hear the Prince's voice through the walls of the house. I ignored my instinct of staying and listening and kept on moving. As I reached the back yard, I stopped in my tracks, not knowing where to go. I wasn't sure whether to run the way I was for sure the Prince wouldn't go or the way he would go. My gut told me to go right, the Prince would never go in that direction. Mainly because it goes deeper into the abandoned village where the street rats live. I started walking that way when I heard a girl scream; it was Haley. I twisted around and ran as fast as I could to her. I was so concentrated on getting to her that I didn't see Daniel jump out the window. He grabbed me before I could expose myself. He lifted me on his back and ran the opposite way from the girls. I started to cry, knowing I couldn't help them. The Prince ran across the backyard to the left where there was a small forest that hid a bridge connecting the village to my own abandoned village. The small army barely came into my blurry vision by the time the trees swallowed us. You could hear their heavy steps coming our way. The Prince continued to run. Instead of going across the bridge he threw us into a mud river that flowed under it. I held my mouth close, knowing we had to wait until the army passed us. I felt the Prince grab my hand and pull me up. I gasped for air and went back down. Once again he pulled me up. I heard him say, " stay up until they come closer." The only sound was their steps coming our way and the silent sobs of three frightened girls. I began to shake; out of anger, fear, or just the cold mud against my skin I was not sure. The Prince pulled me down when the leaves of a near by bush started to rattle. You could hear their steps hitting the ground and crossing the bridge. This lasted a couple of minutes but even when they stopped we waited. When I knew I could last no longer and was sure they were gone. I grabbed the Prince's hand and signaled him it was ok to go up. Our heads both came up at the same time. I let his hand go and crawled to land. I laid my back against the ground and watched as the Prince did the same. I sighed and closed my eyes. I started to fall asleep when there was a sharp scream from far away. It came from my head and I started to cry to myself. I let them take my babies away. I didn't fight for them. " Christal, are you okay?" My eyes opened and I saw a dark figure above me. Shocked, I screamed, rolled away and jumped to my feet. I ripped a branch off a tree and held it in front of me. It wouldn't help much if he attacked but it was better than not having anything at all. " Who are you?" The man held his hands up in surrender. " It's okay! It's me, Daniel." The name Daniel made my anger flare. I dropped the branch and ran towards him. I jumped on him and pounded my fist against him. " You stupid man! I hate you!!!!" He grabbed my wrist and somehow got me on my back. " Christal, what is wrong?" " You! You are wrong!" I yelled, crying at the same time. He held me in that position until I calmed down. " Christal, I am very confused to why you are so angry with me. What have I done?" " I....I told you I knew those girls." " How? They are filthy street rats." " I'm a street rat!" I cried out. He let me go as he sat back down on the ground. I couldn't tell his expression because he was covered in mud. I got up to go when he mumbled something. I stop and stared down at him. " What did you say?" " I'm sorry I couldn't help you." " Couldn't?" I glared down at him. His green eyes met mine. I walked around him. " You could of....but you chose not to." " Christal, it's not like that." " What is it like then?" I shot at him. He covered his face with his hands and quickly slammed his hands back down. " Is there anyway to take this mud off?" I rolled my eyes. " Use a leaf, your heinous." He got up and grabbed a big green leaf off a tree. I couldn't hold back a smile as he started to wipe himself. Leaf after leaf he used but no progress showed. " Er, I don't think it's helping." I started to laugh. " You're an idiot." I fell to the ground laughing. He dropped the leaf that was in his hand and laughed with me. We ended up on the ground again. It was the first time in years that I had laughed and it felt great. Daniel touched my cheeks as I giggled harder. He pulled his hand away and smiled. " What," I said after a while of him smiling at my face. I touched my cheek and felt a leaf on it. A ripple of laughter escaped my mouth. Daniel chuckled and watched me laugh. I covered my face. " Why are you hiding?" he asked. " I can't stop laughing." He grabbed my hands and removed them. He stared down at me with those angel green