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Leona chapter 2 [rough draft]

2. When Leona awoke she found that someone had put a blanket over her.  Across the room, Ann was asleep under a similar blanket.  By the table were some backpacks of supplies and food.  She stood up and stretched and saw Queen Karolyn packing one of the bags with blankets.

“Good morning Leona.”  She said quietly, not wanting to wake Ann.  “You have an impressive food storage here.”  She walked over to the shelves that lined one wall of the basement.  There were several gallons of water on one end and boxes upon boxes of canned preserves, dried fruit, flour, sugar, spices and other essential food items.  The other half of the basement was filled with more shelves, lined like those at the grocery store, with blankets, flashlights, radios, sleeping bags, and much more.

“You never know when something like this is going to happen.  My mom made it a point to always be prepared for the worst, so when she died we continued to expand our emergency collection.”

“Your mother was very wise.”

“Yes, she was.  She was a teacher, she taught magic.  Being a Khrii makes it both easier and harder to teach humans but, she managed.  She didn’t only teach humans though, a lot of teachers only teach one race because everyone’s so different it’s hard to teach them in one class.  But she had elf students, dwarves, even trolls!  I remember her telling me once, elves took to magic very easily, the dwarves struggled but were too stubborn to give up until they got it, and the trolls would only learn the ones they wanted to.”

“Yes, trolls tend to be that way.” said the king, emerging from behind one of the shelves with a small box of batteries.  They heard a small sneeze and saw that Ann was awake.  She walked over and held Leona's hand.

“What’s for breakfast?” she asked, looking around at everybody.

“Um, let’s see.”  Leona led her to one of the shelves of food.  “Do you like…raisons?  And maybe…peach preserves?  I’m afraid there’s not much down here as far as variety.”

“That’s okay.” The princess shrugged and took a bag of raisons off the shelf. 

“You know what?  How would you like some pancakes instead?”  Leona asked, grinning down at Ann.

“Really?”

“Leona, you know they must have an army out there, if you go up they’ll see you through the windows.”  The king pointed out.

“Ah, but who said anything about going upstairs?  Trust me, pancakes are my specialty!”  She clapped her hands and they heard a clang from upstairs.  “Oops, knocked over the toaster.”  They looked at her and saw that her eyes seemed strangely clouded over.  “Where’d that pan go…?” she muttered to herself.  Before long they heard her exclaim, “Okay!  Done!”  She clapped her hands again and with a flash of light a table landed roughly on the ground with pancakes, syrup, and places for four set.  “Oh, right.”  Another clap and flash of light and there were four chairs as well.

“Leona, are you sure you should be wasting your magic and energy like this?”  Queen Karolyn asked.  “What if we were to run into something dangerous, we have no means of self-defense, you will need your strength.” 

“Nah, I used this spell so many times as a kid I could do it in my sleep.  Oh wait, I think I have once…I was dreaming I was at a fancy restaurant and when I woke up I had the table in my room with a complete eight course meal on top.”

Ann laughed and Queen Karolyn sat down at the table. 

“Jacob?  Won’t you like something to eat as well?”  Queen Karolyn asked her husband.

“No, I’m not hungry at the moment.” 

“Something wrong?”  Leona asked.  He didn’t answer right away and when he did it was with another question,

“Leona, you said something about a secret base?”

“Yup, that’s where we’re headed.”

“But, I should be somewhere I’m needed!  The castle or…or somewhere!  I’m needed by the kingdom!  I’m responsible for the lives of my people and I’m running away…”

“Is that what you think we’re doing?”  Leona asked, a slight form of shock in her voice.  “I never run away and I would never help anyone else either!  This is part of the plan!  If something happens, if there’s an attack on the castle, everybody meets at the base to form a plan!  Even all your military leaders know that plan!  The first person who finds you takes you there and…and…shh…”  She held up a hand and listened.  “Okay, time to go!” 

“What’s wrong?”  King Jacob asked.





