Kill the Queen
June 17, 2045, Moraline Harvord is thinking to herself calmly. “It’s been fifteen years…At the age of eight…It is that day again.” Moraline clinches as the thoughts continue to flow through her head. “My mom, why…Why did he have to do that…He didn’t have to.” She closes her eyes and begins to cry. About 15 minutes pass and Moraline’s friends, Robert and William Jackson, notice her crying. Immediately they can tell what is wrong

William thinks to himself quietly and says, “It’s that day again, isn’t it.”

Moraline begins to think more in depth about things that have ruined her life over the past twenty years. “I didn’t know my father…My mom dying…Brett.” She remembers meeting Brett, it was love at first sight, and eventually Brett asked Moraline to marry him. Brett was a tall, muscular, forestial guard, who always had a clean shave. The day these two met was a rather terrible day, a giant fifty foot tall monster was destroying the Timberfog forest and had already crushed Moraline’s house, and the most gruesome battle was raging on between Queen Ameana and her Amenians and the Farums. On this day Moraline had forgotten about everything and just simply fell into an entirely different world full of nothing but happiness. Moraline began to think more and more about Brett. She thinks about his death. Brett, after the war that the Farums had lost, was hunted down by Queen Ameana because he was involved in the fight against the Amenians. Queen Ameana had kidnapped Brett from their treehouse and had killed him. Thinking about all this sent Moraline into a spiraling despair, and she wanted nothing more than to be left alone.

“Go away!” Moraline shouted at Rob and Will. “I want you to go away!”

“Moraline, we can help you through this, things must be rough for you, and we want nothing more but for you to feel better,” Rob said in an attempt to calm Moraline down.

“I said go away!” Moraline yelled even louder than she had before.

“Moraline.”

“I said go away. Leave me alone. I just want to be alone.” Moraline began crying and seeing this Will and Rob began to walk off, realizing she was upset to the extent that she did not care anymore. Night had fallen and Moraline had eaten her dinner, she had grilled Merclufon, which is like a giant grub with waxy skin over its body, and she was off to bed.

Moraline woke up. She was still upset about everything that she was thinking about the day before. A few hours had gone by before Moraline had realized how harsh she had been to Rob and Will. She thought about it and wanted to apologize to Rob and Will. About five minutes passed by and she decided to walk to the Uber Caves, which was where the Jacksons lived.

As she arrived she began banging on the door. “Rob, Will, you home?” No one answered. “Rob, Will?” she asked again. She was beginning to think something was wrong; Rob and Will were always home at this time. “Rob, Will!” Moraline yelled. No one answered. Moraline kicked in the door and began to look around. As she looked around she noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

“Uhm, Moraline?” Will asked. “What did you do?”

“I thought you were in trouble so I took it upon myself to help and I got scared and wasn’t thinking and I busted down the door to see if anything had happened.”

“Moraline I know you’re scared and all but don’t you think that this was a little far.”

“Yeah I realize that now…wait, where is Rob?”

“He was just getting us some food, I went to go get some last night and there was hardly any left.”

“Oh, well, I should just be going now.”

Just as Moraline was walking out, Rob walked in and Moraline pulled out her bow and aimed it at Rob.

“Whoa Moraline, what the heck?” Rob asked.

“Oh, sorry, Rob I thought you were someone else.” Moraline said

“What happened? Can one of you please tell me. Will…Moraline…please.”

In an attempt to cover up Moraline’s moment of insanity Will blurts out, “There was a monster attack.”

“Well, is everyone okay,” Rob asked.

