I was awoken by somebody pulling me out of bed and everyone in the house roaring in an argument. My father's angry face was the first thing I saw upon opening my eyes. The yelling was inaudible as I went flying off my bed and hitting the one underneath me. My first instinct was to run, and I did so. I got out of the house and started running towards the castle when I saw a bunch of men with pitchforks on fire and Knights on horses coming in my direction. I fell to the ground only to be picked back up by my brother Brandon. He threw me up on his horse and started riding off into the woods. I started hyperventilating and soon passing out from too much oxygen, falling onto the horse.

The next thing I know, I wake up lying over this horse and my brother pulling the horse forward as he walks. I rub my eyes and slowly pull myself up onto the horse in a sitting position. My brother looks up at me and stops the horse. He scouts the area before letting the horse drink from the river and sitting down on a rock to have a rest. He takes out his bag and makes us both sandwiches. He hands me one and then eats his.

"I just have one question." Brandon says.

"What?" I respond, looking around, still confused.

"What in the hell did ya do to cause the entire castle coming after ya and dad nearly killing you himself before they got there."

"I don't know. What did you hear?"

"I heard you were sick. But sitting here staring at ya, I don't see a lick of sickness on ya. So what's the deal, spill it."

"I think I know what's going on, but I'd rather not."

"I risked my own life to save yours, so ya better god damn tell me. None of us can go back there ya know."

"A couple days ago I started crying during that lynching and protesting how that wasn't right. Everyone thought I was crazy and locked me up until they killed Alice, a cellmate of mine, and then released me out of fear for what my death might do. But the King said if he heard anything funny about me, he was going to come kill me himself. I don't know, maybe somebody started a roomer."

"How in the world would they have a roomer to start? Any ideas on what they said?"

"Maybe that I liked girls or something?"

"Hm. Do ya?"

"I don't know."

"Ya, I get it. Why did dad flip out on ya?"

"Gwen fell asleep cuddling me last night. He's hated me ever since I got locked up."

"Ha, my sister likes girls. Who would'a thought ya."

"Ha... Yeah. Where is everyone else?"

"No idea, hoping they catch up if they're still alive. Otherwise, it's just you and I. I'm thinking in about a day or two we head West until we find the next castle."

"Actually, I need to find the man that cures all in the center of the world."

"What do ya need curing for."

"I need to be normal, Brandon..."

"Hm. Isn't this dude mythical or somethin'?"

"Um, nobody really knows. But I think it's worth finding out."

"Huh, the center of the world ya? Wonder how we'd get there. Any ideas?"

"Don't know, head in a direction until you get someplace?"

"Sounds like a good idea." He said as we both laughed.

We finish our food and wait for the rest of our family to arrive. But after an hour of sitting still, we started to get antsy and made the decision to continue on and to not look back. It was a fairly quiet day, honestly, it was more lonely than anything. I just wanted to know if my other brothers, mom, Gwen, and Lilly were okay. My dad, well, even though I do love him, I wasn't as worried about him. He could take care of himself, in fact, he was probably setting up a search party himself to come find me. Preaching about how much of a disgrace I was to the existence and future of our family and species as a whole. He would probably make up some kind of story in an attempt to save himself, or they'd bond over their hate for people like me. Either way, my dad wasn't new to deception or hatred, and he wasn't new to protecting himself at any cost.

I watched the path as we went along. Watched as the wind blew across us, the leaves fell, the sounds of hooves and feet made across the ground with every step. My mind running wild with the possibilities of what could have happened back at home. What could I of done differently. Maybe I should have just hid myself. Kept my mouth shut. My family wouldn't be dead because of me. But I couldn't think like that. I had to be brave. I have to find this man in the center of the world.

Snow, our horse began getting tired, so my brother made the decision to set up a place for us to sleep. He cleared the area of all the rocks and put some bush down for more comfort. He then started a small fire and caught two fish for us to eat that night. While we were waiting for the food to cook, we started playing numerous amounts of card games. One thing you could always count on Brandon for having is a deck of cards. Every time. He says he started doing it when dad made him go hunting. It would get boring just waiting for game to come by. So he would pull out a deck of cards until something showed up. We started playing some classics such as War, Solitaire, Black Jack, and Gold Fish even.

When the fish was done, Brandon found some grass and fruit for the horse and then we all ate our food. Fish never tastes the same when it's made on an open fire rather than a furnace. I missed being home, sleeping outside just felt strange to me, even though my ancestors were doing it not too long ago. We had a home now, and I've never been anywhere but home. Being under only the trees and only having a fire to protect me from the cold didn't give me any comfort as the night went on, and it became hard to sleep. There was strange noises all around us and at one point I thought I heard growling and fighting in the distance.

