Of Gears and Humanity

| 08.1

[ELENA]

Marleth told me I couldn't go back to the Gate. The boy I met on the opposite side was a fraud, a trickster, and I had fallen into it. She stated, as forcefully as Marleth ever could, returning to the Gate would endanger me as the queen. I would place a looming shadow of darkness and doom over Homestead.

And while I listened to what she said, unlike when my father spoke to me, I let her words pass through my ear and out the other. I retained some of the information; it was vital for when I took the throne. But I couldn't accept the idea that I had fallen for a trick. At least, I couldn't accept it and not defeat the treachery on my own.

My father never ran from a fight, turned his back on a possible battle. My father learned from my mother long ago, never back down, never falter. If that was how I behaved, had I learned anything from my parents? I needed to behave just the same.

So once the moon rose high in the night sky and those within the castle slipped off to bed, I snuck out of the castle with a cloak over my head. And I did so on my own.

I thought of bringing Carmine, but my poor horse had gone through so much the past two days with me. I made him adventure through a forest with me, even guilted him when he refused to advance and join me in my dangerous decisions. But when I left out of my bedroom window, sliding down the banister railing attached to the side, Carmine eyed me. When I approached him, I saw his horse-like frown. I knew I couldn't force him on another journey. This was one I needed to do on my own.

"I'm a queen." After reading my mother's journal from cover to cover over a hundred times, I knew her hand-drawn map like the back of my hand. Having a horse along with me made the journey faster, yes, but what harm did an extra hour do? If I walked fast enough, I would be there in no time.

Yet, as I tugged the hood of my cloak over my head to hide my face from the forest's shadows, I heard a howling to my right. A deep, hungry noise. Once it shifted into an echo carried by the wind, I scanned the dark trees to my right and left. Nothing was there. No movement. No footsteps.

"Well, I'm not a queen just yet," I whispered to myself as I quicked my steps, "but I'll be a queen soon."

The closer I got to the forest's edge, where the land died and the Gate resided, the more I needed to convince myself this walk was worth it. To prove I was capable of protecting my town. That I was willing to stand up to any foe. This was my chance to see if I could really do it. And if I approached this Gate with it being empty and alone, then I would know, at least I tried.

But if I arrived at the iron door, between the metal and magic, and saw the boy with his supposed lies, or curiosity, or whatever he wished to call it, I would call out his story. I would make sure to get the entire truth. And I would learn...

Was he a human as he stated? Or was he a machine wishing to sneak onto my side of the world?

With another howl pushing against the harsh wind that blew, I knew I couldn't wait.

Walking faster, I pushed through the path between the trees until it widened and lost its attachment from the forest behind me. Rocks became boulders at my feet as I tiptoed around them. My hands kept my hood firm around my face. I wasn't sure if I was hiding from the shadows, the howling, or night itself, but I didn't want to be seen.

"I just need to get to this Gate and see him." Looking ahead, I saw the Gate. Its menacing presence both called and shouted at me. I was mesmerized, just as I was the first night I had arrived. But I was terrified, as well.

He had asked me to return because he was curious, but was it my curiosity that caused him to say it? Attributions learned and adapted to human behaviors, that was what Marleth said. And if that was the case with him, then I returned to the Gate as a pretty prize, a willing prey, alone without her horse, just as he would've hoped.

I groaned and closed my eyes. "Please let this just be my mind running away with me," I whispered.

When the howl returned, louder than it had before, I lifted my head and bolted towards the Gate. "And please let that be my imagination!"

*

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