• Chapter Three
    We finally reached the village after what seemed like hours of walking. My clothes were starting to stick to me, I’d never had to walk that far before. Waiting on the outskirts of town was a man dressed in a black coat. He was leaning against the wall the surrounded the small village.
    ‘How the hell can he wear that when it’s so warm out?’ I thought to myself staring at the man. James seemed to know the man, he smiled and called
    “Gilbert! On patrol I see.”
    The man shifted slightly and said in a husky tone
    “And I see you’ve skipped patrol again.”
    James pulled a face that made him look like a child caught doing something bad. He sighed and said
    “It was an emergency, Bell will believe me.”
    “Bell believes everyone,” he said shaking his head.
    “You say that as if it’s a bad thing,” said a new voice. A woman was hanging out a window above where Gilbert was standing. His head turned up to look at her, and then his gaze returned to me. He jumped up off the wall and stared open mouthed at me. His hood had fallen off his head at his sudden jump. He had black hair that seemed to go everywhere, and deep hazel eyes, high cheekbones and thick eyelashes.
    “Am I dreaming,” he said rubbing his eyes “No it can’t be.”
    I moved closer to James and without thinking, grabbed his sleeve, staring at Gilbert as if he was a mad-man. James looked down at me; he was about a foot higher than me, and said
    “Come on,” James grabbed my hand and I was soon dragged over to the window
    “Coming up Bells,” Gilbert said finally regaining himself. Bell ducked away from the window and was soon back dropping a rope ladder out the window
    “Come quick before the guards come,” said Bell motioning with her hand at us.
    “Wait shouldn’t we just use the -” I stopped mid sentence when James threw me halfway up the ladder “I can’t climb this thing!” I hissed at the two men down below
    “Why......oh right. Face the other way,” he said turning on the spot. Gilbert looked confused but turned anyway. I sighed and said
    “Idiots.”
    I managed to climb the rest of the way without much trouble even though ladders and I don’t mix. I stumbled through the window and gingerly got to my feet. James came through the window as I said
    “Ok tell me what this is about.”
    James looked at me and sighed. Slamming the window behind him, he sat down at the table. The room was small, about the side of an average size bedroom. There was a bed, a table and about 4 chairs. The curtains that framed the window were deep brown. The door was on the far side, behind me if you want to get technical. The girl, Bell, was around my height but in her early twenties at least. She had thick dark curls that fell almost to the middle of her back. Along with the deep blue eyes and pales skin, she looked slightly daunting. Her brown dress fell to the floor with a tight bodice and long sleeves.
    “There is a prophecy in this world,” James said Bell sat down on the bed. James was slouching in his seat looking at me from under his hair “It clearly states that two siblings that fall from the sky shall bring about the defeat of the dark king.”
    “And you think it means me and my brother?” I asked scratching the side of my head. James nodded.
    “They usually try to take the older sibling, seeing as they are usually the one who reads to the younger one. And this means another plan down the drain.”
    “What do you mean, I was the one who read the story....but what has the story got to do with it?”
    “The story is everything,” said Bell from her spot on the bed “Once the story is read but not finished, this world opens up. This is how it’s always been.”
    “You’re the older sibling?” James asked surprised “You don’t look your age.” He rubbed at his neck when I gave him a death glare.
    “I’m 16, thank-you very much and Harris, my brother, just turned 13.”
    Everyone in the room just stared at me.
    “So they kidnapped the younger sibling this time? HA!” James said triumphantly, and then started laughing his head off like a mad man. Bell looked at him then turned to me
    “You see the King loves his power, it’s what he thrives on. He cannot live without it and it seems that it cannot live without him. The full prophecy is unknown to us but I have I good idea what it’s about. From what I can remember.....” Bell though for a moment “It states this,” and she began to repeat
    “From the sky above to ground below
    Two children, 3 years apart.......something or other....
    One red, one brown: different as they come
    Find a will and a way........something...........
    Hero’s for ages to come.”
    Bell though again and said
    “That’s all I can remember but I know that it’s written down somewhere in the castle.”
    “Well that’s where I need to go!” I said forcefully. James got up and stared me down
    “Are you mad? You go in there and heads will go rolling and not just any heads, I mean you and your brothers,” He pointed at me then in the general direction of the castle.
