Misplaced

Lush, beautiful, and massive Alfairia always managed to whisk away the breaths of many. That's were Alicia had disappeared to, if one was wondering. With its beautiful scenery and waters, it was an incredible mash of colors; colors that made you feel whatever you wanted to feel, colors that made you realize you were alive and made you feel alive and vibrant.

Three snowy mountains stood proud and tall in the northern part of the kingdom, where one always felt the cool breeze that came with the chilly ice coated round the mountain tops. The forest surrounded the whole kingdom but was mostly located in the southern and the western part of the Alfairia and made up for most of the kingdom. Depending on each person's heart, the woods were either a place of great of adventure; a place where great things happened or instead, a place to be feared, a place where no man dare to venture; a place where wild and ferocious beasts lured man to a certain death. Many found the latter most accurate. Wimps, but Alicia thought, the whole lot of them. How one may perceive the forest was the opinion of his own, however one could agree that it was beautiful too, with its large lush vegetation, tall oak trees, it's lakes, rivers, streams that flowed in and out the forest, promising to quench any degree of thirst with its crisp fresh waters.
It's wild flowers bright and inviting, plants promising to cure this or that. What a terrifying, beautiful, irrelevant thing the forest was.
Now from the edge of the forest to the very center of the kingdom were spacious lands and fields, bright and green. This was also the farming and harvesting part of the kingdom, a place so lively and so alive; bursting with growth. A century or two east, one would see the city; tall and proud it stood, buzzing with people old and young, people who worked hard and played harder. There were no slums or castes in the city, so most of the houses were all relatively the same and they were all built in one modern, boring Ancient Greek style of architecture. Before the houses, the city-wall stood high and tall, built under the model of the Great Wall of China (or vise-versa. Alicia didn't really care), made of bricks and trimmed with gold. Usually a handful soldiers strolled up and down on the wall with relaxed poses and stances. And finally, behind all the houses and on the far south eastern part of the kingdom stood a beautiful and mighty palace (the only great thing in this medieval piece of rubbish of a kingdom), with gleaming spires jetting out into the sky , as if thanking the heavens for such beauty, and with its modern-Greek and British architecture. The palace was in the perfect location as all sections of the kingdom were visible and the coast which was a few distances behind the palace, in front of the beach was, well, a jungle.

It was nighttime and the portal had teleported Alicia to the front of the city-wall, a few meters from the city gates, which, to Alicia's greatest dismay and disgust (at the incompetence of these people), were now closed. The gates had the symbol of Alfairia wielded on then; a face of a woman half-fire, hair-water and had a torch on either sides. Now Alicia did not want to stay a minute longer here than she had to; no man knew what lurked in the darkness of the night and as much as she kinda hated the world and everything, she still wanted to live long enough to get a high school diploma and you know, see SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star actually grow up, so she wore her cloak inside-out and pulled the hood up immediately and she began to walk. She made sure the hood covered most of her face and hooded her eyes as she rang the bell by the gates next to the fire torch. Instantly, a guard opened a shutter in the one of the gates and examined her torso. Human. He, then nodded and another guard opened the heavy gates enough for her to enter. She stood with her arms wide before the guard, the gate closing behind her as he conducted an airport search. She imagined she looked odd, entering a city with nothing but a cloak and a sports bag (which he looked at weirdly) because even farmers and merchants brought whatever they were to sell with them, but she said nothing to express her guilt. Rule number one of lying; don't give more information than you absolutely had to.

After searching her, the guard fixed her with a suspicious gaze and with a deep rough voice and a serious case of bad breath asked,

"What's your business in Alfairia, girl?"

Alicia could have bashed his teeth out.

"Residence." Which was technically her business.

"And why were you outside the gates?"

And shaved an eyebrow for good measure.

"I was visiting my aunt by the farms. I lost track of time." He looked at her flatly , like he didn't believe that one beat.

"What of the curfew?" That surprised her so much that she almost jerked her hood back. Who the hell made a curfew?! She did not, however, express her shock and instead, stood with her head high and blinked evenly so as to not cause any more suspicion. A resident of Alfairia would know this. She stood silently, thinking of an excuse.

"I was running errands.....for the queen...in my Aunt's farm." She lifted the bag for good measure. He stared at her too long, sensing her uncertainty. I'm done for, she thought. But to Alicia's greatest relief and surprise, he nodded.

"Very well. Be sure to keep time next time. Those who break the curfew will face severe consequences."

She almost felt the need to curtsy, but instead, she tipped her head.
"My apologizes and I thank you. I'll be sure to observe time in future." She said, humoring him.

He nodded and walked to his colleague but she still felt his suspicion and eyes.

It was only after she had fled from his site, that she sighed (missing her cancer sticks) and slouched in relief. That was a close one; there would have been more severe consequences if she had been caught (Actually, she wasn't too bothered, she just didn't want to be given the YOU OUGHT TO BE MORE RESPONSIBLE lecture). She walked through the streets of Alfairia, her robe fraying behind her, when she noticed that it seemed the curfew was just outside the gates and not inside. She tightened her hold on the cloak as she noticed, lights everywhere, bars and inns where open, with people laughing and milling around. Men walked and sang drunkedly, while teenage and some young adult males dwindled around streets looking for trouble. Women from work, hummed quietly as they headed home with paper bags and handbags and there were even children, playing games in the light of the houses and stores and vendors selling spicy smelling hot foods and drinks everywhere.

A happy people.

Too many damn happy people out there. Alicia lurked in the corners of this, trying to be inconspicuous as possible. She especially didn't want to attract the attention of the teenage boys, with her washed out dark blue, thigh-length running shorts and her grey tank top because she'd have to punch someone if they so much as glanced at her legs. It was for their own well being. The gates, she figured, protected the citizens from dangers from the outside, not dangers from inside; i.e herself. With weird rush adrenaline and a deep anticipation to finally sit the hell down, still holding onto her cloak, she rushed from the street when she thought she saw one of the boys look in her direction. After, according to her phone, after twenty minutes, she had reached the town square, a beautiful place with a large fountain in the middle of the square with words and faces and plants of sorts, carved in ancient Greek and statues of Greek gods placed all around the square, Athena and Zeus being the largest. Indeed, it was beautiful but it was also quite scary having all the gods stare at you like they know all your secrets, like they knew who you killed.

Everything was a little scarier at night.

Hardly hesitating, she continued on through the city, passing banks, post offices, schools and shops until she reached her final destination another fifteen minutes later. She, yet, again, made sure her cloak covered her face before she approached the guards standing by the palace gates. The guards stared straight ahead despite her presence and she finally cleared her throat too loud to be ignored, with a glare.

"The queen's royal advisor is expecting me.", she said flatly, her voice dripping with dismissal instead of humility, like a mere citizen. The guard on the left stared at her for a short while with a face mildly annoyed and disgusted, and then nodded to the guard on the right, who then headed to the palace. The guard continued to stare at her in that manner of disgust and annoyance until the other guard returned. With a smirk, the guard-right nodded to guard-left and said,
"He is expecting her." He confirmed and then turned to her and said "Enter." And then continued to mutter once she was almost out of hearing range but not quite. "Whore."

Alicia entered the palace, resisting the urge to punch that smirk and that look of disgust from the two guards. With a sigh, she let her hood down and walked to Adviser Phillips' office.

Sometimes she hated her job.

~~~~~

Okay then. 😂 please let me know what insinuations you have made and conclusions you have reached. I'd love to hear it all. Thanks for reading.