Story the Second

  The Moving Statue

  Present

  Once upon a time, there was a girl named Sofia. And whatever you think, she is not the main character of this story. (Since she is obviously not a statue.) She lived in a simple little town with no name that never would’ve graced the pages of this story if there wasn’t a conveniently large cave nearby. She lived with her father and mother, and together, they made a happy little family.

  Sofia spent her days playing with the other children in that tiny town, for she was only 12, young enough to justify playing all day. Yet part of her longed for more adventure. That part of her was fed every night when her mother read her tales from a thick book titled, “Stories of Samyia: Volume 2.” Her favorite story was about how the irresponsible crown prince of Samyia had been turned into a dragon by an evil witch. According to the book, the prince was cursed to stay that way for 14 years, until the girl he was charged to guard turned 18.

  Sofia had heard rumors of a new king over Samyia, right on time to coincide with the end of the 14 years, and she secretly hoped that the legend was true. She often imagined what it would be like to be turned into a dragon, and resolved to be the nicest, most loving dragon in all of Samyia.

  Today, she was off to see Martha, an old woman who was more than a little bit crazy. The rest of the town avoided her, except to occasionally bring her food out of pity. (Wouldn’t you feel pity for a crazy old lady? No? Never mind.) Sofia had no idea what everyone was so scared of and made it a habit to regularly visit the old woman.

  “Good day, my darling Sofia,” Martha greeted her as she sat on her porch. “It’s a beautiful day outside.”

  “I know, I’ve been out since this morning! The birds have been chirping more happily than usual today.” Sofia sat on the porch of Martha’s cottage, just in front of the rocker where the old lady was sitting. “Do you have any stories for me?”

  Martha’s eyes shone. “Oh, do I! I have a very special story for you, my dear. In fact, it’s about this very town.” She leaned forward conspiratorially and spoke in her deep storytelling voice. “Ten years ago, when you were a wee little baby, there was a girl. She was adventurous, just like you. One day, she was exploring a cave close by with her best friend when something reached out of the shadows and grabbed her.” Sofia jumped in fright. “Her best friend screamed and ran out of the cave, all the way back to town. When the girl’s father heard what happened, he marched into the cave – and never came out. We all feared for our lives and locked up our houses. After a few months went by, we relaxed a bit, but to this day, no one ever goes into the cave.”

  Sofia shivered in delicious fear. Martha’s stories were usually frightening, but always in an exhilarating way. She thanked the old woman for the story, then ran home just in time for lunch.

  “Mom! Dad! Guess what Martha told me about!” Sofia called as she ran into her house. She raced into the kitchen and skidded to a stop right in front of her mother.

  “Whoa, honey, slow down!” Her mom reached out a hand to steady her.

  Words tumbled out of Sofia. “I visited Martha today and she told me of a creepy cave where some people disappeared and it sounds so cool and awesome so please can I go there?” She paused and took a deep breath.

  Her mother gave her a scalding look. “Absolutely not! See, this is why I don’t want you talking to her. She’s going to put all sorts of fantastical ideas in your head, and you’re going to rush off into the world with no idea of the dangers you’ll face. Now, promise me you’ll stay away from that cave.”

  “I promise,” said Sofia, fingers crossed behind her back. “But Mom, how are Martha’s stories any different from the ones you read to me?”

  Her mother was speechless, and after that, there were no more bedtime stories.

  Sofia made it a whole 2 days without thinking about the cave. Knowing its tantalizing secret and yet being forbidden to explore it was torturous for her. It was only a matter of time until her adventurous spirit kicked in.

  “If I go and only look at the cave, then I won’t be disobeying Mom, right?” she asked herself. “And since I crossed my fingers, that wasn’t a binding promise anyway.”

  “Mom! I’m going out to play!” Sofia called back as she left on her adventure.

  “Have fun, honey!” her mom called back. “Be back by lunchtime!”

  “I will!” Sofia ran to the edge of the forest that surrounded her town and plotted her next move. Where would I hide a cave? she thought. Then her eyes caught sight of a large hill rising above the trees in the distance. “Aha!” Sofia grinned in satisfaction and headed through the forest toward the hill. The hill was a lot farther away than it looked (your eyes can play tricks on you sometimes) and she was exhausted by the time she got there. Sofia was about to flop on the ground for a break when she spotted the dark mouth of a cave. Exhilaration flowed through her, washing away her exhaustion. She ran to the cave’s entrance, then hesitated. She glanced back at her town, which looked tiny from this distance.

  No use going all this way only to turn back, she thought. Might as well go in.

