Night had begun to fall, and it was getting harder to see exact details of the gorge’s depth, but squinting into it, Caroline felt she could see the bottom getting closer and closer, probably within reaching distance of her legs if she was very careful. Stooping by the edge, placing a hand over her shoulder to ensure her brother couldn’t fall off, Caroline peeked into the dark depths.
“I thought you said we couldn’t peek over the edge?” came the cutely snide remark from Caroline’s shoulder. She smirked.
“No, I believe I said YOU couldn’t peek over the edge.”
“But why do you get to and I don’t?”
“I’m older.”
“So?”
“When you are my age, Phillip, there are more things you’re allowed to do.”
“Really? Like what?”
“Oh, I suppose I can’t name them all at command, but let’s see: going out of the palace alone, eating a second helping of dessert in the Great Hall, staying up long past the sunset…” she said, very deliberately listing off activities Phillip often complained about his inability to do with permission.
“What about looking over the edge of the big cliffs?”
“That’s a special one. When you reach your eighteenth birthday, you will be permitted to look over the edge of cliffs as often as you like.”
“Eighteen? THAT old?”
“Oh, Phillip,” she laughed. “You do flatter me so with your words.” Caroline went into a sitting position, dangling her legs over the edge of the shadowy cliff, having decided it wasn’t too deep to climb into. She reached for the scarf drape around her neck and unhooked it, holding it out for Phillip.
“What?” said Phillip.
“I need you to climb back inside, Phillip.”
“Why?”
“Because I have to jump down, and I want to make sure you’re safe when I do.”
“Why can’t I just hang on to your hair?”
This prospect made Caroline laugh, but she knew this would probably not work. “Trust me, I’ll put you right back on my shoulder once we get to the other side of the cliff. How does that sound?”
“You never let me do anything fun…” mumbled Phillip as he crawled off her shoulder and slipped into the safety of the pouch.
“Thank you. Now just stay still…” she said calmly, re-tying the tassles of the pouched drape and hanging it back around her neck. She pulled the ends a bit tighter than before to ensure her brother wasn’t tossed painfully around the inside of the scarf like a ragdoll. Then, taking a deep breath, Caroline grasped the edge of the cliff with her fingers and slipped over with a rocky rumbling as her massive weight passed over the edge. Her feet touched the ground an instant later; the drop had become just under 50 feet deep, so while the landing was uncomfortable, Caroline managed to right herself a moment later. Her feet had taken such punishment from the day’s walk, it didn’t even faze her.
Caroline’s stomach rumbled loudly like an avalanche. She hadn’t eaten since midday the previous day, and she guessed Phillip had done the same. It would behoove them to find some sort of vegetation, but Caroline had a feeling there wouldn’t be much near the entrance to the Black Mountain Caves. They would have to move even more quickly now, because not only did they have to make sure they found Luke in time, they had to get there and return in enough time before the dehydration really did some damage.
Caroline walked across the length of the gorge, the cool, shallow river water feeling soothing against her overworked and blistered soles. She stopped for just a moment, closing her eyes and allowing the water to flow past her ankles, the fish the size of insects to her to slip over her toes. It felt great, but she knew there wasn’t time. Lifting her feet from the water, she stepped up to the other side of the gorge and stepped up a small incline of boulders that allowed her some extra height. From here, she was able to crouch down, then spring into the air and grab the cliff’s edge. With some effort, she managed to pull herself back onto the other side of the gorge and unhook the scarf for her brother to get out.
“Are you all right? You’re not hurt, are you?” she said, pressing an eye against an opening in the tassles of the drape. Phillip shook his head dizzily.
“N-n-no, I’m ok-kay!” he said, his voice wavering still from the sudden rushes of movement he had experienced in his sister’s makeshift scarf.
“Are you certain?” asked Caroline, smiling a little.
“I’m j-just a little d-DIZZY!” said Phillip, holding his head steady to try and correct his vision. Giggling, Caroline untied the tassles, which caused Phillip to roll out onto the grass in his disoriented state. The massive princess was delighted to realize that she and her brother were sitting on grass. Not only would they have something other than rough rock to sleep on, the presence of grass had to indicate that vegetation was around the area, and that meant there had to be something edible around. Caroline had a feeling they wouldn’t be able to find enough food to satisfy her own proportionately tremendous hunger pangs, but she could at least make sure her brother got something to eat.