“They…they found themselves a Khrii.”  Leona jumped up and grabbed one of the packs next to the small, covered table.  “Let’s go!”  She ripped off the sheet and revealed a small, stone well with a wooden cover on the top.  She lifted off the wooden cover to show a long, dark hole with a ladder leading down.  The Queen Karolyn went first, followed by King Jacob and then Princess Ann.  Leona rushed to the back of the basement and grabbed a large, yellow, plastic looking backpack before following down the ladder.  The princess had her broken button out and they were waiting near a small, locked door.  When Leona got down she pulled out a necklace that was hidden under her shirt.  The chain was long and slightly rusted.  She pulled it over her head and grabbed the charm that was on the end.  The image of a tiger shone from her hands.  She pressed he tail into the small keyhole and heard it click.  She pushed the door open and King Jacob led Ann into the room.  As Queen Karolyn passed Leona stopped her.  “This is the family crest.”  She said, handing her the necklace.  “It will unlock any door you run into.”

“Aren’t you coming?”  Queen Karolyn asked.

“I’ll catch up, with a Khrii they’ll be in here within seconds and down this ladder, you won’t make it unless I slow them down!”

“Leona…”

“Don’t worry; they won’t even know it’s me.”  With a wink and a smile Leona vanished from sight.  “Stay on the path, then follow the river.”  She whispered as Queen Karolyn walked through the doorway.  She climbed the ladder while maintaining her invisibility.  She walked to the basement door and slowly opened it.  She quietly stepped onto the stairs, closing the door behind her; she could hear voices coming from the direction of the window.  She walked across the room to the window and looked out.  Somebody had broken it.  There was a man outside, a Khrii, possibly twenty years old, who was talking to a dwarf of the north.  The northern dwarves were not on good terms with the southern dwarves and the city of Orima, where they currently were, was right in between the two Dwarven main cities.  Orima tried to stay out of their disputes, stay neutral with both, but by the looks of things it hadn’t worked.

“How do you know the king’s in there?” the Khrii demanded the dwarf.

“Well sir, there haven’t been any other reports have there?”

“That doesn’t mean the king was here!” he snapped, “Did you actually see him?”

“N-no, we just saw a girl, one of your kind.  One of my men fired but missed.”

“Yes you’ve told me this already!  She did a spell to blind you!”  He smirked now.  “Serves you right, you should’ve known you can’t kill a Khrii with a mere gun.”  He walked to the door.  “So they put a loyalty spell on the place.  Impressive.”  He walked back down the doorsteps and as he passed the dwarf he said, “Blow it up, use all the explosives you’ve got.”

“Yes sir.”  Leona ran to the front door and threw it open, running outside and around to the back.  She found a dwarf gathering various explosions and placing them around the house.  She quietly went to each one and touched it, making it instantly dead.

“Whenever you’re ready.” The Khrii told the dwarf who pushed a button and watched as nothing happened.  “What’s wrong?”

“It isn’t working.

“I can see that!  Make it work!”

Leona smiled and began searching for where they kept their explosives.  Her house was in the woods, it would be unlikely anyone notice the strangers here, it would be all up to her.  She touched a box and could feel them inside.  There was a strong lock on it but it fell off with a touch of the finger.  She quietly lifted the lid enough to reach a hand inside.  All the explosives were now disarmed. She closed the lid and put the lock back on.  The Khrii had been walking by, apparently too frustrated to keep talking to the dwarves.  He heard the click of the lock and turned his head, staring strait at Leona, who froze.

“Dwarves!”  He called, his lips slowly curving into a vicious smile.  “We’ve got a little Khrii on our hands.”

She stood up to quickly leave but she found that she couldn’t move.  It was as if gravity was intent on crushing her.  She fell to her knees, her back now to the Khrii, and could feel the invisibility spell evaporate. 

“Well, well, well!”  He whispered in her ear.  She was still unable to move, to face him or, even better, punch him and run!  “Finally decided to come out and play?”

“Yes, I like games.  Unfortunately you don’t have any pizza, so I was just about to leave.  Everyone knows you can’t game without pizza!”  Leona’s heart was beating rapidly but her voice remained strong.  He laughed.

“What a shame!  I suppose you’re right,” he walked around to face her as he spoke, “nothing makes a party like pizza.”

“How about you let me go and get some?  Do you prefer pepperoni or cheese?”  He laughed again and then knelt down in front of her, to clearly see her face.

“How old are you?”

“Why does that matter?  Afraid I don’t have my license yet?”

