Lilly sighed as she leaned against the railing of the tower balcony as she twirled a blonde ringlet in her finger. Her 18th birthday was already 6 months in the past. She thought being an adult would change things. It hadn't. She gazed out beyond the walls to the forest beyond. What was out there? Only she seemed to be curious. But of course, she could not go. No, she was stuck here in the palace. She sighed. How could no one else want to know what was beyond the city?
Sure, they had everything they needed here. Small gardens and a tiny lake inside the wall fed the city. A well gave clean water. Hunters from the walls occasionally managed to shoot a deer with harpoons for furs and a variety of food. A small mine fed their need for resources. Everything else was delivered by bird. Except adventure.
It was so boring here. The same people, day in and day out. There were around 1,000 people in the city and Lilly had met them all. Multiple times. She'd grown bored of people. Now she just wanted to be... out there. Among the trees. Beyond the mountain range. Anywhere but here.
No one could leave the city though. There wasn't even a gate. The wall was solid all the way around. You could get up onto it from inside the city but there was no way down on the other side. And it was at least a forty-foot drop. Lilly had looked.
So... She just watched and took notes. She thumbed her journal absently as she gazed at the skies outside the city. She sat up straight as she saw a speck in the distance. Another bird! That was the third today. Lilly hated that no one else was curious where the birds or their packages came from. Who sent them? Where did they get the things they sent? How did they make them?
Lilly jotted down notes as the bird flew into closer view. It had come from the direction of the mountains. Most did. Red. That meant a bath supply bird most likely. Probably bringing soap. She sighed. How was soap made? What was it made of? Why was she the only one to care?
What if the birds stopped coming? No one would listen to thoughts like that though. "The birds have always come and always will come," her father, the king, had said. She watched as the red bird flew over the hay field and dropped its package. The package thumped softly onto a bed of hay set out to await it. The bird wheeled and headed back out of the city. Towards the mountains.
What was- Lilly's heart jumped into her throat as the red bird jerked in flight. Something shiny had flown through the air from the forest below and hit the bird. The bird crumpled at the impact and fell out of the sky, falling below the treeline. Lilly's heart was racing as her hands trembled. She memorized the treetops the bird had fallen behind in her mind and quickly flipped to her sketches of the landscape in the directions of the mountain.
There... She marked the location on her drawing. That's where the bird had fallen. She jumped to her feet. "Father!" she called as she ran through the palace.
It took several minutes to find her father. She burst into his meeting room after forcing her way past Peeves, the scrawny scribe guard. There were four other men in the room with her father, all looking surprised in her direction. Her father looked exasperated and disappointed at her barging into his meeting room. She didn't care. "Father! A bird was shot down! It fell into the forest and-"
"Lilly!" Her father shouted. "You do not interrupt me in my meetings! You bring shame to yourself and to me!"
"But father the-!"
"Silence!" The king said. "I have told you I will hear no more of your talk of the outside. Now return to your tower without supper!"
Lilly opened her mouth to protest but there was a fire in her father's eyes. She wilted and turned from the room, running back to her tower. It wasn't fair! Why did no one listen to her! She was an adult! Eighteen years of age! She should not be treated like a child anymore.
This was ridiculous. That bird needed to be investigated! Something shot it down! What if that bird was never replaced and they never got a shipment of soap ever again! What if other birds were shot down? Someone had to do something, and clearly that was up to her.
Lilly huffed and set into motion a plan she had had for a long time. She pulled her pillowcase stuffed with bread out from under her bed. Then she stripped the bed of sheets. She then pulled down the curtains. She set to tying knots. Sheet to sheet to curtain to curtain. She wrapped the lengths of her makeshift rope around the room. Yes... that would have to be long enough. Then she piled them all in her arms along with the bread pillowcase and marched out of her room.
One guard questioned her as she left the palace. She told him her father was punishing her by making her do her own laundry, and she was talking the sheets to the pond to wash them. He shook his head with disappointment, buying her story hook-line-and-sinker.
She smiled as she headed for the wall. It was getting late so no one was about. She climbed the wall without being seen. Then, she tied one end of her rope to a crenelation and tossed the other over the wall. She peered down. It looked like her rope was a little short. That was alright. She could drop the few extra feet to the ground.
She dropped the pillowcase with the bread over the wall then climbed up and began lowering herself down. It was a lot easier than the had expected. The wall was slightly sloped so with the help of her rope it was almost like she was just walking down a very very steep hill. When she reached the end of it she let go and slid the rest of the way down. Despite her best efforts she fell into a heap on the floor. She grunted and got to her feet, dusting off her dress. "Hmph." She said with satisfaction, kicking the wall lightly. She then picked up her pillowcase and set off into the forest, grinning from ear to ear.
~Two hours later~
"Oh nooooo!" Lilly moaned as her dress snagged again, tearing another hole in the hem. She huffed and tried to bundle the dress up higher. "Ugh! Why is it so dirty out here!" Lilly said to the forest. The ground was cluttered with leaves, brush, and roots. It was muddy too, and she had already had to rescue her left shoe from the mud twice. "Ow!" she screeched as she tripped on a root and fell to her knees. "Not faaair!" she whined as she stood up, her dress now covered in mud. "Where are you bird!" she demanded. This was not at all like she had expected. It was dark. Wet. Dirty. And not at all like an adventure.
She stopped still. What was that? She thought she heard something... a rustling. "Bird?" she called. "I-is that you?" Lilly screeched as something grabbed her by the ankle and yanked, lifting her upside down into the air. Her dress fell up, revealing her pale legs and undergarments and blocking her face.
"Ahh!" Lilly cried as she desperately tried to push her dress up to she could see. There was a large bulbous plant on the ground with several tendrils protruding from it. One of the tendrils was holding her up by the foot. "O-ok Mr. Plant! That's quite enough, you can put me d-down now!"
The plant lurched and... turned to the side. The bulbous plant was actually just part of a much larger creature. The whole thing was nearly two dozen feet long. It looked vaguely like a lion made out of plants. It had originally been laying flat on its back. It had rolled over onto its side. The bulbous part of the lion-plant was... Its penis.
Lilly blushed furiously. "Heh... Good kitty. Look, I know I'm pretty but... maybe you can-!" Lilly yelped as the vine holding onto her foot began to snake its way up her leg. "B-bad kitty!" Lilly wiggled, causing herself to sway back and forth in her dangling position. She let out a yelp as three more vines shot upwards from the plant-lion, each grabbing her by a different limb.