emotion into his eyes as she had hers. He found it difficult because it was so hard for him to get that worked up. The man entered the trees at the top of the rise above the clearing and Jaius lost contact with her. Once she was gone, he began to feel this certainty solidifying in his chest. A certainty that it would be a long time till they could be together again. This began to tear at him, break him up from the inside. He began to cry as those thoughts took hold in his mind.

“Silence you woman, I at first took you to be a man, but it looks like I might be wrong in that assumption. Your wailing grates at my bones, now stop it!” The commanding nature of the man’s voice had him shutting his mouth before it fully registered what he had said. By the time they reached the Hole, he had managed to contain his despair and had begun looking into the trees, hoping to see Ali or at the very least a bully eating Tiger.

Alianna shouted out to Jaius in her mind. Trying to send mental shouts at him. “I’m going to come after you, Jaius, be strong!” There was a moment, before the man and Jaius disappeared into the trees, that she swore he heard her mental cry. Once she was sure the man was gone she hurried over to a tree that had a large hollowed out space in it. She reached in and grabbed the ropes that held their backpacks. As she untied and lowered the packs she marveled at what she was doing. Four weeks ago she’d have been too scared at this point to do anything but sit in the clearing and cry, but here she was now about to go after a grown man and try to steal back her friend. Paltophern’s air must give you courage as well as the ability to run twice as far. She finally got the bags to the ground and opened the main compartment. She reached into her pack and pulled out a furry bundle. She also reached in and grabbed the knife shard. She had resolved not to be afraid of it because, after many hours each day sitting by the fire practicing with it, trying different songs, octaves, images in her head, she had learned to control its power in a limited fashion. The effect seemed to be linked to what she was thinking of while singing, although she had no explanation how that could be. She still kept a wary eye on it from time to time, but for the most part she didn’t let it bother her.

She condenced the contents, everything they owned, into her pack because it was the most durable. It has been an old camping pack that her mom had given her. She then picked it up and shouldered it. She took one look around their campsite, their home, because she had a gnawing feeling she wouldn’t see it again. She sighed deeply, the memories of the past month playing through her mind. Then she turned away from the camp and then took off up the incline into the trees. She knew she could catch the man, but he seemed to have far better control over the crystals then she did. She’d probably be captured or worse as soon as she caught up. She resigned herself to trying to follow at a distance and hope an opportunity arose for her to sneak in and free Jaius. Her new and improved hearing allowed her to keep track of the man’s movements. She tried to stay as far behind him as she dared though, reasoning that a native of Paltophern might already have super hearing.

“He had spoken in English! How could he know English? He should have been speaking in some alien language. Maybe it is like the Talmerains in Narnia. They were humans from earth that had found their way into Narnia. Maybe he is from earth and got trapped here just like us.”

She stopped once she got to the edge of the tree line just before the Hole. She crouched down and looked one way and then the other. To the left she saw that man and Jaius floating behind him. The staff was laying on the Man’s shoulder, a beam of golden light emanating from it and then surrounding Jaius. She followed the man south around the rim of the Hole. He stopped before reaching the halfway mark and turned left. She followed him the rest of the day until he stopped in a clearing and he set the staff on the ground and Jaius floated down to rest on the grass. He then removed the stone from the staff and put the red crystal on it and leaned the Staff against a tree nearby. He set the amber crystal that held the sphere that trapped Jaius into a box and set the box on the ground.

She hunkered down to watch as the man gathered wood to make a fire. Once he had a decent pile he grabbed the staff and went into the woods. She was stunned, he just left Jaius alone, did the man not even think that she would come after him? Did he think that she posed no threat at all?

“I'll show him to overlook me.” She waited a minute or two, trying to track the man as he moved away from the camp. When she thought he had moved far enough away she ran down to the camp. She saw Jaius's eyes light up as she burst into the clearing, and she found a warm smile splitting her lips. “You came.”

“I told you I'd come after you, silly.” She bent down and touched the box that held the amber crystal. She opened the lid and went to lift out the crystal and immediately drew back her hand and started shaking it up and down. She mouthed the word “Oww” over and over. She saw his eyes imply a “That was Stupid. ”

“Well if you have a better idea I'm open to it!” His eyes locked on the crystal knife. She followed them down to it and felt her cheeks coloring. “Heh, oh yeah, I forgot.”