“No, I’m sure you are highly qualified for pizza delivery, but you are also very skilled in magic.  I ask again, how old are you?” a small dagger appeared in his hand now and he held it to her throat.  Leona noticed that several dwarves had gathered around her, forming something of a circle.  She glared into his cold, steel eyes.

“Sixteen.”

“A fine age.  What’s your name?”  She felt the cold edge of the knife cut slightly into her skin.

“Leona.”

“A beautiful name,” he said as he stood up, “perfect for such a beautiful face.”  

Leona’s temper was just about as high as it could get.

“Now, I have a couple of questions for you.”

“And if I refuse to answer?”

“Do you want to find out?”

“Fine…I’ll answer your questions, but for every question you ask me, I get to ask you one.”

“Fair enough.  Stand.”  As soon as the word escaped his mouth she felt the same force keeping her still making her stand; she felt like a puppet.  “Bring my guest a chair!”  He called to one of the dwarves who hurriedly nodded and left to fetch one.

“I’d rather stand.”  Leona said.

“Yes, I’m sure you would, however I’m sure you know that Khrii have limits and I’d rather not waste my energy trying to keep you from killing yourself.”

“Why would I kill myself?”

“Oh you wouldn’t, not intentionally anyways, but if you run then it’s as good as suicide, wouldn’t you say?  Now sit.”  Leona hadn’t noticed the dwarf’s return but he apparently had as she felt herself being pushed into a chair.  Ropes were immediately tying her to the chair around her waist, wrists, and ankles.  Finally she felt the force being lifted from her.  “You were fighting that the entire time, weren’t you?” he said as he released the spell.  She noticed him panting slightly.  “Again, I’m impressed with you.  Now, the first question; where is the king?”

“I don’t know, he was at the feast when you attacked, that’s all I can tell you.”

“You are an excellent little liar now aren’t you!  These dwarves say they saw you with him!”

“If I am an excellent liar than you are amazing!  I heard them talking to you, ‘we just saw a girl, one of your kind,’ ‘Yes you’ve told me, she did a spell to blind you’” Leona imitated.

“Where is the king?!”

“I don’t know!”  She felt an intense pain on the side of her face as he hit her with the bottom of his knife.  She was dazed for a moment but she saw the handle.  “That knife…”

“Yes,” he grinned, “the knife of Amber.”

“You don’t deserve that…” she said through gritted teeth.

“No, perhaps not.  Still, it rests with me and I will use it, now, the next question is yours to ask.”

“Who are you?”  Leona could feel the place he had hit her beginning to bruise and swell.

“My name is Odin; I am a Khrii, like you, and the leader of this pleasant organization.”  He gestured around at the dwarves.  “Now my next question, what are you doing here?”

“Currently, I’m sitting here answering stupid questions.”

“You know, your sense of humor is really starting to get on my nerves.”

“I try.”  She gave him a very sarcastic smile.

“Now, you still owe me an answer.”

“This is my home!  I’ve lived here my entire life!  What do you think I was doing here, robbing the place?”

“Enough with your sarcasm please!”

“Please?  Oh, you’re such a gentleman, next thing you know you’ll be asking me to dance!”  She felt a pain like nothing she had ever felt before, coming from her heart and pumping through her entire body.  Everything went black, was she going to die?  Suddenly it all vanished.  Her head was hanging and her body still ached.  She was panting and sweating and could barely think strait.

“You made me lose my temper.  You do not want to provoke me Leona.  Let that be your lesson for the day.”  She felt all the cords binding her abruptly slacken, so fast she fell forward onto the ground.  Her head spun and she was too occupied breathing to try and stand.  There was some sort of commotion going on, yelling and shooting, then someone helped her up, put her arm around their shoulders and bound away.  Within the blink of an eye they were far away from that torturous experience. 

She was being put down gently.  She was sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. 

“Why must this always happen to me?”  She asked, half to herself.

“It does, doesn’t it?” replied a familiar voice.  Leona looked up and saw a boy, her age, with scruffy, brown hair with leaves in it.  His clothes were flexible and loose, with random patches of green and grown, made to camouflage with the environment, and leaves attached at strategic places to help break up his outline.

“Chase?”  She asked, amazed.  Her throat was unusually sore and her voice was hoarse.

He nodded, “I heard you screaming.”  Screaming?  She realized she must have been during those excruciating ten seconds.  “Leona, what’s going on?  Who was that and why was he…hurting you, like that?”

