Chapter Thirteen

Reasons

"Oh yeah, and you thought that the Secret Garden would be the best place for all this since it's so very secretive." My tone was an evil mock.

"I was thinking about this." She said, and then she ran over to one corner of the garden which gave me an odd sense of déjà vu. I suddenly remembered what it was; this was the place where Loki had proposed me of marriage and had kissed me for the first time in the dead of the night. I had to refuse of course, but now I am wondering if I had maybe accepted and ran away he wouldn't have had the fate which he now had.

Iris however ran over straight to the wall that announced the end of the garden's plot towards this side, and started scaling that wall. I immediately recognized it with more sense of the same déjà vu that this was the very unrepaired wall which Loki had scaled in order to come to the Secret Garden.

"I . . . I can't climb that." I said, dread surrounding me.

"You very well can." Said Iris. I shook my head, and she let out her hand. "Give me your bags."

I handed my satchel, and she immediately tossed it over the other side of the wall with her own two gym bags. She pulled me up (though my weight showed strains in her tendons and muscles) as much as she could, and even I myself tried to get my body to move upwards. Finally we both were on the top of the wall. iris simply jumped down, but for me, it was much more difficult.

"I can't do this either." I felt tears threatening, at the different consequences if I jumped down like Iris.

"Wendy", it was strange that today she had been continuously calling me by my name, but in a way it sounded much better than 'Your Majesty'. "I'm a pure Trylle and I could do this. You are half-Trylle and half-Vittra. Just go ahead and show the Vittra blood in yourself."

Somehow her words gave me a new type of an inspiration and encouragement, and I remembered all those times such as when Kim had critically stabbed my belly, when I had tried to imitate Finn and swing from a vine from my bedroom window and had fallen down a storey instead, when Kyra had made me cough blood, when my debutante ball had led to the glass shard in my waist, when I had managed to decapitate a pure-blooded Vittra with a sword. All those times were the times when I had survived the circumstances and proved that I was physically more than what an ordinary Trylle would have been. I had been a Vittra.

And when I jumped from the top of the wall, it was like I was back to the form when I could call myself a Vittra. I landed on my feet, my hands touching the ground only when my feet couldn't keep the balance. A bone-cracking vibration carried over my spine, pelvis and on the soles of my feet where I landed, but when the sensation had faded, there was nothing but the slight aftermath of the fact that I had jumped from that height.

Beyond this wall of the Secret Garden were just wild jungles and bluffs. Iris collected all our bags and luggage quickly and started running across the forested area. This was the part where shoes were a necessity in order to not slow down your speed. But even though I was in proper running shoes and was not carrying any baggages, I wasn't able to keep pace with Iris.

"Hurry up, Wendy." Called Iris. "Show the Vittra in yourself."

It wasn't possible in the beginning, but then the Vittra in myself started increasingly gaining its strength and soon even with the fetus in my womb, I was running faster than Iris was. Right through the forest, we moved speedily until we were at the foot of a bluff.

I immediately sat down and grabbed my belly, the aftermaths of this exercise causing cramps and draining my energy. Iris dropped the bags on the forest floor as soon as she reached at the foot of the bluffs, and began heaving dramatically.

"You know, you really underestimate your speed and strength." She spoke through her fast breaths.

I smiled at her, and said "Okay, so what is it now? Why are we here?"

"The Vittra. They're waging an attack on us. On you, actually. I mean, look, maybe you think that I'm just this childish kiddo with a big mouth who goes around telling everything to everyone without concern, but then it's not all true. I've got secrets with my own self too. And out of them, is the fact that I've probably talked and found out more from Elora and Loki than you have done. Than you would ever think."

"Hang on, Iris; how do you even know who is Loki?" I asked.

"God, Wendy. You may think that Loki and Elora belong to you because you love them and they love you back. Well, they kind of do. But at this state and stage of their afterlives, they belong – not in your world, but in my world. And as a fact, I have more interactions and conversations with them than I myself ever thought I would. Also, ever since I had connected you to these two people, they – especially Loki – had just kept tagging me in order to stay close to you.

"So, here's the thing. After my debutante ball, Elora had painted two more paintings. One was of your very own palace. On the gates there were probably a million posters saying that Wendy Kroner – former queen of Forening missing. If found, something blah blah blah. I mean, that was all over the black polished gates of the mansion. Those posters of you. Which signifies, that you are missing. Plus there was also a pretty high-classed reward for finding you.

