Sequoia

The dream starts the same way. Not like it did a month ago but like it had yesterday. I was at the market and I was browsing the pastry shops. I was going through a time where I was very self conscious so I never looked people in the eye. I came to a baklava shop and ordered some. When I was paying my eyes fluttered upwards and saw him. Cedric. His dark brown eyes and his short black hair. So handsome that the world stopped. He saw me and froze too. Then everything becomes unstuck and I take my food and walk away, still able to feel his eyes on me. If That is how it ends, Why can I not stop thinking of him? I was done with him and now this. I don't want to think about him any more. The way he laughs and the way he runs his hands through hair. Uhhhg! Stop. don't think of him this way. Lock away your feelings into your heart. Don't let them steal you. That is what my mother said many times. But she never understood. Sometimes even the best of people are wrong.

In the morning, I went downstairs to the kitschen for breakfast. I go through the day uneventfully until Later during lunch, I go to the window because I hear horses. I see a huge parade of soldiers. They all bear the elven coat of arms. The king's soldiers. There are thousands of them “guys, come look,” they come running.

The soldiers go to the mayor to ask if we have come into the town. The mayor is under so much pressure that he says yes and gives the location of where we are staying. Meanwhile we have gone from house to house asking if anyone wants to help us. We have only about 50 minutes till they come to our house. and only 30 houses say yes out of the 70 we ask. The people come with us and we go back to our house that we had stayed at.

About 5 minutes after we settle back in with a plan to meet everyone tomorrow at the town square, a knock sounds at the door. We stay silent and gather around the window and fire escape. The king's men break down the door and come inside the house. I try to hold them off as Tyron and Cedric escape. A woman tries to grab me and shove a bag over my head but I shove them off me. The soldiers had tied their horses in the alley beneath the window and one by one we jumped to the backs of the horses and I urged my midnight blsck horse into a gallop on the street in the dark. The men had surrounded the house and came running after us.

We ride to the forest and try to lose the men and it does not work. They had set up camp in the woods. Tyron and Cedric stay there in the woods but I ride to the houses of the people that we recruited. They come with us and when we get to the woods it is filled with soldiers and Cedric and Tyron fighting for their lives. The soldiers have brought along orcs and the people that live along the outskirts of the wood have joined Tyron and Cedric. I don't know why they are helping us but then it comes to me. For years, the orcs have tried to take over Hortus but when the elves finally drive them back to their territory, they were banned from ever setting foot in Hortus. These people hate the orcs and they have a reason to.

We start to battle them and at one point while I am fighting a soldier we stumble to the edge of the woods and I turn and see my father with a sword in his hands. A ton of people come with me as I run to the gardens near the mayor's house. It is a dangerous place, gardens are. They are located on the edge of a cliff and there is only an unsturdy rail to keep people from falling to their deaths.

We passed them on our way there a while ago to talk to the mayor but I never really thought about them. I turn and see father, hot on my trail with a ton of soldiers and Tyron and Cedric following us. I reach the gardens and stop and turn and start to fight father. Our swords clash and a while later, I turn and see Cedric get knocked to the ground and get pushed to the edge of the wall that keeps people from falling off the cliff edge of the gardens.

He is on the egd with a man about to slice him in half. I run to him and grab his hand. I pull him up and turn to see a slash of silver coming down in front of my face. I jerk out of the way but fathers sword still manages to cut a deep gash in my cheek. I scream and whirl him, blood running down my face. I see him stare at me and I see my reflection in his eyes.

I look just like my mother did when she died. He stops and I stab him in the heart. He is dead. I look around and find everyone staring at me.

I run. I go to the forest and start to run faster and faster as I see more and more dead. I stop at a huge white pine and climb till the branches start to crack under my feet. I stop and look down and see a tear drip from my face. Just one. I see Cedric climbing under me. He comes up and sits next to me.

“I know what you did . and he deserved it.” Cedric quietly says to me.

“ he did. I feel like I'm doing this for her but she’ll never know and now he’s gone. Dead never to come back.” I feel he once did love me. But losing her to his drunk anger destroyed him. Mother never loved him. And I think that there was someone else in her life. That she was seeing her and when father found out he was heartbroken. He loved her and she never loved him. Never loved him. Never. So he flew into one of his drunken rages and killed her. It never solved the problem. Only made it worse. Till he remarried and found someone who liked him and never had the courage to stand up to him. Mother never believed in love. Sure she had dates and girlfriends but they never stayed around long enough to become something more.

They maybe could have if she wasn’t married to a man who hated people like her. Girls who loved girls and boys who loved boys. And if he found out, she would have gone sooner than she did. And now he lost his daughter. In a way. He lost her but instead of killing her, she killed him. I turned my story around. Not everyone can do that but now maybe I have a chance.

“ I had family problems too. My father never got along with my mother and then he eloped with another girl. Broke my mothers heart. She got over him though. Learned not to get stolen by love. So she poured her heart into us kids of hers.” Cedric says, waking me from my memories and thoughts. I look at him and really see him. That boy who wanted someone to love.

“ It's not me. You want someone to love and it’s not me. It wont work. so don’t say anything.” I told him. because it isn't me. I realized this a while ago but couldn't really tell myself this till later on. I don't want to be with him. We climb down the tree and walk back to the town in silence. He seems sad. Mother did say never to get stolen by love. But she did. And I thought she was wrong but she was right. Don't get stolen by love. Later in your life when you don't need to worry about this. But for now i wont get taken. Stolen. Blinded by young love.

When we get to town it looks nothing like we left it. I hadn't noticed it earlier but tons of people joined in on the fighting. Along with the still-there damage from the draco fire, there is tons of destruction made by the king's army. Houses crushed dead bodies everywhere and it is the worst on the cliff gardens at the mayor's house. The king lies in a huge puddle of blood and dead soldiers lying around him.

We pack up and leave Hortus and head back to Custos island and Elvendell. Tyron will be king when he comes of age but for now, the king's advisor. Even Though he had wanted to stay and help and heal the hurt from the draco fire. granddaughter of the late queen Drydaliss to be queen for now, was chosen by having many people vote on it. And I take that as I sign that the kingdom is moving in a good direction..

When we got back to the castel it was a wreck. Father had torn the place up looking for us and worst of all I found something in my room. When I first noticed my bookshelves. They are gone. Not a book in sight. Then my eyes drift to the bed. The sheets are rumpled and there is something the size of me in the bed. I go and flip back the sheets and stifle a scream. The maid I hired to pretend to be me is lying there. Eyes wide open in terror with her neck sliced open. Blood all over the sheets. Oh. My. God. he killed her. Of course he did. I was to die like my mother. But I escaped death with cold hands.

We buried her in the royal cemetery. She deserves to lie with the past kings and royal. Later, I found a sign for a messenger needed to take letters across the land and I signed up and got the job. Before all this happened I would be nervous about the job because so many people would want the princess to carry thor letters but now i know that this won't happen. I am working for a dwarven company so I'm not famous there.