Once Upon a Time
Chapter 5
Alright guys this is the final chapter for today. Things will be more steady once my computer is restored to its former glory.
Enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I own neither this series nor this chapter.
Clary P.O.V
I am happy to discover I am not woken up by a bucket of water, but a gentle pushing on my shoulder. I groan and roll over, away from the insistent pushing. "5 more minutes." I slur drowsily.
I hear a low rumble, like a chuckle. "We have to leave now if we're to get to Idris before sundown." Jace said, abandoning the pushing and instead poking me in the side.
"Ouch!" I shriek as I roll away from him and pull myself to my feet. Closing my eyes, I reach my hands up to the sky and stretch. When my hands go down and my eyes open, Jace is standing very close to me.
He looks down at me, a strange smile gracing his lips.
I frown and try to stand on my tiptoes. "Am I really short, or are you tall? Because I can't seem to figure it out."
His smile widens and he pats my head of red curls. "Alec and I are considered pretty tall-"
"Does this mean when I get to Idris I'm going to be surrounded by giants?"
"But, you are also considered quite small for a girl your age."
"You don't know how old I am."
"Do you?"
I pause and think. I remember snippets of my life before the tower, flashes of soft candlelight, the gleam of light against steel, a woman's smile. Those are my only memories of my real life. I think I was about three when those things disappeared, replaced with the cold of solitude and loneliness with a magic basket as my only friend. If you add that to the 13 years I spent in the prison, then that leads me to think... "Sixteen." I say. "I think I'm sixteen."
Jace nods thoughtfully. "Alec's a year older than me and- Oh, speak of the devil."
I turn around and spot Alec walking through the tree-line, his head low and beaded with sweat. When he looks up and sees Jace and I his eyes widen and a huge grin crosses his face. Then he wiggles his eyebrows. Whatever that's supposed to mean...
"Could you see Idris from that hill?" Asks Jace over the top of my head.
Alec nods. "Yeah, about a half-day hike and we'll be at the gates."
"Well?" I say, gathering up the skirt of my dress and stomping past Jace and Alec and towards the Kingdom in the distance. "What are we waiting for?"
.o.O.o.
I wish there was a way for me to keep my hair off my neck. The sun is high in the sky and, the trees having thinned out greatly, is beating down on us heavily. I'm holding my hair, twirled loose knot on top of my head, with the other hand holding onto my dress as I march on forward. Being barefoot has its disadvantages, such as having to constantly look down to make sure you don't step on sharp rocks and such. It also makes avoiding low branches almost impossible. If it wasn't for Alec, I would most likely be unconscious by this point.
"Heads up." Alec says as he ducks under the branch.
Jace gives him a strange look and I avert my gaze from the ground just in time to duck down, though not as far as Alec had to.
I'm still a good head shorter than both him and Jace. It's a hard life, I think with a small smile, living in a land of giants.
"Since when are you two so close?" Jace whispers to Alec, but not very well. I can hear him perfectly.
"We've come to a sort of agreement," He says, shooting me a knowing grin which I return happily.
Jace, for some reason, doesn't look too thrilled by the idea of us getting along, but he says nothing.
I stub my toe on a rock and stumble a little bit, biting my lip in pain as not to cry out. Without me meaning to, the hand holding the knot of hair in place goes out to stop myself from becoming a little too acquainted with the forest floor and my hair comes tumbling down my back. In moments, it feels like a roast is burning on my neck. I groan and stop to redo the knot.
Jace rolls his eyes. "Just wait a moment." He says as he bends down to pick up a small stick, no bigger than my index finger, and takes a small blade from a pocket somewhere on his person. He begins to sharpen the ends to a point and blows off the wood shavings, before poking it through the knot of hair.
I take my hand away and am surprised to find it stays in place perfectly.
Jace's hand lingers for a moment too long and when he meets my questioning gaze, he looks away and clears his throat. "There." And with that he starts walking back to Alec, who stands a few meters away, hands in pockets and one eyebrow raised at Jace.
Jace avoids his gaze too.
.o.O.o.
When we reached the gate to Idris, which is actually more of a bridge than a gate, Jace had insisted I stayed out of the way until he explained my situation.
I tried to tell Jace that I was perfectly capable of explaining my own situation, but as I said, he insisted.
We had quite a heated argument about it, until Alec intervened and made a deal with me. When he got inside the Idris gates, he would introduce me to his little sister.
I've never met another girl before, so I accepted the deal readily. But now as I wait in a meadow of yellow flowers, watching the boys talk with wide gestures to the impassive man, I am almost regretting the deal. I don't want to sit here like a baby as those two speak on my behalf. Idris may not even accept stray girls that its citizens find, they may be telling the Gatekeeper that I'm their cousins' brother's mistress for all I know.
I pluck a yellow flower from the ground and roll the stem between my fingers. I can see from here that Jace is doing most of the talking, with Alec interjecting a detail whenever he forgets. Good job Alec, I think, keep him honest.
