Chapter 5 - Helmina Reed

"I asked first mister," She said.
"Theodore Webster. Now tell me who you are, there aren't any villages around here for miles, did you walk here?"
"I'm Helmina. Helmina Reed,"She said with her chin in the air. "Who are YOU?
What? Why are you looking at me like that..."
"Reed?....Who-who are your parents?"
Then she froze and began stuttering excuses.
"Oh, d-do you hear that? Mum must be cal-calling me with her h-horn... I must go quickly..."
"Wait, I hear nothing... Why aren't you answering my question?"
"Oh, well.... I-I usually run off and mum's h-horn is very... erm... fa- familiar to my ears." She smiled a fake smile and stepped back. She began turning around when suddenly she lost her footing and fell back, disappearing.
"Helm... Hemlina?" Theo whispered as if she would hear it.
He stepped passed the tree and was faced with a large drop off... a cliff.
Helmina was holding onto a vine and the Dupper named Dory was sitting on her shoulder, barking madly and whimpering.
"Oh crap..." Theo shuddered.
"Help..." Helmina squeaked. "Please help."
"Don't worry... Uhhh.... J-Just wa-wait a minute."
"Oh tell that to the vine Theo, I think its tearing... Hurry!" She yelled as he disappeared. A couple seconds later he returned with a long stick that was thick and splintery.
"I can't grab it! There are thorns and they hurt!" She cried.
"Calm down and grab it now!"
"I can't, I'm slipping! Theo... The vine, its rip-" But she failed to finish the sentence for the vine completely ripped apart and she seized the stick, but Theo realized what was happening all too late.
He and Helmina were descending down, further and further.
"THEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Helmina shrieked louder than anything he had ever heard.
He hit first, her falling right on his stomach, and Dory the Dupper smacking her face and rolling off.
Theo groaned and pushed her off. The breath was knocked out of him, and he wheezed slowly and painfully.
Helmina was just shocked so badly by falling she passed out, and Dory the Dupper was whimpering and crawling close to her.
There was a small necklace laying beside Helmina, with words on it.
Theo picked it up and read: "To our dear Daughter. With Love, Your Father, Your Mother, Neville and Mira."
Theo dropped it and quickly regained his breath.



