A Rogue and A Royal

The Traitors

It was early in the morning, and Moonlight, the eldest princess of the North, was walking deep into the woods. Instead of wearing her usual flowing red dress, she wore a short black dress and black boots that reached her knees. She walked up to a tree and pulls on a branch, opening up a secret passageway next to the tree marked with a black circle. Moonlight walks down a deep passageway, and it shut behind her. The tree branch snaps back into place. 

At the same time, Goth exited the castle. She just wore a white loose tank top with a skull design on the back, black shorts, long white socks with black stripes that reached her knees, and black high tops. Goth's messy, long, and bright blue hair was tied up in a loose ponytail. She wore a short necklace with a small hourglass gem charm on it. Both of the guards at the door look at her, and they salute, putting their swords at their sides as they saluted. 

"Oh, no need to be so formal!" Goth remarked playfully, "I'm only going out for a quick run not to have a meeting with your boss! Loosen up a bit!" The guards stare at her and stop saluting. "That's better! Now then, I'm gonna go now, good luck!" she said as she ran off into the woods. As she ran, she plugged her headphones into her phone in her pocket and listened to music. She kept leaping from tree to tree and then lept back onto the road to keep running from time to time. She stops as she passed a tree with a black circle on it. 

Goth walked over and looks at the tree astonishingly, wondering who, or what made this marking. She gently traced her finger over the black circular marking expecting something to happen, but nothing happened. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and takes a picture of the marking and the tree.

"Albert! Come to me!" Goth commands. Nothing happened for a solid minute, then suddenly, a wooden staff flies to Goth, and she holds it. The staff had a wooden owl carved carefully onto the top. The owl carving was decently small and was perched on the top of the staff with its wings wrapped around it gently. Goth twists the carving off of the staff, and its wings spread, and it became sentient. The cute small owl flapped its wings and looked at Goth with its large yellow eyes. The owl shook and the staff and the owl turn a pretty snowy white. 

"Awww that's really adorable, but I need you to do something for me," Goth says. Albert looks at Goth and tilts its head sideways. "I need you to fly around a bit and tell me if you spot any creatures who could have made that marking while I investigate the tree, okay?" she says as she points at that tree. Albert hoots happily, spreads his wings and flies off. 

As Albert flew around the area looking for a creature, Goth climbs up the tree and examines it. She didn't find anything suspicious. It was just a tree to her. Goth grabs onto a branch and hangs on it, trying to think. Albert swoops down a few seconds later with a worm in its mouth.

"Albert... worms can't make these markings on trees! But at least it's something, I'll give you that much. The tree looks completely normal. I guess it's just some cruel vandalism..." Goth sighed, and the tree branch she was on bent down, like a lever, and it opened the secret passage Moonlight went into. Goth smiles happily as she looked at Albert. Goth lets go and lands on her feet. "Nevermind Albert! We got an adventure to go on! Quickly, get on the staff!" Goth ordered, and Albert goes back into position on the staff, and Goth picks him up and twists him back on, turning him back into that wooden carving. She quickly ran into the passageway and it shut behind her.

The passageway so far was very dark, and it was a bunch of steps spiraling down deep underground. She made sure her steps were quiet, so if anyone was down here, she would not be heard. She looked around nervously, and kept her steps and breathing quiet. Two men started talking and walking up the stairs. She heard this then kept to the shadows and had this strange gleam in her eye. She teleports a dagger to her. The dagger had a blood-red handle and a slightly curved silver blade, the edges were somewhat stained in purple, clear, and red blood. The two men walk past her and Goth straps her staff to her back and cuts both of the men's necks. She caught them before their corpses could fall down the stairs and blow her cover. She teleports them away and sneaks down the steps, and slips past the guards.  After a while, a guard sneaks up behind Goth and picks her up by her neck. Goth struggles but it did nothing.

"ALBERT?! AWAKEN AND RUN TO OUR BROTHERS?!" Goth shouted. On the staff, Albert's eyes glow yellow, he goes sentient, takes Goths cell phone, holding it in his beak, reattached himself to the staff, his wings spread, and he flies away. The guard knocks Goth out and drops her to the ground, she was out cold. Moonlight walked down the hall and picks Goth up. She sighs and walks away carrying her. The guard ran after her. 

"Your highness... shouldn't we kill her? She has clearly seen too much," the guard asked.

"No. Because she won't escape. She's staying trapped down here." Moonlight replied, "I'll take her to the torture chamber... after that, we got some plans, plans to destroy the north... goodbye, see you when it's time..." and with that, she walked away, dragging Goth with her.

~End of Chapter 16~