Finding Myself Again, Part 1

You see him running through the trees, just getting slight glimpses of him and his long golden hair streaming behind him.  He has arrows and a bow slung over his shoulder that seems to move with him, as if they are a part of his body.  Running as fast and agile as a deer through the forest, he seems to know instinctively where to jump and turn, almost looking as if he is floating over the leaves, branches, and dirt.  Then in seconds, he is gone.

         Immediately a bunch of men dressed in battle armor come from the same direction he had come from.  They stop, looking around, then continue running forward in the same direction, very clumsily and slow compared to him, following his nearly invisible trail.

         You stiffen in response.  He must be running from them!  But why?  What could he have done?  You hope he will be okay!  But somehow you know, within yourself, that you will see him again.  You walk a little bit in the direction they all went running towards, seeing if you can see what happened or where they went.  After about ten minutes a river blocks your path.  It is a rapidly running river, about ten feet wide with, thankfully, no steep banks on either side.  You should then be able to wade across the river to the other side.  After removing your shoes you begin walking into the river.  Oh no!  The bottom drops down very steeply to the middle.  You will not be able to wade the river, and if you try to swim you will get pulled downstream very quickly, and who knows what happens to the river downstream!  You have no choice but to find a bridge to cross.  After putting on your shoes again you contemplate briefly which way to walk, but in the end you go right and walk with the river on your left side, going upstream.  That way if you do end up having to swim you will know what the river is like downstream from you.

         You walk and walk and walk, but there is nothing that will serve as a bridge!  How did he and those people chasing him get across then, you wonder.  Later, the sun starts to set and you realize you are very hungry.  There was an apple tree a little way back, so you decide to turn around to eat and find some place for the night, but after you turn around you stop dead at the sight before you.  It's him!  He is facing you sitting on top of a pure white horse.  The horse is still as stone, and the most beautiful horse you have ever seen, so majestic with a long flowing white mane and deep brown eyes.  But it is he that you cannot stop staring at.  He is riding bareback with tall brown laced-up boots, white form-filling pants, and a flowing forest green shirt, plus his ever-present bow and arrows.  His hair is long, pulled back, and so blond it is almost white.  The sun behind him makes a halo of gold circling him.  It frames his wonderfully etched, almost poetic face and deep blue eyes.  Those eyes…they are staring into yours.  You almost get lost in them, they seem to pull you towards him.  They seem familiar in some way…Suddenly you are right next to him and the horse, he lifts you up in front of him as if you were a child!  Then the majestic white horse takes off, jumping the raging river as if it was nothing more than a trickle of water.

         You ride on and on.  The long day of walking was tiring, and you are warm and comfortable sitting on the horse and being enveloped in his strong arms and lean legs.  You lean back onto his chest and feel totally content and safe even without knowing his name. 

         You must have drifted off because next thing you are aware of is being carried and then placed on something extremely soft.  You roll over, get comfortable, and then fall right back to sleep knowing, for some reason, that he will protect you. 

You wake up and seem to be staring at a wall.  It is made of nothing but plain wooden boards.  You are laying on your right side, and when you start to move to try and turn over you realize that something warm and heavy is lying across your waist.  Looking down, you see that it is an arm!  An arm that is covered in a forest green sleeve!  The hand, you notice, is a pale white with very delicate looking fingers and clean fingernails.  Rolling gently out of his grasp you get out of bed on your side.  Thankfully, there is about a foot of space between the wall and that side of the bed.  Immediately he mumbles with his eyes still closed, “Get back in bed, there is still three hours until daylight.” 

         You do not know what to do!  Get back into bed with him?  You do not even know who he is!  Granted, he did rescue you, but he will be so close!  Out of desperation your reply, “only if you move over more.”  He grumbles a little, but does end of moving back over to his side.  You lightly and slowly lay back down as far away from him as possible, almost falling off onto the floor! 

You do not fall asleep again for a while, very much aware of him being so close, so close you can hear his soft, even breath.  Why all of sudden are you so shy?  Just yesterday you could not stop from staring at him, and could not get close enough to him on his horse!  Now you ask him to move over?  What are you thinking?  You start to feel foolish, and without him close by you get a little cold.  Well, it is over now and you start to drift off again listening to his wonderfully even breathing.  As you drift off, you think, he is even sexy and cute when he is sleeping…

Again the wall.  This time however, you can see it in the natural light, it is morning.  Turning your head you see that you are alone in the bed now.  The only sign of someone else being there are the sheets being a bit rumpled.  As you get out of bed you take a look around.  It is a medium sized room, probably about 20 by 20 feet or so.  All of the walls are made of the same wood as the wall next to the bed.  The wall opposite of the bed has one door on the left side, and one window on the right side.  The right wall is bare except for a few shelves with the barest minimum of food and a few books.  On the left wall there is a fireplace and a wood table with four wooden chairs.  The fireplace had embers from a recent fire.  Then you look back in front of you-the door is open!  Did he leave you here alone?  Why would he bring you here, protect you, and put up with such a ridiculous request, and then leave you here?  You do not think he would…would he?  You run to the door, and stand in the doorway peering out at the surrounding area.  There is a small clearing in front of the cabin, but past that there are trees and more trees.  A small fire pit is slightly to the left next to a river that seems to run behind the cabin.  Thank goodness!  He is sitting on a log next to the fire pit carving new arrows.  But wait a second!  You do a double take and look at him again realizing that his hair is brown!  And short!  What is going on here?  You stare at him for a long time thinking he almost looks like a totally different person except for the body and clothes.  You continue to stare…and think that he again looks very familiar, almost more so now.  You watch him carve and try and think how you know this person.  Somewhere inside you there is a connection but you just cannot figure it out.

