I crouched on the branch. It creaked as I shifted my weight. I sighed and fell back against the trunk.
“I hate being on watch.” I was talking to myself again. I took out my dagger. I examined it as I turned it over in my hands. The scratches on the blade made the light dance of in all directions. The handle had a silver eagle carved into it. My dagger is in bad shape, but it has been with me all my life. It somehow reminded me of my parents.
There was growling from a distance. I tucked my dagger back into my belt and peered through the leaves. Something was coming through the bushes. I rested my hand on the hilt of my sword.
The growling was louder. It was definitely wolves, about ten of them. There was something else with them. They looked like prisoners. The wolves had surrounded them and were leading them somewhere. I could probably guess where.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I didn’t know what I was doing. I jumped down from the tree. I landed silently on the ground. I unsheathed my sword and turned towards the wolves.
The wolves paused for a moment, shocked. I took the opportunity and attacked. I killed one of them. They began to circle around me. There prisoners were pushed back into the bushes.
A wolf jumped and I stabbed. The fight went on for about five minutes. The wolves were good fighters but I was better. The last one broke my sword as I killed it. I pulled out my dagger again and span towards the prisoners. I held it to one of their throats.
I blinked and blinked again. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It felt like a dream. I had the sudden urge to pinch myself to see if I was awake.
“You’re human.” He was tall, taller than me, but looked about the same age as me. He had dirty blonde hair and bright blue-green eyes that reminded me of the ocean. I put my dagger down, but I was still wary. He seemed to relax.
“You are too.” I looked at the other one. He was also tall, but with dark hair and dark green eyes with freckles on his nose. He was glaring at me. He looked about fourteen.
“We need to go. We don’t need any more of them showing up.” I nodded towards the body of a wolf. I turned to walk away.
“Why should we come with you? You just killed them. How do we know you aren’t going to kill us?” It was the dark haired one speaking. He was smart not to trust me. I couldn’t say the same about the other one.
“Well, let’s see, I just saved your life from some wolves. If I wanted you dead I wouldn’t have wasted another sword or my time.” I began to walk again.
“They were taking us home. They were trying to help us.” He was really starting to bug me. He obviously didn’t have a clue.
“You have no idea, do you? They were taking you to the Queen. She wants every human dead and since all, but me, is dead, she won’t mind killing you.” I walked away. “You can stay out here if you want. You won’t last long.”
This was when I realised that there was a third. She was small, about nine, and had brown hair with blue eyes. She ran up to me and smiled. The blonde boy followed. The dark haired one hung back. He came to join us after a few seconds. He obviously didn’t want to be left on his own.
I walked on without saying a word. It was getting dark and we needed to get to the cave. I started to walk faster. I heard them stumble behind me.
The forest was getting thinner. We were almost there. The old prophecies were going through my head. Could it really be them? I listened harder at their panting. I remembered that they didn’t look anything special. They didn’t even look related.
I shook my head. I need to concentrate. Were there any descriptions in the prophecies? All I can remember that it was two brothers and a sister. Boran will know. I just need to get them to Boran.

“Boran!” I was at the cave entrance. The lights were off. I was worried. What if the wolves have been here? “Boran?” I reached for my sword then realised it was broken.
The humans were behind me. They looked scared. Boran came to the cave entrance and there was a loud gasp. I was relieved and relaxed slightly.
“What? Have you never seen a centaur before?” I laughed at their faces. They were pale and their mouths were hanging open. “Boran, do you think it’s them?”
He walked around them. “I don’t know, but we better get them inside. Where did you find them?” I walked inside and dumped my broken sword in the corner.
The room we were in was the largest part of the cave. Its roof was rounded but the walls had large rocks jutting out at different angles. A fire burned next to a makeshift counter and a large, flat rock that was used as a table lay in the middle of the room. About five tunnels led off from this room and I knew my way around all of them.
“The wolves had them. Don’t worry, they’re dead. You’d better fill them in. They have no idea about… anything.” I lit the lamp. I saw some eggs on the makeshift counter.
“I was just about to make omelettes. I found them in the woods. There should be enough.” He sat a bit of metal on top of the fire to warm.
“I’ll do it.” I started cracking the eggs. I looked out of the cave. “Are you coming in then?”
They hovered in the doorway. I rolled my eyes. They were scared too easily, but they were fine with the wolves.
“What are your names?” The blonde one stepped forward. They also trust people too easily.
“I’m Peter. This is my brother, David and my sister, Julie. Um… where are we?” He glanced outside and then around the cave.
“You’re just outside the Jinah Woods.” Boran smiled at him. Boran was always friendly to strangers.
“He won’t know where that is. I don’t think they’re from this world. They had no idea who the Queen is and they trusted the wolves pretty fast. They didn’t even know what a centaur is. I think you should explain everything.” I carried on cracking eggs.
I served up the omelettes. I ate mine as I leant against the counter. I wasn’t very sociable and I know that. I’m awkward around new people.
“It would take too long to tell you everything. Well, you are in Algaysa. You’re currently in the company of the last human and a banished centaur. We’re here to wait for you and to take you to Mayak, the High King, to get ready for the war…”
“War?” Julie looked scared. She looked up at her brother and leaned into him. Peter put his arm around her.
“Oh… you don’t know about the prophecies do you? I better start from the beginning…”

“It all started from when King Tinah ruled. He was a fawn and I think that was the first problem. It’s not like I have anything against fawns. It’s just that Algaysa has only been peaceful when humans rule. He wasn’t a bad king. He cared for his people and made sure everyone had enough food. He ignored the people of the south though, all the hags and the werewolves and all the other creatures that would give you nightmares. The Queen realised this weakness and gathered the people of the south and convinced them to rebel. King Tinah never expected this. He was never good at battle plans. The Queen invaded and King Tinah lost…”
“What has this got to do with preparing for a war?” I scowled at David. “I mean all this is just stories. There isn’t anywhere called Algaysa. I should know I’m in top Geography.” He looked proud at this. I snorted.
“Whatever top geography is, no one here will care about it. This is real and you could die here.” I collected in the plates and shoved them into a bucket of water. I think one of them did smash.
“Redilana.” I winced at my name. “Don’t be rude to our guests. I’m sorry about Redilana. She can be very unreasonable, sometimes.”
“I’ve told you a million times to call me Red,” I muttered under my breath. I kicked the floor and looked towards the door.
“I’ll carry on then. King Tinah lost and the Queen took over. Mayak was gone and we had no help. We, the Algaysians, were forced into hiding after the human race was wiped out. Before Mayak left, he told us a prophecy. The prophecy was that two brothers and a sister would come from a land called England. He said that when this happened, he would come back and form an army. The three humans will win the war and we will all be free…”
“… and you think that we’re the humans that will do that? I’m sorry, but it can’t be us. We need to get back, anyway. Our family will be worried…” I was suddenly angry at Peter.
“So you’re just going to abandon us? I knew it. I’m going to die in this war. I was born into this war, I live in this war and now I’m going to die in it.” I wanted to hit something. I restrained myself from strangling someone.
“You’ve got to understand. Our family…” His eyes were pleading.
“I can’t understand.” I walked out of the cave. I climbed the first hill I could find. I got half way up and found a ledge. I sat down there and looked up at the sky. My fists were clenched and my eyes hurt. It was already dark and the stars were out. I laid back and closed my eyes.
“Every person has their own star.” Boran’s voice drifted into my head as I drifted into sleep. “I’ve seen yours.” It was an old story. I haven’t heard it in years, but it suddenly came into my head. “You were born, just after sunset. A light appeared above us and it got brighter as it got closer. It came down and stood next to your mother. Your star represents who you are. Yours is a lion. It watched you for a while, and then it bent down and touched you with its nose. It then turned to leave. It paused. I then saw something that I have never seen before. I saw a star speak. It said that you were destined for greatness, that you would meet Mayak himself. It then left. That star will watch over you for the rest of your life, no matter where you go…”

“Redilana?” I jumped awake. “I’m sorry to wake you. Boran was worried…” Peter looked down at me. I could only see his outline against the sky.
“My name is Red.” I sat up and wiped the sleep out of my eyes.
“Oh. It suits you because of your hair… I should shut up, shouldn’t I?” I laughed. He sat down next to me. He was way to close. I shifted away from him.
“How long have I been asleep?” I stretched. “It feels like hours.”
“It’s only been an hour.” He looked up and gasped. “You can see entire galaxies. That’s amazing.”
“Why wouldn’t you be able to see them?” I frowned at him. The stars were reflected in his eyes as he scanned the sky.
“Well, where I come from you can’t see that many. It’s so different here…” He trailed off. He looked distracted. I didn’t ask. I’m not that nosey. “How can I be a leader into war? I mean, I’m just Peter. I’m not that special. I’m not a soldier. I’m just Peter.”
“If you saw me, where you come from, would you notice me? Would you think I could handle a sword or that the only thing I’m useful for is childbirth?” He looked at me and frowned. He started to speak. I held up my hand and he closed his mouth. “Don’t think that it matters where you come from or who you are. Something amazing can come from something not that special. That was what I was born for. Boran told me that they had raised me to carry children to carry on my race. It didn’t exactly work like that, did it?”
We sat in silence. It felt quite awkward. I could tell he was watching me. I shifted in my seat and I wanted to go back to the cave.
“I’ll train you. I’ll teach you how to fight. I’m pretty good with the broadsword and Boran’s amazing with a bow and arrow. We can train you on the way.”
He stared at me for a second. He didn’t look confident in what he was deciding. He sighed. “I guess we don’t have a choice. We don’t know how to get back. I guess we can go with you.” I rolled my eyes. “Look, I’m sorry about your parents. I guess that they died when the rest of the humans did. I didn’t know. I was stupid.”
“I don’t want or need your sympathy.” My voice was monotone. I could barely remember my parents never mind be upset about them.
“I know. I just feel horrible for saying that. You must be really upset.” My fists clenched, again. I closed my eyes.
“Look. I don’t need your sympathy.” I got up. I tried to leave. I was starting to get really angry and I needed time to myself.
“No. Wait. I just… I… I’m sorry.” He looked up at me. I was shaking and I felt flushed.
“Just leave it, Peter.” I turned to go. I looked back over my shoulder and glared at him. He looked confused and pale. “I wouldn’t stay out late. The Queens people might come along and I am not saving you again.” I walked away.

I was dreaming of my mother. Just her voice, but still it was my mother. I tossed in my sleep.
“Red. It’s time to get up.” There was a bright white light and her face. She has the same green eyes as me. I must have got my hair off my dad, but I doubted it. I’ve never seen anyone else with red hair. She smiled. “Your friends are waiting. “
Someone tugged on my blanket. I held on tight. They tugged again, harder. I pulled back and fell off the straw matrass. I sprawled on the floor and opened my eyes. Julie was giggling at me. I got up and strapped a new sword to my belt.
“The horsey-man says we need to leave.” I nodded. I headed towards the cave entrance. It was dark and I heard Julie stumble behind me. I took her hand and led her out. It felt strange to me.
Boran and Peter were standing near the table. They both looked up as I walked in. I dropped Julie’s hand and picked up an apple. It was slightly soft, but still edible. I took a bite and let the juice fill my mouth.
“It’s not like you to sleep in.” Boran looked worried. I shrugged. “Can you get the rest of the swords? They’re in the back.” I went to get them.
“Um… Boran? Where are the rest of them?” I picked up the three swords from the corner.
They should be all in there.” I walked back into the entrance. “Oh dear.”
“I don’t think there’s any point going. We haven’t received weapons in months. We haven’t received any decent ones in about a year. We need to face the truth. They are either dead or they’ve realised we have no hope in that stupid prophecy.” I threw the rest of the apple over my shoulder. It landed near the entrance of the cave.
“I’ve told you a million times not to leave your rubbish lying around. There will be a good reason and you know that. Pack them up we need to go.” Peter hadn’t said anything. He wouldn’t even look at me. David had walked in and started to eat any food he could find.
“This place is massive. How did you find it?” His eyes were wide as he chewed on his mouthful. Drool was pouring down his chin. He wiped it away with the back of his hand and I grimaced at him. He was really disgusting.
“When we were sent here we just lived in the woods. We stayed in a different place every night. We were almost caught so we were chased out of the woods. This was the first place we found. Since then we’ve been taking shifts in the woods.” Boran smiled at David.
“Why were you taking shifts in the forest? Wait. You were waiting for us?” He started chewing with his mouth open.
“How long have you been here?” Peter was finally talking.
“Seven years.” He looked at me. I don’t know what emotion I was showing but he kept staring. I stared back. “We should go. We’ve stayed here too long.” I strapped the luggage to Boran’s back.
“The quickest way is to go over the Huki Moors. It could be dangerous.” I pushed my hair out of my face.
“No. We don’t need to hurry. They need training. Also it’s full of ogres and hags. We don’t want to run into them any time soon. I say we go back into Jinah Woods, but stay on the outskirts. We don’t want to be seen by anyone yet. Then, we can go across the Slimer River. After that we have a direct line to Quinte Point. We stay in the woods the whole way.” I tied the rest of the luggage on my back.
“That will take months, but your right. It’s the best route. We should go.” I made sure the packages were secure.
We set off back into the woods. The sun was already high in the sky. I was glad when we got into the shelter of the trees. The air was denser and the light was a peaceful green colour from the leaves.
We walked for hours. I got impatient because of all the stops. These humans were really unfit. They started panting when we walked even slightly quicker. They really needed some training.
When it started to get dark, we set up camp in a clearing. I set up a fire and Boran started cooking. We ate in silence. When I was done I grabbed some sticks from the firewood pile. I threw one to Peter and one to David. They looked confused.
“Training.”

