The Lost Princess (Temp. Title) Chapter 2 Pt. 2

I stared up at the college. University of Monia, or MU, was our state college. My mythology class was on a field trip here to listen to a lecture on the myths surrounding the creation (and sudden appearance) of myths to begin with. The lecturer was a man named Jose Hayes, and he was the leading mythology expert known. He'd written a book on El Dorado, Pandora's Box, Greek mythology, and other types of subjects to do with the supernatural.

I didn't really care. As long as I could get out of assignments and classes at school, then I was great. Mom and Dad didn't really approve of the field trip, because of the fact that I was one of these "mythological" beings, but Lillian, who was my new best friend, convinced them otherwise. She said that it's perfectly illogical to say that I couldn't go, because who would believe it if Dad wrote "My daughter is an elf, and she may learn more about her heritage than is needed"? I didn't have to work (I got the job at the book store), and Mom and Dad didn't have to wait for me to come and eat dinner. On the plus side, I was spending the night at Lillian's (this they freaked out because, obviously, Lillian is Aubrey's sister), so they wouldn't have to worry.

Now, looking at MU, I wondered why I even came on the trip. MU was at the edge of the state, two- or three-hundred acres of nothing but land, parking lots, fast food restaurants, and a medium-sized building with eight or nine little buildings around it. I'd seen much bigger. The lecture was in the auditorium, named Hayes Building as a result of Jose Hayes contributing most of the money to build it. We weren't the only school visiting. There were two other schools: Nanavee Boy's Preparatory Academy, a boys school two districts away from Verla, and Tara Rogers School for the Young Ladies of Today, a prestigious girl's academy that only the most elite could attend. I found both of them suspicious. But that suspicion was only out of curiosity.

A few of the boys kept looking this way, at me and Lillian, but we mostly ignored them. They didn't spark our interest any more than some sparkly pop star would. Lillian was too busy trying to avoid looking at RSYLT, mainly because she was supposed to go to that school but got kicked out because of her inability to adapt to the "kind woman that society needs" philosophy of today.

"We need to get on with it," Aubrey said impatiently. Our attention snapped to him. He was wearing his trademark green with white shoes and eternal scowl of annoyance, but his hair was in a ponytail. He was the object of everyone's attention, of course.

"I'd much rather be here than at school," Lillian said, looking around. Her gaze landed on one of the people from Nanavee, and then she turned to one of the girls from RSYLT. "Especially when Sindri and Faye are here."

Aubrey's eyes tightened a bit, and I wondered who Sindri and Faye were. They seemed important enough if Aubrey hated them.

Someone called us to attention and all of the chatter calmed down. We looked toward the front of the auditorium at a small man in a tweed suit. He looked nervous, with short dark hair and slanted eyes.

"Hello," he said. His voice totally blew us away. He didn't have the meek voice that everyone expected, but a deep booming voice that carried over the room. "I am Rueben Anvil, the PA of Mr. Jose Hayes." His eyes looked over each of us, stopping at Aubrey, Lillian, and I, before resuming. "Mr. Hayes is absolutely delighted that you three schools have joined us. This is a private affair, one that you three schools—the first three schools in Monia—have the honor of being a part of. This speech is only for the mythology classes, of course, and that's why there are ninety of you here. Here is Mr. Jose Hayes."

Rueben waved his hand, and Jose Hayes appeared, bowing majestically. Hayes was the opposite of Rueben. He was tall, with a confidant smile and enigmatic air. He looked around at each of us, not stopping when he saw the three of us like Rueben. He smiled a great big smile, one that showed more than a bit of lunacy, and then I realized that he honestly believed that what he knew was true. If the facts were not right, then he looked like he would go to every length to get them straight.

"Greetings," he bellowed. His voice was even louder than Rueben's. "Thank you for coming to my speech today." He bowed again. The bowing was getting annoying, even though he had done it only twice. Aubrey huffed impatiently and I elbowed him. Hayes raised his hands and then lowered them, gesturing for us to sit. Once we all appeared comfortable, he cleared his throat and spoke again.