“Phillip, I think we should rest for the night, right here. Does that sound agreeable?”
“Okay.”
“Now, let’s see…” said Caroline, squinting in the growing darkness as she tried to find a more suitable place. She spotted a small tree not far off that seemed to almost reach her knee in height. “There’s a tree just over there, Phillip. Why don’t you go lay down underneath? I’m sure there are lots of leaves you might use as a pillow there.”
“Where are YOU going?” asked Phillip nervously.
“I’m going to be right here, near the edge, so I can stretch out,” said Caroline, patting the grass.
“But I want to sleep with you!”
“That’s very sweet of you, but I really don’t think that’s the best option right now.”
“Why not?”
“Well…” mumbled Caroline, not wanting to have to explain the potential danger of killing her brother in her sleep if she rolled over. “I’m not going anywhere. If you need me for anything, for any reason, just come over and wake me up. I promise you, I shall remain in this exact spot until the morning.”
“Okay. What if you leave without me?”
Caroline reached out a hand and rubbed both of Phillip’s shoulders with her fingers. “I told you; I’m not going anywhere without you, Phillip. I need you to help me find out where I’m going, remember?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then?”
“Yes.”
“All right. Why don’t you try and get some rest? I’ll be right here, don’t worry,” she said, removing her hand and shooing him away. As he turned to face her, she palmed her hand up under her chin and blew him another kiss. “Sleep well, my little brother.”
“Nighty night, Caroline.”
“Good night, Phillip,” she said as she laid back on the soft grass, running her blistered feet over the cool plants to try and soothe them before another rough walk in the morning. Looking over at the tree, Caroline sighed contentedly as she saw her brother lay down under the tree and remain motionless. After watching him for a few minutes to ensure he was all right, Caroline’s heavy lids fell down and she drifted off to sleep.
The rising sun pulled Caroline from her peaceful slumber. Despite the somewhat chilly conditions and the fresh layer of morning dew covering her body, Caroline felt refreshed enough to reach the caves and go in search of Luke. She stretched both pairs of limbs out as far as she could, and felt her stomach flip over as her feet actually slipped off the edge of the cliff and began swaying in the breeze. She thought she had lain down far enough from the cliff, with plenty of space for her inevitable nightly growth spurt, but evidently, she had been wrong. Caroline scooted herself back onto the grassy cliffside, then pushed off the ground and stood to her full height. She watched as the trees fell away right past her. Many of the tallest ones that had been just below her chest the previous really only reached her stomach, and most of them were smaller than that. Taking a few steps and stretching again up to the sky, Caroline walked to the tree her brother had gone to sleep under.
“Phillip?” she said sleepily, rubbing at her eyes. “It’s time to continue onward, it’s morning and we must make the most of all the light we have before the fog thickens again.” But there was no answer. Realizing how tired he probably had been the previous night, staying up so much later than usual, she stooped slowly to the grass, placing her large head against the soft, green plantation and looked at the tree. “Phillip? Wake up, it’s…” she started, but felt her throat go too dry to continue when she saw nothing but the bed of leaves he had used as a bed. “Phillip?” she choked, her eyes darting around. Instantly, she was back on her feet and cupping her hands around her mouth. “PHILLIP!” she screamed, terrified now, looking around, but instantly realized she would have much more luck at ground level, so she planted her hands back on the ground in a crouching position with a massive wham that shook the cliff side. She heard a few rocks shake loose and tumble over the edge, but she paid them no mind, so great was her fear.
“Phillip! Oh, please ANSWER me, PHILLIP!” she yelled, shifting her head side to side to try and look between the trees. Could he have wandered off? How far could he have gone? It then occurred to Caroline that he might have attempted during the night what he had promised her he wouldn’t do. She dashed back to the edge of the cliff, wanting so desperately to not have to look into it, but knowing she had to look. Thankfully, she saw nothing but rock and the thinner part of the creek. She knew he couldn’t have fallen in and been carried off by the current, as the shore was far too wide for him to have jumped or fallen that far.
Caroline turned back to the woods, sitting up on her knees and feeling more helpless than ever. In the span of two days, she had managed to lose the two most important men in her life besides her father, and possibly for good. She was beside herself, and as usual, couldn’t keep herself from reacting emotionally, her tears soaking the grass as she crawled between the trees on her shins and forearms, looking for a sign of his disappearance. Could there have been wild animals on this side of the cliffs, too? Perhaps, but Caroline also had a feeling that if a panther or other wild beast had wandered along looking for meat, it would have devoured her brother on the spot, leaving some sort of clue to its presence. The only explanation, it seemed, was that Phillip had stood up and walked off.