“Yeah we’re alright,” Both Moraline and Will said simultaneously.
Out of nowhere, Moraline mumbles, “I wahmtmkhmhthmquhbh.”
“Uhm what was that Moraline? I didn’t quite hear you.” Rob said in confusion.
“I said I want to huhblebleblhm.”
“Come on Moraline you can trust us. What did you say?”
“Huhhh, I said I want to kill the queen.”
“Well how are we going to pull that off? I mean Queen Ameana has guards blocking all entrances to her castle and all the Amenian Soldiers blocking the inside, it’s almost impossible to get through there without dying first,” Rob explains
“I don’t know how I will, I just want to.”
The three of them all spent the next few days getting ready for their long adventure ahead, after all agreeing that they would attempt to kill the queen. The three of them gathered food, gathered sticks for fire, grabbed every piece of clothing they had, and bottled a few gallons of water a piece. On the 21st, they set out on foot toward the Chalian Marsh.
The Chalian Marsh is a very dangerous place. The marsh itself is full of toxins that could kill creatures on impact, except for Guadmogs. Guadmogs are the only living thing within 5 miles of the marsh; they are large, viscous versions of eels. On the 21st, at about noon Rob, Will and Moraline all arrived at the marsh.
“We need to set up camp. Rob, you get the rocks for the fire pit, Will, you flatten an area for us to pitch a tent, and I’m gonna go figure out how to get across this marsh.” Moraline said in relief they had actually made it. “Uhm guys I think you should see this.”
“What is it Moral…” Rob’s question was stopped dead, the only thing he could do is stare. “Everything is frozen.”
“Not everything,” Will pointed out. “Look closely, everything under the marsh is still moving. The only thing actually frozen is the thin layer of ice on the top of the Marsh.”
“We should go to bed. It’s getting dark and we’ll need the rest, if we are going to make it anywhere else tomorrow.” Moraline said as she was yawning. The three of them ate the rest of the Merclufon that Moraline had left over from a few nights ago and went to bed.
It was the next morning and once again they set out on foot.
“Hey Rob… you’re going to have catch up to me and Will if you want to make it.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you have a slim figure and I actually have a little bit of meat on me.” Just as he got done saying this he took a step and the ice broke. His foot fell in the marsh. All of them could see the Guadmogs getting closer under the ice. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Rob screamed as his leg was being ripped to shreads.
“Come on Will run, we have to save him!”
“I’m coming, just run ahead!”
Moraline ran out in front of Will and began pulling on Rob’s body to get him out of the water. “Will! Hurry!” Moraline screamed as she was having trouble pulling Rob out of the water. As Will arrived Moraline came up with an idea. “Keep pulling on him Will.” Moraline backed away and pulled her bow off her back and quickly grabbed an arrow. She aimed her bow and shot right through Rob’s leg. Rob’s leg fell off into the water and his body was set free.
“Come on Rob stay with me, Come on Rob!” Will screamed as he was beginning to cry and as he could hear his brother’s breaths getting softer and softer. “Don’t leave me Rob!”

“Will,” Rob said in a very faint voice. “I love y…” his breath stopped and he dozed off and died.
“Nooooo!” Will cried as he held his brother in his arms and buried his face into his lap.
“Will, I’m so sorry, this would have never happened if I didn’t want to go on this adventure.”
“No it’s not your fault Moraline. I blame the queen, if she didn’t do something to make you upset you probably would have never come up with the idea of coming. Moraline?”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s go kill the queen.”
Moraline and Will set up camp on the far side of the marsh and they slept through the night with no problem. It was now morning and Moraline and Will both knew what the journey ahead was, they would have to cross over the Devil’s Mountains and the Barren Desert, a trip that would take about, nine hours but they only had about seven to complete it. It was about ten o’clock when they left their camp. At three o’clock they arrived at the Devil’s Mountains.
“Moraline?”
“Yeah Will?”
“Umm, are you sure you want to continue? I mean these mountains look really dangerous.”
“We are already too far to turn back, we have to continue. There is no other option.”
“Okay whatever you say, just a warning though, these mountains look very hard to cross.”
The Devil’s Mountains were very tall, very sharp, and very narrow. They once had a pathway but the paths corroded away a few years before and since then have been very hard to cross. Moraline and Will continued walking along sharp mountains, going up and down, up and down until they arrived at a part that seemed to have a path that was still stable.
“Moraline, do you think we should cross the path or go over the mountains?”
“I think we should take the path, it seems stable. If we go over the mountains we will never make it.”
“Okay you go first.” Moraline began to walk across followed closely by Will. At about the middle of the path, some rocks broke out from under Will’s foot and he slipped, his arm was caught by Moraline.
“Moraline! Help!”
“I’m trying.” She kept pulling on his arm but it was no use.
“Moraline I don’t think I’m gonna make it.”
“Yes you will, don’t think like that.”
“No I won’t. You have to let me go or we will both fall over the edge.”
“No Will! I can’t do that, you have always been there for me.”
“Moraline, let go.”
“Will No!” Moraline kept pulling on his arm but his arm slipped out of her hand. She grabbed his hand just in time.
“Moraline let go, I can’t let you die with me.”
“Never!”
“Moraline?”
“Yeah?”
“Before I die would like to say one more thing.”