She started humming singing quietly, enough for the crystal to hear her but she hopped not enough for the man. After a minute a glow appeared at the center of her crystal she pointed it at the other one and hit the note that always seemed to trigger the beam. The golden ray shot out of her crystal. It struck the crystal that was holding Jaius and ricocheted back toward him. She gasped in horror. It struck the golden orb that surrounded him and went through. Somehow, Jaius was able to dodge the beam.. Some freakish reflex engaged and jerked his head and back backwards till he lay flat against the floor of the sphere just in-time to avoid the beam. The beam shot off into the wood and was gone. He straightened himself and just by the look on Alianna’s face he knew his was as pale as a bone. He sucked her breath in very quickly as sweat began to ooze from every pore. “Jaius, how did you doge that beam? It was moving so fast I’ve never seen anything like it.” I…have” He panted. “ As I saw the beam ricochet, a movie scene jumped into my head where a man dodges a bunch of bullets by moving faster than they did. Next thing I know I’m laying back on the floor of the sphere watching the golden beam sail over me.” That’s amazing. Like what I imagine the stones reproduce, but it sounds like you might be able to reproduce what you see in your head by moving your body.” He nodded at that odd notion, but before they could test it they both heard the noise of the man coming through the Trees. Startled and uncertain what to do, She backed away from the crystal that held Jaius and kept going toward the tree line. The fear in Jaius's eyes changed to hurt as he saw that she was leaving. Her eyes filled with sorrow. “I'm sorry Jaius, I...I don't know what to do, He’s coming. I'm going to be following you. I'll free you Jaius, I just got to figure out how.” Just before she crossed back through the tree line his eyes changed from a look of hurt to encouragement. He winked at her, and she could see the twinkle of a smile in them. She stopped, gave him a grin and a thumbs up and then turned and ran up the hill that was overlooking the camp. When she reached the top she sat down Indian style and opened the side pouch and pulled out a few berries and started to munch on them. They had watched the berries that some of the small animals ate and saw that they didn't die from them and so they had tried them too. They were really delicious.

A few minutes later the man appeared again dragging what looked like a very large deer. He droped it in front of the wood pile, pointed the staff at the wood pile and began to sing. Moments later a thin red beam shot out and lighted the wood. He then took out a knife and proceeded to gut the animal. She lifted her own crystal knife in front of her eyes and stared into its facets. Memories of the past few weeks seemed to float within the facets of the crystal.

After the first few days in the clearing, Jaius had become really sick. So much so that he wasn’t able to move from the fire. She had tried to avoid using the Crystals at first, because of the great power they possesed. When he became ill though, she had to keep the fire going to keep him from getting a chill and she also had to use the knife to kill the animals and skin them and the other crystal to light the fires. That first night that he was sick was one of the worst she had been through in her life. He couldn’t stop throwing up, among other problems. She was so scared, it was like her brain went on vacation. The twins had gotten sick last year and she had helped her mom take care of them, but for some reason she felt afraid to go near Jaius when he was like this. She felt like she been too chained up in her fears to move too far from where she sat near the fire.

She had managed to help him to the tree line when he needed to throw up, and go to the bathroom, and she got him water when he needed it, and gathered berries to eat because she still couldn’t bring herself to kill the animal’s up close. Aside from that she had been pretty much useless to him.

He must have been too weak to protest her inaction, because all he did was thank her for the few times that she did help him. She would sit there for hours trying to find out where all her courage and strength from the first few days had gone. She didn’t sleep well during that time. She would lie awake and listen to him as he lay there whimpering. He didn’t call out to her, but Alianna knew he was wishing his mom was there. He had to be, because she had been pining for her mother every waking moment since he had gotten sick. She missed her family desperately, and the reality of fantasy worlds left a lot to be desired. There were no talking animals, or knights, or old wizards that appeared precisely when they meant to, just fear, and cold, and hunger, and sickness and pain.

His sickness lasted for two days. It seemed that once he was well enough to begin helping her again, that she came down with similar symptoms that he did. As she got worse he improved, he even said he felt twice as good as he had before he got sick. She had never been sick like that before. She spent a lot of time in the creek cleaning herself up. She was constantly telling him to leave the clearing when she needed to get into the creek. Looking back her tone may have come across as mean when she was telling him to go.

He didn’t say anything though, he just said “No Problem” and headed up the incline toward the Hole. She felt bad about any tone that may have worked its way into her voice but she felt even more self conscious during that week then the whole time they had been together. There were things going on with her body that she would have died before discussing them with him, let alone the nausea and other problems. Some of her symptoms were the same as his, but she didn’t get as weak as he did, although the other complications more than made up for that.

