Element Restraint

Chapter 1: Acantha

The warmth on my skin from the sun brings a smile to my small face. A sweet breeze blows my long wild curls through the air. I turn around laughing as I see my mother chasing after me.

As I race down the field brushing through the tall grass, I feel someone grab my arm pulling me further under the cover of the field. Rawr gives me a devious smile.

"Don't worry Canthy" he whispers. "She will never find us here."

We move farther into the field of grass, trying to be as quiet as possible as we rustle through. Rawr trips over a rock and I burst out laughing when he hits the dirt with a thud. I put a hand over my mouth to try to hide my giggles as Rawr jumps to his feet. He brushes the dirt on his suit pants. The smears of dirt slowly become stains as he rubs them into the material. 

"I wonder where they are?" Our mother thinks aloud as she rustles through the reeds

We drop down on our knees curling into the tall grass together.

"How could they have disappeared so quickly?" Mother's voice begins growing louder. I quickly put my hand over my mouth to hide my giggles as we hear her walking away from us.

"I think we are safe," Rawr whispers to me after it goes silent. Before we can rise to our feet though, hands wrap around Rawr. He begins to laugh as the hands begin tickling him. I smile at my mother and jump on top of her knocking her to the ground. All three of us lay in the tall grass laughing under the sun.

A small pounding begins to rattle in my ears. I stop laughing and look around trying to identify the noise.

"What is wrong, my dear?" my mother cups my cheeks with her warm hands. "Acantha?" Her voice begins to grow distorted as she speaks. "Acantha!"

I open my eyes and look up at the ceiling of my bedroom as the pounding filters into knocks on my door.

"Acantha!" Rose calls from the other side of my door.

I sit up in my bed and push strands of my dark auburn hair out of my face. I bring a slow strained breath into my lungs. "Dreams are dreams," I mumble to myself.

I flip my covers back. As I race across the dark oak floors of my room, I slip on my white silk robe in the process.

I can not afford to wallow in my misery today.

I grasp the silver knob of my door and pause. I plaster a smile on my face and open the door. Rose's chocolate brown eyes look down at me frowning.

"My stars, Acantha!" Rose slips past me walking to my closet. "Do you not see the time?" She turns to me and studies my face. "Did you stay up late reading again?"

"No." I lie.

"Your eyes are red and puffy." She crosses her arms.

"I just couldn't sleep from the excitement of today," I lie.

Why would I be excited about being forced to leave everything I love? I was up all night thinking about it. I anxiously tossed and turned in my bed for hours. Even reading-the one thing I am always able to use to escape my realities- did not help me.

But I could never tell anyone. I could not tell them that I do not want to go to the Air Realm. The second I tell someone about how horrible this is going to be is the second I will accept it myself.

"You know Acantha, you are such a horrible liar." Rose sighs as she begins sifting through my wardrobe.

"I am not lying,'' I say. "I am getting the chance of a lifetime! I, Acantha De Vries, the daughter of a General, has been chosen as one of the ladies to live in the court of the Air Realm." Rose rolls her eyes as I continue. "I will get the opportunity to marry a Count, Viscount, or Marquess, or if I am so lucky, the  crowned prince of the Air Realms himself."