The Throne Of Aurora

The Ones Finding Their Home

One night, Alger woke up with a deep breath, his heart pounding harder and harder, almost like he ran thousands of miles. He attempted to take a few sips of water, but it spilled all over him, saturating his T-shirt, which was already damp with sweat. "Deep breathes" he said to himself. 

"Breath in.... Hold......Exhale....", just like his father taught him. He closed his eyes and focused on the rithmic rise and fall of his chest, untill he was calm again. He took his lighter and a tealight from a glass jar, which was filled with them, and lighted one. A sandalwood scent covered the whole room within a few minutes. Alger took a second deep breath, filing his lungs with fresh air as his belly started raising, touching his wet T-shirt. He looked at the ceiling filled with glow-in-the-dark stars, which were nearly as beautiful as the real ones. 

He laughed. Probably at himself, and stretched his arm to take a book from the same wooden nightstand he took the lighter and the tealight. The book he was about to read for the nineth time that week. 

"Where are we?" they all asked at the same time. They looked at themselves, trying to find a road from the big forest, made out of big trees which were carved with runes they had never seen before. The huge branches and leaves were absorbing all the light coming from the sun, making the numerous fireflies under the trees more remarkable.

Orio stood up; "What is this place?" they all quickly got on their feet, trying to find a way through the bushes that were trapping them between the trees. Orio spoke.

"Man, we really weren't supposed to read that-"Esin, once again, closed Orio's mouth shut. 

"Shh, do you hear that?" 

It was the sound of horses, horse carriages, multiple of them. 

Arvel took a big branch on his hand, pushing the bushes away. He made a small hole in the bush, creating a clear vision to the road. 

"What is that?" Arvel knelt down to see through the bush. There were five carriages, all  been ridden by a a group of men, wearing an old, royal uniform made out of a thick, black blazer and a bunch of gold details on the shoulder. "Who are they?" They kept asking question they couldn't answer to. 

"Should we go and ask them where we are?" asked Alyan.

"No! Did you lost your mind? look at them, they're all wearing these weird clothes, we will attract much attention." said Orio.

Alyan sighed. "So what are you planning to do?"

"Look" he pointed the traces that the carriages left. "we will follow them."

No one disagreed; they all knew that there was no other choice left for them. They waited a few minutes, for the carriages to pass, and slowly but carefully took the bushes out of their way and went on the road. The road was only made out of hardened rocks and sand and was decorated by bushes and vines with purple and white berries, almost looking like grapes, creating a sweet scent. They were following them for a few minutes now, when all of a sudden, Orio, who was in front everyone, leading the way out, stopped. 

"The traces dissappeared." Everyone looked at Orio, hoping that he knew what happened.

"Well, they couldn't have dissappeared right?" asked Esin.

Katja grimaced. "Looks like everything can happen in this place." 

Arvel pointed somewhere between the trees. "Is that, light?"

They all looked there, a warm, yellow light filtered between the branches that were meters above their head. They all took a deap breath in, and started walking faster towards the light. When they reached the light, they saw the end of the road, ended by an edge who was creating a beautiful view to a big village. Which was decorated with a small river and stones.