Sorry. You know what I do have?! A picture of me! And my friends! Maybe I won't show the one of my friends . . . I'm not sure if they would like to be on the internet. But I will show the one of me! And my cat! Because my cat is adorable!
I also have the first chapter of my book!!!! So let's start with that.
Chapter One
Jessamine
I WAS WALKING DOWN THE HALLWAY WHEN I HEARD THE FIRST EXPLOSION. I broke into a run and ran down the hallway. I could smell the gunpowder in the air, the fire, and feel the warmth coming from it. It was rapidly coming nearer to me. I willed myself to go faster. I could hear screams but they were muffled in my rush of adrenaline. I came to a dead end with a door at the end. I tried to open the door but it was locked. I started to panic. “Think,” I told myself. I started to backtrack. I ran until I felt someone grab me. I struggled to get free.
“Jess!” I looked up. It was my twin brother Trevor.
“What was that for?! You really scared me!” I shot him a look that described exactly how I was feeling as my heart continued to pound.
“Sorry,” he said apologetically.
I smirked. “You better be,” I teased. His lips curled upward into a smile. Just then we felt the ground shake under us and the ceiling above us start to crumble.
“We should probably go somewhere else. Preferably somewhere safer than here.” He let go of me and led me down the hallway I had just come from.
“That’s a dead end," I told him.
“Was there a door?”
“Yeah, but it was locked.” He seemed to ignore me and continued down the hallway. He started to run and I ran after him. When we reached the door, Trevor knocked.
“Trevor, no one’s going to let you in,” I said just as the door opened. “Or maybe someone will,” I mumbled. I followed Trevor as another explosion took place, this one much closer. Trevor grabbed me again and pulled me in as the door slammed shut and was locked.
The room was huge considering that it had looked like a closet from the outside. The walls weren’t like the rest of the castle. They were made of regular stone bricks, while the rest of the castle was made of quartz. It looked like an old library, with books everywhere. Books were covering the walls and there were shelves of books in the walkways. There were tables with piles of books on them. The chairs were piled with books too. I could see three people in the room. One man with brown hair and blue eyes, a woman who had curly black hair and brown eyes, and a little girl who had reddish-brown hair and blue eyes. The man was the person who had let us in. The woman had her arm around the little girl who looked scared out of her mind. I didn't blame her. The war with the Potentemquites was getting pretty fierce.
The door frame started to shake and, out of instinct, I whirled around. I studied the door, as if I could figure out who it was just by looking. That would be nice though. Then I heard a familiar voice.
“Jess!” It sounded like, at least to me, like Xandra. I shared a glance with Trevor.
“Is that-” I started to ask.
“I think it is,” Trevor interrupted. The man gave us a confused look.
“Are you sure you know them, because if you don’t. . .” he trailed off. We all knew what would happen if Trevor and I were thinking of the wrong person. It might be an enemy who would kill us on sight. The chances of a Potentemquite soldier with Xandra's voice was unlikely though, so I opened the door cautiously. A smile replaced my worried look.
“Xandra, Henry!" I exclaimed. "How did you get here?” I added after a split second.
“I assumed you would be somewhere in the castle,” Xandra said simply.
“Why?”
“I used a spell.” She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And the door was glowing purple and white around the edges." That made sense. My aura, according to Xandra, was white, and Trevor's was purple. Xandra was one of the few people in Aureusaquadom who could do magic and see auras. She also had healing powers.
“Anyway,” I said as I closed the door behind them. “Xandra, Henry this is. . .” I trailed off, hoping that the man and his wife would answer.
“I’m Albert, this is my wife Reyna, and this is my daughter Rosie,” he said without missing a beat. Xandra and Henry nodded in greeting. For a while no one spoke. There was an uneasy tension in the room, and we all seemed to be waiting for something, but I couldn't quite figure out what.
After a moment Henry spoke. "Do you think it's over? At least for now?"
"It seems like it," Reyna replied. Trevor went to the door and peeked out.
"I don't see anyone," he said.
"And that will help us . . . how?" I asked.
"I'm not entirely sure," he replied.
"Who did you see?" Rosie asked. Trevor opened the door and peeked out again.
"Trevor!" I exclaimed. An exasperated sigh escaped my lips.
"Sorry, I wasn't thinking," he said sheepishly. I glared at him.
"Obviously."
"That's great and all, but we need to get out of here somehow," Xandra urged us.
"I know but this door is the only exit," Trevor replied.
"There has to be some other exit," Henry said thoughtfully. He was so caught up in trying to think of another exit that he didn't even notice when a few strands of his coppery-red hair fell in front of his left eye, something he usually would've.
"Yeah, no good architect would design a room with only one exit," I continued.
"Maybe there's a secret passageway that is unlocked by taking out a book," Rosie said excitedly.