Boran was teaching Julie how to use a bow and arrow. We could see them but not hear them. David was complaining because he couldn’t use a real sword.
“If you think I’m going to trust you with one of those, then you are mad. Keep your knees bent and elbows in.” I demonstrated how they should stand.
I put them against each other and started yelling out orders. “Watch your footwork… use smaller movements… keep concentrating…” David was slightly better than Peter but they were both useless. David pinned Peter and turned to show off. “One more thing…” Peter tripped him up. ” … never turn your back on your enemy.” They went at it for another hour. They didn’t get much better.
I sighed and sat down. They were shattered, but they were grinning like mad.
“That was pretty good.” Peter looked impressed with himself. I snorted. His smile faltered. David’s face dropped.
“That was pathetic, really. You need more training than I thought.” David scowled at me. “If you were in a real battle you would have died in less than a minute.”
“I bet I could take you on. You’re only a girl,” David mumbled. I glared at him and then laughed. This was going to be fun.
“Okay then.” I picked up a stick. “Bring it on.” I pointed it at his chest. “Or are you too scared that you will be beaten by a girl?”
He grinded his teeth and raised his stick and I attacked. He was rubbish at defence. I had him pinned in less than a minute. I gave him another chance and backed off. He got up and attacked me. I blocked. I twisted, and had him pinned again.
“You rely too much on power and you have no skill. That’s you dead twice over.” I threw my stick on the fire and lay down. David started to grumble again. I was laughing in my head at him. I’m sure my face showed my amusement.
Boran and Julie came over. They were smiling. I guessed that the training had gone well.
“You look like you’ve been having fun.” Julie sat next to Peter and Boran next to me.
“She’s a natural. She’s almost as good as a dwarf. How did your training go?” He was looking at David and Peter.
“David got beaten by Red.” He was grinning again. “I think it was time for him to get a good beating but I never expected it from a g… from Red.”
“Let me guess. You thought that you were better than Red because she was a girl.” He laughed kindly. Boran was the only person I knew that could laugh someone and they not take offence. “She was trained by one of the best. I’ve never seen anyone fight as well as her.” They stared at me. I shifted my weight. I didn’t like much attention, but I was a bit of a show-off sometimes.
“She did kill all of those wolves… Who was your trainer?” Julie stared up at me as if I was her idol.
“He was called Torbin. He died seven years ago.” Boran patted me on the shoulder. No one said anything for a while.
“Who wants to hear a story?” I liked this idea. I didn’t really want to talk about Torbin. Everyone sat and listened to Boran. I stared into the flames of the fire and let the warmth flow through my body. I love the sound of fire. It soon made me drowsy and I gradually fell asleep.

I woke up early in the morning. Boran had been on watch all night. I went to stand next to him.
“You should have waked me.” I felt bad that he had stood watch all night.
“There was no need. I was fine standing guard. You needed sleep.” He looked tired and smiled weakly.
“I think I had enough sleep the other night. You should get some sleep. It will be a while until we can travel.” The sun wasn’t going to rise for hours. He shook his head. “Boran. Stop trying to look after everyone else. You’ll make yourself sick.”
After a couple minutes of persuasion, he went to lie next to David. I leaned against the nearest tree. The fire was out and it was quite chilly. The grass was wet with dew. I jumped as Peter came up behind me. For someone very clumsy, he did walk silently.
“What was the thing you said last night… keep concentration. Don’t let your guard down.” He mimicked my voice.
“If that’s meant to be me then you are pretty bad at impersonations.” He laughed.
“Ok. You try and do me.” I raised my eyebrows. He folded his arms and leaned against a tree. He was starting to look really smug.
I put on a whingey voice. “You’ve got to understand… our family… I’ll miss my mommy and I can’t be a soldier… I’m just little bitty Peter…”
“I never said that!” I laughed at his face. He didn’t look like he knew whether to laugh or cry.
“You know I’m just kidding.” He pushed me. I put him in a headlock. He tickled me in the stomach and I slipped over on the wet grass and pulled him down with me. We laughed as we rolled around on the floor. “I haven’t laughed like this in ages.”
“What are you doing?” We looked up and saw David, smirking at us.
“We’re not doing anything.” Peter helped me up. “You’ve got mud all down your back.”
“Ugh.” I wiped myself down with a cloth. The mud didn’t budge. “We should go soon.”
“Can’t we have a break, today? I’m aching all over from training.” David stretched his muscles and winced.
“No. You better toughen up. We’ve got a long way to go.” I shoved luggage towards them. “Julie. Please could you go and wake up Boran. We are carrying the luggage today. You need to get stronger. Armour can be twice your body weight.” David grunted.
“I hate these woods.” He tied his package to his back. Boran walked over to us. He still looked really tired.
We set off. Boran carried Julie on his back. Peter walked next to me and David was lagging behind. He was struggling with his load.
“Julie seems to really like Boran.” Peter was staring off into the distance.
“You trust people too easily, sometimes the wrong people. That’s one thing I can never understand. You trust wolves when you claim that you’ve never seen talking animals before. Then you don’t trust me when I save your life, but now you trust us fine. It makes no sense.” He was looking at me funny.
“I don’t know, really. I don’t think David trusts any of you. Julie is the one that is a good judge of character. The thing that confuses me is how you don’t seem to trust anyone.”
“If you had lived in this war all your life than you wouldn’t trust anyone. I’ve had people who I thought was trustworthy and they’ve tried to kill me. It’s kind of hard to trust a person after that has happened to you.” Peter didn’t say anything. I could hear Julie laugh behind us.
“The woods are really quiet. It’s strange. Where are the birds?” He was looking up at the tops of the trees.
“They are either in hiding or spying for the Queen. You won’t see many.” We travelled for the rest of the day. Peter and I talked through most of it. We still had to stop a lot. We came to another clearing. It was much larger with a lake in the middle. The sun was setting and the sky was pink over the horizon. There were heavy grey clouds over in the south and they were heading toward us.
“We’ll sleep under the trees. That way we might not get that wet.”

Boran was wrong. We got soaked to the skin. It was too wet to light a fire. It was pitch black. With the clouds there was no light from the stars. Julie kept jumping at the lightning. David was grumpier than ever. I was worried about the swords rusting and Boran was worried about everyone’s health.
“We should find more shelter. We’ll catch pneumonia.” He was pacing around us in a circle.
“You’re making me dizzy. Sit down. If we go back into the forest we’ll meet all types of creatures hiding from the rain. It’s safer to stay here.” He sat down and grumbled. I raised my eyebrows at him. Boran was never one to complain.
Julie was shaking. She huddled up to Boran. Centaurs have always been warmer than other animals. I hugged my knees. My hair stuck to my face and looked more brown than red. David was dripping and sitting in a puddle. The floor was getting increasingly muddy. Our clothes were already stained.
“No offence, Red, but you look awful.” Peter smiled at me and then regretted it because water poured into his mouth. He spat it out.
“I’ve been through worse. Anyway, you should be happy. There’s no training tonight.”
“Yes, but I know you will make us do extra tomorrow. My muscles are still hurting from walking all day and carry those packages.” David grunted in agreement. “The rain looks like it’s going to stop soon.” He was right. It wasn’t raining as heavy now.
It took another hour for the rain to completely stop. It was hard to get any sleep on the wet floor. I ended up standing guard until Boran took over a few hours later. He looked better after a rest.
I got hardly any sleep. When I woke up it was after sunrise. I stretched walked over to the water’s edge. I splashed my face. I turned around to look where everyone else had gone.
“Where’s Boran?” He and Julie were missing. I assumed they would be together. I think Julie quite liked Boran, now she wasn’t scared of him.
“He’s gone to get supplies. Julie has gone swimming.” He started packing up the luggage again.
“What? She’s in the lake?” I scanned the water for her. I couldn’t see her anywhere.
“Yes. What’s so wrong with that?” I dropped my sword and dived into the water. I couldn’t see her. I kept swimming, only going to the surface for air.
Then they appeared. Their pointed faces were scowling. They tried to grab hold of me and tore at my clothing. I dodged out of reach. I was slower in water than on land, but I could still travel fast. They grabbed hold of my foot and pulled me down. I kicked them off.
Where was she? I swam through them. Their fingers scratched at me as they tried to grab hold of me. Their skin was the same colour as the water and it was hard to tell if I was swimming into them or not. Then I saw her. She was tangled in the weeds with them still attacking her. She looked as pale as a ghost and her eyes were closed. The water around her was starting to turn red. I swam towards her. They fought harder. I could feel them scratching my skin. My arms were now covered in cuts and so were my legs. They were all around me.
I finally got to her and grabbed hold of her. She was freezing cold. I tried to pull her up but she was stuck. I ripped at the weeds. She was soon free. I swam up with her. My lungs were fighting for air.
They were still clawing at me. I was almost at the surface. Just a bit further and I would be there. I pushed Julie up, before me. If I died Peter would be able to see her. Boran might already be back and he would get her.
My chest felt like it was going to burst. My vision was blurred. My muscles were failing me. I pushed my legs harder. I was almost there. Then I came to the surface. I gasped for breath. I hugged Julie to me. They were coming to the surface. I had to get to land.
I kept swimming. My breathing was uneven and I was coughing up water. I could hear them behind me, getting closer. I was soon able to touch the bottom. Someone was running towards me. They dragged me out of the water. I spluttered and I was consumed in darkness.
…
“Julie?” I gasped. My throat was scratchy and every breath I took hurt.
“She’s fine. She’s just unconscious. What are those things?” It was Peter. He looked worried.
“Water Pixies. They don’t like anything going into their territories. They’re fine with taking a drink, not with having a swim. I better go and talk to them.” They were glaring at us from the water.
“Shouldn’t you rest?” Peter was holding onto my arm. I pulled away and crawled towards the water’s edge. I didn’t have enough energy to do much else.
I apologised to them. I agreed with them not to use their water. They didn’t apologise at all. I walked away after an hour of negotiating.
“You can speak their language? It sounded like a load of gurgling to me.” Peter looked impressed.
“I can speak most languages. Troll is probably the easiest. Julie. Promise me something. Don’t go swimming.” She nodded. She was shaking and David wrapped her in a blanket.
My legs went wobbly. Peter caught me as I fell over.
“I really think you need to rest.” My throat was getting drier. It hurt to speak. I shook my head. “Lie down.” I rolled my eyes at him and sat on the ground.

We didn’t do anything for the rest of the day. Boran and Peter wouldn’t let me get up. I got so bored.
“Look I’m fine. I can talk now.” They just ignored me. They wouldn’t even do any training. “I can sit and watch. You need practice.”
“You need to get some sleep. We’ll sort everything out.” I didn’t say anything for the rest of the day. I just glared at them. At about tea time they found a problem.
“We need water. How are we going to get it?” David looked at me. “I’m not taking my chances with those water people things.” I folded my arms and smirked from my seat.
“I’m going to get some sleep. You’re right. I am tired and you can sort everything out.” I turned my back to them and lay down. I didn’t get much sleep. My throat was still itchy but my muscles felt fine. After a while, David came over to me.
“Red. Can you get us some water? I know you said you were tired, but we’re desperate.” He was begging. I sat up, looking smug for a while, but sighed and shook my head.
“I can’t. If we had done some travelling, we might have found another place with water, but since we stayed here and there is no chance that it is going to rain again. If we can get over to the other side of the lake by nightfall then maybe we can get some, but it will take a day to go around it.” I bit my lip as I scanned the lake. “Wait. There’s a stream up there. It will take us in the wrong direction, but it will give us water.” Peter walked over.
“What are you talking about?” He sat down. He looked suspicious. I stretched my muscles.
“We need to get to that stream. It’s the only place that we can get water since we annoyed the water things.” Peter frowned. He obviously didn’t agree with this.
“Red needs rest.” He looked at me. I sucked air through my teeth and tried not to get angry with him.
“Peter I’m fine. We need water. I don’t care what you’re doing I’m going to go to that stream.” I got up. “We’ve already wasted most of the day.” He sighed and knew that it was no use.
I walked along the edge of the lake. I could hear them following me. It only took an hour to get to the stream. We filled up our water skins and got washed.
“We’re doing some training. Get up.” I tapped David with my foot. He was eager to start. Peter still looked worried. “No matter what you say, I don’t need any more rest. Okay, today is about defending. It’s the most important part of swordsmanship. You won’t survive without it.”
“I always thought that having a sword is the most important part.” David was complaining again.
“Stop trying to be clever. I’ll teach you how to block basic attacks, then tomorrow I’ll show you how to use those blocks to get you into a good attacking position. Peter, you go first. This is the basic defending pose. When I attack like this…” I attacked downward towards his head and stopped just before hitting him. “… You bring your arm up and block it, like this.” I made an upwards motion. “Keep it at a right angle to mine, otherwise, when you use a sword it will slip away. That’s it.” It went on like this for two hours. I took turns between them. David got too excited and almost broke his wrist.
“That’ll do for the day. Julie and I finished half an hour ago.” Boran was watching from next to a fire.
We ate a lot. Boran told us some more stories. We were soon falling asleep. Although Peter stayed wide awake. He was sitting up and listening to Boran as if he was teaching him the meaning of life.
I couldn’t help but look at him. His eyes reflected the fires light. His lashes were long and black. There were a few light freckles over his nose and forehead. His hair hung into his eyes. He kept flicking it out the way.
“You talk as if you were there, but this must have been hundreds of years ago.” He looked confused. His forehead wrinkled and he looked almost funny.
“Centaurs are born with their parents memories. We can remember back to the beginning of Algaysa.” He was staring off into the distance.
“Wow. That would be really cool.” Peter looked seriously interested. I wasn’t much because it was part of my way of life. It’s a fact that everyone knows. I closed my eyes.
“I wouldn’t like it. It makes you remember all the stuff you don’t want to.” I was thinking about my parents. I don’t remember anything from my childhood. I kept thinking that I would be a lot different if I could.
I could tell they were still talking, but I was already drifting into sleep.

When I woke up, I was strangely happy. The sun was just over the horizon and I wanted to get started.
I jumped up. I filled up everyone’s water skins and packed everything back up into packages. When everything was sorted I shook them awake.
“We’re starting early, today. Get up.” I grinned as groaned and started moving.
“I’m bruised all over. I really hate sleeping on the floor and do we have carry all those packages. My muscles hurt.” David would usually get on my nerves, but I was so happy I didn’t care that he was moaning.
“Shut up David. You hate everything apart from food.” Peter pretended to punch him in the stomach then messed up his hair.
“Get off me.” He ducked out the way, lost his balance and fell into the stream.
We all burst out laughing. He was really in a mood, but we couldn’t help teasing him.
“You look like you’ve wet yourself.” Julie had just woken up. She yawned and helped David up.
As we walked, Peter told me about England. It sounded amazing except there were only humans and animals. The animals didn’t even talk. There was also something called electricity that powered electronic things. He was trying to explain what a TV was.
“It is like a box with a screen on the front. On the screen is kind of like… a moving picture.” He was trying to gesture it with his hands.
“This moving picture is powered by that electricity stuff?” It sounded strange. I couldn’t quite picture it.
“Yes. Do you understand it now?” He looked pleased with himself.
“Yeah, but I don’t see the point in it. What is it for?” It sounded completely pointless to me.
“It’s entertainment. You watch it.” It sounded boring.
“You just sit there and watch a picture. No wonder you’re really unfit.” I just couldn’t see the attraction to it.
“Are you saying I’m fat?” He looked offended, but I could tell he was joking.
“No. I’m saying you are extremely lazy.” I grinned.
“Oh, that’s it.” He tried to grab me and I dodged. He laughed and started chasing me. I climbed the nearest tree. He stood at the bottom and tried to grab my foot. “That’s not fair. I’m not that fast.”
“I’ll just have to come down there and kick your butt.” I jumped down and tackled him.
“Why do I keep finding you on the floor?” David was standing above us. He still looked annoyed at us.
“Why are you lying on the floor?” Peter grinned at him.
“I’m not… argh.” Peter tripped him up. I giggled. Since when do I giggle?
“You kids done messing around? We do have Mayak to see or do you guys need a break?” Boran was laughing. I sat up.
“I’m not a kid. Peter was just telling me about England. They have TV’s.” He frowned at me. I got up. “I think it is time for a break. Tell us more about England.”
“What do you want to know?” He was picking at the grass.
“What do you live in? Why do you where those funny clothes? You have really funny names, too. How many humans are there..?”
“Whoa. Ask one question at a time. I don’t see why you’re so interested. Algaysa is much more interesting.” He looked up at the trees.
“Well you get to come here. I’m never going to see where you live and it is really interesting.” He started to explain more about England. It got more complicated as he talked. We set off after a couple of minutes.
Peter walked ahead with Boran and David. Julie was walking next to me. She didn’t say anything for a while.
“He likes you.” I looked at her and shook my head.
“What are you talking about? He’s just… a friend. He’s not even a friend. I barely know him.” I really liked Peter.
“Don’t lie to me Red. He’s been flirting with you.” She was smiling.
“What is flirting? It sounds disgusting.” She looked amazed at the fact I didn’t know what flirting was.
“You’re more innocent than me and I’m only nine. When two people like each other they flirt. It’s a way to tell that they want to date. You really have no clue, do you?” She looked patronising. He words confused me more than anything.
“I haven’t seen another human in seven years. I don’t remember anyone my own age. Anyway, it’s not like that. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I walked faster.