She shook those thoughts from her head. She couldn’t let her self dwell on the negative, there had been some really cool moments over the past few weeks as well. Jaius had not been wrong about feeling really good after recovering from the sickness. She felt amazing. She knew young people were supposed to have very resilient bodies, but her body felt brand new. Each breath brought renewed energy, and even jumping from a decent height, brought no protest from her legs. Jaius and she had even tried to see how long they could stay up. They stayed awake for two days straight before even the first signs of fatigue set in. It was during that period of self imposed insomnia that they were able to witness the appearance of the fog that greeted them every morning. It literally rose straight up from the ground all around them. It even rose off of the top of the creek. They would run through the forest together, or go for walks and listen to the music of the animals as they called out to each other in the distance. They would watch the light dim as they sat with their feet dangling over the lip of the Hole. It wasn’t really a sunset, but it was the closest thing they had. They had even begun to swim together, in the mornings since their clothes were already soaked. They had a lot of fun splashing each other. This was something else of a surprise for her. She felt more comfortable around Jaius now then she had around anyone else in a long time. When she tried to justify this new level of comfort to herself, all she could point her finger at was that when they were both sick, they were each incredibly vulnerable and exposed. She figured if he hadn’t gone screaming for the hills once she got better, then she felt she could start being herself around him, and it seemed that he began to feel the same way around her.

Next thing she knew it was morning. The mist was surrounding her and she was drenched. She shook her head, berating herself for daydreaming at a time like this. It didn’t last long though as she remembered that her clothes were wet most of yesterday because she hadn’t had time to change before leaving the clearing. The rugged camping pack seemed to resist most of the moisture, which made her sigh in relief. She looked up and saw that the man was halfway around the rim of the Hole already. She noticed also that he wasn’t soaking wet. She dug the shard into the ground in frustration, pulled it out and hurried off to her left, keeping inside the treeline, but also trying to catch up to the man.

As she ran an image formed in her mind. It was of her, sleeping in her bed, Mr. bear nestled to her. She missed that. Missed feeling safe in a comfortable bed. She also felt the loss of innocence that she had had when she was safe in her bed. She had witnessed many wondrous sights on Paltophern, but there had also been occurrences that she knew had forced her to grow up faster then she should have. She saw herself in the room as she was now, complete with Jaius’s pack on her back. She stood looking down upon this most peaceful sight. The innocent, pre-Paltophern her, snuggled in her bed, clutching Mr. Bear. This peaceful image that she treasured in her mind. She bent down and kissed her sleeping self on the forehead, and then walked slowly back to the door to her room. She paused halfway into the hallway and looked back one last time. She saw her sleeping self pull Mr. Bear closer in, and nuzzle his soft fur, and then sigh. She blew a kiss into that childhood sanctuary and walked the rest of the way into the hall and shut the door.

She skidded to a halt. The echo of that door shutting reverberating in her head. “What was that? What…what did that vision mean?” A branch snapping in the distance took her away from those thoughts. She caught a glimpse of movement and realized the man was getting ahead of her again. She took off again, trying very hard not to let her mind wander again.

She ran for hours through a forest that got denser the further in she went. The man hadn’t gone the entire way around the hole, he had turned westward a mile before coming to the halfway point. She had to be many miles away from the Hole by now. This brought a momentary wave of sadness over her. The clearing was so far away now. It had become their place of safety, their home, and she had been forced to abandon it, possibly never to return. There had been a point over the last week where she had been forced to admit to herself that there might never be a hope of seeing her family again. They had stayed in that clearing for almost a month and there had been no sign of a way back to the Earth. She would not, could not allow herself to give up hope totally, but she had started to imagine the rest of her life spent on Paltophern. A life that seemed to include Jaius more and more with each passing day. She wondered how many more like this man that there were on Paltophern.

Night fell and the man kept running, it seemed that all Paltphernians had similar abilities like the ones Jaius and her had developed. Not feeling winded in the slightest she pushed on, as darkness descended. She had noticed that she could still see pretty well even when night came, which she thanked God for, because it allowed her to be able to keep up with the man, even in this dense forest. She had lost her contacts the third day she was here, but found out not too long after recovering from the sickness that she didn’t need them anymore, and now it seemed they were getting stronger.

The man traveled westward for three days, and then headed north for another two. She saw the one night how he resisted the mist. A glowing red dome appeared over him each night and the mist rose around it in the morning.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Just as the light was starting to dim on the night of the sixth day after leaving the clearing, she crested the top of a wooded hill and looked down into an amazingly beautiful valley. There was a river that flowed through the middle of it. The water wound its way into the valley as it emerged out of a pass between two of the hills. As she stood starring at where the base of the two hills crossed she felt an odd sense of comfort, that bloomed into pure joy. She began to laugh, softly at first, then getting somewhat louder. At the same time tears ran down her cheeks. Laughing and crying she covered her mouth with both hands to muffle the sound. Slowly it dawned on her why she was acting this way. It was the river, flowing out from between two hills. Just like in the painting that hung above the love seat in her house. The one where the river disappeared into a pass between two hills. She had been right, there really had been a valley beyond those hills in the painting, and she was standing above it.

She tore her eyes away from the pass, and back to the valley below her. She saw the man pause at the river's edge and she faintly picked up his signing. After a few minutes the crystals that were woven into his cloak began to glow a deep amber color and within moments he was lifting into the air and floating across the river.

