The Key to the Golden Gate- part 2

She opened her eyes. The plants that hung from the boards on her roof now suede in the cool morning breeze. The frost that had once laid out, frosting the thin tips of the paper grass had now melted, the little drops of dew rolling down the blazes of grass in the morning dew. The crest of sun now rose over the sunburst horizon, shaded by the orange glow of the rising morning that dawned on the rooftops of the village. A raven's hawting crow rang out as it rang across the quiet village. She wiped her eyes and sat up.

The golden amulett shimmered in the peach rays of morning sun that rose over the dozy horizon. Skruff finally yaned, pulling herself up as she slipped into her shoes. It must have rained, she thought; as the boal under the pipe still lumered over the boat of liquid, nearly spewing over the brim of the basin. Walking over she stood near her desk, hunching over her shoulders as she looked down to gaze at the book; map laid out before her. She furrowed her brows, the ends of her lips nearly turning to begin to resemble a small smile. A spark lit in her eyes, a flash or orange glow that ran down her hands and into the tips of her fingers. She looked down at the map, closing her eyes. The dream was still fresh in her mind, as if skating gracefully across her thoughts. It was like painting a picture in her mind. A shimmering pool, a golder and red pool of water, little dots of starlight hovering above the pink and orange trees; alive with scouring animals, species once locked away for hundreds of years. A hidden world beyond the walls of the gate. It was said to be a legend, but the dream felt so real. She opened her eyes, and stood up. The thoughts of her dream still fresh in her mind. She looked out towards the brim of the forest. Her stomach felt like it had been twisted into a knot, looking out into the trees. She didn't think at that moment. Everything seemed so close to her. Each drop of dew that rolled off the leaves like an ocean of tears. The light in her eyes bent into a wolf that ran. Crossing the fields and cliff sides she imagined the wolf, its legs swift and silent; The freedom. Her stomach lurched again. A surge of energy that lit running up her feet and down her spine into her legs. The vibrations of the earth that shook her feet. The sounds and smells of the air. The- The words flew out of her mouth. “Freedom”. The map. She rushed towards her desk and rolled the map from her table, stowing it into a leather satchel.

Her eyes were narrow, the corners of her lips drew into a neutral frown and her brows raised. The amulett still glowing on her bedside sat swirling in orange and red. She felt her fingers pull towards it until the smooth stone was now in her grasps once more. Her fingers felt the stone. Its coldness pressing up against her hands. Her feet filled with buzzing excitement slowed as her feet froze at the end of her bed. She felt her eyes draw back to her room. Back as she began to ache until her nose tingles and her eyes began to feel heavy and red. Her home. Everything she's ever known; her heels to her home. As a young child growing up. The memories began to paint a picture in her mind. As days passed into months into years. Her toes outside her home. For her entire life she longer to see more. A strange sense of urgency, energy that felt her drawing towards the things hidden to most.Her fingers raped around into fists, letting the her heavy eyes bail into a river of water like dimond. She grabbed her wrist, feeling her scars on her wrist, running over the branded numbers in her wrist. Had she ever known who she was, maybe she'd have gone along with the grain, but something in her refused as she dug up the splinters. The surroundings became blurry as she felt her mind drift back into her memories.

The light in the bluff of darkness covered over her fuzzy eyes. A little girl with a brand on her wrist stood at the edge of a forest. No tears drew from her dry eyes. No sight of fear. Just a cold stillness that seemed to sit with her. On the outside to others, she was simply another thing. Quiet, silent; however, this cover would change. A spark in her cold grey eyes that no longer seemed to dull others. Still and silent. Calmed before the storm, but soon chasing the stars in the night. Reason and right no longer was a word but a story, a quest. Some sort of calling that hid behind her would later rise. Through the knowledge conield in her, she began to notice the little things that grew; not the way her feet came longer, or the thin wisps of her hair that grew into curly locks; the principle of the society. It had seemed as if rather than her growing, the world had begun to grow around her until the small walls that she once roamed in became confined and exiguous; meaning she had to find other ways to grow the cramped walls of what currently stood as the set of guidelines; not enforced but rather forced upon the people of her village. She stood at first still like a stalk but the walls around her began to crumble as she began to walk back against the grain of the law.

Slipping through the cracks of gates and running down the winding roads the escape shed run until the village had engraved itself like a map into the back of her mind. The first few times she had tried to sneak past the walls her success was short-lived and the troops would turn to capture her; however, as she grew she became accustomed to these lifestyles, not knowing what other life was like, nor the life from outside the gate of her home. Through the broken bars that held her ence, built back over and over again, the government that once took out her engaged soal eventually turned a blind eye and only did they chase her when they saw her as they passed through the streets. She was numbed to this by now, the bitter pain of losing everything she never had eventually numbed like the smoothness of a river rock warped over time.
A bush rustled and her mind snapped back from a blur into a sharp bright light called reality. Scruff shook her head back a bit and rubbed her eyes until the sharp light faded back into the place she'd been standing, gently wind blew as her surroundings came back, and back to her feet where she stood at the edge of her door. She looked out into the sky, bright blue spotted and trained by the fluffy wight that floated luminously in the sky. There was a slight twitch at the corners of her mouth, but her eyes were stone. The warn stone and creepers lay behind her- infront a blue and wight- A dirty road lay ahead of her, alone a path, hidden by stone and iron. Rocks melt in the horizon of orange that lay ahead the turn of the clock and the mist that rose from the earth that gave- blocked off. But there was so much ahead. The roads of stone that eroded into earth; pine needles that crunched beneath the feat and a blue horison that rose and fell from the sun. An open horizon that stretched from the corners of beginning to end. Open to the world. Free. All of it. Just behind these walls.