“Who are they?” I asked.
Melvin was the one who answered. “They are the Queen’s royal guard. The one on the white horse is Bill. He is really good at tracking prey, second best at finding anyone in all the kingdoms.”
“Who’s the best?”
Malcolm turned and smiled. “Me.” He held out his hand. “Now let’s go, we have to hurry if we want to get past him. Chase, come with us. The rest of you go around and hope they follow you instead of us.”
Melvin nodded and took Davis with him. They headed around the other way while Malcolm pulled me with him, Chase following just behind us. He seemed a little hesitant at first, as if not wanting to follow Malcolm or take orders from him. It was barely noticeable, and I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but he didn’t let the frown leave his face. Was he mad at Malcolm for some reason? There was a lot I didn’t know about this group, but they always had seemed close at school.
Then again, at school, I wouldn’t have thought they were all fictional characters, though I still wasn’t sure that this wasn’t all some kind of dream.
Malcolm led the two of us the opposite way Davis and Melvin had headed. He took such care in each spot he put his foot that I made sure to step exactly where he did, stop when I was told to, and go on as well. Thank goodness for my ballet classes, otherwise I probably would have lost my balance a few times and fallen flat on my face. That would have been embarrassing.
Chase seemed to be following as well, but he also almost acted like he wanted to go off the path and do his own thing. I just wished he would voice his thoughts instead of holding them in, then again we probably had to be as quiet as we could so that they didn’t hear us.
As we came around another tree, Malcolm stopped abruptly.
“What is it?” I whispered.
“He is on to us.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. I didn’t like how frustrated he looked, as it meant I needed to worry. “Crap, we have to get you out of here.” Malcolm searched all around, then finally looked up. “How fast can you climb?”
I blinked. “What?”
He pointed at the tree. “Up. Go.”
I looked at the tree that towered beside me and gulped. I had never been good at climbing up trees, even small ones. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, so to speak. I’d honestly rather dig and hide in a ditch than go up a tree.
Malcolm must have seen the worry on my face, as he nodded to Chase and pushed me forward. “Chase, help her. I will distract them and get them to follow me. Wait until I come back for you. Got that? Do not leave this tree unless I say so.” He made eye contact. “Do you understand?”
Chase reluctantly nodded and jumped up to the closest branch with ease, holding out his hand. “Come on, it’s easy.”
Frowning, I grabbed his hand and he helped me up the branch. I was already out of my comfort zone and not quite sure what exactly was going on, I didn’t need to also be made fun of for not knowing how to get up a tree.
At first, I was surprised at how well he could navigate the tree, then I realized he was a cat and it would come with the territory. It was still weird to see his eyes in such a way but I was starting to get used to it. That, or I was just autocorrecting it to normal eyes in my head. That seemed more likely.
I peered down, which was a huge mistake honestly, and realized that I indeed had a fear of heights. Or maybe it was a fear of falling? I started to wobble but Chase quickly grabbed me.
“Careful, this isn’t somewhere you wanna miss a step. Long way down.”
“Yeah, I see that. Thanks for the tip.”
He helped me up a bit higher and we stopped at the point where we could still almost see the ground, but high enough where I wanted to just cling to the tree and never move again. I didn’t care for heights, or I guess I didn’t care for falling. The latter came with the former.
Chase patted my back. “There, there, don’t worry. I won’t let you fall.”
“Gee, thanks.”
He shrugged and sat down on the branch, cross-legged. “Just trying to help. You need to be like me and not worry about heights. Just land on your feet.”
I gave him a skeptical look. Yeah I definitely could land on my feet, but then I would have a knee coming out of my shoulder blade. I shuddered at the thought of hitting the ground that hard. So gross.
Just as I was about to say something, Chase put out his hand to quiet me. I looked at him quizzically but then I realized why he didn’t want me to say anything. The Queen’s guards were right under us.
They looked human enough, none seemed to look strange like Chase, not that he looked too different than a normal human being. Bill came on a white horse and searched all around, looking for us. I backed closer to the tree so that he couldn’t spot me.
I could see his
