Tainted

Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER 18 | TAINTED

Escape

Valentina took hold of my hand at untamed speeds, and she squeezed tightly as she drifted with me at her side. If this were a week ago the sudden jolt would have torn my ACL out of place. We took off in the opposite direction of the guard before they were ten minutes near our sparring point. Both of my fathers were still out of sight and my mother was following close behind us almost keeping a matched pace.

I had no idea where we were headed but we had already reached deep into the forest within five human breaths. Valentina kept me pulled up to her close, our feet even matched in rhythm. We had started approaching a mountain in the middle of the forest.

Without thought, we all went straight up top of it, and it was one of the most amazing views that I caught a glimpse of. It was an enormous Kingdom off in the far distance that was sparkling white you could see the guards' tower and how was mighty it stood. Outside the gate was a glorious city with towers and houses that stretched the land. Right behind the castle was a great sea that glistened in the sun.

I didn't get a chance to admire all of it because we ran by just as fast as we came. On the way down the mountain, it was a harder run because it was so steep, that I found myself jumping down some of its jaggy edges.

We didn't stop once we made it down the side we kept going further into the trees. The path behind us had no footprints left behind because the snow had started to fall leaving our prints filled. The wind had started to pick up tremendously and the snow began to fall harder.

With the thick trees, hills of snow surrounding us, and the snow sheets that were piling down from the frozen sky my vision started getting impaired. It was hard to make out anything from the snow I looked back to make sure my mom was still behind us, and she was but I could barely make out the outline of her.

We were blinded by the coolness of winter. So blinded, we didn't even see the trap that had us falling twenty feet down a cold damp hole in the middle of the forest. Snow piled down the hole covering us up in thick sloshy ice.

"Is everyone okay," I asked aloud breaking the sound of our huffs.

"I'm alright dear," my mother immediately answered in a soft voice matching my tone. "Valentina are you alright," she asked popping up from her pile and nudging her way through to the both of us.

"I'm quite alright, thank you, but I think we fell in an elvan's manor." She said looking around the dark din. The only light that peaked through was coming from the cracks of the snow above us and it wasn't much. There was a thin shimmering vile keeping it from tumbling on top of us.

"Oh, I've always wanted to meet an elf," my mother exclaimed beside us. It gained both of our looks with a snicker.

"I'm unsure what the folklore says about elves in your world Alex's mom, but they are quite a remarkable creature really. My father always called them small but mighty. But they rarely ever come up to the surface and if they do, we will never know they have the power to shield themselves." She got up to her feet while she was talking and started feeling up the walls and pressing her ear to the dirt.

"Sound magical," my mom replied looking like an amazed child.

"What are you looking for?" I asked approaching behind Valentina.

She looked up at me and without replying she pushed my head into the wall gently and said, "listen," and I followed the instruction. In my peripheral view, I saw my mom following her instructions pressing her head to the wall. "If you listen closely, you can hear the beat of their hearts, lots of them are sleeping it's in a slow rhythm. And I think a few of them might be up faster than the others."