Liberty

Some information: this story will start out in Pakistan. However, it will move from place to place.

Ammi means mother in Urdu. Aliyah and Khalid live with their mother as their father is dead.

this story is owned by Z-FunWithBooks

Chapter One

Aliyah was talking to her brother when it happened. Her mother, Leila Hafiz was cooking pakoras in the kitchen when someone knocked down her door. Khalid, Aliyah’s older brother whom she loved very much, turned to her and said,

"We should hide. We don’t know who it is,” he said.

"But what if they’re going to hurt Ammi?” Aliyah asked.

Khalid looked at her gravely.

"We’ll just have to hope they don’t.”

Aliyah and Khalid hid behind the stairs. They could see several men approach their mom. Their mother was aware of the men just long enough to see them knock her out.

Aliyah gasped, tears running down her face and unto her hijab. Unfortunately, this gave away Khalid and Aliyah’s hiding spot.

one of the men, who had been on the side, looked at them.

"There are kids over there!” He hollered.

"Show yourselves!” One with blond hair called out.

Reluctantly, Khalid and Aliyah stepped out.

"Did you... kill her?” Aliyah asked.

"No, we didn’t.” The blond man answered.

"what do you want with us?” Khalid asked.

"You’re elves and we’re taking you to the Lost Cities.”

Chapter Two

"What on Earth is the Lost Cities?" Aliyah questioned.

"Yeah, and when did we agree to go with you? Don't forget that you knocked out our mom," Khalid reminded them.

"We thought you might not come willingly. That's why we brought these," The blond man motioned to the gun Aliyah just realized he was holding.

"I'm pretty sure those are-" Aliyah never got to finish her sentence, as she was shot in the head with the mysterious gun looking thing.

"Ouch," was the last thing Aliyah said before she lost conciousnesss.

Aliyah woke up in a dark ceel with Khalid next to her.

"Where are we?" She asked Khalid.

Khalid turned to her.

"We're in this place called the Lost Cities. Apparently Atlantis and all those other cities are real. Right now, we're being put on trial," Khalid explained.

"Why though? We haven't commited any crimes in our entire lives!"

Khalid snorted.

"What?" Aliyah asked.

"Apparently, being the children of the now dead Leila Hafiz and Ahmed Hafiz is a crime itslef," Khalid answered.

"Wait, hold on a second. They killed Mom?" Aliayah asked.

"Yes And they made me watch," It now occured to Aliyah that Khalid was trembling. Aliyah hugged him, and they stayed like that for hours. It was only them now. No mother, no father, not even that one weird cousin.

As if wanting to break their peace, a bulky guard with grey skin spproached them.

"Aliyah and Khalid Hafiz," He started. "You are now under trial."

Chapter Three

The bodyguard put strange and paniful circlets around Khalid and Aliyah's heads.

"Whatever you do," Khalid whispered so the bodyguard with-no-name wouldn't hear them. "DON'T answer any of their question. If they take our mom away from us, we're going to be as annoying as possible."

Ailyah grinned at that idea.

"Of course Khalid. Being annoying is one of my speacialties."

The bodyguard who still had no name stopped them in front of a large door. In five minutes they were on a platform facing twelve elves with jewel wncrusted circets. Elves sure like their sparkles, Aliyah noted.

"We are the elvin Council," The spokesman for the Council explained. "Your trial will begin once the other leaders of the other species come. Do you understand?"

Both Aliyah and Khalid remianed silent. Then Aliyah spoke,

"We understand enough to be able to tell that you're just going to be arguing and not actually doing anything."

This caused a few muffled laughs from the elves (and what looked to ba an ogre to Aliyah) in the back who were already here.

"You've got a terrible personality, just like your parents," A Councillor with a peridot circlet snarled.

"I think you don't understand that my personality is who I am, and my attitude depends on who you are," Aliyah replied, not caring of the punishments. This was the person who'd ordered her mother to be killed, right? She deserved every insult she could throw at her. You do not mess with an angry Aliyah Hafiz.

"Before Alina can lose her dignity anymore," Interrupted a Councillor with a leg brace. "I suggest that you guys go rest. The other leaders will be here tommorrow. Though Oralie, Bronte and I will stay."

After the other Councillors left, the tree remaining Councillors approached them.

The one with blonde ringlets said,

"My name is Oralie. The grumpy looking Councillor on my right is Bronte. And that's Terik," She pointed to the Councillor with a leg

"Pleasure. Who are those elves and what I pursume is an ogre in the back?" Khalid asked speaking up for the first time in forever.

As if wanting to introduce themsleves they got up and made their way over to where Khalid, Aliyah, and the three Councillors were standing.

"My name is Sophie Foster. And just because I know you're wondering, you're here because your parents stole one of the Councillor's caches. And the Council except for these three believe you have it."

Chapter Four

"Okay, cool," Aliyah responded. "Now will someone tell me what the heck a cache is?"

"In short form a cache is basically a marble filled with some of the Elvin world's most precious secrets," Sophie explained.

"Neat," Khalid said. "The Councillors keep thr most important secrets in marbles."

"To open a secret you need a trigger word. And it could be literally ANYTHING." A girl with teal eyes explained.

"Can you guys intorduce yourselves?" Aliyah asked.

"I'm Fitz."

"Biana."

"Dex."

"Linh."

"Wylie."

"Lord Hunkhair-" Biana stomped on his foot. (she was wearing heels) "OUCH! Okay fine I'm Keefe."

"Why did the Council kill our mom?" Khalid asked. It was a simple question, but it made the Councillors turn a little green.

"We didn't want to. But it was majority vote," Councillor Bronte explained.

"Nice. So why are you guys here? Are you important?"

"We're your defenders. We spent a lot of days trying to find evidence that you don't know where the cache is," Sophie explained.

"Cool. But we were only in Elf-Land for a few hours. How could you have spent days?"

"You really don't know?" Councillor Oralie asked.

Aliyah and Khalid shook their heads.

"You both were unconcious for days. Two weeks actually."

Chapter Five

A Note: Ras malai is a Pakistani dessert. You might want to look it up, as I am horrible at explaining.

"Well okay then. Can someone please take this incredibly painful circlet thingy of my head? It's making me feel like I want to throw-up," Khalid asked.

"Unfortunately, we can't. The circlet is monitoring your emotions and actions. Even if you're proven innocent, both of you will have to wear your circlets for life," Councillor Terik explained.

"Well, that makes me feel a whole lot better about this whole trial thing," Aliyah stated.

"When is the trial starting? I'm BORED," Keefe asked.

"You sound like you want the trial to start," Aliyah noted.

"Well, not that I would want anyone to be on trial, but it is kind of intertaining to see the Councillors argue," Biana said.

"I guess," Khalid noted.

"I have an idea to make this situation less depressing! Let's get mallowmelt!" Sophie excliamed.

"What's mallowmelt?" Khalid and Aliyah asked in unision.

"First of all, don't talk in sync. It's creepy. And second of all, mallowmelt is only the best dessert ever in the entire world!" Dex explained.

"You obviously haven't tried ras malai," Aliyah mumbled.

"What's ras malai?" Linh asked.

"It's my favorite Pakistani dessert," Aliyah said.

"You'll like mallowmelt more," Fitz promised.

"Yeah!" Keefe agreed.

And so, after fifteen years minutes the Hafiz siblings tried mallowmelt. While they were eating it, Aliyah asked,

"What's the worst that can happen during the trial?"

The Councillors paled.

"Life sentence in Exlie."