I couldn’t get Julie’s words out of my head. I couldn’t look at Peter anymore and even if I did I couldn’t meet his eyes. He always seems to be looking my way and smiling.
He can’t like me. He barely knows me and well I’m not much. Do I like him back? Well, he doesn’t like me anyway, so what is there to worry about?
“Red? Where are you going?” I turned back. They were setting up a fire. I had walked right past them.
“I’m… um… it doesn’t matter.” I could see the glee on Julie’s face.
I sat down and rested my head in my hands. It felt like there was a little guy hitting me in the head with his hammer.
“Are you ok, Red?” I didn’t look up. Peter was the last person I wanted to talk to, right now.
“I just got a headache,” I murmured. Everything they did seemed to make double the noise that it would normally. I closed my eyes. It didn’t help much. Someone patted me on my shoulder. When I didn’t respond they soon walked away.
We ate in silence. Well I did. They were murmuring to each other. I didn’t have much of an appetite. I pushed my food around on my plate. In the end I just chucked it away.
“We need to do some more training.” I got up as I rubbed my head. “What were we up to?” I looked at David.
“You said something about turning defence into a position to attack.” Peter was watching me still. His eyes seemed to look right through me.
“Did I? I think we’ll just practice some more defence. You aren’t ready to move on yet.” I pushed my hair out of my face.
“You look stressed, are you okay?” Boran looked worried.
“I… I’m fine. You should practice with Julie. Um… you can… just practice with each other today. I’ll just watch…” I leaned against the nearest tree. I had a sudden urge to get out of there. I didn’t want to watch Peter. I focused just on the swords.
My thoughts kept drifting. I couldn’t help glancing at his hand. My glances got longer. I then started to look at his arm, then up to his shoulder, his neck and finally his face. My eyes were stuck.
He was panting. His lips were slightly open. I shook my head and looked back to the swords.
“Stop thinking about him,” I whispered to myself.
“Red. You’re not watching.” David and Peter were stood staring at me. They looked confused.
“Um… that’ll do for today.” I went to sit by the fire.
“We just started.” David looked like he was going to go into a sulk. I just threw more wood on the fire. He sat down opposite me.
Boran and Julie were still practising. I watched them. Julie was really good. She hardly ever missed her target.
“Red. We’ve been patient with you. You were fine this morning. What’s up with you?” Peter had his arms folded. He was annoyed. I got up. I didn’t know what to say.
“I… I’ve got to go.” I walked further into the forest. I combed my fingers through my hair.
“Where? When will you be back?” Peter was yelling after me. I paused.
“I don’t know. If I’m not back by morning… just go on without me.” I needed to get out of there. I needed to think.
It was soon dark without the light of the fire. I wasn’t scared. I’ve lived in these woods for as long as I could remember. I started to talk to myself. I did that a lot when I was alone.
“Pull yourself together. What happened to you not caring about anyone? You used to be tough. You’ve gone all soft. A little girl says someone likes you and you end up like this. Get over yourself. There’s a war on.” I kept walking. “You don’t like him. You just need to do the job and get them to Mayak. Then you can forget all about this.”
There was a rustling in the bushes. I froze. I pulled out my sword. The rustling stopped. I stepped forward.
There was a noise behind me. Before, I had the chance to turn around, there was a bigger pain in the back of my head and I went back into the darkness.

My head was hurting ten times worse than before. I was slumped against a tree. I couldn’t move. I moaned. I heard footsteps. I didn’t make another noise. There was a low grumbling. It was almost like growling. It was minotaurs. I kept my breathing even and hoped they didn’t hear me.
“Is she one of them? Is she one of them from the prophecies?” The voice was so low I could barely hear it.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen a human in years. She looks too old, about sixteen. They said the girl was going to be nine and the boys were meant to be sixteen and fourteen.” There was a murmur of agreement. There were a lot of them.
“We should take her to the Queen.” They were silent. “That’s what she said to do if we ever found a human.”
“We need to find information first. I say we wait till she wakes up. Then we can question her.” They seemed to like this idea. I knew it wasn’t going to be a simple question and answer.
“What happened when you found her?” They all sounded interested. I listened harder to try and hear how close they were.
“She was just walking. She was talking to herself. Something about a job needed to be done. Take them to Mayak. That’s what she said. Then she pulled out her sword and I hit her over the head.” There was more murmuring and grumbling.
“How did she get a sword?” I squinted through my eyelashes. There were about twenty of them, sitting in a circle. They were massive and snorted with every breath. Their black hair made it hard for me to see them.
“I don’t know, do I? I just found her in the woods.” They were all looking away from me. If I could get to my dagger without them noticing me, I could get away. I felt the back of my belt. I closed my eyes again and tried to stay slumped down. I felt along my belt, and then checked again. They’d taken my weapons off me. Well, they aren’t stupid.
“Maybe we shouldn’t take her to the Queen at all.” This shut them all up. I froze. “I mean, we haven’t chosen a side have we. We are kind of like her enemies. I don’t think that she’ll be happy with our company.”
“We haven’t gone against her.” I squinted through my lashes, again, to find my weapons or even a sharp rock. My dagger was a foot away from me. I would probably be able to reach it with my foot but that could attract attention.
“We haven’t exactly joined her either. I mean we’re in hiding, but from which side? I don’t think that she would be happy with us. Look what she did to Kiyti the beaver.” No one talked for a while. I began to wonder how long I was knocked out. Boran was used to me being missing for a couple of days, but what if they kill me? He would come looking for me.
“She’s moving.” I realised that I was shaking at the thought of Boran facing twenty minotaurs. There was a clatter and I was surrounded. I opened my eyes slowly. I just stared at them.
“Are you okay?” One was bending down beside me. He looked worried. Was it a trick? I didn’t say anything. I could tell my face was blank. Well I hoped it was.
“What are you doing here?” It was the biggest minotaur I had ever seen.
“Maybe the question is what are you doing here?” I was relieved when my voice didn’t fail me.
“You’re not in a place to ask questions.” I put my head to the side. Lying is all about the body language.
“Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not.” I racked my brains for the next thing I should say. He bent down so low I could smell his breath. I didn’t even flinch.
“Wait. I know her.” My head turned so quick that it almost hurt. I didn’t recognise him. “I think she’s a spy. She hangs around these woods. I recognise her eyes. You can sometimes see her in the trees.” This is bad.
“Yes, but a spy for which side? I could be a friend or your worst nightmare.” Confusing them is the only way I’m going to get out of here alive. The minotaurs looked at each other.
“I still think that we should take her to the queen. Then we’ll find out which side she’s on.” I could see them considering this. I cursed in my head.
“That’s very clever. You have a fifty-fifty chance of living, maybe less.” They looked confused. “I heard you. You’re not sure what side you are on. If I’m a traitor then you could be rewarded, but you haven’t exactly been faithful to her. If I am a spy for her then you will be wasting her time and she really doesn’t like her time being wasted.” Wow. I wasn’t even lying and I was getting out of this. I didn’t have to say anything else after that.
“We should kill her. Then we don’t have a problem.” They began to argue.
“No that means that we are declaring against one of the sides and we don’t even know which one.”
“She’s a human. Why would the Queen keep her alive?”
“That’s why she would be such a good spy for the Queen. She can see who would help her and who wouldn’t.”
I did want to sit and watch what I had started, but I had to get out of there. They weren’t looking at me now. One of them had kicked the dagger towards me. I moved it with my leg up to my hand and started cutting the ropes. After a minute I was free. I slipped into the bushes. I spotted my sword and grabbed it. They didn’t even notice me taking some supplies.

It took me a while to find them, again. I went back to the lake. I didn’t find anything. I followed the route we had planned. I found a lot of food wastage after the first day of travelling. They had stayed there for a long time and have started being reckless. I didn’t sleep at night. I kept travelling to catch up with them. On the second day I found some tracks. They were definitely human ones. At least I knew I was going the right way. I didn’t find anything on the third day. I was getting really tired. I found them on the fourth day.
I was barely staying on my feet when I heard voices. I paused to listen. It was definitely them. They were laughing.
“It’s nice to find that I was missed,” I said, sarcastically. They were staring at me. I smiled. Julie ran at me. Her arms were wrapped around me before I had time to protest. I stood there frozen and then patted her lightly on her shoulder. I wasn’t used to hugs. Boran was laughing again.
“It’s good to see you.” Peter looked as good as ever. It all came back to me. I’ve ran away once. It’s time to get over it. Nothing has to happen.
“Yes. Good to see you too. You didn’t get very far did you? I caught up in about four days.” They stared at me.
“What are you talking about? It’s been six days and you were ahead of us. What have you been doing?” Boran looked worried now.
“Um… I kind of got caught up with some minotaurs.” I bit my lip. I knew he wouldn’t be too impressed.
“What?” Boran was angry. He always was when I get into a fight. “You picking a fight with every single thing can get us in major trouble. You need to control your anger.”
“You always do this without hearing my side of the story. I didn’t pick a fight with anyone. They attacked me. Anyway, you’re the ones who will get us in trouble. I found you way too easily. There’s tracks and litter all over. If anything comes looking for us than we’re stuffed.” I sat down. My eyes were closing and I was already drifting.
“So what happened?” David kicked me. I looked up at him.
“I was walking and I heard something. I pulled out my sword and something hit me over the head. When I woke up, I was tied to a tree. I talked my way out of it, like I always do.” I just wanted to sleep.
“Oh, come on. Give us some detail. There must have been some action.” I was thinking of punching him. It would shut him up.
“Not everything is about fighting. You need to be able to talk your way out of things. By the way, I hope you’ve been training. I’ll know if you haven’t.” I tried again to sleep.
“What did you say?” I gave up with trying to get some sleep. I rubbed my eyes.
“You need to confuse them. If you are a bad liar then just twist the truth. Just don’t tell them who you are. They recognised me. They thought I was a spy, but didn’t know which side. They were going to take me to the Queen. I just said a few things and got them arguing. Then I got out of there. Some people are good at it, some are not so good. It isn’t something you can learn. Can I go to sleep now?” I didn’t wait for an answer. I closed my eyes.
“Red can get herself out of anything. That’s why I shouldn’t worry about her. I still do though. She would never worry about me.” He laughed at himself.
“She cares about you, even if she doesn’t show it.” I didn’t want to listen. I didn’t want to get freaked out at anything else. “She must have been unconscious for about a couple of days then, if she found us in four days.”
They kept talking while I fell asleep. It was really good to hear their voices again.

I was up early the next morning. I felt bad again for letting Boran stay watch all night. My head felt clear from the sleep I had. It was still dark. The fire was now ashes and it was freezing cold. I pushed my hair out of my face. I was suddenly conscious of the way I looked. I pulled my sword out and examined my face.
My skin was pale. I never seemed to tan. My eyes were the colour of emeralds and were framed with long black eyelashes. They were strangely wide. My lips were ruby red. My hair fell in waves and beads that were plaited into my fringe framed my face. I was trying to work out if I was pretty. The only other human girl I’ve met is Julie. She has dark hair that is kind of short and choppy. Her face is round and her eyes are bright blue. She looks nothing like me. I think she is pretty.
“Red?” I looked up. Peter was standing above me. “What are you doing?” I put my sword away. He sat next to me.
“What happened to your teacher? You said that you last saw a human seven years ago. Also, seven years ago, you had to escape the Jinah Woods. Something happened seven years ago. You also said you can’t remember your parents. What happened to you and all the other humans?” I sighed.
“Wow, you notice a lot. You could get killed for that.” I sighed. “He was my brother. We were in the forest and we were attacked by werewolves. Torbin put me on Boran’s back and told us to run. I wanted to stay and fight. He fought instead and he lost. By then we had got to the cave. I kept on my training and here I am. I can’t remember what happened to all the other humans or my parents. Boran says that I’ll find out in time.”
“I would say I’m sorry if it helped at all.” He pushed his hair out of his eyes.
“It wouldn’t. We better get going. We might get to the Slimer River by midday. Then we need to work out a way to cross it.” David and Julie were just waking up. Boran was packing up supplies.
I got up and dusted myself off. I knew it was pointless because my clothes were stained with mud.
“At least we’ll be able to get washed at the river.”
It was boiling hot all morning. Everyone was tired from sleeping rough every night and travelling every day. The trees were thin and didn’t provide much shade.
“Wait. Can you hear that?” We all stopped to listen. There was a low rumbling.
“No need to be scared, Julie. I’m sure it’s nothing.” Peter took hold of her hand.
“I’m not scared.” She pulled away from Peter.” That’s the river.”
“She’s right.” We all started grinning. “Race you.”
We all started running. Boran was in front. We all splashed into the river. It felt amazing after the heat of the sun.
“That’s not fair. You have doubled the amount of legs.” He started laughing.
“It’s not my fault that you can’t keep up.” He pushed me under the water. I kicked and grabbed him. I couldn’t pull him down. I gave up and came to surface. I splashed him. It turned into a massive water fight. We all ended up underwater, pulling faces at each other.
We were gasping for breath when we headed back to the trees. We sat there for a while and had something to eat. We were dry pretty quickly.
“So how are we going to cross?” We all fell silent at David’s question.
“It doesn’t look that deep. We should be fine walking across.” I shook my head.
“Many people have died trying to wade across. It is a lot deeper and the current is stronger when you get further in. Boran, can you think of anything?” He was pacing.
“There is a waterfall upstream. The river narrows just before it. That could be our chance.” He kicked the ground. He obviously didn’t think it was a good plan, but it’s all he could think of.
“I know where you mean. The current isn’t very strong either. Let’s go.” I stood up and grabbed some luggage.
“How come there aren’t any Water Pixies?” Peter was running to catch up.
“They only like calm water and a lot of space. That lake was the perfect place for them.” We kept walking.
“Tell me more. I want to know more about the people of Algaysa. They’re really interesting. You know the languages and everything.” I thought for a second.
“Well there are the giants. They are pretty cool. They can be as big as mountains and they are as vicious as a werewolf. They are easy to find but you would have to have an army just to kill one. They live alone, really. They don’t get on with each other. You haven’t lived until you see a giant fight. They are also really stupid, but not something you want to mess with. If you had to talk to one, you would have to take a gift. They’re easily offended. They are ugly too. They think the uglier the better.” The rushing of the river was getting louder.
“Wow. I definitely don’t want to run into one of them.” I laughed.
“Don’t worry. They don’t like showing themselves. They keep to the mountains. They don’t like wars that have nothing to do with them.” The rushing was definitely louder now.
“It does affect them. It’s about who rules isn’t it?” He looked back to see where David and Julie are.
“Not really. They don’t see the ruler as theirs. They are solitary and don’t believe in leaders. It’s not like anyone can tell them what to do.” The river twisted off into the trees a couple of metres away. “We’re almost there.”