"Possibly. Let's look for another exit. There has to be one somewhere. Maybe. . ." Henry trailed off and we all split up looking for another exit. I rummaged through everything. I looked in books, bookshelves, under chairs, on chairs, under tables and on tables. At one point I found a cherry wood desk. It had three drawers on each side and six books stacked on top. There were papers in the books and on the surface of the desk. I tried to open the drawers but they were locked and I didn't happen to have the key. I started to open each book and flip through the pages. I read every paper then I came across the most intriguing paper I had found yet.
On it was an ink drawing of a crown. There were six jewels on the crown, each with an arrow pointing to it. It was labeled "The Crown of Victory." Under the drawing it was labeled one through six. All of the jewels were labeled. They were pearl, sapphire, ruby, diamond, emerald and alexandrite. Next to each number was the name of one of the jewels. I looked at the six books then back at the paper. Maybe each book told where one of the jewels was. I was intrigued so I started to look for a pen or pencil to write with. Luckily I found a pen under the desk. One by one I skimmed each book, found where the jewel was located, and then wrote it down. It went like that for a while. Then I came to diamond. I skimmed through every page of every book twice and I still couldn't find where it was. Then I realized that it couldn't be that easy. I would have to find the book myself.
"That's just great," I grumbled to myself. I took the paper with me and stuffed it in my pocket of my dress. Then I started to wander around the library. I didn't know whether it would be in the "d" section because diamond started with "d" or somewhere else. With my luck it would be somewhere else, but I wandered over to the "d" section anyway. "Please be here," I whispered over and over. I was running my finger down the dusty spines of the books when I felt someone grab me. I screamed and pulled out my sword.
"Gotcha!" Trevor laughed. I glared at him and sheathed my sword. "Nice reflexes though," he added.
"Did you find the exit or not?" I asked, fuming.
"Not necessarily, but I found you so I decided to sneak up on you."
"How sweet of you," I replied sarcastically.
"I know. Hey what are you looking for?"
"Not you're business."
Trevor arched an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes, now go.”
“I’m not leaving until you tell me.”
"No."
"Why not?"
“Because I don't want to.”
He gave an exasperated sigh. "That's the worst answer you could've given me."
I frowned a bit. “I'm not really worried about giving you a good answer.”
“This is ridiculous. Is it that hard to tell me what you were looking for?”
I gave an exasperated sigh, "Fine." I took the paper out of my pocket and showed it to him, "I'm looking for where to find the diamond."
"The Crown of Victory. I remember learning about that. No one knows where to find the diamond." I looked at him with a confused look, how would he know this? Oh yeah. He was the heir to the throne. Why wouldn't he know this?
"What exactly does the crown do?"
"Well, you first have to find all the jewels and then put them in the crown, which is easier said than done. Whoever is in possession of it can defeat their enemy. It doesn't last forever though, eventually the enemy will come back, obviously. But all in all, it's quite powerful. It's part of a trio. There's the crown, a shield, and a sword. The Crown of Victory, the Sword of Vengeance, and the Shield of Valor."
"Sounds interesting," I remarked. I really was interested, even if I didn't sound like I was.
"Hey Trevor! Jess! We found another exit!" Henry yelled.
"We'll be right there!" Trevor yelled back. He started to run toward where Henry's voice had come from and I followed. As we ran through the library, my thoughts started to drift. If I could get all of the jewels, I could stop the war. I would have to get Trevor, Xandra, and Henry to help me though. I would have to convince Mother. And then I would have to convince Henry and Xandra's parents. The only problem would be finding the diamond. Why didn't anyone know where to find the diamond? Had anybody ever found all of the jewels? What would happen if you used all three? The sword, crown, and shield? Did they all do the same thing and just had different titles? Or, more likely, did they all do different things? As I was getting a plan worked out I ran into Trevor.
"Sorry," I murmered. He didn't even notice. I turned my attention to the exit. The doorway was right behind a bookshelf. I remembered that bookshelf. I had seen it while I was rummaging through books. I guess I had been distracted.
"What are we waiting for?” Xandra asked, “This is our chance to get out of here.” Albert went first, and his wife followed with Rosie. Xandra and I went next with Trevor and Henry following. We walked through the narrow corridor in a single file line. It smelt terrible, like rotten eggs. The air was so humid and thick it was nearly impossible to breathe, and, just for inflation, it trapped in the putrid smell. Dim torches lit the walls every few yards or so. When I touched the walls it was slimy, mossy, and gross. It was, in less words, terrible. Soon the ceiling got lower which made it worse, at least for me. I had never been okay with tight spaces. One by one, everyone started to crawl because the ceiling was getting so low. Except me. It wasn't my fault I was short. Or that Rosie had decided to crawl with her mom.
"Jess, you have no idea how lucky you are not having to crawl," I heard Trevor say.