After crawling for half an hour or so in circles along the edge of the cliff, Caroline found herself in a thick patch of mud between the trees. She wiped it off her hands, then froze in place as she realized what was in the mud. Tiny footprints, probably a man’s. There were multiple sets, in fact. The sets of imprints in the mud were a bit messy because the ground was so liquid-like and not well formed, but it looked to Caroline like there were at least three sets, although it became harder to tell as they crossed over one another, as well as the fact that each print was just over an inch long to Caroline. However, now having a trail to follow, she decided it was best to look into these people, whoever they were, and see if they had any idea of Phillip’s whereabouts. While the steps were very small, Caroline was able to tell that they were reasonably fresh, as they were probably as deep into the mud still as if someone had just walked through them.
After carefully following the trail for a while, between the winding trees, Caroline’s heart sank as she saw the mud slab come to an end, turning back into grass. She was just about ready to give up when she stood back up and looked over the tree tops. A little ways off was what appeared to be a small rock formation rising from the ground that appeared to be about double as tall as Caroline herself. It wasn’t part of the mountain range, which was still off in the ever-closer distance, but it was something, and Caroline had a feeling that no one simply lived out here in the middle of nowhere, near the Black Mountains. It had to be travelers, or campers. And the most logical choice would be to set up camp in the likely cavern of the inside of the formation. With renewed resolve, Caroline set out walking, sliding herself between the increasingly more dense trees.
As she neared the rock formation, however, it occurred to Caroline that whoever was in there might not have attended her address of the kingdom, if they were just travelers. And that meant that they would suddenly find themselves face-to-face with a blond-haired, blue-eyed, drape-wearing, 45-foot tall young woman, and Caroline knew she didn’t have the time to wait around for them to get ahold of themselves before she could ask them if they’d seen Phillip. There wasn’t much she could do to soften the shock, but Caroline decided it was best to get back on her lowest level to the ground to help create the mental illusion that she wasn’t over four stories tall by that point. Dropping again, Caroline began creeping rather quickly between the trees, using them as grips to help maneuver herself through without breaking them. This ended up snapping a few of them slightly around the trunk, as her massive, powerful hands were able to reach all the way around many of the trees.
After crawling for several more minutes and knowing that she was probably nearing the formation, she heard a rustling in the trees along her sides, just above her head. Wondering if it was a hawk or even a panther that had clambered up, she looked around to find half a dozen men, all of them around eight inches tall, wearing rags, dirty faces, and aiming bows at her, arrows already in them. She froze, not wanting to become confrontational here, as she needed them in a good enough mood to try and tell her where her brother had gone.
“Good… morning, friends!” she said as cheerfully as possible, still not moving. A couple of the archers put down their bows and slid down the tree to be face to face with Caroline, although the others stayed up in the air, their bows trained on her head. The two men walked up to her, looking rather stern. Caroline wondered if they believed she was trespassing. “I sincerely apologize if I startled all of you…” offered Caroline tentatively and politely, looking upward at the men in the trees, standing very tensely in preparation for an attack if provoked. “I don’t know if any of you know who I am…”
“We do, indeed, know who you are, Princess Caroline,” answered one of the men standing right in front of her face, curtly.
“Oh! Well, then…” chuckled Caroline in the nicest way she could. “Friends, I’m afraid I must trouble you for help. My brother Phillip has become lost in these woods. Please, I must know, have any of you seen him?”
“No.”
“He’s very small for his age. He has yellow hair, and he was wearing a… let me see, a blue tunic and… a small green scarf. Do you recognize…”
“No. Haven’t seen any of those things on anybody.”
“Nothing?” she said, becoming more worried with each word of this conversation.
“None of that. None of us have seen anything but trees and mountains for the last week.”
“Are you… are you certain? Completely?”
“Yes, we’re certain. None of us have seen him,” answered the man, his face unchanging but his voice clearly becoming miffed with the questions.
“Well…” began Caroline, looking uneasily up at the still-drawn bows. “Please, there is no need for such hostility, I mean none of you any harm, I simply require…”
“Princess, you would do well to leave this place. This is not a land for royals, especially one in your… particular condition,” answered the other man, grinning just a little too creepily for Caroline’s liking. She grimaced back at him uneasily, not at all liking the situation.