Alianna shook her head. “This isn't real, its not natural. I mean I know I've read books that are chalk full of stuff like guys floating across the water, but actually seeing it , it...its too much!” She forced herself to look back at the man as he floated over the river. He landed at the far side and continued walking toward a line of hills that seemed to form a “J” shape. As the man walked away from the river she saw that he was aiming for a point where he could turn right and head into the cul-de-sac. “Great, he gets to float across and stay dry, I'm going to have to swim and be wet again for probably the rest of the night.” She sighed, but then shrugged her shoulders. “Won't be the worst night I've spent on Paltophern.” Her clothes were still damp anyways from a week of getting drenched by the mist, but not having the time to dry or change them.

Once he was far enough away from the river she began her descent of the hill she was on. She soon stood at the bank of the river. The river was a lot farther across then she had thought, and the current seemed kind of strong. It reminded her of the Susquehanna river that cut its way through Wilkes-Bare, except where the Susquehanna was so murky you couldn't see into it at all, this river was as clear as the water in the creek. She pulled the backpack around and opened the main pocket. She pulled out the larger crystal, the one that lights the fires, and then zippered the pack back up. She held the crystal up to her face and looked intently at it. Squinting her eyes shut, she imagined as hard as she could, picturing the stone lifting her across the river, but no matter how hard she tried the stone just rested lifeless in her hand. “I wonder what song makes you fly.” she said to the stone. “Maybe a song about flying away.” She took a deep breath. “I'll fly away, oh glory, I'll fly away, when I die hallelujah, by and by, I'll fly...” She had to stop, she had forgotten what that song was about. What had brought her up short was the memory of standing there by the creek, about to end her own life. “Nope, not gonna stand by that creek edge forever. The right song sung at this stone and I won't be spending tonight soaking wet.” She took another deep breath and continued the song.

“When the shadows of this life have grown, I'll fly away, fly away, fly away. Like a bird from prison bars has flown, I'll fly away, fly away, fly away...”

As she sang the crystal began to vibrate. Each note seemed to make it shake just slightly differently than the last. When she hit the last note of the chorus the crystal began to glow, and she felt it begin to move forward of its own accord. She gripped it tightly, and almost at the same instant that her hand closed round it, the stone pulled her off her feet and toward the river. Almost immediately she felt the thing lose momentum, she was almost at the river bank before she remembered that if you wanted the crystals effect to last, you had to keep signing. She quickly began the song again. The crystal renewed its flight, but the loss of momentum had brought them too close to the level of the water and so, even though the crystal succeeded in getting her across the stream, she still wound up on the far side dripping with water. “Still got wet.” She said glumly, but then changed her tone as she looked around and noted that her goal had been reached, and that any annoyances in getting there were really quite trivial.

There had been a lot of hard lessons over the past weeks in learning how to be thankful for the things that she did have, and not mourning the things she didn't. They had both done a lot of wallowing in misery that first week. Once the shock at being in this place had worn off, the reality weighed on them like a mountain. It had been Jaius who had kept pushing her to not give up hope, to make the best of where they were for now. Looking back, she had been too harsh in her judgment of him back when the Tiger attacked them. That beast had been so large, and came at them so suddenly there really wasn't even time to think. Plus, he had jumped in and saved her from the crystals.

She looked ahead, in the direction that the man had carried Jaius. She saw no sign of his passing. “Crap! I just hope he veered to the left into the cul-de-sac, and didn't go over the mountain.” She returned the larger shard to the backpack and then gripped the crystal knife in her right hand and set off into the woods.

Ten minutes later she was peering around a tree and looking into the cul-de-sac that was formed by the mountains. There was a decent sized pond about a quarter of a mile from where she stood, and beyond that was a collection of houses that were made of stone and wood. There were about thirty of them as far as she could tell. A radiance emanated from each one. She squinted her eyes and thought that she could make out crystals set into the outside walls, but she was too far a way to tell. The houses were all one story structures, except for the one at the end of the road that ran through the middle of town. At the far end stood a building that was three stories tall. It had a wide wall around it and many different wings shooting off it in all directions, like a massive mansion. It was made out of crystal and spread golden light over the rest of the village. “Not the city made of crystal I was expecting, but...” she gritted her teeth and began to move carefully forward. She headed up the slope of the mountain near her, so that she could approach the village under the cover of the trees.

As she peeked out from behind a tree, her face became serious as the man walked into her view. He was coming from the main street and headed toward the large front doors of the crystal building. The doors were guarded by two men who wore crystal helmets and what looked like crystal chest plates. They each held a long spear with a head made of red crystal, and a shield made of what looked like amber, but she assumed it was crystal also.

