Sequoia

We sail for about thirty minutes before we reach the mainland, we land on a small beach and unload the boat. I am giddy with joy at being free from the island and I can't wait to see Cedric. Once we are all ready we start to walk to Custos, the terrain is a flat pine forest so we reach the city gate in a matter of minutes, we arrive around 9:00 am so the gates had opened about three hours ago.

“My legs hurt” wines Tyron

“ How do your legs hurt? You do 5 mile runs every weekend yet you can't walk three miles in a morning?” I said back. Wow, he is sure full of surprises and not in a good way sometimes.

“It's too early and I'm still tired,” he says in his defense

“Well, we had to leave early to get a little farther before anyone finds out that we are gone.”

Gosh, he is annoying. I am worried. I don't know how well this will work. I don't want Tyron or Cedric to find out because I have to stay strong for them.

As we walk into the city, I try to blend in. It is hard because everyone knows what I look like and I am not used to not walking with my head high. Looking like who I am.

“ Where does Cedric live?” I ask.

“ I think he mentioned living near the fishing bay. We should check there.”

“ ok.'' It takes a while and a little bit of asking to find Cedric’s house. We knock at the door and a woman answers that turn out to be his mother. Cedric comes with us and we head back to our boat that was docked on the beach in the outskirts of town. We set off. He turns out to know a lot about sailing so that is very helpful.

The sun comes out and after two days on the water. We are all tired and bored and restless of sitting on the boat. It is my turn to sail and as I am looking out at the water I spot something. It looks like something is under the water that is a dark inky blue color. So much darker than the water is here. It looks as big as the dining room in our palace. And it seems to be making the water look smooth as glass and perfect for fishing above it. I feel an urge to sail up to that water and dive in. uh oh. This is not natural. We have to get out of here. I look around and see Cedric and Tyron waking up from their naps and eagerly looking at the water.

“Don't go in! It's dangerous! There's something in there.” I say

“ I see it. What is that thing?” Tyron says wonderingly.

“ That is the Carhoo. It is a huge sea monster that lives everywhere except Tranquillitas bay. It is very dangerous and loves wreaking havoc in the ocean. There is an old poem about it that goes:

When waters not light,

With no fish in sight,

Beware the Carhoo,

It’s coming for you.

It will eat your ships,

And you'll sink to the depths,

So with torches bright.

It wont put up a fight,

Beware the Carhoo

it's coming for you.”

“ wow.'' At that we turn towards the Carhoo and watch it. I start to see a boat coming nearer and nearer to it. The boat goes to the middle and people jump off the boat and into the water. I see something come up out of the water all around the edges. They look like tentacles. Then with a swooshing crunch all the tentacles come in and bring the ship down under the water. There are still people in the water but soon tentacles come and grab the people too. It was that quick and silent. I see the Carhoo swim down. Disappearing into the deep dark blue. I look over and watch cedric. His dark hair blowing in the wind, I see his eyes glass. I understand.

After that, we don't have many more interesting happenings. In the second week, we spot land and dock our boat on a small rocky beach with an almost rotten pier. We take out all our supplies and make a fire under some white pines and settle in.

The food is good and even though it isn't nearly as nice as my bed in the palace, the pile of pine needles is still comfy and the smell makes me think of my mother. In the morning we pack up and head down a trail. We come to a river and just beyond the bridge, I see three horses tied to a post.

“ Those horses will be our transportation for the next few days” I say hoping they will be enough. We ride for a couple of hours, our horses getting tired when we see civilization. The town we come to is very small and we stop at a small shop and go in, it's darkly lit and musty but we find a map and buy it.

“ this is where we are and this is where we want to be” i say to the others. I see that we are about 50 miles from Hortus and the shortest way to Hortus is through orc territory. The orc’s are evil, violent creatures that are alway killing each other. They have killed almost all the creatures in their land and they are always starting wars with the neighboring nations.

“ The fastest way to hortus is through orc territory” I say worriedly. “The other roads take 100 miles to get to hortus so this is the only way.”

We travel for an hour only stopping for the horses to rest and come to the orc city of Malum. It is filled to the tip with orcs and we move steadily forward trying to cross through. Things go well till we get trailed by some orcs when we leave the city. There we draw weapons ready to fight “on three,” Tyron says “one, two, three,” we shoot, the arrows gliding through the air, two orcs are struck in the hart and fall, the other one deflects the arrow and charges at me, he swings his ax wildly, i doge and stab him in his side he runs to warn the others but Tyron unleashes his last arrow and hits him in the heart, we escape unhurt.

We continue to travel. There are a few mountains that bare our path. We are camping on a cliff and it is the middle of the night when we wake to the sound of horses galloping up the path. I crawl out of my blankets and look. There are five men on horseback and in the light of the coals, I see that they bear an elven coat of arms. These men were sent by the king.

I sneak back to my blankets and hide my knife in my boot. I hide another one in my corset. I have been wearing the corset but loosely. Corsets are useful because they are armor to me. I pretend to be asleep. They take us prisoner and tie our hands up and make us walk behind their horses. Then they tie Cedric to a tree and rob him of all weapons. They leave him there to die or get killed by orcs. Then, they take our alexandrite! the one jewel that is worth a hundred gold need to escape these foul people.

I have a plan to escape. While walking us, I pretend to fall. I trip over my feet and crumple to the ground and discreetly take my knife from my boot. I lay there and very much loosen the ropes on my hands so I can slide my hands out. I lay there with my eyes closed and pretend to be knocked out.

One of the men Comes over and rolls me onto my back. As he sees if I am okay, I open my eyes. As he opens his mouth to say something, I stab him in the heart. The commotion makes the other men come and in the meantime, I toss the knife to Tyron and he cuts himself free. We kill 3 of the men and the other two take off running. We steal their horses and supplies, and we go through our stuff to make sure it is all There. Draw our weapons at the sound of footsteps but find it is only Cedric. How did you escape? I say,

“ I can't tell you,” he says while fiddling his thumbs.