Trapped by Ruhi Datye

Princess Additri lived in a magical land. Every day, she would ride out on her pegasus and fly. She loved rushing through the air as the wind buffeted her face. When she returned one fine day, she saw her parents anxious faces. They were tied to the pillars of the castle and gagged. She ran to untie them and was grabbed from behind.

 “You’re coming with me princess,”he said yanking her roughly.

 She was dragged up Mountain Galore and down never catching sight of the man’s face. I felt the ground under my feet flatten out as I was walked forward. Before me I saw giant pits with plaques in front of them. The man shoved me into a pit. I screamed as I fell. I landed at the bottom of the marble pit with a thud.

 I scrambled desperately trying to get out of the pit, but it was too round and I couldn’t get up. I sat on the marble ground and cried. I didn’t know what had happened to my family.

 I had been in the pit for about a week when I saw a boy at the top of the pit. A man in a funny dragonfly mask shoved him down. He didn’t go down easy. He grabbed the rim, hung for a second before falling the rest of the way.

 He barely glanced at me as he scoured the place for a way out, pulling on everything.

 Finally he gave up and sat down. He looked at me and seemed to notice me for the first time.

 “What’s your name? Mine’s Wesley,” he said.

 “Princess Additri,”I said with grace expecting surprise flash across his face. It didn’t.

 “You don’t believe me?”I asked him puzzled.

 “I believe you,” he said eying me warily. “Everyone in these pits are royalty.”

 “So you’re a prince?”I asked curiously.

 “No,”he said. “I’m just a guy who gets in their way. They want to put this artificial brain thing in all royalty that controls them. When they go back to their castles they will do whatever these men say. My brother is the one who shoved me in the pit.”My brow crinkled.

 “He’s not a bad guy,”the boy assured me.

 I raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. He had tied up my parents and kidnapped me.

 “He’s just trying to earn money for the family. For every prince or princess my brother captures, he gets 50 percivals. I exploited all of his plans so far. Well, except yours. So he shoved me down here.”Wesley said with a shrug.

 “Is there a way out?”I asked.

 “I think I found one.” he said. “See where they drop the food? It’s too skinny to get through the bottom but it expands as it travels up. It’s a soft material so if we had a blade…”

 “I have scissors in my boot,”I told him.

 “Why do you have a scissors in your boot?”he asked me.

 “You never know when you need to fix your hair. Number one rule of princess etiquette is to keep scissors and a comb handy.” I said.

 “Okay. Give them to me!”he said excitedly.

 “Only if you say please,”I said sweetly.

 “Please give me the scissors,”he said.

  I handed them over to him. He made quick work of it. We climbed up the food delivery system.

 “This must be where everything is controlled. If I could get down there, I could shut down the artificial brain thingies.”he whispered.

 “Okay. I’ll wait,”I said.

 He nodded and ducked down. He typed quickly. He paused for a second and smirked. His smug smile disappeared as we heard the alarm sing.

 “Let’s go,”he said.

 We hurried down the tube. I saw the bright sunlight. We ran.

 It took us 3 nights before we reached my castle. Westley continued to his village which wasn’t far from the castle. I untied my parents and told them everything that happened.