The men crossed their spears as the brute that had stolen her friend approached them. He lifted something from his chest and showed it to them. The one guard looked at what the man held, and then nodded and they let him pass. The man went inside, followed by Jaius who was still held captive in the golden energy. Something occurred to her as she stood there. “The man hadn't been signing. How had he been able to maintain the beam that held Jaius captive?” The door shut behind him.

Ali sighed and leaned against the tree. “Great, I gotta go save prince Rilian. It's worth it though. I just hope he doesn't make a habit of this.” She slid down the tree and pulled her legs up to her chest. “I better wait till it’s dark to try to sneak in. She then took the knife and began to draw in the dirt. As she dug into the ground a face began to emerge. An hour later she was looking at a face. The person was definitely male, but she wasn't sure who it was. It stood out in such detail that it looked for a moment as if there was a puddle of water at her feet reflecting the face of someone behind her. “Was there nothing that Paltophern didn't enhance about you?” She'd always been a fair artist, but this was something that she would have thought outside her ability. After a few moments of looking she narrowed down the possible owner's of the face to the three Men most on her mind of late. She couldn't decide if it was Jaius, or Jim, or her Dad.

She had been thinking of all three of them during the past week. Her Dad was always there to protect and provide for her. She had taken for granted so much of what her Mom and Dad had done for her. She had come to rely on Jaius so much over the past month that it was almost like she had always relied on him. Then there was Jim. The injustice he had done to her had settled down into the depths of her memory, and most of what remained were the things that had brought on her crushing on him. He was handsome, and was quiet and cool, a lot like the Fonz. Her parents used to watch their Happy Days DVD's all the time before the twins were born. He had such cool taste in music too. But was he Edward and Jaius Jacob, or the other way around? She laughed at that thought. “So does that make me Bella, and my Dad Charlie?” She shook her head. “With as dangerous as Paltophern is and my current situation, I feel more like Katniss Everdeen.”

Alianna continued to mull these thoughts and others as she waited for the darkness to fall. Two hours later the light had dimmed noticeably. She stood up and stretched for a minute or two. Once she felt limbered up she took a deep breath and then headed down toward the village. She was halfway to the central structure when she heard two people walking down the street that crossed in front of the one she was on. She ducked to her right and found herself under the window of one of the houses. She could hear them talking.

“Must we go to the Means tonight Galeric? Our food will waste away on the table before we are able to return to it.” A woman's high-pitched voice

“We dare not be late once the Hyress issues her call. She would cast us to the deep for sure. She has no mercy for any that do not react immediately to her will.”

“But...”

Alianna saw them as they crossed before where the ally met the street. The man grabbed the woman's arm and pulled her in close to him.

“Silence woman! The Hyress has ears that lurk all around. Your rebellious ways will end both of our lives..” The woman whimpered slightly as the man spoke. Slowly she nodded her head. At this movement, he spat on the ground next to her and then strode forward pulling her along behind him.

Alianna kept staring at the street, something fixing her gaze to the sport where the couple had stood. Pain in her left hand, the one that wasn't holding the dagger, forced her to look away from the road. She opened her hand and looked down at it. Four gashes were impeded in the upper part of her palm. She was confused at their appearance for only a few seconds, for the blood that stained her uncut nails betrayed the culprit. She stretched her hand out and shook it back and forth as the pain throbbed up her arm. “Ouch, ouch ouch. What the heck? Great, I don't need any help from those guards, I do a sufficient job of injuring myself.”

She took a deep breath and stood still. She cocked her head toward the street and heard more movement. She watched as thirty to forty couples, each leading on average eight children, passed by the entrance to the ally. After they went by, she waited ten more minutes to make sure there were no more coming. When she could hear no more people walking down he street she cautiously ventured out of the alley and continued to move parallel to the main street. A few more minutes and she was crouched down behind a bench that sat in a small park that had a low stone wall around it. From where Alianna hid she could see the side of the large structure. There were three windows per floor, but none of them were open, and she could see people moving by them every so often.

“How am I going to get in?” She whispered. She kept scanning the area around the building, praying for a miracle. Movement from the rear of the building caught her eye and she turned to see what it was. A woman was walking from a shed that lay about a hundred yards behind the building. She was carrying what looked like half a pig. A rumbling noise emanated from her midsection. “Mmmm...Bacon!” She shook her head and went back to watching the woman, who was just descending a stone staircase cut into the ground, behind the structure. “Its worth a try.” she whispered softly.

