Isa gasped for air as she came up from under the water. With the falls bearing down on her, the swim to the surface had been more difficult than she had thought it would be. It had been a very high jump and was a bit more painful than she figured as well, But her calculations for point of entry were spot on. She had been down in the harbor countless times, she knew exactly what she was doing. She swam to the closest rock and held on, needing to catch her breath. The palace sat atop a cliff completely surrounded by water. She would need to make an attempt to swim to the cliffs adjacent the palace. From there she would try to find refuge somewhere in the city. She kept most of her body sunk in water, trying to not be seen. She figured if she stayed close to the crashing falls, it'd be more difficult to spot her. She looked around for Rico but didn't see him. He was no longer on the cliffs. Isabel waited a a bit for him to come up from the water but he never did. She winced at the thought that he didn't make it. Rico had been by her and her family's side nearly everyday for the last two years. He, like most of the guards and palace staff, had become like family themselves. Helping Isa escape from the palace had cost him his life. Isa was on her own now and she couldn't let his death mean nothing. She had to get to a safe place. She used that thought as motivation and pushed off the rock and swam as hard as she could towards the shoreline.
Once across she stayed close to the cliffs. As she came near the harbor the sounds of canon fire from the battling ships was almost unbearable. When she reached the docks, she finally found a safe place to pull herself out of the water. Most of the soldiers who had stormed the city were well inside already and she was able to go unseen. She hurried to an ally way, ducked down behind a barrel and pressed herself up against a wall to rest again. Unlike her sister, she had never been one to enjoy physical activity. She was always much too busy studying, reading, and inventing. This was all much more Elena's speed than hers. On top of everything, she was terrified.
From her hiding spot she could see another enemy ship approach the docks. Soldiers jumped off, wielding swords and ran towards the city, ready to take down anyone who dared oppose them. Isa had to keep moving. She was in the middle of the battle and needed to be as far from it as possible right now. Shuriki had killed her parents 43 years ago and would have killed her and the rest of the royal family too if they hadn't been saved by magic. She had no doubt that she and Elena, being the two heirs to throne, would be targeted once again.
As she made her way from ally way to ally way, She began to gain confidence in her ability to duck and dodge the enemy. She studied their movements. They were positioning themselves throughout the busy streets, establishing their dominance. There were some townsfolk who tried to stand up for their city but from what Isa witnessed, it didn't end well. Avalor's invaders were ruthless and unnecessarily brutal. They showed no mercy.
As a princess, living in a palace, Isa had been sheltered from any violence and crime. The amount of blood being shed was far worse than what she could ever have imagined. It wasn't the blood or gore that bothered her as much as it was the looks on the faces of the dead and dying as well as the looks on the faces of those who had just done the killing. It was tough to watch and not scream or become ill. Yet, Isa did it with little effort. She studied those looks and knew immediately that she could never forget them. In fact, she found it difficult to actually shield herself from it at all. She wanted to watch and she wanted to remember. She felt like she had been fooled her entire life and was angry that everyone had let her think that the world was good when here she was watching innocent people being killed just mere feet away from her without any thought to it at all. For the first time in her life she felt stupid and naive. How had she never realized there was such evil in the world? She realized that Shuriki had killed her parents but she had never actually seen any of it and it wasn't like this. This was relentless. How could any human being take someone's life so effortlessly and for what cause? She couldn't wrap her head around it. "They must be dead inside" She thought to herself.
Isabel was in such a stupor that she didn't notice the two individuals who had entered her current ally from behind her. A hand grabbed her from behind, covering her mouth to keep her from screaming and pulling her down to the ground. Her eyes widened and heart stopped at the sudden impact.
"shhh... it's just us" Whispered Quique. Isa let out an audible sigh of relief as she recognized her friend from school. He was accompanied by their other friend, Amara.
"What are you doing here in the city?!" Amara asked "They're looking for you ya know. I overheard them say that Shuriki wants the princesses found and brought back to her"
"Dead or alive" Quique added morbidly.
Isa didn't know what to say at first. She was still recovering from the surprise of being discovered. Thankful that it hadn't been the soldiers. She stared at the both of them, gathering her thoughts about the events that had unfolded. She hadn't yet had time to even think about what happened, let alone relay the story.
"I jumped from the cliffs" Isa said, as Quique and Amara's jaws dropped. Isa could hardly believe it herself.
"Well we have to get out of here" Amara told her. "Follow us"
Amara grabbed Isa's hand and the trio fled the city together. Amara and Quique knew the city much better than Isa did so they were able to maneuver and avoid the soldiers much quicker than Isa had. Once out of the city, they headed into the mountains, making sure to stay off the roads. They came to a small opening of a cave, barely visible.
"What's this?" Isa asked them.
"It's an old entrance into the Crystal Caverns" Amara explained as she entered the cave first. "It was used before they found a better place to mine"
"Is it safe?" Isabel asked, afraid that she already knew the answer.
Quique shrugged. "Who knows. Do you have any better ideas for somewhere to go right now?"
Isa didn't. She shook her head vigorously and then entered the cave behind her friends.
"What do we now?" Amara said, looking to Isabel. Isa wasn't sure how to react. No one really ever looked to her to lead before. The doubt clearly showed across her facial expression. "You don't have a plan?" Amara asked, surprised that the smartest girl she knew had no idea what she was doing. "Where were you even headed? Do you have anyone to help you?"
