THUMP THUMP. THUMP THUMP. THUMP THUMP…
Alexander's heart began beating faster and faster, accompanied by a searing pain in his chest, as if he had been stabbed.
'I… I… How… How?!'
He stammered to himself a few times, gasping. The blood in his body was gradually getting hotter, bringing an unpleasant warmth to him.
"I always wanted to know about him, but my mother's memory loss kept me from having any real knowledge about him. This… This… This wasn't how I was supposed to find out…"
In an almost unconscious movement, filled with rage, he slammed his clenched fists on the ground. The impact was enough to knock down a few small stones nearby.
The soldiers fell silent and looked up. Alexander's carelessness was his undoing, for, in his desperation, he forgot that, as hard as it might be, anyone could be seen up there if they didn't at least try to hide.
"Damn it! They know my face and my mother's face… The curfew! Shit!"
He jumped up suddenly and ran home, but in the heat of the moment, he ignored the cruel and untimely bush in the middle of the path.
Smack!
He got his bare feet tangled in the small, thorny branches of one of the bushes…
'I just had to trip over the thorny branch!'
He struggled desperately, breaking free after a few minutes, not caring about hurting his feet in the process.
Fresh blood from wounds on his ankle and all over his foot left marks on the grass as he ran through the cold night wind.
He ran and jumped from the rocky incline, slipping on the dirt mixed with dead grass.
But he didn't care, got up, and kept running to the other side of the house… But he was surprised by cold-looking soldiers dragging his mother from inside the house, pouring out liters of blood, unrecognizable.
'How did they get here so fast?'
He slipped again, trying to stop suddenly, and, stumbling, ran back into the forest… He didn't even look back; his face, however, was twisting in strange expressions as a tear rolled down his dirt-smeared cheek.
Alexander ran… He ran… There was no breath left in his body, but still, he kept running, running so desperately that anyone seeing him would think he was some drunk lunatic.
He was running toward the left side of the forest, and slowly the terrain began to decline as he ran until there were no more trees…
He came across a narrow, silent river, dotted with stones of all possible sizes.
Without thinking much, Alexandre jumped onto one stone and then another, and in a leap of faith, jumped almost to the edge of the other side of the river, where there was a narrow slope, only to be met by more forest.
It was a dark night, and Alexander didn't have much to guide him except the moon and the stars, which were now obscured by thick, heavy clouds.
A few minutes later, he slowed his pace and realized he had already gotten quite far from the village.
Alexander then stopped for a moment, leaning on his legs, still panting heavily, when he was surprised by a light rain.
He leaned against an abnormally black oak tree and curled up, wishing everything was just a nightmare, while he cried.
With each passing second, the rain got stronger…
Alexander then stood up and, without haste, began walking aimlessly, staring at his feet…
His eyes were like those of a dead man, with the appearance of someone still alive.
He kept slowly walking through the strong and merciless rain, then, without strength, he fell to his knees on the ground and lay on his back, arms stretched out.
He just cried.
…
…
It was morning; birds chirped and sang sweetly and slightly melodically; a small group of eagles flew across the sky; the distant sound of a river's flowing waters.
For a brief moment, Alexander thought he was in a spring dream. His clothes were dry, and there was almost no mud or dirt on his body — the rain had washed everything away — and the cuts on his feet didn't throb with pain like before; his body was relaxed, and he felt as if he were in paradise.
Without hurry, Alexander stood up from the ground, feeling refreshed, and noticed how soft and warm the grass was.
He looked up and felt happy to see the sun.
'No darkness… The irony made me realize I like this'.
Alexander pondered for a moment and tried to figure out his location, but it was hard to know anything in a sea of dark oak and birch trees. [1]
"There must be something… Some reference point. Err…"
He paused for a moment and, hearing the distant sound of the river, had a flash of insight.
"That's it! The Potamós All-Earth River [2]"
The one he had crossed earlier was one of the main rivers of Greek-Earth, as it passed through almost the entire kingdom and joined with two other large rivers.
He calmly and slowly began walking in the same direction he had come from.
'At least I remember that.'
Even though he felt refreshed, he forced himself not to think about his mother; it had all happened so fast.
…
He noticed that, as he approached the river, the sun was already lower in the sky, indicating that it was well past noon.
Gurgle. Gurgle…
The comforting sound of the river's flowing waters was now audible; a bit further ahead, the river came into view at a slightly higher point than where he had crossed earlier.
He was surprised when he got closer and noticed that this part of the river had fewer stones and more running water.
He crouched near the bank, cupped his hand, and drank as much water as his body could handle.
Feeling refreshed, he continued walking near the riverbank, trying to sneak into a side path a little farther ahead.
But a few seconds after he began walking again, he stopped; his inner calm was interrupted by the sudden thought that the Greekclaw soldiers might obviously think to look for him along the river path, and he began to quicken his pace.
As he walked with long strides, he noticed, hidden by the distant mist, at a point extremely higher in the kingdom, the palace of Tarquinus, king of Greek-Earth. He looked at it deeply, as if he could feel a presence.
…
There, on the palace balcony, stood the beautiful Queen Violet, watching over the entire kingdom of Greek-Earth from above.
Her black, slightly wavy hair swayed in the late afternoon breeze as she watched the sunset.
Violet took a deep breath and turned to go back inside a dome-shaped, empty hall and walked toward the room on the left. However, as she approached the archway, she stepped back slightly, hearing a raised male voice arguing with a younger, gentler one.
"How could you let something like this happen!? Didn't you train your soldiers properly?! Whoever breaks curfew must be killed!"
"A thousand pardons, my king!"
…
[1] The forest has different sets of trees. In this case, dark oak and birch.
[2] It means All-Earth River.