A secret tunnel

"Did she die?" Sabina asked pitifully, tears already dropping slowly from her eyes. Giselle was already wailing uncontrollably and could not even alter a word.

"No one knows because she escaped despite been wounded severely, and ended the long fight that had wiped all the witches out. But she made sure to hang the king's head before leaving.

The elves left the werewolves to continue the reign, and since then it has become peaceful.

But I tell you, those who know the legend are probably still living in fear. No one wants to die the same way their fore fathers did, just because of the wolves," Maude finally ended.

"I really loved the woman's courage," Giselle said softly, wiping the unending tears from her eyes.

"Do you think there were vampires too?" Sabina asked with so much delight in her face. She had heard it from a friend, that liked to talk about mystical beings.

"Vampires? What are those?" Giselle asked cluelessly, as she wiped her face with the hem of her dress.

"They are also mystical creatures that have long fangs in their teeth, and feed on people's blood to survive, by digging their long teeth into their necks," Maude explained to them, remembering how she had read about it from somewhere.

"What?! Blood?" Giselle yelled in terrified manner. She immediately cringed at the imagination of someone sucking out her blood.

"There is so much to say about them, but it is better we read the book together some other time. All I say is that, they are sworn enemies of the wolves."

"I wonder who would have won, if it was a war between werewolves and vampires," Sabina said. And that being said, put the mystery question in their hearts.

Darkness had began to seep gradually into the atmosphere, as the girls knew that they had spent too much time outside, because of the tale they had wanted to know the end of.

"Nowadays you cannot even differenciate between an elf and wolf physically because, most of them hide their protruding, elongated ears," Sabina said, as they made their way back into the main city.

"I'm actually elf," Giselle said shyly and smiled, which made the two cousins chuckle.

"We know, I mean you don't have the wolves scent like we do," Maude grinned.

"What about you, Azalea?" Sabina suddenly asked, "You have been mute all day, and that is totally weird."

The question Azalea had thought no one would ever ask her, had just barged unto her door, requesting a passway inside without the password. Even she knew not, what she was, she had never also asked her mother.

Her face flashed at her friends as she looked at the eager to know looks on their face. What she was also going to tell them, she knew not.

Ayden had gone to his room before anyone else after dinner, as he would have really preferred eating in his room all by himself. It was much better and peaceful that way.

Through the window in his room, he looked outside the huge palace and could still see some servants working till that moment. He wondered if they had willingly become servants in the first place.

He really and desperately wished he was never a prince who was restricted to his freedom, while the kids around his age outside the palace, could be anywhere they wanted and know lot of people.

His mind often wandered from his thoughts to nothing in particular, that made him wonder what was going on in his mind. His heart probably missed somewhere he had not gone in a long time, and he could already feel his mind drawing to the place.

Without further procastination, he opened the door to his room and made sure to lock it before leaving.

He took with him a candle stand before leaving through the quick and fast routes, that led to the chamber he was going to.

Right at the large wooden door, he stopped and had hesitated a bit before proceeding to enter the room.

On the wooden carved bed, laid a still woman who seemed to be fast asleep. She was laying on her back with her both arms tucked to her sides, and covered from her feet to her abdomen area with a piece of clothing. The sound of her breathing was faint and irregular that confirmed that she was still alive, but her eye lids had been closed in that manner for so long, that Ayden could not count the days again.

He moved closer to her with slow steps, looking at every part of her keenly to see if anything had changed the slightest.

He often wondered where she was or doing, even she was not dead and not living either. But seeing her in that position every single time pained his heart, that he did not bother to come as often as he did again. All hope was lost.

He moved closer to her ears to talk slowly about what he wanted to tell her, "Father asked what I would want him to do for me today. Is he not just joking? I often asked him why he would not let me leave the palace, and also told him to change my sly teacher, but he did none of those.

Even if I would ask for subsequent things, he would not do them, so far the queen says it is not okay. The king is a joke, isn't he?

But I really cannot wait to turn twenty because the day I can leave this palace freely, I am never coming back unless to take you alongside with me," he paused, and took her numb hand in his, almost at the point of tears.

"Nana, living in here is hard, especially now that you are not with me. I really don't know how I am going to cope later on, but I feel like someone might really kill me before then. So, before that ever happens, wake up and stay by my side."

Azalea hurried back home before everywhere finally got dark and she would miss her way. She had barely tried to avoid the question her friends had just asked her, but she wondered if she could again.

The unconfirmed doubts and growing fear of anxiety, that was holding a leash on her heart, had jumbled her right from when Maude completed her tale.

She had made up many possibilities in her head, but they all looked like a facade ,as she needed to hear her mother say something to her, not anytime soon, or in the future, but now.

Walking with quaking limbs had slowed down her movement, as her heart beat fast and controllably, like the beat of drums for a sad festival. She hoped her thoughts were not true, she really, really, hoped.

Ayden had come out of the room and taken the narrow part through the passage, that led to the road that would lead his favorite enclosed garden. For some unknown reasons, he wanted to go there again. Knowing that going there would do nothing much, but it could probably help him breath freely again.

He slouched on the wooden chair of flowers and watched fireflies perch from flower to flower, in a beautiful way that amused him. He had never come out to the garden that late at night before.

His attention diverted to the huge full moon that shone brightly up in the sky, with its light into the garden, illuminating everywhere. It felt like a new wonder as he explored the inner depths of the garden, more than he had ever done before.

Just as he moved further to the ends of the garden where the beautiful flowers stopped, he could only see wild flowers growing there and not even a single firefly. He looked around and as he walked on the many stunted wide flowers, which surprisingly continued to survive in such harsh condition.

Just then he noticed that, he had stepped on a ground more cranky than the moist one he had been walking on.

Curious about what had just happened, he walked backward a bit until he had stepped on that spot again. What could possibly be under the root of growing flowers on a spot that just felt different?

He soon began to dig his hand around the spot, where he was skeptical about.

Azalea had gotten back into the house and met the shock of her life, when she saw Hama shuddering and already gasping for breath, as her still body vibrated motionless.

Her heart dropped at the sight as threw the herbs she was holding, and ran to hold her mother to check what could have happened.

"Mother, open your eyes and look at me. You can never die or else, I am going with you," she sobbed loudly tears, that dripped steams of shivering gust.

She quickly hurriedly gathered all the healing needles, her mother had sharpen in the early days of her life. Ones she said could bring back a person who was almost slipping into death back to life, but must be used the right way and if not, it would kill the patient faster.

Her mother had only once told her what could be done, and not a real practical of how it was done.

As she watched her mother's breath slip away to death in fear and frustration of her cluelessness, she began to insert the needles into her mother's body, hoping she would bring her mother to life and not finally kill her. She desperately hoped in her heart that her mother would not die, else all her hopes to living, knowing how and why their lives had ended like this would be severed.

The young, curious prince was greatly shocked when he had just made a new discovery, in the garden he had been to for years without noticing anything.

Under a well molded flattened flower pot that blended with other flowers, was an underground tunnel that was right the size to fit a person perfectly.

Who on earth dug that in there?