"Ummm I don't know" Isa replied. "I guess... I was just trying to get somewhere safe"
"Well no where in Avalor is going to be safe for you." Quique stated very matter of fact. He seemed oddly unfazed by the events of the day and even now was busy exploring the cave and touching the crystals that hung from the walls. Perhaps it was just his personality. His attitude was very devil-may-care. Getting in trouble never fazed him and it seemed he was destined for it. Some crystals on the wall he touched crumbled to the ground.
"Maybe you shouldn't be touching that" Isabel told him nervously. "We uh... wouldn't want the walls to fall in on us" She continued half joking, but really not at all. The cave was really old and was most likely very unstable. The space they were in was small and the ceilings low. If the walls crumbled, they would most likely be crushed or trapped inside.
"We have worse things to worry about right now than some crumbling old crystals" He replied as he nonchalantly leaned up against the wall. As he did, there was a slight rumble that was very foreboding. His eyes widened as he straightened up, he stared at the girls apologetically. Behind him , the wall that he had just been up against crumbled to nothing. The trio just froze in place, waiting for the worse. When the dust settled however, it was obvious that what Quique had been touching was not the original wall to the cave. It had been man made and the true wall sat only a foot behind it. A short pedestal was revealed and the friends gasped when they saw a dagger of sorts sitting atop it. The blade was a green glass like stone that seemed to glow as the dim light from the cave shown upon it. They tentatively made their way over to it.
"Should we touch it?" Amara asked Isabel but it was too late, Quique was already reaching for it and when Amara finished her sentence it was already in his hands.
"Cooool" He said as he waved it around, not even giving a thought as to why the artifact had been hidden in the first place.
"Let Isabel see it!" Amara ordered Quique "I'm sure she can tell us what it is". Quique did what he was told and handed the dagger to the princess. She examined it closely.
"Wow! This is A! MAZING!" She said with delight. "I think the stone is obsidian. It's an igneous rock that forms when molten rock cools rapidly. Usually it's black in color. This green obsidian is incredibly rare. It's only found in a few places in the entire world!"
"Neat!" Amara and Quique said in unison as they looked upon their treasure with awe.
"HEY! Who's in there?!" A voice called from outside the cave, startling Isa, Amara and Quique, bringing them back to reality. The crumbling wall must have given them away. They huddled together for safety and all held their breath, not daring to make any noise. Maybe whoever was outside would just go away.
They were wrong.
One of Shuriki's foot soldiers stepped through the entrance, sword already drawn. He simply laughed when he saw that his opponents were three children. Then his eyes filled with a crazed excitement as he spotted Isa and recognized her at once.
"Princess Isabel..." He started with an evil grin. "Did you know that you are wanted... Alive... or DEAD" He thrust towards her suddenly with his sword. Amara acted quickly and with little thought. She shoved Isabel out of the way, causing her to fall to the ground. She saved Isa's life only to meet her own fate. The sword pierced her left lung. She gasped for air as she fell to her knees. Quique Stared into the petrified eyes of his dying friend. Her mouth was agape, longing to speak her last words but not a sound came soldier laughed at the look of horror on the boys face and raised his sword again. Isa immediately jumped to her feet, dagger still in hand and before the soldier could swing towards Quique, Isa forced the obsidian weapon in the man's back. It was enough to stun him. He paused but before he could recover Isa pulled out the dagger and immediately jammed it back it, the blade was incredibly sharp and sliced through his body's tissues with ease. The young princess had been overly exposed to a tremendous amount of violence in a very short time. Something in her had finally snapped. She screamed out as she lost all control of her senses and repeated the stabbing motion over and over until finally Quique had to pull her off their attacker.
"He's dead! Isabel! He's dead!" Quique repeated until Isabel came out of her manic state. The two friends sat back, side by side and stared wide eyed at the two bloody bodies before them. Both lifeless. One their best friend, the other the man who stole her life.
Isa began to tremble as she came to terms with what she had just done. She looked down at her blood soaked gown and then glanced over at Quique who was also in a state of disbelief. Isa dropped the dagger, causing a loud clanking sound that echoed within the now silent cave. She turned her palms upward to stare at her hands. Hands that were dripping with the red liquid that had only moments ago given life to a fellow human being. Hands that she never imagined to be capable of committing such an act.
"Are you ok?" Quique asked her. Isa could only shake her head no. She couldn't even explain what had just come over her.
"I don't think we can stay here anymore" Quique told her. Isa nodded in agreement but couldn't bring herself to move just yet.
After gaining whatever sort of composure they could conjure, Quique and Isabel cleaned themselves up the best they could. Isa changed out of her royal gown and into the dress that Amara had been wearing. It too had blood on it but wasn't nearly the disaster that Isa's was plus it was more modest than Isa's gown. She then took the dagger and chopped off her long, wavy brown hair that usually flowed down her back. now it came just to her shoulders and was no longer what Quique had called "princessy".
Before leaving the cave, Isa stopped and looked at Quique. "We need to say goodbye" She told him. He said nothing but already understood what she was about to explain. "It'll be safer if we don't travel together. I'm too much of a target right now but if you go back into the village and keep quiet about everything you might have a chance to survive."
"OK" Quique agreed. "Where will you go though?"
"It's probably best if you don't know anything... for the both of us." Isa explained.
"You're right" Quique agreed once again. "Just be careful princess. And keep that dagger close to you. You'll probably need it again at some point"
Isa nodded but the thought of having to use the dagger again made her stomach twist.
The two friends said their goodbyes and tightly embraced each other. They then stepped out of the cave together, and stood holding hands under the moonlit night sky. Isa squeezed her friend's hand, wishing him luck. Quique returned the gesture. Then Isa headed in one direction and Quique in another.