vaanderwood

it was a sunny morning in what looked like a hill top area. the sun rays shone brightly, down on the green pastures and flowers layed all over the hill tops.

a little farther, what looked like a town full of people could be seen, going about their daily businesses.

the folks in this town wore a different kind of clothing, than the normal modern wares. their choice of attire, was like those old fashion medieval cloth. but it didn't seem weird at all to them, no it suited them perfectly considering the background they're in.

"morning John hope you slept well." a beautiful young female in her early twenties, waved to an average guy in his late twenties.

"sure lim it was quite blissful." John smiled waving back at the beautiful lim.

the atmosphere was quite peaceful in this town, as people strolled pass greeting one another, and going about their day.

other than the town being peaceful, the houses in it were nicely built.

a little further up the town, a massive castle could be seen towering firmly. it stands at about 26 meters wide, and up to 16 feats high.

even though the castle walls were made with bricks, it looked really sturdy. the bricks had a reddish brown colour which was weird, cause the bricks would glow every 2 sec.

the castle was mostly painted reddish brown, with a single flag in the center. embroided on the flag, was the symbol of a brick wall on fire.

they are four massive gates each consisting of different colours, stationed at the four ends of the massive castle.

"open the gates." a soldier wearing a knights armour shouted, from outside the gate as a cottage approached.

the gate at the west which was the first and bright yellow in colour, slowly opened up revealing the insides of the beautiful castle.

"sir knuc you've arrived." the soldier stationed outside greeted, bowing his head in respect as the cottage stopped.

"yes hopefully we have." the young man with grey hair sighed weakly. "d-did you manage to see the princess?"

the young man in his mid thirties named knuc, looked at the soldier with dull eyes then shifted his gaze.

"see for yourself." besides knuc, there was a beautiful young woman, who wore a fine embroided blue dress with diamonds on it. her hair was cyan in colour, matching with her ocean blue eyes giving her a mermaid like look.

she wore an expensive silk dress, toppled with gold jeweries. her appearance, was stricking to anyone who looked at her.

'mmm mmfg.'

"a-am sorry my princess I don't understand you." the soldier said worried. he couldn't see the princess face, cause she backed him.

'mfmm mrrmm!' the princess mumbled again, this time revealing her smooth beautiful face, with a single cloth tied around her lips and hands.

"i think she's angry." sir knuc chuckled, then gestured the driver to head forward.

"don't worry Elise you're safe here." the cottage made it's way through the narrow path, leading to the castle doors until it finally stopped.

"I don't know how you do it but you've managed to make the king and queen worried three times in a row." knuc shook his head a bit, a weak smile formed on his face.

he then opened the cottage doors, and heaved a deep sigh turning his gaze to the princess.

"I hope they didn't have a heart attack this time."

"well let's go!"

'mmm mnnn.'

the princess struggled to break free under sir knuc's grip. but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't.

"sir knuc approaches with the princess open the doors." two soldiers shouted blowing two trumpets. the brick like doors then slowly opened backwards, revealing yet another gate.

'mm mrm.' the princess muttered her brows furrowed. this was a normal thing she had to endure all her life.

the same process repeated itself up until the seventh door, which was more heavily guarded than the rest. up to about 15 guards or more were present, each with a weapon or two.

"sir knuc you've arrived." a soldier bowed, gazing slightly at the princess.

"is she alright?"

"yes how about the king and queen?"

"am not sure my lord they haven't eaten a thing since she left."

"is that so." knuc sighed pulling the princess into the castle.

the inside of the castle was really nicely built and decorated. the sitting room was very big and spacious, with gold chairs and desks.

hung on the walls were portraits, animal hides, and weapons of all kind. in the sitting room there was a single golden staircase, leading upstairs. on it were strange symbols of some kind.

"is she really back?"

"I hope she's ok." two hurried footsteps could be heard, as two figures descended down the golden stairs.

"elise!" a woman with light blue hair and dark eyes cried, ran forward with open arms and hugged elise warmly.

"Elise we were so worried about you." a man in his late forties followed behind, embracing the duo.

'mrmm mm.'

"w-what did you say?"

'mmm mmm.'

"wait let me get that off you."

"ahh! c-can't bre-athe let g-o." elise barely spoke, under the grasp of her worried parents.

"thank you for bringing her back home knuc." the king smiled at knuc, who bowed his head slightly then left.

"a-re you alright you're not hurt in anyway are you?" Hayley the queen panicked, checking her daughter's body for any injuries.

"ahh! am fine mom you guys should stop treating me like a child am almost 20 ya know." the princess shrugged, averting her eyes from her family.

"young lady do you know what you're actions could've caused." the king asked furiously.

"yes father I ran away from home because I was bored but I think I don't get how I put the kingdom in danger." Elise lazily sat down on one of the golden chairs, running her fingers through her long cyan hair.

"r-ran away! it's the third time this morning you've been gone."