"First Elora and Loki had both assumed something completely else, but then Elora made another painting with her abilities. And this one was of Tove being captured by the Vittra trackers. I mean, I didn't know they were Vittra trackers but Loki confirmed that he recognized one of them, so that's how we came to the conclusion.

"Anyways, it was all very vague, but whatever we could figure out from all these paintings, was that first of all Vittra people would be coming to Forening. We weren't sure which ones exactly, but as far as the paintings told us, there would be Sara and the trackers. And then you would've gone missing. Which first looked to us like a kidnapping. And when we saw Tove getting arrested or captured by the Vittra, we thought that maybe it was because he had been the one behind your capturing or kidnapping, or maybe because he had done something wrong to you and that's why was getting punished for it.

"And when we saw Sara in your room, we assumed that it was since the Forening queen was missing and the king was caught in some dirty work, the people had requested the Vittra queen for some assistance in handling the kingdom. And that's why Sara was there, ruling temporarily and the Vittra trackers had been there to catch hold of some culprit – which ultimately turned out to be Tove – or to track you down.

"However, today when I called up one of my friends from Ondarike and asked if I could come over or something, her reply was that her parents had gone out for some important work and that she wasn't supposed to call anyone in or go out. And well, she also told me that her parents had left early morning along with some royal officials and a whole bunch of trackers. Well, that was told to Loki and Elora, and since then, we made a totally different assumption. Actually, it was Loki who made this theory.

"Today was the day in Elora's precognitive future when Sara and her trackers would be arriving here in Forening. Surely you have till now not yet gone missing, so what could they be coming here for? Point. Maybe for some peace treaty or some other information, but there was no information in advance to us about the Vittra's arrival in Forening. So, in the end, Loki assumed with pure confidence that Sara and her trackers were coming in Forening for some dangerous and warring work.

"It apparently wasn't very warlike since none of Elora's paintings had shown violence or bloodshed. However Loki assumed that Sara and the Vittra trackers were coming here basically to capture and imprison the rulers. Which goes to a major threat upon you and Tove. Tove had been shown been captivated in one of her pictures, and then there is another one where you are said to be missing. Loki said that the Vittra's main goal is to bring down the rulers, so us three – our main goal came to saving the rulers.

"Now, this save-the-rulers plan came up today morning, and that was when I came rushing here, having packed up all my stuff and got you down and out of the palace so that today when the Vittra troops arrive here, they capture Tove but do not get to touch you. And maybe we'll travel up the bluffs to some safe spying spot that has a view of Forening and your mansion, and will stay there. Got the entire thing?"

I nodded. Surely, it was complicated, but then a part of it was clear. "I have a few doubts."

"Okay, I'll try to clarify them as coolly as I can."

"First of all, rulers mean me and Tove. Tove is your blood brother, your only sibling in the world. I am however just your secretive, mood-changing, depressive, weird and horrible sister in law. Why did you choose to save me and not him?"

"Well, Elora's paintings – they are the future, and you can't just escape from it. Also since the future is unchangeable and ultimately at some point everything in the future will have to come according to the paintings, let's not try to go against the paintings. Since Elora's precognition says that you will be considered missing in Forening, to make that true, I have taken you along with me for hiding. Also, since Tove is ultimately going to be caught and captured, I chose not to take him, since no matter how far I travel with Tove, the precognitive future assures me with the fact that Tove will be captured and imprisoned.

"Also, you are half-Trylle half-Vittra, also belonging from a royal lineage. You are supposed to have more power, strength, mortality, abilities and reputation than anyone else here. More than Tove. So, I have the trust and faith in you that you can particularly rebel against whatever evil plans Sara is up to, and defeat them all. Even Elora and Loki think the same about you. That's why we chose you."

Her words made me feel suddenly all too sentimental and teary, as if many people were all dependent on me and my strength. "Thank you." I whispered. "For choosing me. For saving me."

And then I again proved the Vittra inside me by climbing the bluffs so beautifully, without tripping or falling (and with the additional human inside me). Today was probably the only day when I had realized how much Vittra I actually was, and how much I was capable of being one.