Alianna ran as quietly as she could to the back of the building and stopped at the corner. She looked back toward the street and, seeing no one, turned her attention to where the woman went down the steps. She looked down the stone staircase and saw that a door lay at the bottom, it had been left open just slightly. She tiptoed down the stairs and paused at the door frame and listened. The smells of cooking wafted past her, they stirred a hunger in her that she had forgotten about. Weeks of eating the small animals they had caught and the berries that they had seen the animals eat, were poor substitutes to the aroma of bread she smelled baking mixed with seared pork. She clenched her fists and scrunched up her face and locked her legs in place as they had started to move forward toward the smells. She tried to imagine that she was walking into a land fill, tried desperately to replace the sweet smells wafting toward her, with the rancid smells of a dump, but only succeeded marginally.

She opened her eyes slightly and saw a soft light coming from around the corner ahead. She could hear women singing. Her resolve returning to her, she took a deep breath, which of course was a huge mistake. The aromas flooded her nose and she lost what little self-control that she had mustered. She tiptoed quickly up to the corner and peered around. She saw a large kitchen ahead of her. The walls were of finely cut stone, the mortar of which seemed to sparkle in the light that came from a massive fireplace. It was so large that three copper kettles sat within it. There was a wooden table that dominated the middle part of the room. There were at least six women, some of them not much older than herself, standing at the table doing tasks ranging from cutting vegetables to rolling dough. They wore dresses of what looked like silk that went down to their knees and she could see what appeared to be tights covering the rest of their legs.

The tights also sparkled in the firelight. “Was everything in the world made of crystals in one way or another?”

The women who were working at the table were singing a song that spread joy and peace through the room. Two of them, two girls about her age that had red hair and looked like identical twins had a crystal around their necks that glowed brightly, pulsing to the music. All around the two women small pinpoints of light flared for a second and then dissipated. There didn't seem to be any pattern or reason to the lights, but Ali was sure that whatever the lights were they were what the women were trying to create with their song. There was an archway that led into the kitchen at the end of the hallway she was looking down.

She moved forward and put her back up against the solid part of the arch. She poked her head around to get a better view of the kitchen. Aside from the women around the table there was a woman standing at a podium to the left of the table. She wore a green silk dress that went down to her ankles and she carried a wooden spoon as if it were a scepter, or perhaps a sword. Alianna assumed she was the head chef but she seemed so young. She couldn't be older then twenty but her eyes spoke of witnessing the passage of many more years then that. As she thought about it all of the women that she could see looked quite young. She had to guess that none of them were far into their twenties.

Behind the woman and the podium was another archway. She could see the first few stairs just beyond the arch. Her mouth began to water. If she didn't run back outside soon, she knew she would give herself up if they promised to feed her. “God, it's Ali. Please, please make my stomach stop rumbling, or stop up my nose, or something. I got to save Jaius, but I don't know how much longer I can resist this food.”

A few more minutes passed without anyone in the room leaving. Just as Ali was about to turn and run back outside, she herd footfalls on the steps. A moment latter a girl of about ten ran onto the landing and then skidded to a halt inside the kitchen. The girl had long dark hair and brown eyes. This brought another oddity up to Ali. Almost every one she had seen so far had had dark hair and either black or brown eyes, and no one had had blond hair and blue eyes the twins were the only different hair color she had seen so far.. “Great, I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb. Like Ayla among the Clan of the Cave Bear.”

The girl bowed to the the woman that held the spoon. “Mistress of the Feast. The Hyress grows impatient. Maleric has returned and she has nothing to set before him. He insists he must soon depart, and she states that she will be most displeased with thee if he leaves without food in his stomach.” The girl finished speaking but remained bowed. Alianna saw the woman blanch for just a second before recovering. She strode to the head of the table and whirled on the women. “Enough!” The women stopped what they were doing and looked at her. When they stopped singing the crystals stopped glowing and the motes of light ceased to appear. Alianna smiled a slight smile, congratulating herself for being right.

“Everyone prepare two plates and come with me, we will serve the Hyress and her guest first and then come back to finish the rest of the plates.”

The women all nodded their heads and began to swiftly set two plates each with food. The woman with the spoon also prepared two plates, in a far more meticulous way then the others were. When she finished, her two plates looked like the pictures that you see at the fast food place of what your food should look like, but never does. The woman picked up her two plates, as did the others, and with the Mistress of the Feast in the lead they followed her single file up the stairs. As the last one entered the arch, the young girl straightened and followed behind them.

Knowing this was her chance, and thanking God for helping her out, she raced into the room and made it about as far as the table before her legs refused to go another step. She stood entranced by the sight of cooked ham, fresh bread, bacon, vegetables and some kind of cake with a glaze on it. She couldn't resist it any longer. She ran over and stuffed three pieces of bacon in her mouth. She then grabbed two sausages, which burned her tongue. Not feeling the pain she thrust some ham into herself and continued on down the table. Something interrupted her gluttonous indulgence. She remembered that the woman said they would be right back. An image of Jaius floated in her mind. “What am I doing! They'll be back soon, catch me, and then there will be no one to rescue him.” She sighed around the hunk of bread she had just spattered with butter and stuffed in her mouth. She grabbed the rest of that piece of bread, some more bacon and then turned and ran to the stairs. She listened before going up, and hearing nothing, proceeded up the stairs.