I watched my brother sleep as I curled up next to the fire. I watched how the light shined on his face and showed the marks of a hardworking man. If we go to another castle, he will have no hard time getting a job. But for me? I'm just a young kid with no experience in anything except house cleaning. I wasn't about to get a job in cooking, cleaning, or tailors work. Let alone, I wasn't going to let any man touch my body the way he touches the town whores. My brother on the other hand, he deserved to have a new start, a wife, a family. I didn't need to bring him in on my journey, one that may never bring us life again. Or one that may just be lost hope. I didn't want him to waste his time or his life protecting me. So I did what any good sibling could do and I got up and left a note for him telling him goodbye and that he needed to go to the closest castle and get another Blacksmiths job, maybe meet a lady and have a family like he deserves.

I left the note under a rock so it wouldn't fly away from wind, close to where he was sleeping so he could see it, and then I started my new journey. Alone. I started walking away from him, following the river. The night was terribly cold, it sent shivers all down my spine. I wished I was smart enough to of made a torch before I left, but there was no turning back now and I didn't want to wake my brother up. Besides, we had no animal fat to use. I kept walking until I was completely alone in this dark forest, I could barely see in front of me. The only thing that accompanied me was the sounds of the owls, bats, and animals that roamed this forest at night and the howls of wolves nearby. I tried scouting the area for any signs of danger, but with no light and having the ability to only see a couple feet in front of me, there was nothing I could do. I sat down, wedged between two rocks and tried sleeping 'til morning.

The rocks sent shivers down my spine as I pressed by body between them. They were colder than the witches tits. But this was the only sort of protection I could get from the outside world. God only knew the things that lurked in the darkness. My mind went wild with the possibilities that could be. I lay my head down on the rock, my face instantly freezes. The only thing I could think of was to use leaves or my clothes to shield myself from the icy cold rock. But I didn't want to alert anything nearby of my presents and I had no extra clothing with me to use as a pillow, let alone a blanket. I put my arms over my legs and buried my head, it helped a little bit, and the rocks shielded me from the wind. But my mind was still wild.

As I was almost asleep, I started hearing screaming coming back in the direction of the castle, it was faint, but still present. At first, I worried that it may have been my mom and the others, but it was the sound of a male. I thought maybe my dad, but this didn't sound like his type of screaming. I hoped it wasn't Ezekeliah, for everything that he's done for me, he didn't deserve to die for me. The screaming continued for quite some time and my stomach yet again was becoming sick from the sound. I covered my hears and waited for the screaming to stop, but it didn't come any time soon.

As the screaming continued, I started hearing the sounds of multiple horses running in my direction. I thought maybe it was the horsemen and that they had taken my brother, and now looking for me. I got up and started running as hard as I could, maybe not the smartest thing considering they were on horses and I was on foot, but my adrenaline took over along with my fear. I felt as if I was one of those stealthy bandits that could jump over things, go from tree to tree, and hide in the background with complete ease.

I could hear them getting closer and closer and when I knew they were right on my back, I dropped down to the ground, holding my head down. I felt somebody grab the back of my shirt and my clothes rip as I was lifted up onto the horse. I started screaming as loud as I could and trying to get away when I heard my brother Rodney yell at me to be quiet.

"Men don't scream!" I heard him say as we flew through the forest on the horse. "Hurry up Brandon! Let's go!"

I looked around and everyone else was here too except my brother Tyler and my dad. "Where's Ty?" I asked.

"We can talk about it later, first I need to get you and everybody else away from here!" He yells.

We ride a little bit further, trees and leaves rustle as we go by and the darkness begins to lift into a nice dark blue sky. Rodney glances back at me for only a second and sighs. He's quiet for a moment and then begins to speak again. His voice was filled with hatred. I wasn't sure if it was towards me, or towards the event, or what it was.

"Tyler and dad are bonding in jail, or probably death, over hating you. The Knights and townspeople were destroying everything, those two stayed behind and tried saving the property. When they were told about you, dad and Tyler tried saving their own ass instead of getting the hell out of there. Once we escaped or got far enough away from them, mom told us the rest of the story. And although I can't say I'm proud of you or want you to be my brother, I'm not going to let you die over my disagreement. I love you, you're my sister. You may not agree with that, but we are family. I will always stick by you."

"How much further do you think we have to go before they aren't on our tails anymore?" My mom asked.

"King Charlie's castle is about 87 more miles, so I would say about that. Hopefully, they will be willing to take us in." Brandon yelled.

"Our horses will get tired way before then Brandon. We need somewhere closer." Mom explains.

"We passed anything closer already, this is all we got." Rodney says.