I didn't have a reply that wouldn't sound ungrateful and spiteful, so I said nothing. No sooner than he had said it, that I had to crawl. Soon I realized how lucky I was to have been standing. Crawling made everything so much worse. Sometimes my hand would go in little holes that were filled with an unidentifiable liquid or what felt like mold. My knees constantly scraped against the rock floor, wearing holes in my dress. What a bummer. It had been one of my favorites. It had been custom made with pockets and everything.
It was so hot and stuffy. With each breath I felt more and more like I was suffocating. I had to remind myself that the walls were not closing in on me. If there was one thing that I hated, it was tight spaces. Tight spaces and heights to be exact.
Finally it felt like the ceiling was getting higher, and I could finally stand again. It took a few minutes for the others to be able to stand again. I felt like I was going to faint, which was unlike me. I felt so terrible I could only imagine what the others felt like. When I finally felt like maybe the end of this stupid tunnel was nearing, I heard splashing. Or did I? Was I going insane and hearing things?
My questions were answered when I stepped into a puddle of water. But it wasn't a puddle, it kept getting deeper, and soon it was up to my chest. I was freaking out again. This water was, much like the rest of the tunnel, dirty and nasty. There was algae and it smelt horrid. And worst of all, it was warm. Which would be great if the tunnel were cold, but the tunnel wasn't cold. The water seemed, if it were even possible, hotter than the tunnel. After what felt like an eternity of sloshing though through the nasty tunnel water, the water levels slowly started to drop.
When there was no trace of water left on the ground, a freezing wind tore through the tunnel. I shivered. "I can see the end of the tunnel," I heard Albert call back. His voice was so scratchy and faint that I could barely hear it. After a few moments, we were led out of the tunnel. Never in my life had it felt so good to be back in the recognizable castle. I stood with my hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath.
"Nothing like feeling like you're gonna die to make you feel alive again," Trevor managed to gasp somewhere to my right. I wanted to say something, but my lungs were on fire and I felt like collapsing but I didn't because my body was so exhausted that collapsing was too hard. Instead I gasped for breath. When I finally gained enough composure to look around I saw that everyone was collapsed on the floor. Finally, my knees felt like water and I too collapsed onto the floor.
"You okay?" Trevor asked me, truly concerned. I rolled over to face him. His purple eyes stared intensly into my ever-changing brown, green, and hazel ones. His chocolate brown hair was ridiculously messy, which was really unusual for him. I nodded slightly. "You sure?" Because he was so concerned I decided I might as well tell him the truth.
"Not at all," I answered. My voice was so faint; I could barely hear it myself.
He sighed a bit. "I thought so," he admitted. He let me lay there, but stayed by my side. It was times like this where I was grateful for Trevor. He could be really annoying sometimes, but he could also be really sweet. After a while I forced myself to sit up. I tried not to lean on him pathetically, but eventually I gave in. I leaned on him until my breath came back to me. By the time that I could finally breathe normally, the others had already recovered long ago. They were milling around, and seeming to be waiting for me. I stood up quickly, pulling Trevor with me.
"Let's see where we are, shall we?" he asked.
I managed a quick nod. "Sure."
He turned to face everyone. "Everyone okay?" he asked. Everyone nodded and he went to go discuss what to do next with Albert. I couldn't hear what he was saying to him. I didn't really want to anyway; I had a few more important things on my mind.
Xandra and Henry wandered over to me while Trevor continued to talk with Albert. We didn't talk much, which was fine by me. Henry scared me. He was nice but he was also a lot taller than me so I had to look up to see him. It was especially annoying when he happened to be right in front of me and I have to crane my neck. Sometimes being short is good, like in the cave. Other times it stinks, like when I'm right in front of Henry. There was something else about him though; it was his eyes. They were silver with sapphire blue specks in them. They made him seem cold even though he was a nice guy.
“There was something wrong with that tunnel,” Xandra suddenly said out of the blue. Her grass green eyes were distracted, as if she was in her own world. Her curly mahogany-colored hair was still messy from the tunnel, another sign that she was distracted.
“You think?” I replied sarcastically.
She shot me a glare. “No seriously. There was dark magic in there. There must’ve been something in there because you took longer to recover,” she continued.
“So you’re saying that--” She cut me off.
“I’m not saying anything, I’m just assuming,” After that I remained silent, I had thought that Xandra was implying that I was weaker than everyone else. Thinking back, she couldn't have been implying that because Rosie was the youngest and therefore most likely the weakest of all of us. Then again, she had recovered before I had. This really confused me and I twirled a strand of my curly almond-colored hair around my finger, a nervous habit, while I waited for Trevor to join me again.
PICTURE TIME!!!!
P.S. My computer is being temperamental and it's not letting me delete all the extra blank space after the actual post. How rude.
No comments:
Post a Comment