I pull up more and more of the yellow flowers until a huge pile lays in my lap, and I'm not exactly sure what to do with them...
I push my thumb nail through one of the thicker stems, then I push another stem through the slit and smile to myself, this could be fun.
By the time Jace and Alec are done talking to the Gatekeeper, I have three of the flower chains, all about the same length as my arm, laying on the ground beside me.
"Daisy chains? Really?" Jace says skeptically as he nudges one of the 'daisy chains' with the toe of his boot.
I snatch away the chain and insert the ending stem into the starter stem, making a hoop of sorts. Standing up on tiptoes, I rest the daisy crown on his head of golden locks. I then do the same for Alec. "Now you can be Princes of the Fairy Court" I say happily, resting my own daisy crown on my head.
"Kneel before your Queen." I imperiously say, pointing to the ground at my bare feet with my nose in the air.
Releasing stifled chuckles, both Alec and Jace bow down before me.
"Your Majesty," Jace says with a grin. "It would be wise to enter the Kingdom now, rather than wait for the grass to grow."
"There is absolutely nothing wrong with watching the grass grow." I say indignantly. I walk towards the bridge with my nose in the air and a skip in my step. "I've been doing it for 13 years. I should know."
.o.O.o.
"This is unbelievable!" I shriek as I run forward, off the bridge, and onto the honey colored paving stones of Idris. Never have I imagined I would ever see so many people in the one place. For years I've dreamed of escaping my tower, of living an adventure and finally making my way to the town in the distance that seemed an impossible dream, only the object of daydreams.
And now here I am.
People walk to and fro, some hollering their wears, other testing the produce with a scrutinizing eye. I see two children, one on each arm of a woman I assume is their mother, begging for a wooden toy soldier from a stall. I smile at their antics as Alec and Jace come up on either side of me.
"Welcome to Idris." Jace says, leaning down to my ear.
A boy driving a cart steers the horses our way, a boy around the same age as Jace and Alec sits on the cart. He has dark brown curling hair and glasses over dark eyes. He looks nice.
"Simon!" Alec calls out, cupping his hands around his mouth.
The curly haired boy's head shoots to our direction and he smiles when he spots Alec. He pulls up the cart close to us and, after a quick pat to the horse's neck, runs up to us. This close up I can see that he looks considerably thinner and lankier standing beside Alec. But who wouldn't look like a runt next to these two? "Hello Alec," He says, beaming from ear to ear. "Jace." He adds, nodding in Jace's direction.
Jace doesn't reply.
Now the boy, Simon, sees me and his eyes turn curious. "And who would this be?" He asks.
"Simon, this is Clary," Alec says, placing a hand on my shoulder. "She's going to be staying with us for a while."
At this Simon's eyes light up with something I can't quite pinpoint. "Do you need a ride to your house?
Because I'd be happy to oblige."
"That would be very convenient, thank you Simon." Says Alec.
Simon leads us to his cart, pulled by a handsome chestnut mare.
Jace helps my climb into the back of the cart and I almost stumble over a pumpkin. The back of the cart is almost completely filled with fruit and vegetables.
Simon notices me stumble and sends me an apologetic grin. "Sorry, my mother wanted me to bring these to market today."
I sit down beside a sack of apples and Jace comes down beside me.
Alec sits across from us, suddenly very interested in his fingernails. He's acting very odd lately, first the eyebrow spasm and now this. I wonder if we should take him to get checked out?
The cart starts forward with a lurch and I'm flung against Jace's shoulder. "Oh, sorry." I say smiling.
Jace says nothing, but smiles in return. He then reaches across me to grab an apple from the sack. His hair brushes my face and I catch a whiff of a lemony scent, seemingly coming from Jace. He pulls back and takes a bite out of the apple, before silently offering it to me.
I take it from him with two hands and take a bug bite. The crunchy flesh of the apple explodes with a sugary sweetness in my mouth. I must remember to tell Simon and his mother that they're doing an excellent job with the apples.
Ten minutes later, we pull up outside a simple house made from the same light gold stones as the paving work.
Alec jumps down from the cart and so does Jace.
Jace holds a hand out to me to help me down from the cart, but on my way down my foot catches on something and I toppled down into Jace. He lets out a big oomph.
"Oh my goodness! Jace, I'm so sorry, are you-" I stop short of my apologies when I meet his eyes.
His golden irises are burning into mine with an intensity that speaks a thousand words, but it is like they are in a different language and I can't understand them. I wish I could understand you Jace. He clears his throat and helps steady me, all the time my cheeks burning a bright red.
I risk a glance at Alec, who stands waiting patiently in the doorway of the house. His eyebrows seem to be trying to leap of his face.
Yes.
We simply must get him checked out.
I won't make promises about when I will update next because I hate to disappoint you guys. I will try to get one up as soon as I can though!
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ByTheAngel99