For the first time in over twenty years, the Queen’s Bell rang at the Imperial House. Alinea stopped briefly at the alarming sound and turned to look back at the palace from the forest. She could faintly hear the surprised murmur of people and the hustling of the imperial guards. They must have found out about her absence. She can’t stop now. She turned back and started to run again toward the center of the dense forest.
Alinea absolutely didn’t want to marry him. Prince Kai was never her type. She could never understand him. Kai was not a man of many words, talking with him felt like talking to a stone if not for his breathing and rare sounds of agreement. Alinea never understood if he was ever interested in her or if he just wanted to marry her because of the Kingdom. King Aldrich and Queen Regina, her parents, however, loved Prince Kai and thought of him as a son. She could never understand why they loved him so much. Despite her many protests, they fixed her marriage with Prince Kai. She was supposed to get married to him tomorrow. She knew she had no choice but to run from the palace. So she fled.
The forest became darker and darker as she neared the center. She suddenly became extremely aware of the deafening quietness. There was no sound, except for the rustling caused by her running. There was no buzzing sound caused by any insect or any birds. She looked around her surrounding trees and felt as if they were trying to hold their breath to stop something dreadful from happening. The Quiet Forest was always out-of-bounds for the people living at the Capitol. Despite knowing all the horror stories that flooded the Palace, she had no choice but to cross it to reach the next village. She could not go north towards the White Mountains, as nobody knew what was beyond that. The North and the East are surrounded by the ocean and she has no time to wait for a ship, so those are out of options too. The only viable option was to cross the Quiet Forest in the West, even if there were no fascinating stories about that route.
Alinea gathered her courage and ran towards the West. At least she hoped she was running towards the West. The thick forest and the surrounding darkness made it difficult to know the directions. She checked her trouser pockets to see if she has anything to help with her vision – any matchbox or flashlights. She caught something and took it out. It was a compass. She opened the compass as a last hope and tried to see the direction pointed by the arrow. ‘At least one of his gifts was useful’ – Alinea thought with a slight mark of detest. Prince Kai brought the compass for her from one of his voyages. There’s nothing special about it, except for the unusual flower-shaped frame. She remembered she was wearing these trousers on that day as well. She must have kept the compass in the pocket and forgot to throw it out later. She tried hard to infer the direction from the compass with her squinted eyes. To her surprise, she saw the arrow glowing in the dark. ‘Ah, at least there’s something special in them!’ – she smirked, looking at the radium-coated pointer. She was indeed moving in the correct direction. She accelerated her pace to reach the forest end as soon as possible.
Alinea ran, ran, and ran for the next hour and a half. She didn’t know how far she needed to go to cross the forest. She stopped for a bit and looked back towards the way she came from. She could see some faint lights in a distance, dancing like fireflies. ‘Is that the search party?’ – her heart pounded heavily. She turned back and started to run faster. And then she collided with a broken tree branch and fell. Before she could gather herself together and stand up, she felt a cold touch on her neck.
‘Don’t move.’ – a deep male voice commanded. She tried to grasp her sword but he took it away in a swift motion.
‘Who are you?’ – Alinea turned her head to look at him.
‘Don’t turn your head.’ – the sword on her neck pierced a small cut on the left side of her neck – ‘Are you trying to run away from the palace?’ The intruder asked. Alinea didn’t answer.
‘Do you even know where you are heading?’ – the intruder questioned – “At this speed, you will reach the Witches’ Den in about an hour. Are you sure you want to go that way?“ He lifted his sword from her neck.
‘No, the village..’ – Alinea’s voice trailed.
‘Why do you want to go to the village? Are you running away from something?’ Timmen enquired.
‘Help me, please! There are people looking for me and I don’t want them to find me. They killed my parents.’ Alinea lied, with a not-so-fake cry. Timmen loosened his grip on her and walked to the front to face her. He curiously looked at her, trying to assess if she was telling the truth.
Alinea pleaded desperately, trying to deceive the young boy with her tears ‘Please, please, help me. They will kill me too.’ She thought to herself – ‘that is not too far away from the truth’, as marrying Kai would be equivalent to killing herself and giving in to others’ desires. She eyed Timmen to see if he was satisfied with her story. The boy decided to believe her.
‘I can take you to the village if you want. I know the shortest route. By the way, I am Timmen. Come, follow me.’ Timmen ushered her to the shortest route he claimed he knew and Alinea hesitantly followed.
Timmen ran in front of Alinea, leading the way toward the village. Alinea realized that he was not following the usual path, instead, he was running towards the thickest part of the forest and passing the big tree branches by the smallest possible gaps. Alinea, unable to keep up with his steps, tried her best to run faster by shoving away the tree branches and the leaves that blocked her way. Her legs are giving up after the long run. If only she could rest! – she thought – ‘I want to rest on my bed!’
‘Come on girl! Step up. Do you want to be hunted by those men?’ – Timmen’s shout from a distance broke her thought, he is seemingly irritated by her speed. Alinea gathered all her energy and followed his lead.
He was right. They finally reached the forest end after running for an eternity. At least, that’s what it felt like to Alinea. She could finally see the paddy fields, the small houses beyond the fields, and the hustling of people working at the cultivation. She took a deep breath of relief. Timmen was way ahead of her and he almost reached the field. He waved his hand towards a farmer, who waved back at him, smiling.
‘Back from your adventure already?’ – the farmer asked.
‘Yes, Uncle Jevi. You doing well?’ – Timmen cheerfully responded. Jevi nodded with a laugh and hurriedly got busy with his work, for he needs to get his crops ready in two weeks’ time before the Collectors come or else his crop will go to waste.
Alinea took a deep breath of the fresh air, which smelled like the soil after a rain. She followed Timmen into a hut situated just across the paddy field. The hut is a little elevated from the ground with the support of six pillars, and some pigs and cattle were roaming below the hut. She stopped momentarily before going inside, contemplating the cleanliness of the place, despite the presence of the livestock.
‘Come inside, don’t be shy!’ Timmen called from inside.
Alinea took a step into the bamboo stairs with a curious and doubtful look on her face. As she pulled the main door to peek inside, she gawked at the mesmerizing view in front of her. Her curious eyes wandered everywhere. There are beautiful bead chains decorating the entryway, which make a musical sound every time the wind blows or someone brazes against them. The walls are plastered with mud, with intricate floral designs on top of it. The windows are designed with a woven bamboo pattern that allows the air to circulate but blocks any birds or insects to enter the house.
Alinea must have had her mouth agape in awe, for when Timmen brought his mother into the room to introduce her, Alinea felt her throat become a bit dry. The woman was wearing a white floral top and a black and red patterned wrapper as a skirt. She adorned multiple bead chains in different colors and a red and blue bead earring with a similar design. She wore her hair in a knot and was barefoot. She looked like she was working in the kitchen as she was cleaning her wet hand with a torn piece of cloth.
“Momma, this is Alinea.” Timmen gestured towards her.
Alinea cleared her throat and nodded nervously – “Hello!”
Timmen’s mother approached her with a warm smile and patted her hair. Alinea could feel a mother’s loving touch, which reminded her of Queen Regina, her own mother. She quickly controlled her emotions and said with all sincerity – “Hope I am not intruding.”
“Oh don’t say that dear! You are most welcome here for as long as you want.” Timmen’s mother’s voice was filled with unconditional love.
“You have such a lovely place” – Alinea said – “Thank you for letting me stay with you all.”
“All sorted then. Come, I will take you to your room”. Timmen cheerfully called Alinea.
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