eyes. My laughing started to slow down. " You are more beautiful when you laugh." " You can't even see my face behind this mud," I stated. He smiled. " I meant your spirit." I sighed. " I don't even have a spirit anymore." " You do and it's beautiful." He slowly leaned down and gave me a small kiss on my lips. My heart raced. He then let go of my hands. " I'm sorry. Go ahead and hit me." I surprised him and myself when I reached up and pulled his lips back to mine. His lips were caked with mud. I started to kiss him slowly. He kissed me back but then stopped. He pulled away and spat out something brown. " I'm sorry. I had mud in my mouth." I laughed. " Dirty mouth? What would your dad say?" Daniel laid back down on his back and clenched his fist. I sat up wondering what I said that was so wrong. " Why are you mad?" " Because," he said , forcefully. " All my life, the people I called father and mother were never really my parents. They lied to me. I learn to be disgusted with my own people. I'm furious why my father never told me the truth....I'm also furious as to why he ran my people out." I watched him stare up at the already clear sky. His face was covered with dry, thick mud that was cracked on his forehead. Underneath that mud, he was in deep thought. I also noticed his fist were clenched up. I wasn't sure whether to interrupt him or not. Why do I care? I asked myself. I still felt this pain as I asked, " I'm confused. Why are you mad again?"
Daniel- Finally Getting Through
I heard her question but I didn't answer right away. I took a breath and tried to think of a way to ignore the question. I didn't feel like explaining again. She should of listened the first time. Christal hit my leg. My anger towards my father was starting to over flow. I clenched my fist again. Christal became more impatient. She began tapping my foot. I tried to speak casual but there was an edge to my voice. " What?" "Why are you mad?" she repeated. I sat up and simply glared at her. " You really don't know? After I just told you?" "No. Now tell me." she met my eyes. I continued to glare. " My father, that's why I'm mad." She looked lost for a while but then shook her head. " You told me that already but thats all you told me. I didn't- well I don't really know what exactly happened so to me you have no reason to be mad." "Oh," was all I could say. I couldn't meet her eyes while I told her the story. When I finished telling her, she didn't speak. I was forced to meet her eyes then. They showed no emotion. Neither did her face. I touched her cheek. Some dry mud came off. I smiled. " Where can we get cleaned?" " You can use a leaf again,if you want,but there's a river near."Her voice was flat. I sighed, annoyed by her sudden change of emotion and got up. I held out my hand to help her up but she ignored it and got up by herself. We started walking along the mud river. By the time we exited the forest and entered the backyard of the house we were just in , I could hear clean running water. As we got closer, Christal kept looking back at me. When we reached the river, Christal took off her shirt. Shocked, I stared. She turned toward me. She was practically naked. I started smiling. "Well are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna get in the water?" I tried to speak but I couldn't. Instead I slipped off my own shirt and jumped into the cold water. The second I stuck my head out the water, I felt refreshed. I looked around and noticed Christal was next to me. She was washing her shirt. I grabbed my shirt off the dry ground and tried to wash it. Luckily, Christal felt some sympathy and washed it for me. I thanked her and began scrubbing mud off my chest and my stomach. At first, I didn't notice someone staring at me. I smiled as I noticed who it was. " Do you like the view?" Christal blushed and turned away. I laughed and went back to cleaning myself. When I finished cleaning the top part of my body, I took off my pants and boxers and threw them on the ground. I quickly finished and began washing my boxers. I embarrassed her. Now she's mad at me. I laughed to myself and pulled on my boxers. Christal was already pulling on her shirt. I frowned. I wanted to see more. Christal saw and smiled. She put her hands on her hips that I was able to see just seconds ago and said, " what's wrong? Were you enjoying the view?" I laughed and nodded. " Yeah, I was but....you were too, now weren't you?" She turned red and shook her head. "No, it wasn't like that." I walked toward her. She bit her bottom lip but didn't move. I wrapped my arms around her back and pulled her toward me. I wanted her badly. I brought her face to mine
Comments (0)