"I guess I broke the record then." elise grinned slyly, causing her father to clench his chest and step back few steps.

"t-that's it young lady you're grounded! go to you're room am going to-"

"send more guards that i'll slip past ha! don't waste your time father."

"oh! no no no there won't be any more guards this time." the king smiled.

elise then stopped brushing her hair, narrowing her brows as she looked at her father. "w-what do you mean no more guards?"

there was a wide grin plastered on onlock's face, as he touched the castle walls.

"since you can cast spells and slip through guards easily I don't think it's fair if we keep doing this so from now on this whole kingdom will be in a magic barrier."

"onlock don't you think that's too far. "

"no I don't honey she needs to be safe no matter what i-i can't let her enter that place." the look on onlock's face was that of disgust, as he looked out the window to a particular place.

"ahh! I don't get what's so terrible about vaanderwood that you can't even mention it's name."

"silence!" onlock's mood took a 160 degree turn, from happy to furious. his voice contained power, that even the walls shook slightly.

"you will never speak that name in this house again and I forbid you from ever stepping foot there." onlock declared turning around walking towards the door.

"y-you can't do that." elise screamed, but her father didn't turn back in the slightest way.

"w-why?" tears streamed down elise ocean blue eyes, as she crouched down.

"ha." Hayley sighed deeply. "am sorry honey but you know your father and how he can be sometimes but all he does is for our good."

"i-it's not fair." Elise sniffed her face puffed, as tears slipped down her cheeks.

"life's not fair my child you just have to be strong." Hayley looked at her daughter with pain in her heart, but there wasn't much she could do.

"one day you'll understand." hayley stood up and kissed her daughter's forehead, before heading out the door.

"pft! pft! i-it's just not fair." elise sniffed wiping her eyes. her makeup was now ruined, but she was still beautiful.

her beautiful long cyan hair swayed gently, as she clumsily walked up the stairs. it felt like her hands felt a stinging shock, as she touched the castle walls.

"ouch! stupid magic barrier." elise cursed as she stomped her foot in anger.

"a-am not strong enough to break through it for now." a pained smile stalled on her face, as she walked through the countless rooms, until her footsteps came to a halt.

she stood by a nearby window, on the top floor of the castle in the corridor. her body lazily leaned on frame of the wide window, her gaze fixed on the town below.

"I can't believe am going to rule all this people one day." she sighed as the soft breeze, gently blew her cyan hair. her view then shifted to the far side of the left, where a steep valley covered with dark fog could barely be seen.

"i'll never know what's out there." she muttered weakly. "all my life I've always been in the palace."

elise had three older sisters which were as beautiful as her, but they were dependent and fierce warriors. while she was the destined ruler of onwood, so she had to be protected no matter what.

"i-i can't stay a prisoner here forever. "

"t-that's it am going for good this time." she said determined her heart pumping, exited she didn't know when she touched the walls again.

"ahh!" she was quickly flung back to reality.

"how do I get out of here? I can't possibly go past the barrier or i'll be electrocuted."

"ahh! couldn't there be some type of hidden passage or something like in a normal palace." elise bellowed, scratching her once smooth hair which had become ruff, because of the constant scratching and pulling.

even though she hadn't been out much, she knew all palaces had some hidden passage, inbuilt for the royals to escape in case of danger. but unfortunately for her, there wasn't any signs that lead to a secret passage, or non her parents mentioned.

"ahh!" frustrated Elise punched her fist against a strange rune, at the center of the room opposite hers.

"ouch! I shouldn't have done that." there was a deep cut at the foreskin layer, covering her knuckles warm blood dripping down.

clank!

"what~" in front of Elise before her eyes the runes where she hit, that had her blood stains on it was moving.

"t-this is Leela's room." elise said with wide eyes, never in her life had that rune ever moved or done this before.

clank! clank!

elise watched as the door made more clank noises, while the runes moved in a particular motion until it just stopped.

"huh! w-why did it stop?" she tried touching the runes with her bloody hand, in hope of it opening but nothing happened.

"ahh! why isn't it moving the runes couldn't have rusted could it?"

"no that's impossible but what then hap-"

clank!!!

elise jumped back like a frightened cat, as the door made the loudest clank noise yet. before slowly opening, revealing a small passage with stairs.

"haha! I knew I was right." elise grinned happily as she saw the hidden passage, her one way ticket out of here. she wondered why the hidden passage wasn't in her parent's room, but in her third sister's room.

"I wonder where this leads too." she said staring down the passage, dark thoughts began clouding her head.

"n-no t-there's nothing creepy here." she shook her head, as she looked back at her room and the others.

"hmm.. ha! I promise to show all of you am not as weak as you think." she then muttered some strange words, as a dim light enveloped her injured hand making it good as new.

"please lead to vaanderwood." she crossed her fingers, taking a leap of faith as she went down the stairs.