We turned the corner and there was a loud gasp. The waterfall towered over us. It fell down into a massive pool of water. The noise was like a thunderstorm.
Julie’s mouth was hanging open. She looked amazed. Even David was not complaining for once.
“Haven’t you ever seen a waterfall before? Isn’t there any in England?” I dropped what I was carrying.
“I’ve never seen one that big. That’s just… wow.” I raised my eyebrows. He really was amazed.
“Get over the height. You’re going to be climbing it.” I searched for some rope.
“W… what do you mean c… climbing it.” Julie’s eyes were wide. She was staring at the top of the waterfall.
“She’s right. We can’t climb that. We’ll kill ourselves and Boran can’t get up there.” Peter looked panicked. His eyes were wide and he was running his hand through his hair. I sighed.
“Okay. We’ll leave it for today. We won’t make it up by dark anyway. Boran can walk around and meet us up there.” Boran nodded. I collected some firewood.
“Julie can go with Boran then.” Peter looked hopeful.
“That will slow him down and he’ll take too long to get up. Anyway, that part of the forest is no place for a human. I don’t even go in there. You’ll be safe with me climbing that.” He bit his lip.
“Peter, trust us. It is a lot safer, climbing up there. Red is almost as good at climbing as she is at fighting.” I kept collecting firewood. I hated compliments.
I dumped the wood in a pile and started lighting it. I sat crossed legs and struggled with it.
“One thing I’m bad at is lighting a fire. Boran, you better get going.” He sighed and took it off me. He lit the fire in seconds.
“Can you look after yourself? Cook the food and everything.” He looked worried. He knew how bad I was at looking after myself. The only thing I can make is omelettes.
“Fill your water skins. We’ve got plenty of water and we can manage with food. Can you take some supplies? We won’t be able to carry them all. We’ll be able to survive one night.” I started getting out some supplies.
“It’s tomorrow we have to worry about.” David was muttering under his breath. I gave him my you’re-so-not-helping look.
“Okay then. I’ll go.” He galloped off into the forest. The others stared off after him.
“Okay, Julie. I guess you get a break from training. You two better have been practising. Get up.” I pulled them to their feet.
We went through different attack and defence. I then just put them against each other to see how they would do in a normal fight. They weren’t too bad.
“Well done. You have been practising. I think we can start using the swords tomorrow.” I sat down next to the fire. “Um… what are we going to eat?”
“Why do we only ever have vegetables? We never have meat or anything.” I was shocked. My eyes were wide and I stared at him with disgust.
“You eat animals? That is horrible.” I had stopped whatever I was doing.
“Well, in England, they don’t talk. Everyone eats meat except for vegetarians.” They looked uncomfortable.
“It doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings. You better not tell that to anyone. Only dark creatures eat other animals. Here humans are considered animals as well. It doesn’t matter who you are.” I started chopping something green up. I really wasn’t good with food. Everyone was silent, for a while.
“We could make vegetable soup. Mum makes that sometimes and it’s really nice. She showed me how to make it.” Julie got up and helped me to chop vegetables.
“You know that you won’t convert us to your ways and it’s pretty shocking that you are trying to.” Peter looked mad.
“Listen. If I was in England, I wouldn’t say anything. Here, people get killed for even thinking about eating other animals. I’m not trying to convert you. I’m trying to keep you alive. You’re lucky Boran isn’t here.” I threw my knife down and walked out of the light of the fire. I lay down there and tried to fall asleep. The waterfall was loud and I’d chosen a place where I would get splashed. I refused to move. I heard that no one said a thing for the rest of the night.

I woke up early, again. I’m barely getting any sleep lately. I stretched and slumped back into the floor. I wasn’t very comfortable so I walked back over to what was left of the fire.
I wasn’t annoyed at any of them anymore, but I was hungry. I searched through the packs for something I knew how to cook. I sighed.
“I hope they don’t mind omelettes, again.” I dug out some eggs and lit the fire.
“So is it okay to eat eggs?” I jumped. Peter was standing behind me. “You’re getting good at lighting fires.” I was really letting my guard down lately.
“You can only eat the ones that are offered to you. If you take them than it counts as stealing or it could even be murder if there is anything growing in it and you don’t want to be caught. The penalty is death. Do you want an omelette?” I cracked an egg.
“You’ve stolen and murdered a lot of times. You haven’t been caught.” I laughed.
“My case is different. I am the last of my kind. Right now, it is kill or be killed. Anyway, I don’t hurt anyone on our side and what is growing in the eggs haven’t chosen a side. It would be horrible to kill them. Also, most people don’t know I’m alive.” I shoved an omelette towards him. He ate it in second.
“In my world, there isn’t any good reason to kill or steal.” Julie was starting to wake up. I cracked more eggs.
“We’re not in your world, right now.” I ate my omelette as Julie walked over.
“Red, we’re sorry about last night. We shouldn’t have been so rude.” She was looking at her feet.
“It’s alright, Julie. No hard feelings. Are you hungry?” I cracked more eggs.
“I’m starving. Do we have to c… climb the waterfall, today?” She looked up at it again.
“Yes, Julie. Boran will meet us up there.” I gave her an omelette. David was still snoring, a couple of metres away. I shook my head at him. “Will he want breakfast?”
“Yes, but he ate plenty last night to feed a whole town. He can survive one morning.” Peter started packing. “I think you should change your clothes. They’re covered in mud, again.” I shook my head.
“No. When we are climbing, we will be vulnerable. It helps us blend in.” I looked down at myself. My clothes tended to be a dull brown, but now they were more of a deep earthy colour. I felt disgusting but it did provide good camouflage. “We better cover our faces and hair as well. Then we can get a wash when we get to the top.”
“David won’t like this. He’s worse than Julie about the way he looks.” We laughed.
“What are we laughing about?” David was sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
“We’re laughing about how you are going to look when you’re covered in mud.” David frowned.
“If this is one of your stupid jokes then you can get lost. I’m hungry.” I walked over to the pool and filled our water skins. I then poured it onto a nearby dry patch of mud.
“We don’t have time for food and if you know what is good for you than you will cover yourself in mud, now.” I was being harsh with him, but it was the only way to get him to do anything.
“You’re crazy!” Peter stood up and folded his arms. “Forget it, Peter.” Peter looked sideways at Julie. They were smiling.
“I’m sorry, David. Just give us a hug and we’ll leave you alone.” Peter was grinning and he held out his arms.
“Get away from me!” Julie copied Peter. David backed away, quickly. I stuck out my foot. He tripped into the mud. We all started laughing. “Ugh… I hate you guys.” He stood up and tried to wipe off the mud.
“Don’t even think about getting clean.” We all stood around him.
“I’m not staying like this. You would have to force me.” We all looked at each other and grabbed him. I tackled him to the floor .Peter grabbed his arms while Julie covered him in mud. We were all laughing and rolling on the floor by the end of it all.
“Okay. Anyone see the rope?” I stood up. I could barely tell them apart.
“You left it by the fire, I think.” I found it near the food. I tied one end around my waist.
“Right, Peter, you’re going behind me. Then, it’s David and Julie you’re going last. Um…” I gave the rope to who I thought was Peter.
“I’m David.” He scowled.
“Sorry. I guess you look less grumpy when you are covered in mud.” Peter and Julie laughed. Peter tied himself to the rope.
“What’s with the rope anyway?” Peter’s head was to the side and he was way too close for comfort.
“It’s so if someone slips, they won’t fall to their death.” I made sure it was secure on him then helped David and Julie get tied up. Julie was shaking. “Don’t worry, Julie. You’re safe with me,” I whispered. She didn’t look too relieved.
I strapped some of the packs to my back and then gave the rest to David and Peter. We walked to the bottom of the cliff.
“Step where I step and you will be okay.” They were looking worried. “Don’t worry. I won’t go too fast for you.”
I grabbed onto the nearest rock and pulled myself up. I, kind of, dragged Peter up.
“It would also be helpful if you could attempt to climb.” He blushed and pulled himself up.
We climbed for about half an hour and then rested on a ledge. David tucked into some food.
“I knew you would be rubbish, but not this bad.” Peter laughed. “This is another thing I’m going to have to teach you.”
“We’re sorry that we suck.” He was grinning at me. I smiled back. I still wasn’t used to smiling. I like it though.
“We better get going, then, if we want to make it to the top by midday.” I pulled at the rope to make sure it was still tight. I started climbing again.

We kept climbing for another hour. David was grumbling through all of it. I kept my mouth shut but he was getting on my last nerve.
“We never have a decent sleep or any decent food. I can’t climb much longer. My muscles hurt from carry luggage all the time. If mother could see us now…” I stopped.
“You aren’t with your little mummy now. So, shut up and get on with it.” I climbed again. There was a scream. I looked down. Julie had slipped and was clinging onto the rope. David didn’t have a good hold on a rock and was slipping. Peter was yelling down at them.
“Everybody calm down. Peter, hold on tight. If you fall then I can’t support all of you.” He nodded at me and shifted his weight. “Julie, stop screaming. You’re going to be fine. David. You see that rock above you head. That one is stable so grab onto it and hold on.” He pulled himself up. He had nothing to put his feet on so we didn’t have much time.
“I can’t hold on much longer.” Peter was also slipping.
“Julie. You’re going to have to open your eyes.” She shook her head. I could hear that she was almost crying. “Julie. Please. You’re going to have to trust me and open your eyes. That’s it. No. Don’t look down. Look at me. We are going to be fine.” Her eyes were wide and she was extremely pale. “Now, you have to let go of the rope.” She took one hand of and squealed as the wind rocked her.
“I… I can’t.” David was slipping further down the rock. I looked up. I saw what I needed.
“Peter. You’re going to have to support them. Make sure David doesn’t slip.” I started to untie myself.
“What are you doing? Are you mad?” He was slipping too.
“It will only be for a few seconds. Get better hold. I’m going to tie you to that rock and then I’m going to help Julie.” He grunted as he tried to support himself. I got untied and held onto the rope, to make sure they wouldn’t fall. I climbed up. The rope was stretching to it’s limit.
“Red!” I looked down. They were slipping, fast. I made sure the rock was secure and started tying the rope around it. I’d only just got it tied when they all fell. They gasped as they stopped suddenly.
“Is everyone okay?” I started climbing down again. “I told you the rope was a good idea.” I grinned at Peter. He was dangling and couldn’t reach the side of the cliff. He looked slightly green as the wind blew them again.
“Can you please just pull me in?” I grabbed his arm and pulled. I was laughing. “I’m glad that you think this is funny.” I climbed lower to David. I didn’t have a chance to even stop before he had grabbed me around the neck. I was almost pulled off.
“Ugh… David!” He climbed around me. Julie was crying below me. When I got to her it sounded like she was praying. “It is okay, Julie. I’m here. Are you hurt?” She shook her head. I held out my hand to her. She grabbed it and dug her nails in.
“I’m going to fall, again.” She was panicking.
“No you’re not. We’ll go slower. You will be fine.” She nodded. “I have to go back up, okay” I tapped her on her shoulder and climbed back up.
“I’ll support them when you untie it.” I nodded at Peter as I climbed past him. I got to the rock and tied the rope back around my waist. It was kind of awkward to do it while half way up a cliff.
“Okay. We don’t need any more slip ups. We’ll climb slower, but Boran will be worried.” I started to climb again. I took another hour to get to the top.

Boran was waiting at the top. He pulled me up and I turned to help the others. Peter’s hand was warm and sticky. He winced as I turned it over. He was bleeding.
“When did this happen?” He looked down. It was badly grazed with small rocks still stuck in it.
“It happened when I slipped.” I cut the rope off him when David and Julie were safe and led him to the river.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I washed his hand. He sucked air through his teeth.
“I don’t know. I guess that I wanted to get up to the top.” I ripped some of his clothing and wrapped it around his hand. “It looks like you’re hurt as well.” I looked down at my hands. Four small cuts were in the middle of my palm.
“It must have happened when Julie grabbed me.” I did the same to my hand.
“What happened?” Boran looked confused. “You’re pretty late.”
“We had a bit of a slip up. Everyone is fine, though.” He looked down at our hands. “This is nothing.” I held up my hand.
“Okay. You should get washed up and then we can do a bit more travelling.” David looked happy to get the mud off. I hated having it in my hair and was happy when I could feel it again around my face. My skin was pale again and my clothes were finally clean.
We set off again. Julie was riding on Boran’s back. Peter and David were telling me more about England. I told them more about the creatures of Algaysa. By the time that we set up fire they knew everything to know about hags, ogres, trolls and dwarfs. I knew about cars, houses and schools. They were trying to explain radios to me.
“It’s just a box that makes sound. It is simple really.” I shook my head as I unpacked the food.
“Fighting is simple. England isn’t simple. Where does the noise come from?” Boran and Julie were laughing.
“It is recorded. Like someone speaks into it and it remembers it and plays it.” This confused me more.
“So you can speak into it and it plays it back.” They shook their heads. I pushed my hair out of my face and frowned.
“Other people are recorded and it plays it to you. It is like TV, but without the picture.” Boran took the food off me and started cooking.
“I kind of understand, but I still don’t understand the point of it. Anyway, it is time for training. We’re using swords now.” I unpacked them. “Be careful. These can kill a person. They are not toys. Also you better not break them. They aren’t very good quality.” I threw one to Peter. David looked eager to start.
They fought each other. We had a few close calls, but we went uninjured. Boran made us stop after Peter almost broke David’s leg.
“I’m going to have to teach you how to use one of these safely.” I dug into my veg.
“I thought that the point of this is to kill the enemy.” David was almost finished. I was amazed at how much he can eat.
“I have to teach you how to use them safely so you don’t kill yourself and Peter is not your enemy. He is your brother.” I finished off my food.
“You must have been hungry.” Boran’s eyebrows were raised.
“Saving this lot does give you an appetite.” Boran laughed. “I’m going to hit the sack. I’m shattered.”