"Who believes that beings other than humans exist?" he demanded. A few tentative hands rose, and he encouraged some more up. Lillian, Aubrey, and I didn't raise our hands, just for a bit of protection just in case we were asked why we believed so. What the three of us knew to be a reality. As hands lowered, he smiled. "I see most of you do not believe." He walked across the stage, grabbed a remote, and a screen lowered. "You see children, we have facts. Facts that support our claims that some of our most mythical creatures are real."

Aubrey bristled at being called a creature, and so did Lillian. I noticed that the two people that Lillian had pointed out did also. I looked back ahead, to the front of the room. The screen was now on and I recognized it to be a SmartBoard. On it was the title "We Have the Power Over Myths". It had tons of pictures of different myths, from Roman mythology to Native American.

"Myths are a natural part of life. We have plenty of things to go on, plenty of fads, like Nephilim and vampires." He clicked to a picture. "What if these were real? What if they were hidden races?" Another click. "This, my students of the future, is an elf."

There was a blurry picture, but I recognized it as Legolas from Lord of the Rings. Lillian snorted and Hayes looked our way. "Is there anyone who disagrees?" Everyone turned to look at us.

"I do," Lillian said. "How can you say that a myth is real? And if it is real—seeing as how mythology has some element of truth—why do you think that a race that is hidden would want to be exposed? I don't believe in any of these 'hidden races'."

A collective murmur rolled through the room, and a few girls from RSYLT started to agree. Soon, the room was in an uproar. It was kind of surreal, and also kind of weird, since Lillian hated bringing attention to herself. I grabbed her arm and yanked her down so that we were shielded by people in front of us.

"What are you doing?" I demanded. "I thought we were supposed to be inconspicuous."

"I don't want people telling lies," Lillian said. "According to mythology, elves, vampires, Nephilim, and other such races do not exist. The definition of mythology itself is 'a body of collection of myths belonging to a people and addressing their origin, history, deities, ancestors, and heroes'. Do you really and truly think that people will believe in it?"

Both of our arms were nearly yanked out of our sockets by Aubrey.

"We've attracted attention," he said darkly. He glared at Lillian. "Thanks to your little outburst, Hayes thinks that something is going on."

Lillian glared right back at him. "I'm only stating an opinion that no one would state otherwise. What are we going to do, anyway? Go to Ascalae? We can't. We have to go home, get our things. Alert Natalia's parents as to where we're headed."

"I have no idea what the two of you are talking about," I said. "And I don't know why the two of you have to panic. Can't we just pretend?"

They both looked at me. "We've been pretending for the last decade or so," Aubrey hissed. "Hayes—he has gotten close. Way closer than he needs to be. So we need to leave." His expression was fiery—not the fiery in a determined way, but in a horrible, we-need-to-get-out-of-this-mess way.

So I let them both pull me back outside, back into the crisp, newly autumn air. Lillian walked quickly toward her car, simultaneously pulling out her cell phone and dragging me at the same time. Aubrey disappeared into the back entrance of the auditorium. When we got in the car, we waited. Aubrey arrived a few minutes later with two other people—people I guessed to be Sindri and Faye.

Sindri—which I seriously doubt is a guy's name, like Aubrey—was a tall red-head with slightly shorter hair than Aubrey's. He had emerald green eyes, was taller than Aubrey, and seemingly impassive to most everything around him. He walked like a cat; his eyes were even catlike. He looked more like the elves I imagined—regal, domineering, graceful, and powerful. I didn't really care that he seemed fit in that lean, lanky sort of way. And he had an olive skin tone.

Faye was the opposite of Lillian. She was also a red-head, though neither she nor Sindri looked alike. She was slightly more built than Sindri, and I saw the glimmer of a small weapon on her waist. She was curvy, which I found weird for an elf, and wore clothing to accentuate that. Her eyes were deep purple, like mine, and she was pale as death, which scared me a bit. Her eyes seared through the back of my skull as I tried not to stare.

We needed no introductions, it appeared, and none of us seemed to care.  Aubrey sat in the back and conversed with Sindri about something. Sindri had a deep voice, but not as deep as Rueben's. Sindri's voice seemed almost…hypnotic. I didn't even pretend to know what the two guys were talking about.

My mind wandered back to the assembly. We left without telling our teachers anything, and I knew that they would panic when they check attendance and see that the three of us weren't there. My heart thumped. I had never skipped school, not even when I was threatened to get killed in Texas. I always attended because my parents asked me to. I never wondered why they wanted me to go everyday despite the danger of getting killed. Maybe they knew that it would just never happen.

