리틀팍스

A girl in a white saten dress, with long red streaks of hair flowing down her shoulders, stared into the bright glaze of the stars, which dotted the sky. There was a knock at the door. "Come in," she said without hesitation. A girl with long blue pigtails poked her head in. She looked bored as she limped over to me. "Have any Ice, Jane?" Jane nodded toward a glass bottle on a wodden table, which was everything in the room except for me and the girl. "It's not here." she said shortly, which made Jane take her eyes off the brilliant dots. The bottle was empty. The only thing remaining was a small cube, mixed with deep brown grass. "I guess it melted." Jane told her. "It wasn't a vaulable one," she quickly added when the little girl looked at her with dismay. "Look at the cube. It's the ground symbal, a red X. And by the color of the grass, it seems like the Ice had been brought from the Mudlands." Jane pointed to the large map, which was carved onto the table. "Here," - she pointed to the four corners of the table - "are the four kingdoms, as you may know. The Mudland is located here," - she stabbed her finger at a small dark dot between the Northwestern and the Southwestern kingdom - "which is infested with giant trolls, filthy things. Anyway, the Ice is very common here, but it would take thousands of them to make you touch money. Meanwhile, here, between this northeastern and southeastern land, which you might note as the Surper Kingdom and the Menshown Kingdom, is a small piece of land, so small that it isn't on this map. This land produces pure Ice, which melts rapidly once it is taken out of here. It's worth a hundred kingdoms, but no one has been able to get their hands on this for centuries. We don't know why - nobody had returned to tell the tale."

The girl looked interested, as she stared at the space between the northeastern and southeastern kingdom, which was completely blank. "For your information, we are here." Jane pointed at a blue dot, in the center of the table. "As you know, we can't go out, and the people from the four kingdoms can't get in. This place is protected by ancient magic, and as you know, if some unfortunate people come rolling into this castle, they're be gone. Gone. All we can do is write things we need in a paper and drop it into the well outside, and that thing would come. Most of the time. Once, a kid once asked for a trip outside the castle and he was gone the next day. Nobody knows what happened to him."

"Oh." was all the girl said. "So I'm trapped here?"

"Yeah. You're a rare case, brought here fully grown. Most of us came here when we were just babies. Most of the kids doesn't even know about the four kingdoms or the Ice. This castle is they're world." Jane said, fiddling with her long hair. "Do you remember your parents?"

"Yes, I mean no. Yes, I remember the soft voices and the hands that stroked me. But no, I haven't seen them or anything. Black was all I could see." she said with a thoughtful look on her face. "I wonder what they look like now. Back then, I thought that it was normal to see darkness everywhere you go."

"So you're the disabled." Jane said quietly. "Blind, I guess. Rescued by our mothersuperior, and she gave you sight. Yes, that's probable. I've seen many cases like that." 

"Are you talking to yourself?" the girl asked.

"No. Oh, what's your name?"

"Hannah."

"Yeah, Hannah. I remember now. The first to know everyone's name in the castle. The only one who didn't fear me."

"Well, it's ridiculous to fear you. You're no different from any of us. Well, bye. I need to get to my lesson."

Hannah hurried out the door. Jane watched silently at the closed door as the footsteps faded. "You're right Hannah, dear. You're very smart indeed. I knew you were the right choice." she spoke silently as her eyes glowed of a strange reddish color.