The stairs went up two flights before ending in another archway. She looked both ways into the hall. She saw that to the left the hallway went a few yards and then turned to the right. To her right the hall went on for about a hundred yards before turning to the left. Halfway down the to the right were two huge oak doors with scenes depicting woods, and a river. One of the doors stood open. Fearing that the cook and her helpers would be coming her way any moment, Ali went to her left and disappeared around the corner. She peered back down the hall she had just come from, and almost on cue the cook and the other women came out of the large doors. The cook looked a bit paler than she had below and was sweating as she hurried back to the archway and rushed back to the kitchens. The other women did not seem any more confident as they hurried after her, and the two girls seemed absolutely terrified..

Ali gave it to the count of ten before heading to the large door. She looked around the door at a huge room. The walls were paneled in clear crystal which glowed with light for the room. There was beautiful singing coming from a pit in the middle of the room. The pit only went down about seven feet, and inside were seven men and seven women. The men wore silk shirts and shorts and the same glimmering tights that the women below wore. The women in the pit wore silken mini skirts with silken halter tops sand the same glittering tights. Then Ali noticed the body suite sparkling from under the halter tops and concluded that it was all one piece of glittering fabric.

Just back from the pit stood a long table covered in a shimmering tablecloth. There were eleven seats along the length of the table, and men and women in finer clothes than the rest of the people gathered throughout the hall, were eating the food that had just been brought up. At the center of the table sat a girl that had to be her age. She had long blond hair and blue eyes and she was very pretty. She wore a diadem with a crystal shard set in the middle of it that glowed a deep purple. Next to her was the same beast of a man who had taken Jaius, who was still floating in a glowing bubble just behind the man. Behind that table rose ten steps that led to a rectangular dais. In the middle of the platform was an ornate chair of crystal that was four feet tall and two feet long and wide. It was of the same deep purple crystal as the stone set in the girls diadem. Except, with all the singing, this was the only crystal not affected in any way. It remained dark and cold, even though it was just feet from the pit.

Ali scanned the room looking for a place where she could hide. At the same time as her eyes locked on an alcove not too far from the door, a strong hand clamped down on her shoulder. She felt the adrenaline rush through her veins, the sinking feeling of getting caught encompassing her stomach. She turned to look behind her and saw a man with a shaven head who seemed like he was in his early thirties. He had a very neatly cut goatee and piercing brown eyes.

“Well, my dear, you are definitely not from around here are you, normally I would insist you bathe, covered in dirt and stinking as you do, before bringing you into this room, but I do believe we do not have time for that?”

“I..I...Ah..” She felt completely betrayed. All the confidence that she had built up these past weeks dissolved into those eyes.

“Come, there is someone who will be most interested to meet you.” He said as he pulled up a strand of her hair and examined it. He then grabbed her chin and stared deeply into her eyes. “Very interested” His Iron grip did not lesson as he pushed her ahead of him. “My Hyress, we have an unexpected guest.” He shouted into the great hall as he walked her toward the main table. The girl with the diadem turned from talking to the man who had taken Jaius and looked at them with an icy gaze. It reminded her of the gaze that Keri had given her right before Alianna had run out of the cafeteria.

“Theric, you better have a good reason for disturbing....” The girl stopped mid-sentence as her eyes fell on Alianna. Alianna caught the shadow of fear that fell over the girl the moment she saw her. The shadow was gone as soon as it came and was replaced with the Ice. “So Theric, you have found an impostor? One of the other tribes trying to overthrow me perhaps?”

“That was what I had surmised as well My Hyress. I figure some form of dye and very fine crystal lenses to give the illusion of her hair and eyes. Hair and eyes that only you possess my Hyress, as a marking from the Eternal that you were chosen to rule.”

All this talk about impostors got Ali's mind thinking along those lines. She looked intently at this girl with the diadem. There was something about her hair, something that didn't seem right. She was the only other person she had seen with blond hair and blue eyes, and from what this man had implied those attributes are what qualified her to be their leader. She could find nothing out of place with the girl though.

“Well Theric, does it speak? Or are we going to have to pantomime?”

“It tried to my lady but it wasn't very coherent.”

“Well then, it probably won't be able to explain itself, not much more to do with it then have it destroyed. I will do it myself. Let it be known that my rule as Hyress is indisputable.”

