Royal Trespassing

Chapter 1

"So what am I suppose to do?"

"I'm going to ask you a series of questions and record your answers. Just give me a sec while I set everything up," said James who had the bright idea to conduct an interview.

"Do you promise you won't give out my or Mia's name or any identifying information? We'll probably be restricted from exploring if anyone found out or others will come flocking to us trying to get in on a piece of the action."

"Yeah I promise it will be completely anonymous. I won't release the audio either, I'm going to use it later to quote exactly what you said. Thank you very much for doing the interview. My blog is totally going to be in the limelight after this story."

"You're welcome. Just remember this next time I need a favor."

"You've got it missy. Okay we're starting now."

James pushes the little red button on his recorder then begins to read from his sheet of questions.

"So miss anonymous, what is it that you and your friend do?"

"We do a lot of stuff. We eat and sleep mostly but we like to sprinkle in some school work here and there."

"Very comical miss. More specifically however, what is your special hobby involving exploration?"

"We explore the fridge like every 2 hours." I replied.

James paused the recorder and gave me a look that could kill.

"Please take this seriously, it's important to me," James said.

"I'm sorry, just trying to lighten the mood."

"Well you've done a fine job Rose. Now let's start from the beginning."

James presses play again. Boy that button must be getting weary.

"So miss anonymous, what special hobby do you and your friend share?"

"We explore medieval castles that have been left standing undisturbed for hundreds of years."

"Woah that's pretty unique but how do you get to explore them? There's not a bunch of castles just lying around."

"Actually there is an old estate, its location has been disclosed by the owner and the government, that has dozens of castles on its grounds. Long ago kings wanted to show off their wealth and power by building huge castles not only in their own kingdom, but also on this estate so royals everywhere could view each other's mightiness in one area. "

"Can you explain more what you mean by exploring the castle?"

"Of course. My partner and I pick a castle to explore for the weekend. If the castle is very large we sometimes have to go back another weekend and finish the job. Any way, we explore the castle inside and out. Mia is an artist and she draws maps of the castle that includes all the floors and secret passage ways. After exploring and mapping the castle, we document and take photos of all unique items like books, jewelry, silverware, art, and pretty much everything that seems to have value."

"What's the purpose of documenting the items?"

"We have an agreement with the man who owns the estate that all the castles lie on. We are allowed to visit and explore the castles whenever we want but we have to document certain things. Sometimes he asks us to bring him specific items that he chooses to sell and we even get a small portion of the sales."

"That's a pretty sweet deal."

James continued to ask me pretty dry questions like how we started exploring, what's the best parts, how much money we've made, etc, until his last, bitter question, popped up.

"Is there any danger involved in exploring?"

Well now I have a dilemma. Yes it's dangerous but if anyone knew that Mia and me could be barred from exploring any more.

"James I'd rather not answer that question."

"Why?" he responded.

"I'd just rather not, okay?"

"Whatever you want missy. Thank you for the interview."

He stood up and shook my hand.

"You're welcome mister," I replied.

I began to walk through the doorway of his dorm when James called out.

"Hey Rose, are you exploring this fall break?"

I couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, the biggest castle on the estate to be matter-of-fact."

"Well good luck and don't get yourself killed."

"Whatever you say mister."

I gave him a sort of half wave and a wink as I finally completed my journey through the doorway. Tomorrow will be an even bigger journey though, making it through the Crimson Castle will be no small feat.