The Fallen Kingdom

Chapter One.

Time seemed to be standing still, for this place was a battleground of silence. The hushed sound of clashing and swinging of weapons, echoed faintly within the halls to remind the ghostly occupants what happened all those years ago. There was a coating of dust on every surface, and all the greenery had overgrown to a point of looking like a forest, or small jungle inside the vast castle. Vines creeped in through the windows covering them and parts of the floor. The faded sound of footsteps echoed and caused a slight rift in the mute atmosphere.

    The beings so brave to walk through the halls in the deafening silence walked along, footsteps echoing, hushed whispers being spoken for they did not want to be punished for disturbing the nature around them. The footsteps stop before the doors and they hesitate,

    "Should we even be here Nathaniel?" One teenage boy said to the other, "We don't even know what's in there,¨ He sighed and looked around.

¨Oh, don't be such a coward, Joseph.¨ Nathaniel said while shaking his head, ¨It's most likely just cobwebs dust.¨ He explained,

¨But you heard what the old hag said didn't you?¨ Joseph said with slight agitation, ¨Why are we here if you say if there are only cobwebs and dust, huh?¨ He gestured to the surroundings.

¨Well I want to know if what she said was true, that's all,¨ He said loftily, ¨But I know that there will be nothing here because you shouldn't believe everything somebody tells you,¨

Nathaniel said.

¨Fine, but I want to be home before supper, you know how mother is.¨ Joseph finally yielded.

¨Great!¨ Nathaniel beamed, ¨Let us just hope the doors aren't locked, ¨ He said, patting the door a little as to give emphasis.

Nathaniel tried to pull the door open, but seems to be too big for him to move. He tries again to see if you push it, but again, the door wouldn't budge. He then motioned Joseph over to help in in opening the door. The two boys work hard to move the door, and with a snap the door opens abruptly, and the boys fall to the floor. They get up and dust themselves off. They look up to find that the whole room is spotless, as if someone came everyday to maintain upkeep of this one room. As they look around they see only one thing in the very middle of the room. Both boys think it's just a large stone table, but as they got closer they saw that it wasn't a table, but a tomb. The tomb had strange symbols carved on it. The ceiling was high, with very intricate designs carved into it, the designs bleeding down the walls, making a story the boys could only make out as a great war.

Nathaniel moves forward but Joseph puts his arm over his chest to stop him from going any further. He makes them take a step back, as if to somehow get away. Nathaniel takes a step forward and pushes Joseph's arm out of the way.

"Nathaniel!" Joseph exclaims, "What are you doing? We should leave while we still can, I feel as if this place is alive somehow," Joseph says, feeling a little uneasy,

"Joseph, what's wrong with taking a look around and seeing what we find. If we don't find anything, we'll go home," Nathaniel says, "Besides, we probably won't even find anything. This place is so old and worn down-," He stopped when they both heard loud banging resonating throughout the room.

"Joseph! Get over here!" Nathaniel yelled. The banging continued, and a frantic yelling joined in. Both of the boys soon realized it was coming from the tomb in the middle of the room.

"Nathaniel there is somebody trapped in there! We have to help them!" Joseph said frantically,

"No! We don't know who's in there, i'm not going to risk dying to save someone i don't even know, especially one who's in a tomb!" Nathaniel stated firmly,

"Well, I guess that's where we are different," Joseph says, running to the tomb.

Joseph looks at the tomb seeing what he can do, and he notices the lid a little off the side. He runs to the other side and starts to push off the lid. Nathaniel sees him struggling with opening it so he runs over and starts to help Joseph. Both brother look at each other and push the lid as hard as they can. The yelling and banging stops and they can feel the person inside trying to push the top of the tomb off as well.

The lid finally falls off and the boys stumble back waiting to see who will climb out. They hear a metal scraping sound and watch as a feminine hand covered in many expensive looking rings with all the gems you could think of grasp the sides of the tomb.

Nathaniel and Joseph watch enamored as a beautiful woman dressed in the finest silks pulls herself up into a sitting position. She looks around and the boys examine her, the most beautiful woman they have seen in their lifetime, dressed in the finest dress they've ever seen. They think she is royalty to afford such a nice dress, and fine jewelry. On her head, a crown, that her hair was wound around in a complicated hairstyle. She looks at the boy and they see she has high cheekbones, plump lips and the clearest blue eyes. Her hair looks as if it was spun from the purest gold in all the world.

"Excuse me, but can you please help me out of this dreadful space, it quite small," The sweetest voice snaps them out of their thoughts and they scramble to help the woman out of her once before seen coffin.

"Thank you, I don't even know how long I was in there, seemed like ages," She said, adjusting herself to look presentable. Joseph steps forward, as Nathaniel seemed to be in trance by her beauty, he begins to help her out of the tomb.

"Uh, Miss, we were walking through, just looking around. We just wanted to see what had caused all the stories to make this place seem so bad." Joseph says as he helps the woman stand on her feet.

"Bad? This place?" She said with a shocked face, "My kingdom has been the best for hundreds of years!" She said gesturing around the room, but she suddenly stops seeing how empty it is. "Oh my, what happened," She stops and a look of panic spreads across her face,"Oh Marry, the war! My father, my family!" she turns towards the boys and starts frantically walking to them,"Tell me, what happened, did we win the war? How many live?" she holds Joseph by the arms.

"Miss! Please calm down! Here sit down," Joseph guides her to the steps that lead up to the tomb, "We'll answer your questions, just, please hold on," Joseph turns to Nathaniel and motion him to come over. Nathaniel snaps out of his trance and walks over to Joseph still glancing at the woman sitting on the steps. "Nathaniel get the water from the bag, she needs it more than we do at the moment," Joseph orders,

"Alright Miss, can you tell me your name by any chance?" Nathaniel asks while handing his water flask to the lady.

"My name is Queen Adelaide Donata,"