The End

PART TEN (the last part of Anise!)

Anise opened her eyes.  She could see everything very clearly but it didn't look real at all to her. She was in a small bed beside a window in a room with soft carpet on the floor, flowery wallpaper and a lot of chairs. The chairs were occupied by a crowd of people, and more were standing. They were the Macandrews (some of them). 
“She's awake,” someone whispered. 
“Where am I?” asked Anise. 
“You're in the recovery centre in Instan city.” said Mrs Macandrew, smiling happily at her. 
“What happened?” said Anise, sitting up. 
“Queen Devo and Prince Ivro are dead and we are assuming Evo has fled into the mountains.” said a strange man who was standing in front of the heater at the back of the room, with a huge grin on his face. 
“Who are you? How did it happen?” 
“You killed the Queen and the Prince.” 
“What?” 
“You wouldn't remember, you were recovering from enforced hibernation.” 
“What?” A large tear began trying to find its way out of Anise's eye, happily assuming that it was going to single-handedly save the eye from dehydration and get itself splashed on a whole square inch of the bedspread and gain fame and fortune among the dust particles. As it was, it only managed to cover a square centimetre and Anise's body decided that reinforcements were necessary. The first tear was most disappointed. 
Mrs Macandrew had seen it fall and hurried everyone out of the room. She closed the door and came over to sit on the bed. She put her arms around Anise, who, after a few minutes, fell asleep. Mrs Macandrew silently left the room. 

During the month which followed, Anise found that she now had three uncles, six aunts, one grandmother and a lot of other relatives and friends of her parents. It was very overwhelming but she got through it with the help of Mrs Macandrew and Patrick.  Patrick spent a lot of time with her in that month but she never noticed until one day, when they were walking in the garden, he asked Anise a question.
“Anise?” 
“Yes, Patrick?” 
“Er... Anise, do you like me?” 
“Yes.” 
“Okay.” 
One night her bed was too hot so she went for a walk after trying to destroy her pillow. She wore only her nightdress and a dark blue coat both of which were supplied by the recovery centre. After a bit of wandering around she found herself in the garden and sat down on the fluffy green moss (which is oddly enough called grass), underneath a small foundation tree and waited, she didn't know why or what for. She soon gave up and walked up the hill to where a bridge passed over the stream. It was a beautiful still night, three moons were out and there were no clouds to speak of. Anise walked to the middle of the bridge and sighed. This was how Patrick found her an hour later when he came out for the same reason.

“Patrick?” 

“Yes Anise?” 

“I've changed my mind. Not all men are wicked."
"Well that's nice to know." 

And they married a long time after, when they were old enough.

THE END

How I felt when I finished this book

Right, on to the next book!