It was too great of a surprise to Theo.
Helmina... Neville's daughter? It seemed impossible to him, but as he thought more on his grandfathers stories, it began to seem not so completely impossible that Neville was still alive, and Mira as well.
But when he saw the great castle his grandfather talked about, he nearly fainted, just at the thought of NO ONE finding it, for it was so inconceivably large. But he saw it. He was standing in front of it, staring at it with his own eyes. No one would believe him of course, but how could NO ONE ever have found this monster?
His thoughts quickly scattered as Helmina dragged him behind the great, metel doors that swung out so slowly because of their wieght.
"Helmina!" Came a bellowing voice from the other end of the courtyard.
A man in black robes stepped forward, with his eye brow raised. He stopped abruptly when he saw Theodore.
He cleared his throat.
"Come here Helmina," He said.
Surely this isn't Neville, Theo thought to himself. The man was older than what Neville would be, or at least he looked older. His hair was short and black, and his face not as Theo's grandfather had described Neville's.
Helmina walked slowly to the man and he began talking to her.
After a couple minutes of a quiet conversation, the man and Helmina came over to Theodore.
"Theodore, this is Mr. Knobb, he's my teacher... I- I've told him about you- Well, all I know about you- and he's agreed to let you in inside, but..."
"But what?"
"Oh, I can't tell him Mr. Konbbs, I can't!" She said.
"Tell him Mina, you're the one who brought him here, so tell him now please," Mr. Knobbs said firmly.
"Theo, if you do come in... Well... Y-you erm...... may not g-go b-ack out..." She said so quietly he could barely hear her.
"What do you mean?"
"Well... I- What I mean is that... Y-you, don't know who my parents are, do you?"
"No," He lied.
"Well.... They are King and Queen to a secret world, one not very different from your own, but this world is forbidden because of the things in it. It has a very secret location, one thats VERY difficult to find, but when its found, the finder's memory is erased and they... Well, they don't ev-ever go h-home...".
"Wha- But, but, but I haven't FOUND this place... YOU'VE brought me here, it wouldn't be fair if my memory was erased... And how are they erased anyways?" Said a distressed Theo.
"I know, we'll have to take the problem up with my parents... But first, lets eat!" She said eagerly.
Mr. Knobb gave a dissaproving glare at the both of them, but waved his hand on to let them go.
Helmina grabbed Theo's hand and darted off through the nearest gate in the courtyard, into a bright hallway with pictures of people ALL over the walls, all royal, guessed Theo. Then they came out of the long, bright hallway, into a pink room that was bigger than all of the huts from his village put together.
"This is the tea room... My mum's least favorite room, but she promised to keep it all pink and frilly for.... Well, sentimental reasons I guess," Said Helmina quickly before they darted to the end of the Tea Room, into a dark and wet stair case that sprang up from the marble floors. There must have been at least fifty steps, and Theo was about ready to collapse, but Helmina seemed pumped and ready to keep going.
They darted throught the only door at the the top of the steps, through a door way behind a large marble column(one of many in a long and broad hallway), down about four or five steps, through a small hallway, and into a great dinning room.
The black marble floors gleamed as the honey golden walls reflected in them. There was a very large, real ivory table that seated probably thirty or more, adorned with blue plates, gold goblets and utensils, and four very large bouquets of black roses inside black and blue marble vases.
The walls were covered with many windows that left barely any room for the large pictures that some one had managed to squeeze in.
The ceiling was gold, blue, and scarlet. There was a mural of an animal on it, but Theo couldn't tell what it type it was, then quickly he excused his wondernment when he smelled something.
Helmina was sitting down and man was bringing out a pot full of something bubbling and delicious smelling.
"Sit down Theo!" She said and waved him over.
"Sorry, I've just never seen anything so... so grand... Its amazing," He said and sat down right aross from her.
"I know, its gorgeous. I only wish I had been here when they built it over eight hundred years ago... All the pictures you've seen in the rooms we passed through... Are royalty thats lived here in that time period," She said and dipped a ladle inside the pot, and pulled out some chunks of meat- or so he thouht ehat looked like meat- and poured it into his bowl.
"Oh... um, thanks."
"Anyway, every single child from the King and Queen from eight hundred years ago has ruled and their faces have been put on these walls."
"Where do the children marry from?" Theo asked as he spooned the weird stuff swimming in his bowl.
"Well, I'm not really supposed to be telling you ANYTHING since we haven't seen my parents yet... But... Ok, there is one rule, that every second child that is born from the King and Queen, can marry one outsider. There is another kingdom two hundred miles from here that knows of our secret kingdom and allows one of their children to marry on of our royal children."
"Wait... I don't quite understand about the second child thing," Theo said.
"Ok, the King and Queen of THIS kingdom are allowed one child ONLY. For example, me, I'm my parents ONLY child, and I must marry a man by my twentieth birthday, so that I can become Queen. Well, I can't marry a man from the other kingom-"
"Wait, the kingdom's names?"
"Sorry, I get ahead of myself... Ours is Helm, the other is Jahd... Ok? So anyway, my grandparents had a son, my father, and he was allowed to marry one of Jahd's daughters, because his father had to marry an outsider woman. So, me being the second child that has NOT been born from and outsider, I'm allowed to marry an ousider."
"What do you mean second child? I thought your parents could only have one child?"
"Yes, but my grandfather married an outsider, and since my dad could only marry royalty, he married my mum from Jahd. And, like my grandfather, I'm the second child from each generation that can marry and outsider... Get it?" She said and swallowed a spoonful of soup.
"Yea I think..."
"Well, hurry and eat, we'll have to meet my parents in.... Exactly 6 minutes," She said looked above his head at a clock he didn't even notice was there.
Slowly, he inched the spoon towards his mouth and ate the soup. He had no idea what was in it, the meat tasted like flowers, and the broth tasted like.... Oranges. But it was satisfying and they both ate the whole pot in five minutes.

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