Chapter ?  A Night Of Secrets

Tonight, like many others, I couldn’t sleep. It’s wasn’t the light from the full moon shining down, or the fact that around one in the morning Lucian had woken me up, out of what little sleep I managed to find, to tell me that he was going to take a walk around the grounds and wasn’t running away. The fact is, that I really couldn’t sleep! Argh! I thought, this had happened many a time before, and in times like this there was only one thing to do. Quickly and quietly I slipped out of bed, grabbed a matches and lit a lantern off my bedside table, yah I like old fashion things if you can’t tell, and slowly walked around to the foot of my bed where my trunk of things was sitting. No one really knew what I had in it, and I liked to keep it that way, last thing I needed was someone using my personal things. Kneeling down I set the lantern a few inches from me, and began the slow steady process of trying to open the chest without a creek or groan from the old hinges. Finally I had it open, with the lid resting gently on my cherry wood bed frame. I lifted up the lantern up over the chest to illuminate what lay inside the chest. Everything came into view the cloak, dagger in its sheath, my books, an extra set of matches, an extra lantern, a blanket made of real wool, a pair of scissors, a set of black gloves, and everything else in there.

Silently I grabbed out my black cloak, dagger, a book, and the gloves, shut the chest without a sound. I placed the lantern onto the chest and stood up, belongings in hand, I quickly put on my cloak and buttoned it right below the hood. Then I pulled on the gloves, fighting with them only when my pinky got stuck in the wrong finger, slowly I slipped the book and the dagger in the inside pocket of the cloak. I plucked the lantern from its perch and began to walk to the fireplace on the east side of my bedroom. Slowly my eyes scanned the wall. Not there, not there, not there, ah ha! I thought as I found it, there was an uneven brick on the mantel place. I firmly planed my hand on the brick, and pushed with all my strength, the brick gave way and a square, door like, chunk of the wall swung backwards to reveal a drafty stair way. Quickly I made my way inside, not wanting my room to chill from the wind, and shut the door. I descended down the spiral stairway, the only noise was the muffled clack of my shoes against the stone steps.

Finally there was light at the end of the stairway I rushed down what remained of the steps, almost tripping on the last one as my skirts caught. Bloody things will be the end of me someday! I thought bitterly as I walked out of the stairway and into the field next to my house. Halfway there now. And I continued on walking, the end of the field coming up and the beginning of the woods coming into view. Thank goodness. The last thing I need tonight would be someone coming to check out the floating lantern.

Upon entering the woods I was greeted by a howl of a wolf crying out to the full moon above, this only made the butterflies in my stomach more active. I was already on shaky ground with the recent sightings of robbers, we may own the land but that doesn’t mean that they can’t stay on it. I had learned that the hard way when I accidentally stumbled into a camp of some thieves that were staying in the wood, luckily I didn’t make much noise and they were all asleep. I flew across the grounds as another call came out from the wolf, he was getting closer, to close. As I went the only sound I was making was the occasional snap of a twig or the crunch of a leave, fall was the hardest time to get to through here unnoticed, all the trees were thinning from cold, and the ground was caked in fallen everything. Slowly the woods began to thicken, the cold not being able to penetrate to far into the woods, and I could drop some of my guard. Not a good idea I tell you, not at all. Just as soon as I did I heard a twig snap behind me, my body froze, listening for signs for what could have made the sound. Nothing happened at first but then I heard it, quick footsteps on the birth! I took off; someone was after me, the steps growing closer and closer. I was so in deep trouble! I kept running, and my pursuer kept on following. One minute the ground was hammering beneath my feet and the next I was sailing through the air, running off a cliff and plummeting down to a deep ravine……