I was up late in the morning. The sun had already risen. Boran and David were already eating breakfast.
“Good morning.” I nodded towards David and sat down next to Boran. I yawned and ate breakfast. I was still half asleep when Peter came over.
“So how long is it till we get to… was it Quinte Point?” I nodded and wiped my eyes.
“We’ll be there in a couple of days.” I wasn’t looking forward to getting there. I knew that they wouldn’t approve of me.
“Are you okay? You seem quiet.” Peter was looking worried. I shrugged.
“We should go.” I handed a sword to Peter. “Keep that on you.” He attached it to his side and started packing.
We set off, quickly. I had a bad feeling. I stayed alert and kept my hand on the hilt of my sword. Peter kept looking at me.
“Walk ahead of me.” He looked confused. “Just go.” He walked up to Boran. There were footsteps behind us. I span around. The shadows moved in the trees. I unsheathed my sword.
“Red?” Boran was standing behind me. I didn’t take my eyes off the shadows.
“Run!” I yelled back at them. Then I saw what was there. Jaguars were coming at us, their fangs bared. Some ogres were standing behind them. Their ugly faces were looking straight at us. “Go!”
I turned and ran after them. I don’t run from fights much but there was too many of them. Boran had got Julie onto his back and was streaking ahead. I could have easily caught up but I had to make sure Peter and David were going to be okay.
I could hear the Jaguars’ feet pounding on the ground not too far away. I could see Boran look back.
“Keep going. We’ll be fine.” I pushed David forward. He was stumbling over roots. They were getting closer. I pulled David and Peter to the side, into a thicker part of the woods. It made it harder to run, but it also slowed the jaguars down. It was easier for me to dodge through the trees than it was for David and Peter.
David tripped. The jaguars caught up. I turned on them. My lip curled and I bared my teeth. A growl came up from my throat. They paused and growled back. I leaned forward onto the balls of my feet and growled louder. My eyes met with the largest one, who was obviously the leader. I could hear Boran come up behind me. I didn’t look away.
“What is she doing? Shouldn’t we help her?” Peter sounded scared. The Jaguar looked towards him. I stepped forward and his eyes snapped back to me.
“She was raised in the forest. She knows how to make animals back off.” I put my shoulders back. I was outnumbered and they knew it. I narrowed my eyes further. I stepped forward again. They started to back away. The ogres were already gone. They looked unsure about me and then they ran.
“Where did they go?” Peter’s eyes were wide. I leaned against a tree.
“Jaguars are easy to scare off. You just need to act like they don’t scare you.” David was a couple of metres away. He was completely out of breath.
“Where did the ogres go? They just disappeared.” I thought for a second.
“It’s a trap.” It came to me. “David! Get over here,” I yelled. He turned and scowled at me. Ogres ran out of the trees and grabbed him. They were gone in seconds.
“No!” Peter tried to run after him. Boran grabbed him and pulled him back.
“We need to go after them. They have David.” He was looking into my eyes, pleading with me. Tears were coming to his eyes.
“We can’t do anything. They’ll keep him alive. He is the bait to get you and Julie. Let us take you to Mayak then I’ll go and get him.” He was still fighting to get away. “We can’t do anything Peter.”
“If we travel during the night we’ll get there by tomorrow. We’ve had plenty of sleep last night. We’ll be fine.” I was running my hand through my hair. I was majorly stressed which was strange for me. I never used to care about anything. These humans have really changed me and I can’t work out if it is for the best.

We were barely on our feet when we got to Quinte Point. The sun had just risen and we could see it glittering off the waves as we emerged from the forest. The ground ascended gradually and then suddenly dropped into the sea. The cliff was dotted with bright yellow tents and the whole thing was surrounded by a seven foot wooden wall.
My spine tingled. I wanted to run, back to my home. I had a feeling that the second I walked through those gates I would be trapped. Boran glanced at me through the corner of his eye.
“Right, well I’m going to leave. I’ll meet you back at the cave, Boran.” I started backing away.
“What? Where are you going?” Peter was staring at me. I bit my lip and glanced back to the wall.
“I can’t go in there. In there, I won’t be Red, the last human who can climb a waterfall and survive all by myself. I’ll be Redilana, the last human who isn’t useful at all, not even child birth.” I started to back away, again.
“Wait, we need you here. We need our trainer.” I hesitated.
“Okay, but I’m going to hate it and I’ll blame you personally.” I walked back towards them.
Centaurs were guarding the entrance. They looked shiftily towards Boran. He cleared his throat.
“We have brought humans to see Mayak.” Their eyes narrowed. They took out their swords. I stiffened.
“You were banned from our clan, Boran. Don’t think that we have changed our minds.” Boran looked down. I clenched my fists.
“We are all on the same side here. We were instructed that if we find any humans, we needed to bring them here. By stopping us you are disobeying Mayak’s orders and that is breaking the law.” His attention was diverted to me.
“Redilana Finchlint, I’ve heard a lot about you. You’re not exactly the type to follow the rules. I’d like to see what Mayak has planned for you. A woman is not allowed to carry weapons.” He smirked.
“I’m not your average woman.” We walked past them. We were met by a silence. Everyone was staring at us. I looked straight ahead and kept walking. Our way was blocked by a couple of minotaurs, bears and fawns.
“Please can you let us through? We have important business with Mayak.” They all glared at Boran. The other centaurs weren’t much help.
“We have some business with her. I don’t know if you remember us.” I looked at their faces. I’d never seen them before in my life. I then realised that most people were glaring at me.
“Okay. I get it. I’ve stolen from most of you and beat the rest of you in a fight.” I bit my lip. Boran was right. I did really need to stop starting a fight with everything. “Um… well I’m going to get going. You know how it is. We need to talk to Mayak.” I looked for a way around them.
“You aren’t going anywhere.” They stepped forward. I yawned.
“Look, I’ve been travelling all night. I’m stressed. I’m hungry and I will kick your buts again if I have to. So, please, just let us through.” I wasn’t even lying. I was completely shattered.
“You are not leaving.” I was really getting annoyed.
“Just let them through. Do you really think Mayak would be happy with you holding them up?” A minotaur came forward from the crowd. I recognised him from somewhere. “It’s good to see you again. Not many people can escape like you can. You really surprised us.” Another minotaur came out from behind him. They were from the night that I was captured. One of them was the one that asked me if I was okay and the other was the one that didn’t want to go to the Queen.
“It’s nice to see that someone doesn’t want to kill me. It’s good to see you have chosen a side. What is your name?” I smiled at him.
“I’m Jaquinze and this is my friend Hintgerin. They are hard to pronounce so you can call us Jack and Hint. It’s too bad that the others joined the Queen.” It was a bit obvious that some of them wanted to go to the Queen. It was only a matter of time until they did. “You better get going to Mayak. I’ll show you where his tent is.”
Boran looked surprised at me. I smirked at me.
“You aren’t the only one that can make friends. I’m not that horrible.” I followed Jack through the crowd. It only took two minutes to get to the tent. “When Mayak comes out, take out your sword and bow.” Peter looked at me as if he didn’t care. “Please, don’t do anything stupid.” The curtain of the tent twitched.

I pulled out my sword and bowed on the ground. I elbowed David to do the same.
“Rise, my children.” I stood up and put my sword away. I looked up into his golden eyes. His beak ended in a sharp point and his feathers were glossy orange. He was slightly taller than Peter and he ruffled his wings like he owned the world. He kind of did own the world. He was the creator.
“I believe you have made a mistake Boran. These are not the humans we are waiting for. The prophecy that I have left says two boys and one girl. There are two girls and this one is dressed very inappropriately.” His face was caring but stern.
“Mayak. I believe you have mistaken me. I am not a human from the prophecy. I helped Boran bring them here.” I bowed slightly again.
“Mayak. We need your help. Our brother has been taken by ogres.” He stepped forward. I squeezed his arm in warning.
“How did this happen, young one?” I bit my lip. His eyes seemed to go right through me.
“It was my fault. I let my guard down when I was trying to get rid of the jaguars and the ogres came from behind. I’m sorry.” His eyes seemed to soften.
“Thank you for being honest with me, child. I remember your brother well, Redilana Finchlint.” I was shocked to hear that he knew me and my brother. “I remember all of my children. You haven’t been the model civilian.”
“It is hard times, Mayak.” I felt completely disgraced. “I take full responsibility of my actions.” What am I saying? I never take responsibility. I never get caught to take responsibility.
“It is fine, child, but I do believe that you need a change of clothes.” I tried my best not to grimace. “I will also find a search party for your brother.” With that, he turned back to his tent. My body seemed to relax. I hadn’t realised how tense I’d been.
“I’ve been told to take you to your tent.” A fawn ran up to us. He was looking at Peter and Julie as if they were gods. I stepped after him. He paused and looked at me.
“Um… Gimatti will be taking you.” A dwarf stepped up, grunted and walked off. I sighed. I noticed that the fawn was taking the others in the opposite direction. A lot of people were still glaring with me. I was glad to have my sword.
“This is your tent. There is a change of clothes inside. You then need to give any weapons you have to me.” I automatically reached for my sword.
“I have to give up my weapons.” His beard was almost to the floor and it twitched as he talked. “Great. I’m going to be killed by an angry mob by the end of the week.”
I walked into the tent. The inside was also yellow and circular. The image of a great eagle is printed everywhere. There were giant cushions laid on the floor for resting on. A blue dress was in the middle of the room. I held it up to the light. It didn’t look much more appealing. I stripped off and pulled it over my head. It was tighter around my torso than what I was used to and the skirt of it swirled to the floor. I hated it already.
I unstrapped my sword from my belt and fastened it around my waist. I picked up my dagger and hid it under my belt. I wasn’t going to give that up anytime soon.
“What’s taking so long?” Gimatti the dwarf was standing outside. I shoved my sword towards him and went to sulk in my tent.

I was forced to stay in my tent. No one trusted me here. There was nothing to do either. My eyes started to hurt from all the yellow. Gimatti was replaced by a bear after a couple of hours. I felt like a criminal, needing a guard all the time.
“Wow, you look different.” I was laid across a couple of pillows and blowing my hair out of my face. I jumped up then realised it was Peter and Julie. I didn’t say anything.
“Blue really isn’t your colour. They should have put you into a green one. It would have matched your eyes.” I grunted. Peter was wearing a shiny suit of armour and had a brand new sword on his hip. I couldn’t help but wish I was wearing that.
“You look like you’ve been having fun.” I was really envying him.
“It’s brilliant here. They have started teaching me how to ride a horse and they have amazing food.” I closed my eyes. “Oh, sorry. I promised myself I wouldn’t show off. They’ve kept you here all day. I could do with another training session.” He was really trying to make it up to me.
“I guess you’ll have to get a new teacher too. They’ve took my sword off me. Don’t worry. I bet they’ll be way better than me, like everything else, here.” He bit his lip. “Sorry. I just want to get out of here.”
Julie had left and it was getting really awkward with Peter. He was pacing. He must be really worried about his brother. I opened my mouth to comfort him.
“I can get you out of here. People seem to do anything for me here. It is pretty cool.” I scowled at him.
“No. I’m staying here.” He folded his arms.
“Why are you being like this? You said you wanted to get out of here and now you won’t leave. I really don’t get you.” I didn’t understand it myself either.
“I’ve broke a lot of rules in my life, but I won’t disobey orders. I don’t like to take the easy route, anyway.” I sat up.
“Fine, suit yourself.” He walked out of the tent. Great, now I’ve annoyed the future king.
I started pacing around the tent. I think I was starting to go crazy. Even if I closed my eyes, all I could see was yellow. I didn’t mind the colour before now but I can only take a little more before I snap.
I looked to the door. The bear was still standing there. I went to the back of the tent. I lifted up the material.
“Now, I’m breaking every rule in the book.” I crept outside.

I couldn’t let anyone see me. I crept between the tents. It felt good to be outside. The air felt fresh in my lungs and the grass was soft under my feet. I was still grumpy from the lack of sleep and I wasn’t as quiet as I should have been.
I got to a problem when I saw the gate. More centaurs were guarding it. I looked around for another way out.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I stiffened. Please don’t be another angry mob. I turned around and relaxed when I saw who it was.
“Hi, Jack. I’m just… um…” I looked around.
“You’re trying to escape, aren’t you?” He folded his arms. I bit my lip. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. You should get back to your tent, though.” I groaned.
“I’ve got to get out of here. Do you think I can get past them?” I nodded towards the centaurs
“No. Look, you’ll get in a load of trouble if you’re caught out here. Mayak said…” He was sounding a lot like Boran. I didn’t have the patience to deal with him right now.
“I know what Mayak said. I can’t stay here. They won‘t let me do anything. They don’t trust me and most people here want to kill me.” I kicked at the ground.
“Maybe, you have to let them get used to you being around. They might trust you then.” I didn’t want him to be right but he was. I sighed.
“Why are you being friendly to me? I got you arguing with your friends and if they catch you here with me, they’ll think you’re helping me escape.” I was starting to go to sleep on my feet. My head felt like it was filled with cotton wool.
“They weren’t my friends. Hint and I just travelled with them. I think you’re funny. I mean, the way you act around different people. How did you even get out of your tent?” I was starting to sway.
“The material lifts right up. I just went out the back. I think I’ll go and get some sleep.” I started to walk away. I stumbled and Jack caught me by the elbow.
“Okay. Let’s get you back.” He lifted me over his shoulder.
“Take me to the back of my tent. I’ll be able to get in there.” He walked back towards my tent. “I’ll escape later.”
“Sure you will.” He stopped at my tent and stood me on my feet. “In you go.”
I slipped into the tent and fell asleep on one of the cushions.

