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The Northernmost Territory III
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Ezekiel started to wrap my wounds by the use of his remaining bandages. He cut up several of them to make sure that he has enough left for emergencies. I gritted my teeth as soon as the mixture of herbs he had formulated touched my lacerations. My body pressed against the cold bars of the prison wagon as I flinched from the pain by the time he dressed my injuries. I breathed deeply as I tried to regain strength from the beating I had endured from Matthias.
“You are lucky you haven’t broken any bones, Princess,” he said as he tucked the medicines inside his bag. My rib was not broken but it sure does felt like it.
“How do you know my mother?” I asked him as I stared at the trees that moved swiftly with the movement of the wagon, “aside from her being the Queen.”
I have never encountered anyone who had a connection with my mother aside from the royal courts and the royal constituents of the kingdom. The people of my kingdom only knew her as the Queen of Fardoja
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The fire crackled as it sent tiny sparks to linger in the air like fireflies in a summer evening. Its bright light was big enough to show the man splayed on the ground, not even moving. Blood dripped from his head and into the dark soil of the earth beneath him, the rest of the people who had joined him a while ago surrounded him and tried to give him aid. I stood in front of them completely frozen. Ezekiel threw the rock towards the man and I don’t even know if he is still alive. I hope he is not dead. I brought my hands to cover my mouth as I started to cry for everyone, for everything, for the mess that we are in, and for every pain that there is. I wanted to disappear. The servant held my hand tightly. “Go,” Matthias unshackled the hands of Ezekiel, “Go kill him…that’s what you want right?” he yelled as he grabbed the collar of Ezekiel’s shirt and pushed him towards the man on the ground, “Finish him.” Ezekiel walked towards the man with his head down and
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The moon cast its light upon us which was dispersed into small rays of moonlight because of the thick foliage of the Dark Woods. The howls of wolves echoed like distant cries of our own who longed for someone out there, someone to come and rescue us. The old lady sat down the soil in front of the children as we all helped ourselves with the meat that was given to us. It made me wonder if the intentions of these foul creatures. The way they would treat us harshly and almost break and bend us to our ends but still have the decency to feed us. Everyone was silent and were focused on their meals except for Ezekiel. He seemed to be still distraught from the harm he had inflicted on the man a while ago. “You need to eat,” the man beside me barely said, as if it was a whisper that lulled in the air between us, “you need strength,” he added towards Ezekiel. “You can talk?” the young girl asked and was immediately shushed by the old woman. “Evangeline,” the woman blur
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I opened my eyes to a dark and starless night sky, even the moon did not dare to show up as she pulled the blanket of clouds over her. My head seared in pain due to the concussion after being thrown down the hill. I looked to the side and I saw the parts of the carriage, pulled apart and laid haphazardly all over the rocky ground. Despite the pain and the inability to feel my feet, I stood up and stumbled my way towards the rubbles of the carriage. I limped to the remnants of it and began to search for my mother but she was not there, I began to panic. The fog started to thicken and it had made the twisted trees transform to looked like ghastly beings. The horses were gone and what’s left was the dead body of the man behind the reins, it laid coldly on his pool of blood. I backed away from it and I felt my stomach churned as I smelled the metallic scent of blood. Everything inside me rose and I fell to the ground on my knees as I vomited. I heaved out all that was in
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The woods grew darker and darker as the sun settled down the skyline. The torches were lit up and it gave off an incandescent glow that ignited the woods in ghastly silhouettes. The prison wagon treaded forward as it became colder the closer we are to the heart of the Dark Forest. You could hear the howls of wolves and the screeches of bats in the dreary atmosphere. Sophie woke up and quickly hugged her knees to herself and scooted beside me. Ezekiel is still fast asleep with his body pressed against the cold iron bars and his face turned away from me.He had opened up to me a while ago and I could have wanted him to say more about my mother but I know there is not much to tell. It was his mother that knew the Queen best, he was just a mere observer of the business that these two women in our lives had shared. As far as I wanted to solve the things that are happening, to unravel the connections between our kingdom with the vampires, it seemed like a shout to the void without
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The moon beamed against the starless sky, it had illuminated everyone in the clearing. The rest of the captives were fast asleep but there was us on the farther part of the clearing, huddled in a circle, eager to hear what Petra was going to tell us. The children were giddy to hear their grandma’s story, something that would tuck them in a makeshift bed out of things they had foraged. “Grandma,” Celeste impatiently said, beckoning her grandmother to start telling the story. Petra smiled at the little girl and looked around to see if we were already in our places. “Sit down first, Celeste, so we can start.” She took the child’s hand as she guided her to sit down beside her. Celeste carefully placed her head on the lap of his grandmother while Desmond huddled closely on Petra’s side. “I have lived a life long enough to know things that you children didn’t know,” Petra said calmly with a voice of a storyteller. “This wasn’t their first,” she added.
