5 Princes and I(Preview Only)

Chapter 66 Elf Kingdom

Chapter 66

We arrived in Tordis faster than Nate had planned by taking only a few breaks and traveling the entire night. When you looked at Ace's kingdom, you could tell it was truly a magnificent place for the elves. The area itself was already magical, with fences made of alternating jagged tree bark that surrounded the entire area. The tallest bark stood the furthest away, near the castle, shrinking and shrinking as it encircled the whole kingdom until it simply stopped and vanished into the ground – it didn't even make a full circle.

"This is the place where the once-great oak tree stood. The whole elven kingdom once inhabited it." Ren spoke behind me as if sensing my wonder regarding the tree barks. The whole way to Tordis, I took a ride with Ren since Ace was too weak to transfer on Midnight. Also, I was too scared to ride on Ace's stallion.

I actually did try to ride and Midnight. And guess what? The stallion snapped at me. And if that wasn't enough, it rose on its two back legs and started chasing me. And it only stopped when I hid behind Cloud. My horse simply snorted at midnight as if challenging it to proceed. It might be my imagination, but I think Cloud threatened Midnight that she will drop PRINCE Ace if he attacks.

I don't even know whether I should feel touched or frightened that she would do that.

"Hang on," I told him and looked back down at Tordis. "The whole diameter of the kingdom is the same diameter of a giant tree?"

"Yes. It was said that it protected the people from evil." He answered.

"What happened to it?" I decided to investigate further with my question.

"It's a long story." Ren shrugged. "But to make it short, Tereau tried to invade Tordis. The tree died in trying to protect its people." He said. "I heard that little magic still exists in these barks, though. They said that you can feel it when you enter Tordis."

I couldn't imagine the enormous tree standing there as I looked back at Tordis. I'm lacking in the creativity department when it comes to these things. Instead, I returned my gaze to Ace. He didn't appear to be in good shape. Even with his usual perfect posture and stone-cold eyes, the unusual paleness of his skin as he rode Cloud revealed weakness. Dan was holding Midnight's reins while Nate rode alongside him if he fell. Ace didn't seem to get enough sleep during our trip, despite our efforts to force him to rest. Apparently, his PRINCE ego outweighed his concern for his wellbeing.

While the others got too little rest, I felt guilty as I accidentally fell asleep on Ren's chest along the ride. He only woke me up when we were now overlooking the kingdom of Tordis.

"Let's go," Nate ordered, and soon we made our way to the entrance of the kingdom where the barks seemed to sink into the ground and the only access to the kingdom.

I felt a strange sensation sinking into me as soon as we entered. Every nerve and muscle in my body became active until the sensation of something being severed from me set in. I looked around to see if the others were feeling the same way, but they weren't.

They looked lively and energized.

"You okay, Rose?" Still riding close to Ace, Nate asked as he moved a little closer to Garius but still kept a good distance. Somehow, I noticed that Nate acted weird when he was with me. He often kept his distance and would only talk to me when needed.

I shook my head and thought about what I felt earlier. The feeling that you lost something, but you don't know what. "I don't know," I said. "I just feel...weird. How's Ace doing?" I asked quickly to divert the attention from me.

At that, we all looked at Ace to see that he had gotten a little better. Some of the colors returned to his cheeks.

Feeling satisfied that our bratty prince was alright, I started to take in my surroundings. When I said that trees surrounded Tordis, I don't mean it like the trees in Sanver. The trees here in Tordis –I realize – are the houses of the elven people!