I sat on my bed, rocking back and forth. My parents had yelled at me for at least an hour. I sighed. Now I was grounded. Mostly because of the forest thing, and also because I had tried to lie about it. They did believe some lies. Like Eloise and Anne weren’t in on it, Anne had just come into the forest to convince me to get out, and also that this was only the second time. I told them I was only exploring because I thought I could help the village. ‘The village doesn’t need help! It just needs to stay hidden!’ Is what my parents said to that. I yelled back that if they told me what they were soo afraid of, maybe I wouldn’t go back in. After that, they went into the kitchen to discuss whether they were going to tell me or not. I’m pretty sure they forgot about me. But not before grounding me for scaring them half to death.
I laid back on my bed, wiping some dirt off my face, sighing.
“Kate!” Someone whispered. “Kate!” I looked around my room.
“I’m not under the bed, you idiot! At your window!” The voice whisper-shouted. I turned and saw Eloise’s face peeking up.
“Eloise?!” I sputtered. “What are you doing?! My parents are gonna kill me again if they see you!” Eloise climbed in my window.
“No, they won’t. Not yet at least.” She said, hopping in my room. They left about ten minutes ago.”
I stared at her. “Soo...what’s up…?” I said awkwardly.
“I was at the hospital for hours! They finally decided I was fine.” Then she muttered, “They’re kind of stupid, they didn’t even realize the scar is like six years old.” I was about to say that they aren’t stupid, but I didn’t want another fight.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Just...just making sure your parents didn’t kill you. Before I talked to you first.” She mumbled. “I just wanted to say...that….I’m sss….Did you bring the rock?” She said quickly. I tried to look anywhere but her eyes.
“No...something happened. I had to leave it there.” Eloise looked me up and down, doing that thing where it looks like she is trying to determine whether I’m being truthful or not.
“Mmm...well I have to go.” She said flatly. “Bye.” Eloise hopped up to my window, pushing aside the fabric, and turned to look at me. I was about to say something when she jumped out. I pushed the fabric aside and saw her run to the next hut. She looked back at me and turned away. I flopped on my bed. I was about to read or draw or just sit there and be upset when I decided I needed a breath of fresh air. I had a lot to think about.
Eloise about to apologize, Anne possibly getting in trouble, my parents and whatever they were doing. I looked out my window. I squinted. Was that...Eloise going in the forest?! What was she doing? I hopped on my windowsill, pushing the fabric away. I was about to hop down when I heard my parents’ voices. Great. I’ll have to investigate later.
“Kate? Kate we’re back!” I jumped back onto my bed, and got back into my rocking position.
“Yeah, Mom...I’m in here.” I said, trying to make my voice sound sad. My mom walked in.
“Hi, honey. Um...a couple things. First, sorry we got that mad, you’ll be free next week instead of next year.” She said, quickly adding, “As long as you don’t go back in the forest.” She looked at me. “Your father and I have decided...that we’re going to tell you. The truth.”
I sat up excitedly. “Okay!” My mom began her story.
“All right. Long ago-”
“You mean twelve years ago. It wasn’t that long” I interrupted. My mom gave me a dirty look. “Believe me, it feels like a long time when raising a kid. Back to the story, twelve long years ago, we were living in a kingdom. Not the biggest, but it was very nice. Nice food, nice clothes, lots of money-”
“Mom, is this really important-” I interrupted. She glared at me.
“One more interruption and you’ll never hear the end and you’re grounded until the next celebration of Daoine Foraise.”
“Okay, okay.” I sighed. “Continue. Oh just for future reference, I’ll only interrupt when I have a question.”
“Right, so every two seconds?” My mom muttered. “Anyway, back to the story. We were in the middle of the king’s sixty-eighth birthday party. The whole kingdom was there. And the invaders knew it.”
I was about to ask WHAT INVADERS????? But I didn’t want to annoy her.
“We were all gathered in the courtyard, when we heard a crash. We had a terrible feeling. The king sent out a couple guards to check. Only one of them came back, yelling and screaming, ‘Invaders, invaders!’ The king and queen sent out all the guards, and tried to evacuate the people. About half of us were out, when I lost your father. He wanted to protect the king and queen, but he wasn’t a soldier. I ran back into the courtyard to see him watching, horrified, and the king and queen were captured by the invaders.”
I couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Mom! What are the invaders? I mean they have to be humans...right?” This time my mom didn’t glare or give me a dirty look.
“No...not human. Nowhere near human. Twelve feet tall. Horrid, ugly. Two small beady eyes, huge nose, and thin lips, but huge mouths. They were grayish green, with long muscled arms. They wore only loincloths-no it was not funny-and they carried a big box. They tried to grab people, but everyone got away. Except the king and queen, who were captured and the soldiers who died. We all ran into the forest. Ever since then, we’ve been building a village, hoping the invaders wouldn’t find us. Hoping...we would be safe.”