“I don’t even know what’s going on anymore…His name is Odin and he apparently organized the attack on the castle.”  She suddenly remembered who it was she was talking to.  “I could’ve handled that myself you know!”  She burst out.  “Everything was under control!”   Finally her voice cracked and she broke down in tears.  Only once had Chase ever seen her show any sign of weakness before.  He moved to comfort her and she leaned on his shoulder and cried into his shirt.  “Why is all this happening?” she sobbed, “first Mom dies, and now this!  She’d know what to do; I can’t handle this on my own!  And now the castle is under attack and last I saw Dad was trapped in the kitchen!  I can’t do this, I’m not…I’m not strong enough…”

“It’s okay, please, don’t cry.”  This was rather awkward behavior for Leona, especially around Chase; she always acted like she hated his guts!  “You’re the strongest Khrii I’ve heard of, and not just that, you’re the strongest person I know Leona.  Your father will be fine, you’ll see.”

“The king and queen and Ann, they’re all counting on me!  I don’t know what to do…I can lead them to the base but…can I protect them?”



“Leona, you don’t have to do it all alone!  You have friends all over the place!  You…you could have called for me earlier if you really needed, anytime you need you know I’m there for you…” he said this last part very quietly, as if he was afraid of what she’d say.  “Now, enough crying!  We’ve got a royal family to protect!  We can’t have a baby on our mission!”  He said, recalling their childhood.  She laughed.

“You’re right,” she said, wiping her eyes, “I guess that means you’ll have to stay behind then.”  They both laughed.  “How long has it been?  A year?”

“Two actually.”

“Hmm, you’ve gotten taller.”

“Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you.”

“Shut up!” she laughed and nudged him.  “No offense, but you used to be a real jerk!  A real Mr. Egotistical Show-off actually!”

“Oh I know I was!” his turn to laugh. “And you were a baby!”

“Well that may be, but I think we should get going.”

“Yeah ok.”  They stood up and clasped hands.  “You ready?”

“You bet.” 

He smiled and then Leona felt as though she was being dragged along at a speed so fast she couldn’t see anything around her, which was actually accurate because that is what was happening.  They came to an abrupt stop and both fell over.

“Sorry,” he said, helping her up, “it’s been awhile since I’ve done that with somebody, kind of out of practice.”  They were still in the woods, but by a river now.  The sky was covered in black clouds of smoke and made it seem later then it was.

“Leona!”  Ann came running up and hugged Leona around the waist. 

“How,” King Jacob walked up to where they were, “do you always end up in front of us?  And what happened?”  He asked, noticing the bruise on the right side of her face, between her eye and ear, and the small cut on her neck.

“I, I discovered how strong that Khrii was.”  Leona looked at her feet, the first sign of humility since they met her.

“And who is this young man?”  Queen Karolyn asked.

“Oh!  This is Chase, he’s a friend of mine, we kind of grew up together.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Chase.”  Queen Karolyn said, giving a slight nod of the head.

“Please, the pleasure is truly mine Your Majesty!”  Chase replied, giving a low bow.

“Oh brother!”  Leona rolled her eyes.  “I discovered that this Khrii’s name is Odin, he stirred up the northern dwarves and led the attack on the castle.  Why, I don’t know, the dwarves will gain a lot more land, so I can see how they’ll profit, but this guy, I really have no idea.”  She shook her head.  “Magic isn’t supposed to be used for evil, it was never meant to, but he is really something different from…anything I’ve heard of.  His power is, unbelievable, and he’s so young!  We have to stop him, now, or I’m not sure we will ever be able to.”

“Well,” King Jacob said, after a slight pause.  “Has the plan changed?  Are we heading to the base or to war?  I’m leaving it up to you Leona.”

“Me?  Well, we can’t waste anytime, it’ll take awhile to get to the base, but that’s where anybody who escaped the castle will be headed.  I don’t know!  It’s like we need somebody to go to the base and…somebody else…to go…” she slowly stopped.  The king had a twinkle in his eye; this is obviously what he was planning.  “You want to go fight, while we go to the base, don’t you?”

“Exactly.”

“But, King Jacob-”

“Leona, we’ve been through a lot in the past twenty-four hours, I prefer Jake.”

