by Holly Hook
I could understand that. Like her, I'd experienced it.
But at least I knew the entire truth now. My mother had been running. Scared. Like me.
I sucked in a breath of the fresh air. The Tree Kingdom now stood inside a huge, circular wall of rock complete with waterfalls and thick forest on the peaks. According to Rae, this place had been a barren desert closed inside the same barren stone wall with only a ruined tower in the center. This entire kingdom had shrunken and sank right into the ground below it. Alric kept the prisoners under their rightful home the whole time.
We passed a tall wooden house with a lantern hanging over its front door. The smell of bread wafted out. My stomach rumbled. "We should stop and get some of that," I said.
"I thought we were going back to the other world," Candice said. "With Alric gone, we can. My father has to be worried about me." She reached into her pocket for the yarn, which she kept with her at all times.
"We will," I said. "But I'll need to talk to my mom first. Maybe we can do some back and forth thing? It would be cool to experience both worlds."
"Franco needs to get back."
I grinned. "He does."
"I know you don't care for him."
"I don't." I picked up my pace. I was looking forward to seeing the other world again and seeing movies and even going to the theater. I knew it wasn't cool to have to ask my mom to do stuff, but it felt good. I had someone I could ask and who would tell me to be careful. I could be normal.
Candice and I walked under lines of drying clothes and perched birds that threatened to crap on us. Henry had to duck out of the way and Rae laughed. The castle was ahead, rising above the greenest trees I had ever seen. The green tile matched that of the forest and the wooden trim actually looked cool. It wasn't a huge castle but I didn't care about that.
My mom was staying there with Prince Everett and he was actually a pretty cool guy. He'd been turned into vapor along with everyone else so many years ago.
"Hey, Shorty." The butcher, Larry, waved at me as we passed. I was getting to know a lot of the names around here and so far, no one had called me demon spawn. They'd all heard me fighting Alric and they knew the truth. "You're going to be late."
"I had to get this tailored up," I said, gesturing down to my outfit. Candice's green dress looked amazing on her. "It's kind of important, you know?"
The castle drew closer and the green banners hanging from the entrance waved in the breeze. It was the best possible day out. I walked past the guards, who held their staffs out of the way to let us through. Brie and Stilt were waiting by the front doors, dressed in their best.
"Hey," I said.
"Hey," Brie said, hugging me in a totally not romantic way. "I just heard news that Henrik got back to his old castle. A messenger just came through with it."
"Really," I said.
"And he just discovered his gold stockpile is gone."
"Really," I repeated. The dwarves had taken off with most of Alric's gold by time he bled out. It was another reason he had perished. I could rest easy knowing that I was only partially to blame.
"And get this," Stilt said. "Macon's getting married to Henrietta. He was expecting to have a big pile of gold there, too. It stinks to be him but he can't back out now. We won't be seeing him for a while. Even better, I think Henrik will be too proud to spin any gold himself. Even if he does, he's so old that he'll die before he finishes. I don't think we need to worry about him for a long time."
Stilt would now. I loved the thought of Macon being trapped in that castle.
The double doors opened and Princess Kathryn stood there in a flowing green and white wedding dress.
"Shorty!" she said, all happiness. "Get in here. We're about to start. This is the happiest day of my life and I'm not going to have you miss it."
"Sure," I said. Going to the other world would wait until later.
I slipped my hand into Candice's.
I'd have both. Without Alric, we had time.
Fable would heal and so would I.
THE END
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--Holly Hook
www.hollyhookauthor.com/books
Holly Hook is the author of several Young Adult fantasy, science fiction, fairytale, post-apocalyptic and adventure series. She has been writing since very young and publishing her work since September of 2010.
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