When we arrived at Lillian's, I didn't stop to admire the house. It was a small mansion, pale blue, with Roman columns on it. We followed Lillian inside and none of us got to admire the décor. I caught a quick glance at a Persian rug, stained windows, and a rich mahogany table from what looked like the White House.

The den was large, but really bare. There was one flat screen TV and a mini-bar. The whole room was circular, and there was a small circle of chairs.

"Sit," Lillian commanded. After we were all seated, Lillian sighed and Faye took over.

"I'm Faye, as most of you know," she said. She sent a quick, almost angry glance at me. "I'm the strategist of the group." Aubrey snorted and she flushed.  "We all know that Jose Hayes is a mythology expert that digs more into what he should not. We need to leave, to avoid getting caught."

My heart constricted. Leave? I didn't want to leave, and I made sure it didn't show on my face. If I could help it, I didn't want any of my feelings to show. Sindri, who sat beside me, was quietly observing me.

"We're all leaving in couples, if we can," Faye continued. "One of us should leave with an adult, since there are only five of us. We'll send around a hat of names. If you pick your name, then put it back and pick another. And don't forget to tell us who you pick. And since Aubrey's grandmother is here, we'll put her name in also." She sent another obvious glare at me, as if I was the only one who didn't belong. Frankly, she was starting to get on my nerves. I glared right back at her as she started writing on paper and dropping them into the bright red top hat that appeared at her feet.

Aubrey picked first. "Faye." Faye seemed a bit too happy, and Aubrey seemed the exact opposite. Aubrey's name was taken from the hat and torn in half.

Next was Lillian. "Lillian." She put her name back into the hat and dug around again. "Eva." She smiled and clapped her hands. "I get Grandma!"

Faye sat back. "So I guess that the last couple is obvious. We need a plan to get to Ascalae and we need to alert her parents. Sindri, can you make the plan?"

Before Sindri could speak, I burst. "What makes you think that you're better than me?" I demanded, giving her the iciest stare I could. "What makes you think that I'm incapable of thought?"

Faye stood up and put one hand on her hip. Was that supposed to make her seem tougher? "Well, for one, you grew up in a frothy human home. Two, you just figured out your heritage—everyone did. Everyone now knows that you're the lost princess of the Crelesus Kingdom. No one expects you to know how to formulate a good plan—"

"Calm yourself," Sindri commanded. "Faye, this is not her fault, and while we were arguing, the Council Elder has had this place surrounded with some of his guards. Do you really want to keep this up?"

Everyone was quiet until an elderly looking lady came in. She was wearing a colorful robe, and I could tell that at one point in time she'd been immensely attractive. That made me to think—were all elves attractive? It must have been aesthetics, although I didn't get why they should be attractive. Anyway, the lady had wavy silver hair and red-orange eyes that reminded me of fire. She was a bit short as everyone else went, and that intrigued me. Her back was a bit stooped, but she still managed to look as regal as anyone else.

"A few moments ago," she said, "I heard my name. And something about Council Elder, surrounded, and guards. Is anything going on?"

"Grandma Eva!" Lillian screamed, toppling her chair in the rush to get to the woman. "When did you get back from the High Kingdom?"

The lady—Eva—laughed. "Just recently, love." She looked at me. "Who is this one?"

"This is Natalia," Lillian said. "She's the one they're trying to capture. We're all splitting up and going separate ways before meeting up in Ascalae. From there, we're going to figure out what to do. Me and you are traveling together."

Eve clapped her hands together and the room darkened. "Alright. Has her family been informed?"

All of us shook our heads.

"Alright then. I'll tell her parents, and then we'll meet at the outskirts of Ascalae. Alright?" Eve seemed to think of something we hadn't even figured out—how were we going to get out? She clapped her hands again and a  hidden door on the floor slid back. "Now, leave. Lillian, you stay with me, of course. For the rest of you, good luck. Halfway through, the tunnel branches out into two different parts of the forest. Split up there. For those who know the forest, lead the other to Ascalae. If Lillian and I are not there by the time you are—the same partners need to branch off to Rekonlai and find Nay. Hurry now. Go!"

We all headed into the tunnel, and I gave Lillian a wave.