“V-very well, then,” said Caroline, beginning to feel a little scared about the number of people with weapons pointed at her, whatever their sizes were. “I will just be on m-” she began, but cut herself off when she began squinting at one of the men standing proudly in front of her face.
“What are you looking at, missy?” sneered the man, taking a step back and clutching at his shoulder in a dignified way despite his disheveled appearance. “What? What is it?”
“You have a…” drawled Caroline, looking at the object tied around his arm like a patch. It was an olive green piece of fabric, worn from use, and tied around his arm. It was the only part of him not thoroughly coated in filth. And on the piece, which Caroline realized was a bandana, was a small blue design, stitched into the fabric. It was Phillip’s. The fear drained almost instantly from Caroline, and her eyes narrowed.
“Are you SURE you don’t know where my brother is?” she asked more sternly.
“Look, your HIGHNESS…” said the first man rather sarcastically. “If we had SEEN your brother, we would have TOLD you, but we DIDN’T, so if you would… be… so… KIND…” he growled through gritted teeth. “Leave my men and I in peace. We have work to…”
“Then why are you wearing my brother’s scarf?” she said, raising an eyebrow at the one man. He quickly grabbed at his arm and tore it off.
“This? I found it months ago, just under a rock…” he said, but saw the increasingly angry look on Caroline’s face. “Listen, missy, we’re not going to take this any longer. We gave you a pleasant answer, and now we want you to leave. And I think you’d better do it now, because this conversation is over!” he said, and both he and his friend drew their swords, pointing them threateningly at Caroline. Up above, Caroline heard the bows, which had all relaxed during the conversation, re-tightening at the order of their superior.
“You are making a mistake now,” said Caroline, tilting her head at them condescendingly. “Please put your weapons away and tell me where my brother is.”
“Until the count of three, missy, and then we have to act. One…”
“Please,” stated Caroline calmly.
“Two.”
“I won’t ask you again, gentlemen.”
“Three. That’s it, princess, leave us ALONE!” yelled out the man angrily, waving his arm over his head. Caroline’s back was pelted by tiny, needle-like arrows that bounced easily off of her. She was tempted to giggle a little, as the sensation tickled a bit, but she didn’t feel like enraging them any further than she already had. Caroline calmly planted an elbow in the dirt, resting her chin calmly on her upturned fist as she continued looking down at them.
“Wha… I… FIRE again!” bellowed the one man, taking several steps back. The second man who had the scarf, though, charged forward, his blade drawn. As he pulled back to take a hard swing at Caroline’s arm, though, he found his weapon immobilized as Caroline pinched two of her fingertips around it effortlessly.
“S-Stop that! Let go of my…” began the man, but an instant later Caroline had bent the sword so far that it snapped like a twig.
“Your sword doesn’t appear entirely trustworthy, perhaps it is time for you to find a more skilled blacksmith?” she said, and very calmly, Caroline wrenched the ruined sword fro his hands and then reopened her fingers, curling them gently around him and pinning him into her soft palm. She lifted him easily off the ground, holding him closer to her face.
“Retreat! Retreat!” shouted the other man fearfully, waving at his archers, who all leapt desperately from their treetop perches and dashed off in different directions. Caroline could feel the man clenched in her hand trembling out of control, sweating profusely into the creases of her palm.
“P-P-Princess? P-Please don’t hurt me, I didn’t want…”
“Sir, I see little point in discussing anything further with you, whatever it was you intended to do.”
“Oh… God, no, please…” he said, grabbing fruitlessly at the fleshy embrace surrounding him so powerfully. After grunting for a few silent minutes from trying to fight Caroline’s fingers off of him, he threw his hands together in prayer towards the sky. “P-Please…”
“Don’t be afraid of me, I have no intention of harming you or your friends, just as I said. But now, I would appreciate your help.”
“ANYTHING!”
“Thank you very much!” said Caroline cheerfully, raising her other hand to brush the hair from her eyes before tapping her chin thoughtfully, smiling at the man to make him feel more comfortable. “If you please, now, tell me where you’ve taken my brother, and then you shan’t have to see what I am like when upset. And you may trust me fully when I tell you I am FAR more disagreeable when upset!” she said sweetly, her soft palm and fingers still gripped firmly around the squirming man.