It was morning again, when I woke up. I didn’t feel light-headed anymore. I went over everything that had happened, yesterday. I was an idiot to think I could escape. I just hope Jack won’t tell on me.
“Are you in a better mood?” I jumped. I think Peter was creeping up on me on purpose.
“You could have knocked.” I smiled at him so he didn’t think I was annoyed with him.
“I saw your escape attempt. I guess you weren’t thinking straight. I had to distract a whole crowd of people. I guess that Jack brought you back.” I started to panic.
“Jack wasn’t to do with any of it.” I didn’t know why I was so scared. I have never been scared in my life. I just didn’t want anyone else to find out how I tried to escape, especially not Boran.
“I’m not going to tell anyone. You act really different here. What happened to you caring about nothing?” He came and sat next to me. I lay back on the cushions.
“I can’t act like that here. I’m a woman that has gone against everything and broke fifty-two laws set by Mayak. How are you finding it here?” I pushed my hair out of my eyes.
“People act weird around me. Yesterday I thought it was cool that they would do anything for me, but now I’m not so sure. I miss being in the forest with you and Boran. David loves it, though. He’s been ordering people around like they’re his servants. Julie never asks for anything. She’s been practising a lot. I haven’t even seen Boran. He’s on guard duty all of the time. He’s tried to do training with me.” I laughed.
“I bet that didn’t go well. He’s rubbish with a sword.” I remembered back to the last time he picked up a sword.
“He has to use them all the time now. Mayak seems nice. He comes to talk to me a lot. I’m going to learn how to horse ride, if you want to come?” I bit my lip. “I’ve already asked Mayak. He says that it’s fine.”
“Okay then.” We walked out of the tent. No one was guarding me today. No one stared either. They didn’t really notice me. We came to an open field. Some horses stood to the side. We walked over to them.
“Good morning, are you ready to learn how to ride? Is your friend joining us?” He was looking at me.
“Yes. I bet she is really good.” Peter looked smug. I wasn’t too sure.
“I’ve never done it before.” The horse was twice my size. If I was fighting them I wouldn’t be worried, but I had to get up there. “Hi, I’m Red.” Before I knew what I was doing I held out my hand. The horse looked at it. I slowly put it back to my side.
“I’m Nayjik. This is Ketfu and Unek.” I was really nervous. “Up you get.” Peter got onto Ketfu. Unek was standing in front of me. He was the biggest.
I pulled myself up. The saddle was uncomfortable and Unek wouldn’t stop shifting. I patted his neck.
“We’ll do most of the work, but you need to learn how to stay on. Try and grip with your legs.” I squeezed my legs together. Unek suddenly went forward and I went flying off. I could see Peter laughing.
“I’d like to see you try.” Nayjik started moving and Peter didn’t even jump. His grin widened. I got back onto Unek and tried again. The same thing happened. “You’re doing this on purpose.”
I didn’t want to get back on but he promised to go easy. He didn’t. That was the last time I was going to trust a horse. I was sent to get drinks. I didn’t really mind, even though I was badly bruised and I knew my muscles would be aching in the morning. I really wasn’t cut out for horse riding.
I had to get directions to the well. People were actually being friendly. I guessed that I was being paranoid the other day. I don’t think everyone wanted to kill me. I filled up a bucket and carried it back to the field. Someone even offered to help.
Peter and I sunbathed for a while. The sun felt really good on my skin and the sweet smell of grass took me back to the days in the forest.
“How come people are being nice to me, today?” Peter squinted at me.
“Mayak told them to ease off. No one dares go against his orders and there are a lot of people that like you here. Apparently, your brother was really famous. A few people left that were really offended by you, but they haven’t gone to the Queen. They said they would help us fight in the war.” I was really surprised.

Other the next few days, Quinte Point felt less like a prison to me. Not everyone was happy with me staying, but they were getting used to me. I could go where ever I wanted now as long as it wasn’t outside of camp.
I was walking towards the gate. I wasn’t meant to be there, but I hadn’t talked to Boran in a while and I heard he was guarding it. He was the only one there.
“Hey. Where are the other centaurs?” Boran was no longer banished as long as he used a sword. The centaurs are very proud of being swordsman and the fact that Boran preferred using that bow made him a bit of a freak. That was why he was banished in the first place.
“They are on a break. I said I would stay here until the others come to take over. How have you been?” He looked really happy to see me.
“I’m fine. I’m just a bit bored.” I sat on a near rock. “Do you think we can go back home after the war?”
“We don’t have to, you know. We can go where ever we want after the war. Do you really want to go back to the cave?” I nodded. I didn’t know why, but the cave was starting to feel like a home to me.
“It was really starting to feel like home. Now we can do it up, too. It’s definitely big enough for us.” I looked into the forest.
“Wait. You’re not allowed out of camp. You should go back.” He looked stern.
“Oh, come on Boran. Just let me out for a while. I’ll go around the back, near the cliff. I’ll climb back over the wall if I’ve got to. Please.” He sighed.
“I should have known that you didn’t want to see me. Go on, but don’t get caught.” I grinned.
“Thanks. You’re the best.” I hugged him and ran around to the other side of camp. I walked up to the edge of the cliff. The breeze blew my hair out of my face. My clothes whipped around me. I spotted a ledge, just below me. I climbed down and sat there. I listened to the waves crashing and smelt the sea air. I heard footsteps overhead.
“Look ahead, my child. What do you see?” I was shocked to hear Mayak.
“It’s the sea, sir.” Peter was also there. I didn’t want to listen. I knew they’d come out here because they wanted privacy. I couldn’t help hearing.
“It is the edge of Algaysa. You will, one day, rule from here, all the way to the border of Konday.” There was silence. I didn’t understand why they had come out here.
“Sir, I’ve been meaning to talk to you. It’s about Red.” I wanted to hear what was next. I knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help it.
“I knew this conversation would come. What is it, child?” Peter didn’t say anything for a while. I didn’t notice until then that I’d been holding my breath.
“I think she should fight in the war. She is amazing with a sword and she has taught me everything I know. If she isn’t good enough to fight then that means I’m not.” He was talking like an idiot. Mayak would never fall for this.
“It is more complicated than that. Redilana has been through too much for someone so young. I’m scared that when something else happens, she won’t be able to cope.” His words confused me. I was fine.
“You said that as if you know something is going to happen.” Peter was starting to sound disrespectful. He better watch it.
“It seems that she has dealt with things extremely well, but she is going to lose another that is close to her and I believe that she won’t be able to hold it together. I have kept her in camp to protect her from this.” I was going over his words in my head. It suddenly hit me.
I got up and ran back towards the gate. I didn’t care if Mayak saw me. I had to get to Boran. I rounded the corner and yelled his name.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion after that. Boran turned to look at me. He looked very confused. I was running as fast as I could. I couldn’t breathe and my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. An arrow came out of the bushes. It hit Boran straight in the chest. I stopped dead. Centaurs ran out of camp into the bushes. I didn’t care about them. All I cared about was getting to Boran.
I took a step. My legs felt like jelly. I had to keep going. When I got to him he was fighting for breath and his eyes were dancing all other. Blood was pouring out of his wound.
“Boran. It’s going to be okay. Look at me. It’ll be fine. I’ll get Mayak. He’ll make you better. Just hold on.” I started to look around for help. He grabbed my arm.
“No! If it’s my time… I’ll go.” His eyes were watering. I hugged him.
“I don’t want you to die. You can’t die. We’re going to win the war and then we are going to go home. You said that we’re going to go home.” I was desperate. I could tell I was shaking.
“I would have loved to do that.” He smiled, weakly. “Redilana, you’ve got to promise me a few things.”
“Anything. I’ll do anything.” My eyes were blurring and I was biting my lip so hard and could taste blood in my mouth.
“You’ve got to grow up. You’ve got to live a full and happy life. You’ve got to look after yourself. I promised Torbin that I would look after you and I’ve got to make sure that you’re going to be fine.” I nodded. “Also, remember me. Centaurs pass their memories to their children, but I don’t have any. Please remember me and my ancestors’ stories. I’ve told you all of them.”
“I promise. I’ll make the world remember you.” He closed his eyes. “Boran? No! Please don’t die.” He gripped my hand.
“I’m just… resting.” His face was scrunched up in pain. I wanted to take the pain away. I would do anything to take the pain away.
“Thank you.” He opened his eyes. I could see he was almost gone. He was too weak.
“What for?” He tried to smile again.
“Thank you for everything, for looking after me, for stopping me doing anything stupid, thank you for everything. I love you.” I’ve never said that in my life but it was the most truthful thing I have ever said. I don’t know how I can live without Boran.
“No. Thank you, Redilana… Red. You’re the best friend anyone could have.” I smiled.
“Wow, we sound so pathetic.” He gripped my hand harder. I wished that Boran had a better life. I wished he was never banished. I wish he had children. I wish that so many of his friends didn’t die.
“I had a good life, Red. Don’t worry about me.” He always could read my mind. He was getting weaker by the minute. I knew his time was almost up.
“I wish we’d had more time. I wish this hadn’t happened to you.” He started crying. I’ve never seen Boran cry. He’d always been so strong.
“I’m scared, Red. What if there isn’t anything after death?” He was trembling.
“I’m scared too, but you are going to be fine. You’ll see your parents again. You’ll see my parents. Every day will be sunny and you will never be ill or hurting again. That’s what heaven is meant to be like. You are going to be fine.” I wanted to know that this was true.
“Do you promise?” I nodded. “I’m glad you’re here. Look after yourself.” He closed his eyes. His hand went limp and he stopped fighting for breath.
“Boran.” I shook him. His face finally looked peaceful. A ripping sensation came out of my chest and up my throat. My eyes watered and my cheeks dampened. I’ve never cried before, but it all started coming out. I cried for Boran. I cried for Torbin. I cried for my race. I cried for my whole life. I couldn’t stop. All I could think was the fact that Mayak knew this would happen.
A crowd had gathered behind me. Everyone was silent. After a while I kind of went numb. I couldn’t cry anymore. I wiped away my tears and unstrapped Boran’s sword from him. I stood up and ripped my dress into a top and a skirt. I then ripped the skirt so it only went down to the middle of my thigh. I ripped off the sleeves too. I fastened his sword to my belt and walked away.

There were footsteps behind me. I drew my sword and turned around. I pointed it at Peter. He was pointing his at me.
“Leave me alone Peter. I don’t want to have to beat you up.” I was glaring at him. He didn’t even flinch.
“Where do you think you’re going?” We started circling.
“I’m going to find your brother and you are going back to camp.” He looked surprised.
“I thought…” He started to lower his sword.
“What? You thought I was running away. Just go.” I put my sword away. I turned and started to walk into the forest.
“Stop acting like your brother.” I froze. “You think you can handle it. You think you don’t need any help. Just like your brother, you’re going to die for nothing.” This made me angry. I turned on him.
“You know nothing about my brother. He was saving me. He was a lot braver than you.” He was angry too.
“No. He was being an idiot. Someone was offering to help him, but he thought he could handle it. Look at him now. Do you really want to end up like him? I’m offering to help. If you don’t want help than you’re going to see him and Boran sooner than you think.” My hands were in fists. I really wanted to punch him. I turned on my heel.
“Are you coming then?” It was going against everything I was taught, but he had a right to try and save his brother. He ran after me.
“So, do you know where he is?” I thought for a second.
“I have an idea. You remember the waterfall. I think he is in the forest near there.” He bit his lip.
“You mean the place that you said wasn’t safe for humans? Oh, great.” I laughed. I wasn’t nervous. I was used to getting into a fight. I wasn’t so sure about Peter though.
“Are you sure that you want to come?” He didn’t say anything. “If we go that way it will only take a few hours. It will take less if hurry.”
“How come that five search parties can’t find him, but you know where he is, straight away?” He looked very suspicious.
“No one knows the forests as well as me. Hurry up. I want to get back in time for tea.” I was starting to get hungry.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Your best friend just died, we’re on our way to save David from a bunch of jaguars and you’re worried that we won’t make it in time for tea.” He was disgusted with me.
“That’s the way I am, Peter. Get used to it.” We walked for a few hours in silence. Voices started drifting through the trees. We slowed down. I crouched in the nearest bushes. Peter was just behind me. I could feel him breathing on my neck. “Stay here.”
I climbed the nearest tree to get a better look. I could hear the clashing of metal on metal and the grunting of ogres. I squinted through the leaves. I couldn’t see much. I crawled further along the branch.
David was tied to a tree. He looked badly cut and there were hundreds of minotaurs and jaguars and ogres. They were making weapons. They must be planning to attack, sometime soon. I couldn’t see a way that we would win in a fight with only two of us.
The branch creaked and I span around. I almost lost my balance and fell off but Peter grabbed me.
“I told you to stay down there. I don’t care if you’re going to be king. You need to listen to me or we will die.” I looked back down to David.

“So you have a plan. That’s great, because that is a lot of enemies.” He looked pale. I didn’t say anything. “You don’t have a plan, do you?”
“There is only so much you can plan and most of the time it goes wrong. This is my way.” I unsheathed my sword.
“You’re crazy.” I smiled at him. His eyes were wide as he unsheathed his sword.
“Stick with me. Head towards David. Hope you don’t die.” I jumped down from the tree. I ran towards David. Something attacked me. I fought through the crowd. I could hear Peter behind me. I got to David and cut the ropes. We were trapped against the trunk of the tree. I looked around for a way out.
“Get up the tree! Go!” I pushed David up. Peter followed. The creatures were surrounding us. I got up after them. We stood on the branches as high up as we could go.
“What now?” Peter was yelling at me over the noise of the crowd.
“Let me think.” I was looking for a way out. The creatures were starting to climb the tree.
“We don’t have much time. Think faster.” David was shaking. I kicked a minotaur down. “Hurry up!” I couldn’t see a way out of this one. We had climbed a tree that was nowhere near any of the others so we couldn’t get away up here.
“Red! We can’t stay here.” Peter was also kicking them down.
“Do you see anywhere to go? Just shut up for a minute.” The crowd below us was getting bigger. I was starting to panic. Something grabbed at my ankles. I
shook them off.
“What are we going to do? Can we run?” I shook my head. A loud cawing noise came from above. I looked up.
“Grab onto me.” Peter stared at me. I put his arms around my waist and looked at David to do the same. He held onto Peter’s back. I put away my sword and held out my arm. “Hold on!”
A claw grabbed my arm and lifted us out of the tree. I climbed onto Mayak’s back and pulled Peter and David up with me.
Wind blew my hair behind my face. The noise of the wings was strange on my ears. I held on with my legs like when I was on the horse. The trees seemed tiny from up here. It was amazing. Mayak swerved in the air. I felt a bit sick.
We were back at camp in no time. My legs felt strange as I climbed down from Mayak. I bowed down to him.
“You may rise. It seems I have misjudged you, my child. You are stronger than I thought. I think you have earned the right to carry weapons and fight in this war. I will get some armour fitted for you.” I was shocked. My mouth dropped open.
“I don’t think I deserve this, sir. I wasn’t much good back there and I am a woman. Battles aren’t suitable for women.” I had no idea what I was saying.
“You are brave in heart and you have a good soul. You deserve to fight. I think it is time to change a few things in Algaysa.” Peter and David were grinning at me. I smiled back.
“Thank you, sir.” I bowed again. Julie came running over. She hugged David. He made a grunting noise.
“I’m sure you have some catching up to you. I’ll leave you to it. Your armour will be in your tent by the end of the day. I’m sure Peter and David will be happy to have their teacher back. I do hope you learn how to ride a horse. Oh and I planned a funeral for Boran. We’ll have it a sunset.” He turned away and walked into his tent.
Peter, David and Julie came up and hugged me. It felt weird but good at the same time. I just wished that Boran was here.