  And with that settled, she walked into the cave.

  Sofia’s first impression was of dark. Dark, dark, and more dark. But as she rounded a corner, groping wildly to find her way, a hole in the ceiling allowed light to stream in, revealing a cave. (What a surprise! Okay, well, it wasn’t just a cave.)

  Sofia gasped. She stepped forward hesitantly and started wandering through the maze of statues that filled the cave. There were statues of adults, statues of kids, statues of goblins, elves, and ogres, even a statue of a dragon looming above all the rest. All of the statues were carved out of rough stone that looked like the stone of the cave walls. They were in a variety of poses. Standing, sitting, running, walking, but worst of all were those who were obviously scared of something. Just looking at their wide eyes and their hands held up to shield themselves frightened Sofia, and she quickly moved past those.

  Off to the side was a lone statue standing separate from the others. She moved closer to examine it, wondering why it was apart from its comrades.

  The statue had been carved to look like a boy, maybe 18 years old or so. It was carved out of the same rough stone as the rest of the statues. It stood with straight arms and a bowed head. Its eyes looked closed, as if it was resting. Its face wore a mournful expression.

  Sofia glanced over the statue to find the reason for its isolation and realized that the statue was missing its left hand. It looked like the hand was cut clean off. Poor statue, she thought, filled with compassion. He’s broken. No wonder he’s over here. At this point, she started to think of the statue as “he” instead of “it.” (Compassion tends to do that.)

  As she gazed at the statue (who she had already started calling “Hugh” in her head, because that was the name of the prince who got turned into a dragon), she noticed the fine, life-like details of his carving, from the wrinkles in his clothes to the individual strands in his hair. “What I wouldn’t give to meet whoever carved this statue,” she stated aloud, and the statue’s eyes flew open.

  “Eep!” Sofia darted behind a large statue of an ogre. She dared to glance out from behind the stone ogre, but hid again at the sight of the statue stretching out his arms (or at least as much as one could stretch one’s arms with only one hand).

  “Hello?” a rough voice called. “You can come out now, I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Sofia peeked out from her hiding spot. “Hugh? You can talk?”

  “What?” The statue wrinkled his nose. “My name isn’t Hugh. Besides, he’s an annoying little brat and I would change my name in an instant if I was ever named after him.”

  “Oh, sorry! I just thought that you might want a name, you know, being a statue and all.”

  The statue huffed out a breath. “I have a perfectly good name. My name is Colbrian, but everyone calls me Colby, so I guess you can too.”

  “Colby is a nice name. I’m Sofia.” She skipped out into the open, her previous fear long forgotten. “How did you come to life? Do you eat food? Are you invincible? Who made you?”

  He shook his head somberly. “Trust me, you don’t want to meet the person who made me like this. Thankfully, he’s on his monthly trip, otherwise you’d be part of his collection of statues right now.”

  Sofia gaped at him. “Wait, you mean he’d turn me to stone?”

  A loud call from the cave’s mouth interrupted their conversation. “Colbrian, I’m home! I do hope you haven’t been up to any mischief while I was gone!”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Quick, hide!” Colby hissed to Sofia, then pretended he had been asleep this whole time and was only just waking up. Sofia, on the other hand, dove into a side tunnel and hid. She couldn’t help thinking that this was all just like a story from the book her mother read to her.

  A man strode into the cave, weaving in between the statues with ease. He had dark brown hair and walked with authority. A magical-looking white wand hung from his belt. He was wearing the finest clothes Sofia had ever seen.

  A donkey trailed behind him, hauling a cart of food. The man unhitched the wagon, pulled out his wand, and shot a bolt of light at the donkey.

  Sofia couldn’t hold back a gasp. When the light faded, the donkey was another stone statue, just like all the others in the room. So that’s how he does it, she thought. I wonder if the wand turns people back to normal, too?

  The man whipped his head around, wand still in hand. “Did you hear that? I heard someone gasp.”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” Colby said seriously. “I haven’t seen anyone all day, so there’s no way someone could be here.”

  “You were asleep!” The man turned on the statue and glared at him. “I found footprints outside that led right to this cave. How do you explain that, huh? Huh?!” Colby cowered before him, stepping backward to put distance between him and the man’s anger.

  Sofia clenched her fists in anger. Fight back, Colby! she told the statue silently.

  “You are the absolute worst guard I have ever seen! You couldn’t guard a single silvestra without it being stolen!” The man stepped forward threateningly. “If you don’t do better, I might have to cut off your other hand too!” He paused. “Oh, wait, then you wouldn’t be able to carry things for me. How about an ear, then? You could still hear with one ear.”