“And what is that?”

“I always loved you.” His arm slipped and he fell over the edge.

“Nooooooo! Will!” “I forgot to say one thing, I always loved you too.” Moraline began to cry, her sadness quickly turned to anger as she remembered what Will had said earlier. “It’s not my fault, the queen made me want to do this to her.”
She had made it to the other side of the mountains and into the Barren Desert. It was almost nightfall and Moraline was already tired. She went to bed and later woke up in the morning. When she awoke her stomach growled and her throat was dry. She went outside to grab some food and water. It was gone. It was almost as if her entire area had been raided of anything useful. She told herself it would be fine as she began to walk toward the Queen’s castle. She continued to walk and it was beginning to feel like forever, her stomach growled even louder, she was beginning to feel dizzy. She fainted. Moraline woke up in a tent somewhere in the woods.
“Where am I?” Moraline asked politely to the tall man standing next to her.
“You’re in the Farums outpost about a mile from Queen Ameana’s castle.”
“How did I get here?”
“My men found you in the middle of the Barren Desert. What were you doing out there?”
“I was on my way to kill the queen, she killed my two best friends.”
“I am sorry for your loss. But, come on hurry we were just about to leave.”
“Hold on I forgot to ask you something. What is your name?”
“Quincy, and yours is?”
“Moraline.”
“Nice to meet you Moraline. Now come on we are leaving.”
Moraline and Quincy began a journey as their own group off into the woods. They made it to the castle and Quincy stopped Moraline.
“Hold on here, wait for our cue.”
As they waited, it must have been ten minutes and suddenly, the sound of hundreds of men yelling could be heard from the other side of the castle.
“Come on Moraline, we have to go.”
“Go where?”
“Inside, now hurry up, let’s go.”
The two of them waited for the guards to leave and then they snuck in the back. They maneuvered their way around the castle, going left and right and up different sets of stairs. Quincy kept close watch of Moraline to make sure she was safe. Quincy looked right at Moraline as if he was going to talk. “Moral…….” He had been taken off guard by one of the Amenian soldiers passing by. He was stabbed and critically wounded.
“Go, I’ll be fine.” Moraline ran away, turned the corner and quickly thought about what to do. She pulled her bow out. She waited, aiming right at the turn she had just been at. The Amenian came around the corner and she shot. She turned the corner and found the queen’s room. She opened the door with her bow armed.
“Queen Ameana!”
“Yes…oh it’s you.”
“How do you know me?’
“Why, sweetie. Your Brett’s Fiancée. Everybody knows that.”
“Why did you do it?”
“I was just being a good Queen honey. Don’t you understand?”
“You! Being a good queen, I doubt it. If you were being a good queen you would have forgiven him.”
“I did what I had to, he was against my rule, he had to go. If I wasn’t being forgiving, I would have killed a whole lot more than just thirty of the Farum soldiers.
Moraline began to cry but yelled, “Give me one good reason not to kill you.”
“How about a trade.”
“What kind of trade?” Moraline asked
“You let me go free and I’ll give you this key and this map.”
“What are they for?”
“Let me go, and find out.”
Moraline agreed to let the queen go. The queen lived up to her word and gave Moraline the map and key. Moraline followed the map to a dungeon, she searched around until finding a man in a cell. This man had a scraggly beard and looked as though he had not eaten in days.
“Uhm, Hello?”
“Moraline? Oh it’s so good to see you.”
“How do you know me?”
“Moraline it’s me.”
Moraline thought for a little bit and then blurted out, “Brett!”
“It so nice to see you Moraline, Now unlock my cell.” Moraline began to unlock the cell.
“How did you survive?”
“I was kept in this cell. I was only feed what I needed to live. I was interrogated over and over. I just kept thinking to myself that I couldn’t lose you. If I was somehow able to make it back, I would not let that chance go.”
“Brett, I don’t know what to say. I’m just shocked you’re still alive. I always knew you wouldn’t give up. I always knew you would do anything you could to survive. Brett, I love you so much and I am thrilled you are alive.
“Moraline?...Moraaalinnee?”
Moraline woke up to find Will and Rob standing above her, “Rob, what happened?”
“You passed out and I have been trying to get you up.”
“Oh, how long was I out. It doesn’t feel like it was that long
“Three days.”
“Rob?”
“Yeah?”
“I want to kill the queen.”