I have absolutely no idea how I got here. Wherever here is.
I was just minding my own business, walking home from school. I had taken the last of my exams and I had bought a french vanilla from Tim Hortons, as a means of celebrating. It was still winter here in Canada, and I had gotten off the city bus, only a couple of blocks away from my house. Turning down the music slightly from my iPod, I take a sip of my now empty drink and dodge a pile of slush. Slush, is a wonderful and dangerous thing. You can squish them onto the outside of your snowman or igloo and it would hold. But when it's everywhere on the ground, it is quite easy to slip and fall on your butt. So I try to avoid it as much as I can.
But it's just my luck that when I do try to dodge it, there was a hidden pile of slush under my boot. And down I went. My upper body ended up landing in a hedge, and my whole body was greeted with the excruciating pain of needles piercing skin.
"Ow! Great, now I'll come home looking like I came back from a war. Stupid slush." Now, I would like to point out that my eyes were closed at this point until I opened them to kick the snow on the ground. So when I opened them, I found myself surrounded by tall trees, and the sun was still high in the sky even though it's been a couple of hours since midday.
How in the world did I end up here? I was pretty sure I was still in my suburban neighbourhood, surrounded by fast traffic and brick houses.
"Ow!" Nevermind, I am most definitely in some unknown, distant land that is in another dimension or something. Maybe I'm still dreaming? I do have a pretty wild imagination…
"Ow! I get it, I'm not in Kansas anymore!" I snicker to myself. Wow, I still find humour in possible death situations.
Oh god, how… The last thing I remember was falling into a prickly hedge, and that is most definitely the same hedge I fell into. I stare hard at the hedge for a long time. Then I jump.
"Ow ow ow ow OW! I have got to stop purposely killing myself!" I wince as I take out a stick from the top of my head.
"It came this way!"
I froze. That was not my voice. At least I don't think so, it sounded pretty manly and I'm a girl. With a high-pitched voice. That is not this voice.
"I think it's over here…" The leaves started shuffling and that's when I could finally move from my sudden paralysis. I leaped over the hedge and ran. I remember being a fast runner when I was younger. I'd chase people for stealing my hat from me, then I'd jump on their back and take my hat back. But I haven't ran this much since grade 9 gym class.
I can hear shouts behind me as the guy invited his whole gang to chase my stupid voice. Why did I have to talk out loud? Oh man, they're still behind me and coming faster. It's weird though, I was tired all day and I was looking forward to sleeping in, but now I feel as if I had all the energy in the world. I guess the adrenaline took care of that, though. It's still really weird and I'm kinda scared for my well-being.
I've been running for about five minutes when I finally came upon a tree that looked good enough to climb. It had enough thick limbs for me to climb and it looks like it could support me for however long I stay in the tree. The guys were still following me, but they lost my track a minute ago and are now hunting me down like in the show Mantracker. I quickly tossed my backpack in a bush and put one foot on a branch of the tree to lift myself up, steadying the deep breaths of fear coming out of my mouth. The voices were coming back and I climbed a little faster, still pretty careful about where I step. I found a height that was tall enough where they can't see me unless they look up. I was petrified at the thought of climbing higher than this.
Footsteps came and five men came into view. One had a silver crown on his head, and three others were wearing chain-mail tunics. They all carried swords. Great, now I'm gonna be impaled when I get caught. The King gently pushed aside some branches and was staring intently at the ground.
"What is it your majesty?" One of the knights asked. The king raised his hand and waved everyone where he was crouching right under my tree!
"There is a footprint, but it is unlike anything I have ever seen before." How dare he insult my precious military boots! I payed a lot of money for them.
"What do you suggest we do?" said the calm voice of the last man. He wasn't dressed like a knight or like royalty, but he had extremely curly brown hair. The King stood up abruptly and I was half startled into thinking he'll raise his head and see me.
"We will come back tomorrow morning, the least we can do is give this… Person some space." Then they walked away from my line of vision and I could hear some horses whining in the distance before trotting off. I counted to sixty in my head to make sure they were completely gone, before looking down.
Yeah, I have no idea how to get down.
Somehow, I manage to slowly get down, and by the time my feet touch the ground the sun is setting. The world got slightly darker as I stumbled over twigs and branches trying to get to my bag hidden in the bush and walked around to find a shelter. I kept walking straight, or as straight as I could with the trees getting in the way, in the direction of the setting sun. I shield my eyes from the glare and stare at the gray rocks in front of me. And if I tilt my head in the right direction, I could just make out a small hole. I walk towards the hole and peer inside; thankfully it's empty and small enough for me to just settle in for the night. I could hear my stomach rumbling and I rummage through my lunch bag, so glad that I didn't have lunch at school. I pull out an omelette sandwich and chomp down on it. When I ate about a third of my lunch and put the rest back in my bag for later. Who knows how long I have to stay in this place. Maybe I can scavenge some fruit or nuts, or maybe kill an animal for meat? Yeah, like I can actually do any of that, I've never even been out camping.
I balled up the scarf into my hat to make as a pillow and had my coat covering me like a blanket. The ground was hard but I fell asleep pretty easily, my thoughts slowly drifting to how my parents would react when they found me missing. They'd get worried and if I do ever come back, they'd kill me for not telling them where I am. My sister would probably redesign my bedroom.
I had better get back soon if I want to see my room untouched by little hands.
A/N: I want to see where this goes! My first chapter for a Chronicles of Narnia fanfic. I realize now I don't have a name for the heroine but that's coming, and the King in this chapter is Edmund, but she doesn't know that. Next chapter she'll be surprised, and I'll finally reveal a name.
~ Alipurple