• Chapter 2
    tab Eliy is awoken by a thunderous snore emitted from the direction of her bed. She turns to find the man, Edward, lying there. She looks out the window to find that the moon is still high in the sky; little time has passed since her last excursion. In that moment she decided on what to do. She hastily throws off her cloak, and turns to grab her bag. Then something catches her eye. Edward's arm lies limply off the edge of the bed. Upon his hand rests Eliy's grandmother's ring. She moves forward and lightly grabs his hand. She tries to pull the ring off of him. He slightly stirs beneath his sheets and pulls his hand away. Eliy had two options: either wake Edward by trying to take the ring, or leave without it. If she wanted to get away, it would have to be now, she would never get another chance. If she stays her fate would be sealed, she would be stuck by the side of this guy until he tossed her aside. She moves towards the window, and with one last look at her home, she leaves.
    tab Scaling down the side of the house was easy for her by now. She had done it so many times, it was effortless. Growing on the side of the house was a vine which provided itself as a ladder for her. She lands on the ground and starts running. She had already planted in her mind the one place she wanted to go tonight. It was the one place that she had wished she could walk in ever since she came to this town -- the castle. Home of the royal family and the most precious jewels to be found in this country. She had always been entranced by the castle. Not just because of the jewels, though they certainly were a part of it, something else drew her there. She felt that she belonged there-- a feeling she never had anywhere else.
    tab The castle would be hard to break into, not to mention having to break back out, but it was her last chance and she knew she had to take it. High walls surround the castle, but luckily -- so did high trees. She grabs onto a tree branch and begins to climb. After she was high enough up, she leapt over the wall. One obstacle down, a dozen more to go. She ran to the side of the castle. Finding a way through the stone walls was hard enough, but having to avoid a swarm of guards as well made it impossible. Well -- almost impossible. She walks around the perimeter of the castle, staying as close to the stone walls as possible. She had finally found what she had been looking for. A vine, much like the one on the side of her house, wound its way up the side of the wall and stopped just inches away from a window. It seemed as if the plants wanted her to succeed as much as she did. She starts her climb up the wall and enters the castle.
    tab The window was higher up than she expected and fell from it onto the castle floors, knocking something over in the process.
    tab “What was that?” she heard a voice say. It must have been one of the guards she thought. Her only option-- to run further into the castle before she could get caught. She unsteadily gets up and starts running down the corridor opposite from where she had heard the voice. She pauses to look around for some sort of hiding place.
    tab “There must be an intruder in the castle. Quickly order all guards to search for the intruder.”
    tab “But sir, all are currently searching for--”
    tab “I know, but if someone has entered to hurt the prince…the intruder comes first.”
    tab “Yes sir.” Now she knew all the guards would be alert to her presence. She begins to looks for a way out of the castle. She opens a door near her trying to find an escape route. When she peers in the room, it is not an escape route she found, but the other thing she had been searching for. The treasure trove was right in front of her eyes. She walks in, stunned by the amount of gold and silver was in the room. She walks over to one of the tables on the side of the room. On that table lay an assortment of jewelry. She picks up an old looking ring and places it on her finger. It was indeed luxurious, but it was not her grandmother’s ring. She takes it off and stuffs it into her pocket. Then she strolls over to another pile of jewelry, this time a necklace. It was indeed a very beautiful necklace. Perhaps too beautiful…it had taken all of her focus and she did not hear the guards till it was too late. One of the guards grabs her and pins her on the ground.
    tab “A woman?!”
    tab “Must be after the royal jewelry.”
    tab “What shall we do with her sir?”
    tab “Under normal circumstances I would suggest the punishment for entering the royal family’s vault. I suppose it is a lucky day for her. Take her to the dungeon!” Two of the guards take Eliy to the dungeon and throw her in a cell then slam the door behind them.
    tab “A dungeon huh? Well I suppose that I would have wound up in one of these anyway. But I wonder why they put me in a dungeon. It is not the normal sentence for stealing from the royal family.” She tried to stifle a yawn. Her lack of sleep started to catch up to her. “I suppose if I am to be held in here I can at least take a nap.” she said as she laid her head against the wall.