  “Please don’t, Jack,” Colby whimpered.

  “I’ve already told you countless times, it’s Jacken to you!” The man raised his hand to slap Colby, and the statue braced for the blow.

  “STOP IT!” Sofia shouted. She ran out of cover and rushed to Jacken. She grabbed his up-lifted arm and pulled him away from Colby.

  Jacken pulled his arm out of her grip and gazed at her in fury. “So there was an intruder after all! How dare you attack me!”

  Sofia glared at him with equal vehemence. “I won’t let you hurt my friend, you big bully.”

  He laughed cruelly. “He’s made of stone, child. I couldn’t hurt him even if I tried!” Colby felt the stump of his left hand and looked away in misery.

  “Tell me this, child,” Jacken continued. “If I promised to cut off one of this statue’s ears if you ever left, what would you do?”

  Sofia gave him a look, not sure where this was going. “I’d stay here.”

  “Just what I thought. You are very entertaining, child. I won’t turn you into stone as long as you tell me interesting stories. And no more of that sass.”

  Sofia nodded mutely.

  “Now, you two, bring the cart in here and unload it.”

  And so began Sofia’s lonely life of captivity. She spent her days doing chores and reciting stories for Jacken. After a week, she had exhausted her memory and had to make up each story as she went along. If her story did not please Jacken, she might lose a meal. Once, she went a whole day without food just because she told the story of Prince Hugh. She didn’t understand what Jacken and Colby had against the prince.

  It would’ve been easier if only she could talk to Colby, but the statue studiously remained silent. Seeing his continuous sorrow and experiencing first-hand what it was like to serve Jacken only made Sofia more determined to help Colby.

  As Jacken had not planned to feed another human, he had to take his monthly trip sooner than usual. Sofia was plotting her escape for when Jacken was gone. She knew he wouldn’t be back for a few hours, and she would have the perfect opportunity to escape, taking Colby with her.

  On the morning of the trip, Jacken whispered something to his magic wand and unfroze the donkey. So you can turn people back to normal with the wand, Sofia thought. He had Colby and her attach the wagon to the donkey and then turned to the duo. “Hmm, Colby, I know you won’t run, but I’m worried about the girl. What’s to keep her from running? Eh, I guess there’s only one solution.” Before Sofia could react, Jacken whispered to his wand and shot a beam of light at her. Sofia could feel her legs hardening and turning cold. It felt like forever, but it only took an instant for her to turn entirely to stone.

  She couldn’t move, feel, speak, breathe, or even think. Everything felt like it had melted into sludge. Sofia could feel herself melding with the stone, and soon nothing mattered to her. She was one with the rock. She couldn’t hear either, yet she thought she caught a gravelly voice saying, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. Besides, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Eventually, even words lost their meaning.

  Sofia wasn’t sure whether it was minutes or days before a white flash cut through the sludge. Her weak, now-human legs collapsed from lack of use, and she fell to her knees. Her memories flooded back, and everything had meaning once again.

  Sofia glanced up at Jacken, who was leering over her. Colby was in the background, running his hand through his stony hair. “How long was I a statue?” she asked wearily.

  Jacken eyed her cruelly. “About seven hours, twenty-three minutes, and eleven seconds.”

  Sofia gazed at him in amazement, and he cackled. “I’m just kidding! Seven hours.”

  She stretched her legs and slowly stood up. She felt shaken by the experience as a statue. If that’s how bad it was after seven hours, imagine what it would be like to be stone forever! At least you wouldn’t care about anything, and you would never be hungry or thirsty. (Think of all the silvestras you could save from not buying food!) Sofia wondered if Colby was still partially human, or if he didn’t care about anything either.

  As the pair of captives carried in Jacken’s plentiful food purchases, Colby whispered, “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine!” Sofia said with forced enthusiasm. She smiled to show him that she was truly fine. “It’s nice to actually talk to you again. I was beginning to think you had forgotten how.”

  “Yeah…Well…” Colby turned away and put down his last load of food, and Sofia did likewise. As the statue turned to leave, she called after him, “Let’s talk tonight!” She waited for him to turn around or reply, but he kept walking to the cave where he lived.

  “Hey girl!” yelled Jacken. “Come over here and tell me a story!”

  Sofia sighed and began concocting her latest tale.

  Later that night, once Jacken was sound asleep, Sofia made her way over to Colby’s cave by the light of the moon. He hadn’t come out of his cave since Jacken got back, except for when Jacken occasionally had a chore for him to do, and Sofia was getting worried about him.