"We need to go somewhere closer Brandon, they will end up getting us if we keep going this way. They have better, stronger horses that do this for a living. Our horses won't make it." Says Mom.

"Look, if our horses get tired, that means theirs will too. But who is willing to keep going after that? Us, or them? I know I will." Says Rodney. "We can make it. If anything, we just use bait."

"What bait?" Brandon questions.

"I haven't figured that out yet."

As we flew through the forest, mom kept looking behind her and then her horse. She is riding Kane, which is one of our older horses. He's starting to slow down and get tired. We still have about 52 miles left to clear, and there was no way that Kane would be able to clear all of those and still be alive at the end. My mom yelled and said we either had to slow down or stop so that Kane could rest. But my brothers were in disagreement. Brandon and Rodney switched places so that Brandon was closer to mom, he told her that she needed to jump over onto his horse and let Kane go. My mom looked like she was in pain to have to make that kind of decision. She kept saying that she couldn't, but eventually Brandon convinced her.

My mom got up on the horse in a crouching position and at a count of three when it was clear, she jumped over to Brandon's horse. Kane quickly slowed down to a stop and mom watched as he disappeared. The problem now was our other two horses had more weight on them than they would be able to handle for long. I knew we needed to get off trail a bit and slow down for the horses, or we would never make it.

"Guy's, our horses aren't going to make it another 52 miles. We need to get off trail and slow down. The Knights will probably stick to continuing forwards if their even still on our trail. I mean, I don't see them behind us anymore." I said.

"Yeah, you're right. But we are still going to King Charlie's. We need to get there before they do." Brandon says.

"How do you even know they are going to head that direction? They are probably going to nearby Castles first before heading in this direction."

"I want to be safe, after all, they saw us coming down this way. They want to kill you sis, this isn't a game. It only takes one Knight to go to each castle to investigate our whereabouts. The rest will continue on until they find us. Knowing the King, he sent all of his Knights out after us. We could never clear enough Castles to get away from them. So our best bet is to go to a Castle that would be willing to take us in as long as we have something to offer. King Charlie's Castle isn't that big. He probably needs workers, Knights, Blacksmiths, we have things to offer him. But will he protect us is the question. If our King gives him gold incentives or threatens to attack, he might give us up. But we will get off the trail though, I agree, there's no way we will get there at this pace." Rodney says.

We got off the normal trail and slowed down a bit when we were far enough away that we couldn't visibly see the river or hear it anymore. The horses were now at a trotting pace, but still breathing very heavily. They needed water, but as far as I know, the only close by water was that river, and that was something that we couldn't get near, yet. We rode for about twelve more miles before meeting in an open field. There was a Cabin in the field across the way. We only had 40 more miles to go but the horses needed to rest.

We got off our horses and walked up to the door and knocked, but it didn't seem like there was anybody here. We let our horses eat the grass and brought them some water from the well. Brandon and Rodney entered into their home as mom and I stayed on the lookout. Brandon brought back some freshly made bread and fruit that they had and put everything else in our bags. I wondered where the people who owned this farm were at, but at the same time, I didn't feel sorry for taking their things.

After we were done grabbing their food, we went back out to their barn. There were very little animals and only one horse. We went to their goats and milked one of them for a refreshing drink before getting their horse from the stall. We all made the decision that considering mom no longer had a horse, she would use this one. She was reluctant, didn't like that we were stealing from somebody else for our own safety but went with it anyhow. We got the horse ready to ride and stuck mom and Lilly on it. We made sure our horses were well fed, rested, and hydrated before continuing on with our journey. We rode at a medium speed so that the horses didn't tire as quickly.

"I wanted to get there before dark, otherwise we would have to wait 'til morning to show up." Rodney says.

I loved feeling the wind crashing through my hair as we rode the horses, I wasn't so nervous today knowing my family was safe with me. All aside from my brother Tyler and my father. I thought Tyler loved me the way Rodney and Brandon did, but I guess my dad had more influence over him. It didn't matter. Today I felt alive, and I was enjoying our ride as I watched the sun come up and into the sky. I felt the warm sun on my back as it covered the land around us, all the birds chirping and the feeling of them flying with us was amazing. I loved being in nature, but not necessarily living in it.

I hoped King Charlie would be willing to help us and provide us with living abilities. But if we couldn't stay, maybe directions to the tallest waterfall known to man so that I could get closer to my goal of meeting the man in the center of the world. I just hoped whatever was in store for us was good. I don't think I could handle another disaster yet. However, we all rode with hope, but also with fear that things wouldn't go our way or the way we wanted them to. We feared of being captured and brought back, we feared they were already at the Castle, and yet, we still went forward hoping for a new beginning.