Alianna saw the girl rise and begin to turn toward the steps. “If she is going to use that large crystal chair on me, I'll be finished.” All the confidence that had melted out of her when this man grabbed her suddenly returned. Weeks of fighting for survival and succeeding washed away her fear. After a cursory examination of the situation, all she could come up with was to run up and tackle the girl before she got up the steps. Then hold her hostage somehow. No one would attack her as long as she held this Hyress, at least she hoped they wouldn’t “It was worth a shot.”

Alianna twisted in the man's grip and drew back her right leg. She spun to face him and kicked the man between his legs with the same force as if she was taking a free kick in soccer. The man's hand instantly let her go as his eyes bugged out of his head and he doubled over and fell to the ground. She continued to turn and raced at the girl. She jumped onto the table and lunged at the girl, tackling her off the first step. They tumbled to the floor and as they were flung apart the tassel on her belt caught on the crown and pulled it off of the other girl's head. Alianna landed at the foot of the steps in a heap, but quickly sprang up to her knees to see what had happened. Her eyes locked first on the girl that she had just tackled, and watched as the girls hair turned from blond to jet black. The girl shook her head and looked at Alianna with fear and confusion in her eyes. The girl stood and pointed her finger at Alianna, but before she could say anything, gasps and screams erupted from the people in the room. The girl froze and then turned around to face the crowd. Everyone was pointing at her, some with horror on their faces, some with rage. All the color drained from her face and she slumped to the ground and began to cry. She was calling out a name that Ali couldn't understand.

The man who held Jaius was already singing and his suit was beginning to glow. Ali new what he was doing. She ran up the steps and stood in-front of the deep purple crystal chair and turned to face the crowd. “Here me.” She bellowed. “I am the true Hyress, as shown by my hair and eyes, as they are without the crown that made it possible for this girl to deceive you.” When everyone had turned to look at her and saw her hair and eyes without the crown, she reached up and placed the diadem on her head. “I command you to stop that man.” She said, pointing to the one they called Maleric.

But before anyone moved, the man finished signing and flew out of the room, with Jaius trailing behind him.

“Go, Stop him!” She shouted.

“N..Noo!'' Groaned the man who she had just kicked. “You must first prove your right to be called Hyress. The one we had may have been an impostor, but so might you be as well. You must sing, and make the Thron glow. Only the true Hyress can do this.”

Ali looked behind her at the crystal chair. “Great what song do I sing.” She tried to think quickly, of a song that was exceedingly moving and beautiful. The only thing her mind could come up with was a song that had played while the credits rolled on the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe movie. Like the song she first used to light the fire with, the lyrics came right to her mind. Jim had said the name of the song was Wunderkind, he had said it meant Child Prodigy. “Well, if I pull this one off, I think that's what I just might be.” She turned back to the room full of people who stared up at her. She hung her head and took a deep breath. Her blond hair fell forward, to partially hide her face. Silently at first, but growing in volume, she began to sing.

“Oh perilous place, walk backwards toward you

Blink disbelieving eyes, chilled to the bone

Most visibly brave, no apprehended gloom

First to take this foot to virgin snow.”

As her voice grew louder, a faint light began to form in the middle of the crystal that was set in the crown. A similar glow apares within the crystal chair at the same time. She heard some of the people gasp and hope bloomed inside her, and she began to sing harder, putting her whole heart and soul into it. As the beauty of the music caught her heart the song erupted from her lost in her ardent singing.

“I am a magnet for all kinds of deeper wonderment

I am a wunderkind oh oh oh oooooh

And I lift the envelope pushed far enough to believe this

I am a princess on the way to my throne.”

Destined to serve, destined to roam

She lifted her head and looked at the crowd before her. She could feel the emotion that was swirling through her coming out in her voice. It intensified the notes made them almost seem to come alive. That life of the notes fed into her, she could feel the power coming from the chair behind her, and it scared her. She felt like she could pour everything she had into the crystal and the chair would respond with ever greater and even more terrifying effects. “My emotions, they make the effects of the crystals more powerful.” She thought. She saw awe in their faces, and fear. Half the crowed was on their knee's, the other half were on their way to the ground. Then she noticed a purple haze had formed around her. A sphere of purple energy had surrounded her. For a moment fear gripped her, but she quickly realized that it must be coming from the crystal behind her. As she started the next verse her voice resounded from every far corner of the hall.

“Oh ominous place spellbound and unchild-proofed

My least favorite chill to bare alone

Compatriots in place they'd cringe if I told you

Our best back-pocket secret our bond full-blown

The sphere began to crackle, energy arced across its surface. She stopped signing once she saw this, having no desire to destroy the hall. Even after she stopped the sphere remained around her for a good half hour. All of the people, even the girl who had been pretending, were now on their knees, bowing to her. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Now, Go!” She cried pointing toward the door to the hall that Maleric had flown out of.

The whole room cleared out, save the bald man, four of the guards in crystal armor, and the imposer Hyress.