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Who knew it would come to this?
Who would ever run from the one they loved?
Rynn would.
boots hit the mud with a familiar wet splat, over and over again. Hot tears ran down the flesh of drift’s cheeks. Mixing with the rain that fell in heavy blobs, slamming hard onto her skin.
She ran until her legs ached and crumpled under her weight.
Ran until her muscles felt they would cave in.
Ran until her lungs pleaded for rest. As if they were to collapse in her chest if she kept going.
A breathless sob fell from her mouth as she pushed for her legs to work once more. Her mana flowing wildly throughout her veins. Dirt softening to mud beneath her feet.
In a moment's notice, The ground turned to quicksand beneath her feet.
Gravity seemed to catch up with her as the ground parted to swallow her whole once more. Just as it did with the bandit AJ all those nights ago.
The rocks holding up the cave below had been loosened by her mud. Leaving them to fall and shatter against the cave floor.
The earth mage vanished below the surface within a second. Punctuated by a thud once she hit the bottom.
A pained sound slipped from the earth mage’s mouth. A sting radiated through her back as she moved to push her body up into a sit.
“Fuck” she whispered to herself. She shifted her hand once more to push the rocks out from under her.
How much danger drift was actually in hadn’t occurred until she heard a plop from a rock she had tossed to the side.
From then it was easy to discover that the only land was surrounded by water. The cave was inundated with water that she couldn't swim through. Illuminated by the gap in the roof that she could not reach.
This was it. This was her luck. She would die alone. Nothing more than a scared, pathetic princess.
She was a joke. A wretched excuse of Royalty. A failure to her bloodline. And a thorn in the side of anyone who tried to love her.
It was without a doubt a fair fate for her. To be shunned out as a fraud. And left to die in a pit she could not escape from. With no one who knew where she was or even where to start looking.
The moon glanced down at her through the broken roof.
A face she longed for sat in its soft golden glow.
A face she would never have the pleasure of seeing again.
For she would not be coming home.
Not to the academy.
Not to her.