“Okay…Jake then, I’m responsible for your life, it sounds weird, I know, but it’s true!  You can’t beat this guy on your own, I can’t even beat him!  I doubt I could scratch him!  The truth is, if Chase hadn’t come, I…I would not be standing here trying to tell a king not to do something that he’s going to do anyway.”  She smiled.  “Fine, but I want Chase to come with you, his mom’s a Khrii so he has some power.  Just go back to the castle, help where you can, we’ll head to the base.”

Jacob bent down to Ann’s height.  “You be strong, okay?” he said, “I’ll be back with you soon, I promise.” He stood and looked into the eyes of his wife.  He squeezed her hand and then turned to Chase.  “Do you know the way?”

“I can get you there in a blink.”

“All right.”  He looked back at his family one last time before grabbing Chase’s hand and vanishing.  The small group of three stood for a moment before Leona spoke.

“How would you like a faster way to the base?  I may not move at the speed of light, but I have friends all over.”  She walked over to the river and touched the water.  “Ariana?  I need your help again.”  From out of the water, almost immediately, a girl appeared, standing on top of the river.

“What is it this time Leona?”  She sounded rather bored and spoke in a monotonous tone.  Her skin had a sea green tint and her hair was a dark blue.  Her black eyes shone and dilated in the bright sun.

“I was just wondering if you could possibly give us a ride up river?”

“And why,” she sighed, “would I ‘possibly’ do that?  You already woke me up once to save your life and you know I’m not even supposed to be interacting with you humans-”

“Khrii.”

“Whatever.”

“Please?” Leona looked up at Ariana with an over exaggerated melancholy look on her face.  Ariana sighed.

“Fine.”  She said.  “But you owe me.”  She walked across the water until she was halfway to the other side and then fell into the blue.  A moment later and the water had started to bubble.  A large, ridged, purple surface grew out of the bubbles.  It rose until they could see it was a large clam shell.  Arian jumped out of the water and stood on top as it slowly drifted toward the land.  “There,” she said, jumping off to stand next to Leona.  The shell opened slowly and revealed a large, soft cushion within.  “how’s that?”

“Perfect!  Thank you Ariana!”

Ariana half smiled and then dove back into the water.

“Okay, let’s go!”  Leona said and hopped into the shell.  It was big enough for all of them to fit comfortably, plus some!  Once they were all in and seated the top slowly went down and it fell dark.  Ann took the button out of her pocket and looked around as they felt themselves sinking below the water.

“Wow!” she said, looking at the ceiling.  It was a sparkling rainbow above them.

“Leona?” Karolyn asked, “was she an Antaquae?” 

“No, not really.  True Antaquae died out hundreds of years ago; Ariana is kind of like what’s left after the Antaquae, like a mix between them and Khrii, sort of.  It’s hard to explain, but she’s called an Anquee.  You uh, might want to brace yourself.”  Suddenly they felt the shell jolt forward.  Ann had fallen backwards it was so strong, but she was laughing.  It wasn’t long until they came to a stop, however.  As it slowed it rose out of the water and then opened.  Leona jumped out and helped Karolyn and Ann out as well.  They were in a much thinner part of the woods now, looking back at where they were before they could see that they had gone several miles and had even scaled a waterfall.  “She couldn’t take us all the way; this is where her territory ends so it would have been considered trespassing.”  Leona said wisely.  The sun was directly above them as it tried to shine through the clouds of smoke that still ruled the sky.  “Come on,” Leona said, leading them under some trees, “we’re right out in the open by the river.  Want some lunch?”  She opened her backpack and started rummaging through it.  “It looks like I grabbed all the emergency supplies, first-aid kit, a water canteen, flashlight, the works, but no food.  How about you?”  She asked Karolyn.

“Well, I have cooking supplies, a blanket, compass…Jake must have the pack with all the food!”

“I brought raisins!”  Ann piped up.  “And walkie-talkies, and some peanuts, and tissues, more peanuts, some crackers, and a jar of dried rice!”

“Have you been carrying all that this whole time?” Leona asked, taking the rice from her.  “How old are you again?”

“Five!”  Ann laughed.  So Leona, being the chef, made lunch and they all enjoyed a meal of white rice mixed with raisins and peanuts with crackers on the side.