  As she made her way through the maze of statues, Sofia happened to pass the lone statue of a dragon. She glanced up, shivered once with fear, and continued on. The moonlight cast strange shadows in the cave, making the statues infinitely creepier.

  When Sofia had reached the other side of the main cave, she paused before peeking into one of the side caves. Colby sat alone in the middle of his cave, illuminated by light streaming through a hole in the cave’s ceiling. The statue was sitting with his knees bent and his arms wrapped around his legs, and Sofia could see him feeling the stump of his left wrist. During the two weeks she had known him, she had learned that he did that whenever he was feeling low.

  Sofia slipped into the cave and sat beside Colby silently. For a 12-year-old, she had matured a lot over the weeks of her captivity, and she had a feeling that this was a solemn time, not to be broken by loud words.

  “You know, I used to be brave and adventurous, like you,” Colby said softly. Sofia glanced over, but he was still gazing up at the moon.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “The Shaper happened, fourteen years ago.” The statue turned to look at her for the first time since she had sat beside him. “I could have stopped all this before it even happened. No statues would be out there, standing alone for all eternity, Jacken wouldn’t have infinite power, and you never would have had to be stone, like me. All I had to do was keep my mouth shut, but the lure of riches was too great. I should’ve seen what Jacken was truly like, but I was na?ve and blind-sighted.” Colby put his head in his hand. “It’s all my fault.”

  “Hey, don’t say that.” Sofia put a hand on his shoulder. It was the first time she had deliberately touched him, and his stone felt cold. “You had no idea what he was going to do.”

  “Sure.” The statue didn’t look at her, and she had a feeling that her words hadn’t gotten through.

  In the silence that followed, Sofia pondered their situation. She couldn’t leave because Jacken would cut off one of Colby’s ears, but as far as she knew, Colby had no reason to stay. Shey couldn’t leave while Jacken was nearby, because he would just shoot them with his magic wand. And the last time Jacken went on his monthly food trip, he just turned her to stone, and that was that. But there was one time that he couldn’t guard them, and that was now, while he was sleeping.

  “Hey Colby, why don’t we just leave right now?” The statue looked stunned, and Sofia barreled onward, her natural energy taking over. “Jacken is asleep right now, so we can just slip out, and he’ll never be the wiser. We could go back to my town and come up with a plan to take him down, and then free all the people he’s turned to stone. It would work perfectly!”

  Colby sighed. “I can’t. I have to stay here to atone for my past mistakes. As long as those statues out there are still stone, then I have to stay here.”

  Sofia pinched her nose in exasperation. She knew that the statue had evidently been through a lot, but she wished he would stop kicking himself around so much. “Colby, did it ever occur to you that if you stay here, I won’t be able to leave either? You won’t be able to help all those statues by hiding in this cave and mindlessly serving Jacken for the rest of your life.”

  Silence permeated the cave. “Okay, I see your point. But we can’t go back to your town. Once Jacken realizes we’re there, he won’t rest until he either finds us, or everyone who lives there is turned to stone.”

  Sofia looked at the floor. She imagined her town, lonely, abandoned, full of statues, and shuddered. “You’re right. We can’t do that. But where else can we go?”

  Colby’s eyes widened with an idea. “We could go to the cave where we found the Shaper. It should be far enough away that Jacken won’t bother to follow us, and we might be able to find more information about the Shaper, maybe even find a weakness of some sort.” His eyes sparkled with energy. After long years of imprisonment, it seemed his sense of adventure was finally coming back.

  “It sounds perfect!” Sofia beamed at the statue. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

  Colby gave a small chuckle, and they left immediately. It wasn’t hard to sneak past a snoring Jacken, nor to slip through the statues. With a new hope in the air, they no longer seemed so frightening. In fact, Sofia thought the statues might even be cheering them on silently.

  At the exit of the cave, the duo paused by silent agreement and turned to look back one last time. Sofia couldn’t help but feel happy to leave her prison of stone. Not much had happened over the last two weeks, and she was ready for a new adventure, though she was leaving as a much older person than the one who had arrived.

  But Colby… Colby was about to leave the only home he’d known for the last 14 years. Sure, he had been a prisoner there, but he had nothing else… Nowhere to go.

  The statue blew out a breath. You need to let go, he told himself. You’ve been living a shadow of a life for fourteen years. It’s time to move on from your past and create a new life, a better one.

  With that new viewpoint in mind, Colby squared his shoulders and faced the dark unknown that lay before him. “Come on, Sofia,” he said. “Let’s go on an adventure.”