-𝟛- Athanasia stumbles behind a dark alleyway, mana depleted from her constant teleporting. She looks up to the sky and saw light dimming out. Its probably night time now, and she is still here dressed in royal robes with her blonde hair and blue eyes. Maybe in a matter of minutes, her Father- no, his Majesty's guards might be able to locate her in due time with this outfit. She sobs, feeling defeated. Her hands trembeled as she collapsed on the floor shaking, her eyes watery and her body shaking uncontrollably. Fortunately for her she didnt meet any criminals at the alley for her to be in any danger.
She sighs as she dries up her tears before wiping it away with her sleeves. Before she could take a step though, she saw infront of her an old woman sprawled at the floor bleeding profusely on her head.
Athanasia ran towards her, halting enough to see if the coast is clear before tending to her.
"Are you alright, madame?" She says, her blue eyes sparkling with concern. She checks the old woman's pulse before sighing in relief to feel it. The old woman cracked open her eyes, Athy sat there in awe at her jaded green crystal like eyes.
"I'm okay, dearie. Thank you." She says, slowly sitting up. Athanasia sighs as she puts a hand behind the elderly's waist. Helping her to hoist herself up.
"Nonsense, let's take you to a hospital so that we can get your head checked." She whispers, the elderly woman smiles as she waves.
"Just accompany me to my house by the nearby creek. I have my children waiting for me there." She smiles, before grimacing in pain. Athanasia nods before accompanying her, putting her arms underneath the lady's arms and into her back before slowly limping their way to the said creek.
Not noticing the older woman flick her hand as it sparkles with magic, changing her appearance to shield her from danger.
---
Athanasia and the old woman limped towards their destination, it was a good 1 mile walk, but still, with a depleted stamina and a head injury, it could take you so much not to collapse
Athy grunts as she adjusts the hold of the old woman, they were kind of silent the whole journey, since she was loosing touch with reality because of exhaustion. Now that she mentions it, she should ease the tension up. She looks over at the elderly woman before smiling.
"I forgot to ask what was your name again?" She asks, panting as her legs wobbled with exhaustion. The old woman smiled before readjusting her hold on Athy while clutching her groceries on the other hand.
"My name is Zeniba." She whispers, dragging her limping feet, as lightly as possible so that the blonde haired (now brown) princess wouldn't be burdened too much. Athy smiles as she looks back at the city growing smaller and smaller by the minute.
"Its a suprise that no palace guards have found me yet." She whispers over her shoulder, Zeniba smiles knowingly before resuming their walk.
"Tell me, why were you running away in the first place, Princess?" She asks, Athy stops in her tracks as she stared at the old lady with worry and anxiousness.
"You.. You know me?" She stutters, getting scared at the moment.
"It is quite hard not to when your face is plastered all over the place with a huge bounty over your head." The old woman hummed. Athy began to sweat. Was she going to turn her in? Sensing her unwaranted anxiousness, the old lady turned to her before smiling sheepishly.
"I don't plan on outing you, Princess. There must be a good reason why you ran away." She says, before looking forward before smiling as she saw the scenery before her.
"We are here."
Athanasia stares at the dead end, stone wall that looks like it was a cave once before getting bombed into pieces or something. It was covered with hanging vines that vastly shrouded the entire wall like mountain stone.
Yep, this is it. This is where she's gonna die. Zeniba looked at her before chuckling.
"Not this," she pauses, before pushing the stone higed door open. "This." There avast from the dark hallway, was a wide opening was a blindinng light. Both women limped towards it, shielding their eyes. Athanasia looked forward before stopping in awe at the scenery infront of her, they did not even notice the stone wall move back to its original place, shielding their presence to the outside.
Instead of a creek, there in front of her is a beautiful flowing waterfall filled with sparkling blue water basked in the color of the setting sun, nestled between the humongous mountains encircling the land covering half of the red, pink, and orange tinted sky. Flowers were blooming in every corner of the vast field and right by its side was a small cottage house with grey white walls, glass windows divided into four sections by wood, wooden door with flowers ornating it, and a maroon brick roof to shield them from rain and other weather, with a chimney installed on its side, blowing out smoke.
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"Wow." She whispers, Zeniba smiles before urging her to go inside, Athanasia obliges before walking there slowly. From the side there she saw a girl, with long flowing platinum blonde hair, but the tips were dyed sky blue, she has half chopped bangs, and brilliant hazel brown eyes. She was wearing a puffy white dress laced with black lacey accents. She looked over them as she hanged a white cloth over a piece of wire (probably drying laundry), squinting at them before her eyes widen in excitement.
"MIKAN, NANAMI! ZENIBA IS HERE!" she exclaims before running towards her with happiness, only to stop abruptly as she saw both of their appearance, she gasps as she saw both of their condition.
"Oh no! What happened?" She asks, her hands trembling as she grasps Zeniba's bloodied hands, before turning to Athanasia.
"Nene, call your sisters. We have an urgent meeting to discuss." The old lady says, Nene nodded, running towards the house. Athanasia looks over at the elder before trudging forward.
"Let's go." She says, before taking a step forward only for her vision to darken. She hurriedly let's go of Zeniba to avoid her going down with her.
The only thing she rememberes before passing out were exclamations of help.
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(A/N: I FINISHED IT YAY! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE NEW READERS. HUHUHU I DEDICATE THIS CHAPTER TO Audrey070,AND Gimmecandy26 FOR BEING ALWAYS THERE FOR ME. AHHH OK. BYE SEE YA LATER ALLIGATOR)