    “This is nothing more than a bad dream and when I wake up I’ll find out I had too much birthday cake,” I said throwing my hands into the air. I decided it was time to wake up. I closed my eyes and pinched myself hard on the arm. It hurt a bit but somehow something was wrong. I opened my eyes to find Bell and James still standing there
    “Are you done yet?” he asked impatiently, glaring at me slightly. I felt like crying. My knees gave way as I fell onto my backside. I shook my head as if to clear it. This wasn’t a dream, it was real? I still didn’t want to believe it. Not one bit.
    “This......is real then.........This isn’t a dream? I don’t believe it, this is just too much to believe,” I said getting to my feet. Bell sighed and took my arm
    “Come with me dear, I have to show you something.”
    I looked at her confused but I let her lead me from the room. We walked down the creaky staircase, which had 18 steps to the first floor then about 30 steps to the basement. Going around and around like a tower.
    “So is this place an inn or someone’s house?” I asked looking at all the doors on the first floor then at the darkness as we descended further.
    “It’s home to us that have been affected worst by the king, so I guess you could call it a sort of an inn, we have about 20 people living here. You’ve already met some of them; James, Gilbert and I but you’ll probably meet everyone here before you leave.”
    I nodded the noticed she didn’t have any candle, this shocked me slightly because it was quiet dark down here.
    “How are we supposed to see?” the words had barely left my lips when we finally reached the end of the staircase and a well lit corridor suddenly appeared. Every few feet along the wall hung a bracket, brightly lit with a torch. I was slightly a taken back but I followed after her looking around with interest. We walked until the corridor ended in a door. It was large, wooden and locked. I stared at the door while Bell fiddled with the key. Finally it swung open and Bell held it open for me and I stumbled through.
    “Where are we?” I asked as bell shut the door. This room had brackets hanging as well but this time the room was circular, with bookshelves covering most of the walls. Bell walked over to the nearest one and pulled out a book, one that looked familiar.
    “Do you recognise this book?” she asked holding it up to the light. I had to look hard to make out the words on the cover: Fantasia
    “Yes, I do.”
    “You read it to your little brother didn’t you?”
    “Yes I did, but what has it got to do....with.....You’re not saying t–that Harris and I are the children in the story are you?”
    Bell nodded and opened the book to the first page and showed me the writing I’d ignored at the start.
    ‘Woe to those who start but not finish,
    What they themselves started.
    Finish what you start and end it for good,
    Or end up in the same position again’
    “It isn’t a very good rhyme, but it means something doesn’t it?” I asked.
    “Naturally,” Bell said snapping the book shut and placing it on the table “It means if you start reading the story but don’t finish it, you end up in the story it’s self.” Bell picked down the next book and handed it to me “This also might be of help when you come to troubles or you find you don’t know about something.”
    My eyes opened in shock. I took the book and flicked it open looking at the pages hoping for something helpful but it was all blank pages. I flicked through it then said
    “The pages are blank.”
    “Of course, you can’t just find information without asking,” Bell said as though this was obvious and with a small laugh and a smile. I blushed in embarrassment then said
    “So it will tell me what those bird things were?” The words had barely left my lips when words started appearing on the page, like as if an invisible hand was writing them. Also there was a very well drawn picture of the beast labelled: Cinkru
    ‘The Cinkru is a large bird like creature with the body and head like a large boulder. The beak is long and curved at the end, which can be sharpened to a fine point. Cinkru have black eyes that are slits but see almost 180 degree vision on either side of their heads. Wingspan is twice that of their body with hollow bones and sharp claws on their feet. They only lay one egg every three years and when the egg hatches they will obey the first person they see. Dedicated to their masters the Cinkru have a strange attraction to hair colours and at a young age can be trained to attack people with certain hair colours, and only people with that hair colour. While they can be trained Cinkru remain one of the stupidest creatures and cannot see anything if it is beneath them or dives at their feet’
    “So that’s why it flew away when James and I ended up underneath it, it didn’t know we were there!” I said realisation hitting me finally. I turned smiling at Bell, now that I understood things better maybe I wouldn’t die the minute I stepped out the door. Bell smiled back and picked up Fantasia, then motioned for the door. I stepped out and Bell closed the door behind herself.
    “So this means that the Cinkru have been trained to go after red hair,” I said snapping my fingers and Bell nodded, sadly. We walked back along the corridor then started on the stairs. I could hear shouting from the floor above. I stopped and looked at Bell slightly worried. Bell sighed and gave me a small smile
    “Looks like they’re at it again. Don’t worry Gilbert and James fight a lot but they are good friends.”
    I tried to smile back but I know it looked more like a grimace as I started up the stairs again, knowing I had a hard time ahead of myself.