My armour was heavier than I was used to. I wasn’t too bothered though, but it stunted my movement.
I left the tent just before sunset and walked out of camp. There was quite a crowd already. Peter and David were already there. Julie was just behind me.
A hole had been dug near the trees. Mayak was standing next to it. I walked over to him and bowed. I glanced into the hole and retched. Boran’s body was wrapped in a blanket but I could still make out his shape.
It was starting to get dark when Mayak started the funeral. I stood next to Peter and Jack.
“We are gathered here today for a great loss. Boran was killed by the Queens people early this morning. It is an emotional time for most of us as he had just been accepted back into his clan.” I closed my eyes. I could feel people staring at the back of my head. I didn’t cry. I have already cried for Boran and there is no point in wasting any more tears. “Redilana. Would you like to say anything?” I nodded. I stepped up to the grave and turned to the crowd.
“Boran was the bravest centaur I knew. He has looked after me since I lost my brother Torbin. He was banished for a stupid reason. I have to say it because it is the truth. I think a centaur should be able to be an archer, if he wants to. I think that you have too much pride. It is like saying I can’t handle a sword. I’m hoping that you won’t hate me for this. I know that some people don’t like change. As you know, Boran was a centaur and centaurs carry all their ancestors’ memories. Boran had no children. His last wish was for me to remember him. I hope you will join me in remembering him, no matter how little your memories are with him. He could have said good morning to you or he could have joined you on a journey. He could have stood guard with you. I wish for you to remember those moments. I will. I will remember everything he has told me. Thank you.” It was strange when they applauded. I went to stand next to Peter again.
I looked sideways at them. Peter was staring at me. Julie was crying and David was staring at the ground. He looked upset, which I wasn’t used to. Jack was patting me on the shoulder.
“That is the end of the ceremony. I hope you take Redilana’s advice and remember whatever memories you have of Boran. It is time to go back to camp.” He motioned for the crowd to move away. Dwarfs walked forward and started to fill in the grave.
People came over to pay their respects and said a couple of words to me. I thanked all of them. I was the last one to leave the grave. As I was leaving, a group of centaurs walked up to me.
“Redilana. We are sorry for our behaviour. This isn’t the whole clan’s opinion but we believe that we should never have banished Boran. Please except our apology.” They looked ashamed.
“You have no reason to apologise. I don’t blame you for your actions. I just hope you will learn from them in the future.” I smiled at them. It felt strange to smile after a funeral.
I slept deeply and dreamed of Boran that night. It was one of the best but one of the worse dreams I’ve ever had.

I started teaching Peter and David again. They were getting better. Jack tended to watch us a lot. He joined in sometimes, but he was too strong for Peter and David. He was watching us, today, when an angry bear came storming through. I recognised the bear as the one that guarded me once.
“What’s wrong? Has something happened?” Peter looked worried. I definitely needed to teach him more about bears. They aren’t the most sociable creatures.
“We have a traitor.” He was almost spitting the words out. I had a feeling he was only telling us because Peter was going to be king someday. “Someone has been telling the Queen all of our plans. All our spies have been killed.” He stormed off. Everyone was speechless.
“How can there be a traitor? Mayak should know who he is.” David looked scared for once instead of thinking of his own stomach. I didn’t understand it. I pushed my hair out of my face. I’ve been doing that a lot lately. It’s a sign of stress to me.
“I’m going to go back to my tent. You can keep practising if you want.” I walked away from them. I could tell they were worried but I had to get away.
My tent was the way I had left it or, at least, I didn’t notice anything was wrong. I took off my armour and put on the clothes that I wore in the forest. They were the comfiest things I have. I lay down and closed my eyes. I didn’t understand why Mayak did not know who the traitor was.
I heard someone walk into my tent. I opened my eyes and saw Gimatti. He was pointing a knife at me. I automatically reached next to my hip. I then realised that I had left them at the other side of the tent. I got up.
“You’re the traitor.” I immediately hated him. I couldn’t believe he had been sneaking out to see the Queen.
“You’re cleverer than you look. I’m afraid that it is too late. I am going to take you out there and you are going to admit that you are the traitor. I am then going to walk away unharmed.” I folded my arms and glared at him. He barely came up to my waist.
“What makes you think that I am going to do that?” He pointed his blade to my chest.
“If you don’t then I’ll just tell them myself or I could kill you.” I
sighed. I could just punch him. I could easily win in a fight or I could just play along and see where it leads me.
“Fine, let’s go.” He rested the blade on the small of my back and pushed me out of the door. I knew I was being stupid, but I was pretty bored so I would do anything. It was going to be easier to explain like this, anyway. I like being put under pressure.
“Everyone, I have found the traitor. She was sneaking of camp to see the Queen.” A loud uproar came from the crowd.
“Don’t be stupid. She was in her tent and she is not the traitor. She is Red.” Peter emerged from the crowd. He didn’t look too sure of his words.
“Exactly, she is Red. She is untrustworthy.” I was beginning to worry about this. Maybe I should have just punched Gimatti. Mayak came forward. Gimatti grabbed me by the hair and pulled my head back. I didn’t move. I didn’t want anyone to think that I was attacking.
“Don’t even think about defending yourself.” I could barely hear what he said. I was beginning to get scared. What if they killed me? I was never afraid of dying before, but what if they really did think I was a traitor.
Everyone fell silent as Mayak opened his beak. I looked up at him. I was definitely scared.
“It is time for Peter to do his duty to Algaysa. He will decide if Redilana is a traitor or not. I do suggest that you listen to your people as well as what you think.” Peter didn’t say anything. He just kept glancing at me then back at Mayak.
“Gimatti, could you please put your sword down?” The sword pressed harder against my back and his grip tightened. “Put it down.” Peter looked stressed. I think that we all are stressed.
Gimatti let go of me. He didn’t move from behind me. I fought the urge of turning around and knocking him out.
“Do you have anything to say, Red?” I looked at Peter. I couldn’t read his expression.
“Yeah, I can’t believe I’ve been held captive by a dwarf. That’s new.” I saw a slight smile on his face. “I’m not a traitor. If I was guilty I could have easily have escaped. I know who is though.” I held my head up high and stuck out my jaw. I heard Gimatti curse behind me.
“Who do you think it is?” The crowd started yelling again. They didn’t like the fact that Peter was giving me a chance.
“I don’t think it is someone. I know who it is. Who is always around when he will be unnoticed, but gone when you look for him?” I couldn’t tell him because Gimatti still had a sword. I jerked my head backwards. Peter looked confused.
“This is pointless. She is obviously the traitor.” I looked at them. They were all screaming at each other.
“Kill her. Many men have died because of her. That is the punishment for traitors.” I couldn’t see a way out of this. I’ve began to regret my actions.
“She isn’t the traitor. She saved most of our lives at one point, even if she did steal from a lot of us.” I started to pray in my head. I had a few friends here and I hope their enough to convince people otherwise.
“Quiet.” Peter was yelling now. If my life wasn’t in danger, this would be really funny. “I’ve made my decision. Redilana will fight me. If she loses then she loses her life if she wins, then she must leave Algaysa, forever.” Peter wasn’t able to do anything else. He knew I would win in a fight against him, but I could never leave Algaysa. “Give her back her sword.”
Someone handed a sword to me. It felt wrong to be carrying it now. I’ve fought a lot of fights, but it didn’t feel right to be picturing Peter as an enemy. I just stared at it in my hand. This wasn’t right.
“No. If you think I am a traitor. If you think I would betray you and Algaysa…” I dropped the sword at my feet and looked Peter in the eye. “…then kill me.”
At that moment Peter was my enemy and I was there weapon less. It somehow felt right that it would be him that killed me. I was no longer scared. I held my hand out slightly from my side and looked him in the eyes.
Peter unsheathed his sword. He didn’t look like he’d made up his mind. He stepped forward until we were face to face. He held his sword in front of him. He thrust it forward and my eyes snapped shut.
I waited for the pain, but it didn’t come. Was that it? Was I dead? I opened my eyes. Peter was still standing in front of me. The crowd was silent. The sword had gone underneath my arm and past me.
“You missed.” He smiled at me. He was looking behind me. I turned around. Gimatti was lying on the floor. Blood was pouring out of his chest and he lay still.
“The traitor is dead. No more will be said about this. We have a war to prepare for.” Peter was starting to look less like himself and more like a king. I didn’t know if I liked it or not.

Everyone started making weapons and armour and training a lot more. The war was almost here. It didn’t feel right to me. I didn’t want to fight anymore. It was just pointless killing now. I kept going over in my head how many people have killed. I was fighting for survival but I don’t have anything to survive for. My race is dead. My family is dead. My friends are dead.
This is going to be the final battle. I used to think that this was never going to happen. I used to think that this was the reason that I’m living and I never planned what I was going to do after the war. After this final battle, I won’t have a purpose. I no longer knew my future and that scares me.
I was sleeping a lot. I dreamed the same dream all the time. I was back at the cave. The war was over and Boran was standing next to me. We were waiting for something. I didn’t know what. Then my family would walk in, my parents and Torbin. They were smiling. Outside were more humans. I had everything I’ve ever wanted, but something was missing. They started fading, one by one. I screamed for them, but I knew they couldn’t come back. I was alone.
I woke up to a loud noise outside my tent. I strapped on my sword and walked out. I slept with it close to me now. Crowds of people were gathered around Mayak’s tent. I pushed my way through until I found Peter.
“What is going on?” He also looked really confused. I still couldn’t see anything.
“The Queen is coming. She wants to see Mayak. I don’t know why.” We pushed through the crowd until we were at the front. Mayak was standing tall above everyone.
Someone ran through the crowd. It was a cheetah. It walked up to Mayak and bowed.
“She is coming. She’ll be here in five minutes.” He bowed again and backed away into the crowd.
“Let her through. She will not attack today.” The crowd murmured. I looked sideways at Peter. He looked as worried as I was. “I would like Peter, David, Julie and Redilana to come up here.”
I was shocked when I heard my name. I didn’t understand why he wanted me. I wasn’t going to rule Algaysa. I’m no one important. I stepped up to him and bowed. I had no right to question him.
The Queen was sitting on a great thrown, carried by trolls. Her hair was white and her eyes a metallic grey. They were as cold as ice and she was paler than me. She was wearing silver robes that covered her whole body and pooled around her feet. She was beautiful, but horrible at the same time.
The trolls bent down and she stepped off her throne. She was looking straight at me. She didn’t seem to see anyone else.
“What is your purpose here?” Her eyes slowly moved to Mayak. My hand gripped at the handle of my sword. This was the woman that killed my whole family. It was her fault that Boran was dead. I started to see red as fury heated my muscles. I was doing all I could to stop myself from killing her now.
I saw Jack in the crowd trying to warn me not to do anything stupid. I suddenly worried about what Peter was going to do. He acts really stupid in situations like this.
“I think you already know that. The law says that anyone who breaks the law is mine to punish. That girl, who shouldn’t even be alive, has broken more laws than anyone I have seen before. That girl is mine.” She was pointing at me. Peter stepped in front of me as if he was trying to hide me. I grabbed him and pulled him back. I was staring straight at her. I didn’t even think she knew I was alive.
“She has been punished already. There is no need for you to do anything.” The Queen lost her smile. She started to look serious.
“I don’t think keeping her in a tent for a few days is sufficient punishment. You will hand her over and she will die.” I snorted. I couldn’t help it. I was too used to death threats.
“I’d like to see you try and take her.” Peter had drawn his sword. He was acting very stupid. The Queen laughed. He stood firm for a while then realised what he was doing and lowered his sword.
“Aw. The so-called future king of Algaysa has a crush on a criminal.” I really hated her. Peter looked embarrassed. My fury rose again. Maybe I should consider anger management or maybe even therapy.
“That’s enough. We’ll settle this in battle. Name the day.” She didn’t look happy. She looked around to the crowd.
“Tomorrow, we go to war tomorrow.” Her smile was back. She walked back to her throne and the trolls picked her up. She took one last look at me and grinned. They walked out of camp and left complete madness behind.
People were panicking. They were yelling and screaming. I felt sick in the stomach.
“That’s enough. Go back to your duties. We go to war tomorrow.” Everyone gradually went away. Soon it was just me, Peter, David, Julie and Mayak.
“That was really stupid.” Peter looked up at me. “You shouldn’t have said anything. It made you look like a fool.”
“I wasn’t thinking. I just acted.” He laughed. Jack was walking over. He was rubbing his head.
“I guess I was trying to warn the wrong person. I guess we better get ready for war.” It was quiet. Mayak had gone back to his tent and no one knew what to say to this.
“Peter, David, we need to go train.” I led them to an open field.

“Don’t you think we are trained, enough? That is all that we are doing.” David was his moaning self. I was starting to find it funny instead of annoying.
“You aren’t ready yet and I have one day to make sure that you don’t die in battle. Get your swords out. You are going to have to fight more than one person at once. David you can be with me and Peter you have to try and defend yourself.” I pointed my sward at him.
He was swapping from David and me. I was surprised that he knew relatively what to do, but he was still struggling. David attacked first. Peter easily defended himself so I attacked his other side. He only just stopped me. He then turned to attack David. I tripped him up. He lay there flat on his face.
“I should have showed you this earlier. You both attack me and I’ll show you how to defend yourself.” They began to circle me. I turned with them so I could see both of them. I also noticed that a lot of people had come to watch.
David attacked first, again. I defended myself and turned to see Peter try to attack. I blocked him easily and backed out of the middle so I could see both of them again.
“Always keep your enemies in eyesight. Try and kill them quickly.” I worried about them going into battle. David had never killed anyone and I could tell that Peter regretted killing someone.
I gave them another go at being in defence and they did alright. They still made mistakes, but nothing major. I decided to go against them one at a time. David was almost an even match. I had him pinned in about five minutes.
“That was good. Now you try Peter.” Peter was even better. We fought for ages. He was really good at defence. I attacked his side; he blocked and then tripped me up. He had me pinned. He smirked. I kicked him in the leg and he lost his balance. I rolled to my knees and pointed my sword at his neck. “Don’t try and be clever.”
People were staring at me as I helped him up. I don’t think that they had seen me fight before. I stretched.
“So has Mayak sorted out a battle plan?” I lay on the grass next to Jack. Peter and David sat next to me. “What are we doing tomorrow?”
“I think he has left that to Peter.” Everyone turned to him. I was quite surprised that Mayak left it this late. His eyes were wide and he was running his hands through his hair. They were the signs of him being stressed.
“I don’t know any battle plans. I don’t know anything about wars.” He bit his lip. I laughed.
“What do you think we are here for? We need a map of around camp to find a decent battlefield. Then we can work out a strategy.” Jack got a map from one of the tents. “If we go here than we have an advantage from the height.” I pointed to a hill nearby on the map.
“It will take up all our energy to get there. We can’t fight in the forest… how about there?” Jack was pointing to an open space a mile out.” I shook my head.
“It’s too far away and it’s now flooded. The Water Pixies wouldn’t be happy and there aren’t enough people to communicate with them safely.” I looked over the map. I racked my brains for a place to fight. Nowhere was big enough.
“How about there?” Julie had crept over and she was pointing at the edge of the forest. It wasn’t too far away and there was plenty of space.
“That would work. We can attack from here and then retreat to between these cliffs where our bowmen will be waiting.” Jack was showing this.
“That will be too predictable. It’s a perfect place though. Peter, what do you think?” I looked up at him. He was thinking hard.
“How many of us can fly?” He was looking at Jack.
“I think about seventy. What are you thinking?” He was staring at the map.
“If we go there then the ones that fly can wait up here. Then the archers can attack over us when the Queens people come. We can then attack once her numbers are down. After a signal we’ll retreat back and let the one who can fly attack. Once we have retreated then we’ll attack again. Would that be a good plan?” He looked worried. I smiled.
“That’s good, but it needs a few changes. The archers attack first and then we all attack at the same time. That would work better They wouldn’t know which way to look.” Jack nodded. “So, we’ve got our battle plan.”
We sat in silence for a while. I lay back again and closed my eyes. The sun felt really good. I wanted to forget everything that has happened and go back to the cave. I’ve realised that the cave will no longer be like a home to me now Boran won’t be there.
“Red.” I slowly opened my eyes and squinted towards Peter. “You know that I have to lead everyone to war. I want you to be standing next to me. I’m asking you as your king, will you be there next to me?” I smiled.
“Yes sir.” I bowed slightly. He was going to be my King so I better get used to it.
“You don’t need to bow.” I lay back on the grass and soaked in the sun. I still didn’t get a tan.

We waited. We waited for her and her army. I was sitting on Unek next to Peter. I patted his neck. I was started to like Unek but I wasn’t too sure about fighting on him.
My sword was resting on my hip. I could feel my dagger in my belt behind me. My armour felt heavy and I was carrying my helmet. My hair fell around my face and I was paler than normal.
“Aren’t you going to put your helmet on?” Peter looked worried. I pulled my hand through my hair.
“No. I’ll keep it off. I don’t like helmets.” I looked across the horizon. The sun was scorching hot. It would be a nice day if there wasn’t a battle.
“You’ll get yourself killed.” I snorted. David also laughed.
“I think I can look after myself. Is Julie safe?” I didn’t know where she was I hoped she wasn’t in the battle.
“I wanted her to stay out of it, but she is with the archers. She should be safe…” He died off as we saw figures come across the horizon. “Red. What happens if I die in this world?”
“I have no idea.” I was starting to panic. What happens if we lose?
“Red, If we don’t get out of this alive…” He didn’t know what to say.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.” I smiled at him. He opened his mouth to say something.
“I don’t think now’s the time for talking.” I nodded towards the Queen who was across the field. I looked back. “Are you ready?”
“No, but I guess that I have to be.” He unsheathed his sword. I bent down to Unek.
“Good luck.” Unek snorted and kicked at the ground. He was eager to go. He paused and then snorted again.
“Good luck to you too.” I smiled at him. “We’ll need it.”
“For Algaysa!” Peter yelled to the warriors. The Queens people started to run at us. Arrows soared above our heads and we waited for Peters signal to attack. When it came Unek launched forward. I managed to stay on. The Queen was getting closer. The archers had already killed some of them. I braced myself for impact. My heart was beating, fast.
We collided. Unek kept running as I swiped at everything I could reach. I didn’t have time to get scared. I was thrown off Unek. I rolled to the ground. I was still fighting. I looked for David and then for Peter. I couldn’t see either of them, but I could see their horses. They were dead and Unek was gone. I kept going.
I was soon tired but I had to keep going. I also needed to find Peter. I saw our men fall. I saw men being attacked from the sky. I never knew a fight could be as brutal as this. I wanted to close my eyes. I’ve never wanted to hide from a fight before, but I think I’ve changed since I got into camp.
I then saw her and Peter. They were fighting and she was winning. I started running towards them. She had him pinned. She was raising her sword. She brought it down and I only just blocked her. I pushed her back.
“Ah… it’s the human that I missed. I’ve got to tell you my werewolves enjoyed killing your brother. You should have heard him scream.” She hit a nerve and she knew it. I felt the same rage as I felt the first time I saw her. I attacked. She blocked and pushed me back.
“You killed my family. You killed Boran. You’re going to die.” She laughed. I didn’t take my eyes off her. Her eyes had come alive with want. I started getting scared.
“I killed your whole race. I think it is time to end this with your death.” We fought. She was good at it. She was a lot stronger than me. That must come from the giant side of her. Peter was stood next to me. I pushed him back to the floor. The Queen caught me off guard and flung her sword around. I had a searing pain on my front and she pinned me to the floor. She stood on my neck.
I was choking. The pressure increased on my neck. I tried to pull her off. She smiled down at me. My arms felt sticky and there wasn’t just pressure on my neck.
“The last human of Algaysa, it’s time to die.” She raised her sword. I spotted Peter getting to his feet and scrambling towards us. A great cry of an eagle echoed in our ears and The Queens foot disappeared from my neck. I rolled over and almost coughed up a lung. I still couldn’t breathe.
Peter pulled me up. He steadied me on my feet as I rubbed my neck. My sight was going black. I could barely see anything.
“They’re running away! We won!” Everyone cheered. Helmets were thrown into the air and swords were dropped.
Peter hugged me and kissed me on the lips. Another pain went through my chest. I didn’t know what to do. I just stared at him. I pulled away. I couldn’t look at him. All my movement caused me pain and I started to worry about what was wrong.
“You know when we met; you asked that if I saw you in my world, if I would notice you. Well, the answer is yes. You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I’m glad that all this has happened because otherwise I would never have had the courage to talk to you. You are amazing.” I had no idea what I was doing. His arms were still around me and I kissed him back.
“Wow. That was so cheesy.” We looked to David and started laughing. I cut myself off and felt around near the pain.
“Red? Are you okay?” I didn’t have time to answer. I felt myself collapse and then nothing.

I stirred as I started to wake up. I was still hurting. I gasped at every movement.
“Red? Are you awake?” My eyes snapped open. I tried to sit up, but Peter restrained me. “She’s awake.” He was yelling out of the tent.
I began to wonder where I was. It wasn’t my tent. Instead of the bright yellow it was a startling white. I then realised I was in the hospital tent. Jack, David, Julie and a couple of others that I’ve been friendly with were standing in the doorway.
“My chest is killing me.” I looked down and saw a jagged line that spread from shoulder to shoulder. Strange black things were dotted along it.
“The doctors said that you could have died from that if Julie hadn’t remembered the health course she went on. It was her idea to use stiches. You’ve been out for a while.” I couldn’t believe it. I have plenty of scars but none like this. I’ve never been vain, but think how it is going to look. I’ll be stared at all the time.
“What’s a health course?” My head felt strangely clear when I woke up, but now every noise seems to be ten times the noise that it should have made.
“It was on Doctoring. Julie wants to be a Doctor when she is older so she got this opportunity to go into a hospital and see how things work. How are you feeling?” Peter looked tired and worried. Underneath his eyes were bruised and I’d never seen him look so pale.
“I’m fine. It’s not the best thing that has ever happened to me, but I’ll get over it.” I tried to sit up again. Peter didn’t bother to stop me. I winced and moved slowly. I wiped sleep out of my eyes.
“We were worried about you. Peter hasn’t slept since you were hospitalised. Your armour is pretty much wrecked. We’re making some for you now. I think it was the armour that actually did most of the damage.” Julie looked just as worried as Peter.
“I’m fine. Can I get up now?” I was itching to get outside again. The hospital tent made me feel sickly and I could really do with some fresh air.
“Now, Redilana. Don’t go and make yourself ill. You’re going to have to stay here for a couple of days. You’ve only been asleep for a week.” A fawn had walked into the tent. She was obviously a Doctor.
“I’ve been out for a week! That’s impossible.” No wonder my head felt pretty weird.
“Not really considering the state you were in. This young lady is very clever with health. She said you were in a coma. I’d never even heard of it. She better explain it to you.” I was really confused. This must be something from England.
“A coma is when you go into an unconscious state where you can’t be woken. It isn’t a disease or anything like that. You probably went into one because when you fell you hit your head pretty hard. I was worried that you had severe head injury. You were bleeding a bit, but we didn’t know the damage it had done to the brain. It was only a tiny fall too. It was probably concussion that made you go into a coma.” This made me frown even more.
“Okay. Let’s just say I hit my head and fell asleep. You have to dumb it down for me. I can barely read.” I rubbed my head.
“You can’t read.” David was being his normal self. I was still amazed that Julie knew all of this.
“Most people in Algaysa can’t read. Even less since the war started.” I was glad that Jack was dealing with him. I was starting to feel tired again.
“I know this sounds stupid, but do you mind if I get some sleep. You probably should get some too, Peter.” The doctor looked okay with it. I slowly lay down and tried to get comfortable.
“Um… Do you mind if I talk to you for a second. It’s important.” I opened my eyes. Only Peter was left in the room and I smiled at him.
“Yeah, sure. What’s up?” I pushed my hair out of my face and looked up at him. He looked really nervous.
“What’s going on with you and me? I mean we kissed and I wondered if it meant anything or is it you were just too drowsy to know what you were doing. I mean if you don’t want anything to happen then that is fine. I mean it was just a kiss. It doesn’t mean anything.” He was rambling on about something and it took me a second to know what he was talking about. I held up my hand and he went quiet.
“I don’t know. I really like you, Peter, but at some point you have to go back to England. I don’t know. Do you like me?” I was really confused.
“Yes. I do really like you. I talked to Mayak about going back to England and he said that Algaysa and England run on different time slots. Ten years here will only be ten seconds there. I can stay as long as I want. It’s up to you.” I wasn’t up to big decisions right now.
“If you stay here then you have to be king. I don’t know what I want right now, Peter. Can you just give me some time?”

I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks. I was pretty fed up with it by the end of it all. It was also pretty painful when they had to take the stitches out. In England, they dissolve but we don’t have that in Algaysa. I was out in time for Peter, David and Julie’s coronation.
We held it in the middle of camp. Flowers were everywhere and cheering rang in my ears. Jack and I were stood at the front of the crowd. Mayak was standing above us all and he split the crowd in half. Peter, Julie and David walked down the middle.
Peter smiled at me as he walked past me. I grinned back. I still didn’t know if I wanted to be with him. They stood in front of Mayak and bowed. I didn’t take my eyes off Peter’s back. I started to wonder what it would be like to go out with him.
A fawn brought out three crowns out. He placed one on Julie’s head first and then backed away.
“Rise Queen Julie.” The fawn brought the second crown and placed it on David’s head.
“Rise King David.” The fawn brought the third crown and placed it on Peter’s head.
“Rise, High King Peter. You are now the rulers of Algaysa. It is your duty to love and protect this country until it is time for you to leave.” I looked up at Peter’s face and I suddenly knew what I wanted.
As the crowd dispersed I ran up to Peter. He was still smiling at me. I hugged him. I knew he was my king, but I felt something different about Peter.
“I’ve made my choice. I want to be with you, if you still want me.” I stepped back and bit my lip. He looked amazed. He stepped back towards me and kissed me again. This time I really felt it. It was strange to me, but nice at the same time. I really liked it

We stayed in Algaysa for five years. After the battle, Mayak left. We only saw him once more after that. He has always been like that. It turns out that it was Mayak that pulled the Queen off me and saved my life.
It took us a while to sort out Algaysa. Me and Jack stayed close friends and I dated Peter for a while. We helped them get rid of traitors and all of the Queens people. We did offer them sanctuary if they surrendered, but they didn’t.
Peter and I got married. Algaysa then had another Queen to confuse people. Of course, I wasn’t you average Queen or wife. I kept up with training and it was me that often was in charge of anything to do with fighting. I refused to wear dresses. I was always in armour.
We didn’t have any problems once the Queen was fully gone from Algaysa. We formed allegiances with the surrounding countries. The people of Algaysa were no longer in hiding.
I found some old friends that I thought were dead, but Peter, David and Julie had to go back to England at some point.
It was the day that Mayak came back. He took Peter off to talk with him privately. I had no idea what was going on. When they came back, they told me that they had to go home, but I could stay here if I wanted to. I asked for a couple of days to think it over.
I talked to Jack a lot about it. He thought that I should go. I didn’t think I could. Algaysa was my home and it always had been. The day came that they had to go home and I still hadn’t made up my mind.
“It is time for you to leave Algaysa. Will you be going with them, Queen Redilana?” I thought it over for a second.
“No. Algaysa is my home and I can’t leave it.” I couldn’t look Peter in the eyes. This was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I started to walk away.
“Queen Redilana has made her decision. You will be sent back to your world. The two worlds run at different times. It has been five years here, but it will only be as long as five seconds in England.” As I walked away, I tried to think of something that keeps me in Algaysa. I couldn’t think of any. All I could think of is Peter and he wasn’t staying.
For the first time in my life, I looked back. I didn’t know what to do. I closed my eyes.
“Wait.” I called back to them. “I’m coming with you.” I stepped up to Peter. Julie hugged me.
“It seems that you need to change your clothes then and you can’t take your weapons with you.” Peter handed me some strange looking clothes, like the ones he was wearing the first day we met. I got changed, but kept my belt on and hid my dagger in it. I handed over my sword and armour and stood next to David. I took one last look at Algaysa as it disappeared.