He looks up and at you.  What the hell?  Instead of those piercing blue eyes you see dark, rich brown eyes!  Looking into them you loose yourself in their warmth.  You finally look away extremely confused and mumble, “good morning.”

“Good morning,” he replies, then goes back to carving.  You walk over to the fire pit and stand a safe distance away watching him carefully slice away pieces of bark from a long stick to make the shaft of an arrow.  You decide to sit down on an adjoining log by the fire  After a few shafts are made you cannot take the silence anymore,

“Where are we, who are you, and why did you bring me here?”  He stops working and stares at you with worry, and almost shock in his eyes.  “Plus what the heck happened to your hair and eyes!  You had long blond hair and blue eyes before and now it's short brown with brown eyes?  How does that happen?”

“You do not know who I am?” He says with question and almost a hurt look in his eyes.

“No!  I have no idea!  Why else do you think I would ask you?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!  I have never seen you before!”

“Do you remember anything about Everland?”

“Ever-what?”  Then you try to think back and realize you do not remember anything before seeing him!  “I don't remember anything before yesterday!  What happened to me?”  You ask him in almost a panic state.

“Horrible!” He exclaims startling you as he stands up and starts to pace about.  “You must have lost your memory somehow!  What is the first thing you remember?”  He asks as he finally stands still and faces you head on with his piercing eyes.

You think back, and realize the first thing you remember is seeing him running from those men.  You start to blush as you tell him, “I guess…the first thing I remember is seeing you running in the woods from those men who were chasing you.”  You try to think back and then you realize, “I do not remember anything before that at all.”

“Well, okay,” he says quietly, sitting back down, “This is my cabin; I brought you here because you were in danger and it was the closest safe place for the night.  My name is Elliott Foreland.”

“What!  I am in danger?  Where are you taking me?”

“You were in danger, I do not even know what you were doing wandering in the Ochu Forest anyway.  Last I heard you were in the Golden Valley, which sure is pretty close to the Ochu Forest, but still,” he finishes almost talking to himself.  Then continues, “I am taking you home, my Princess.”

“Whoa!  Wait a second!  Princess?  What are you talking about?  I am not your anything!”  For a second, you think you see deep pain in his rich eyes again, but then he looks down and continues talking.  “What is wrong with you my highness?  I saw you in the trees while I was escaping from the Ochu's trap.  Thankfully they did not see you and chased me, and fortunately you were safe until I could return to rescue you.  To answer you other question, it was because I was in another family's territory that I was dressed differently.  Whenever we soldiers go into battle of any sort we wear our traditional hair and eye color.”

“We soldiers?  Traditional eye and hair color?  And I am not your highness!  I know nothing of being a Princess!”

“You lost your memory, which must be why you did not return!  We have all been looking for you for a week; your parents are in a dreadful state.  Everyone will be so thankful for your safe return!”  As he says that you look off into space for a little and think, you really do not have any idea of who you are!  Your name, where you are from, your life, you know nothing!  You feel a sense of total loss, being utterly alone and shut off from everyone and everything.  Only bits and pieces of a place that seems far away from here surface in your memory as you concentrate on remembering your past.  Suddenly you notice that Elliott is speaking to you, “my highness, are you okay?”  His gorgeous brown eyes show real concern.

“Hmm?  Yeah, I'm fine.” You look down at your hands in your lap, “I guess I just really realized that I do have no idea of where I am from, who I am, my family, my friends, nothing!  It's all dark and blank, like I do not exist,” you look down in your lap and whisper, “I feel so lost and alone.” 

He reaches over and takes your hands into his own.  They are strong and warm and they comfort you.  “Right now it might seem like that, but truly there are many people who are missing you terribly and who do love you and care about you and your safety, I am one of them.  You might not remember all of that now, but your memory will soon return and you will be able to remember all the things that are true.  Until then, maybe I can help you a little by telling you about yourself.  You are Jade, the Princess of Everland, The Elf City.  Your elfish name is Llmaraama-meaning Starlight Wings. Your parents are King Victor and Queen Kathryn.  You are an only child.  You have many friends of the court, and you personally have more friends outside of the court.”

“How can I be the Princess and an….an…elf!!  I'm not an elf!  They do not exist!  What about the pointy ears, and being very short!  This just cannot be!”  You burst into tears, put your face into your lap and rock back and forth on the log.  You feel someone sit down next to you and a warm arm circle around you.  You bring your head up and hug Elliott and continue to sob.

A long while later you stop crying and suddenly realize what you did.  Quickly you jump out of his arms, move down the log and stare at your hands in your lap again.  “I am sorry about that; I did not mean to cry.”

“It is fine Princess, do not worry.”

“Could you please not call me Princess, it is so strange.  Call me…what is my name again?  Jade?”

“Yes.  Okay…Jade.”  He said it like it sounds funny calling you that.  No matter, that is what you want.  He continues talking, “and you call me Elliott then,” he waits until you nod.  “Now I will make you some breakfast and then we should keep riding to make it back to Everland before it gets too dark.”  So he walks into the cabin and you follow.  You sit at in one of the chairs at the table and watch him quickly prepare breakfast for you.  He is very quick and efficient at it and in a very short time you had a small but very tasty meal in front of you.  While you eat Elliott gets ready to leave, preparing his horse, making the bed, and other small tasks around the cabin.  After you are done you start to clean off your own dishes but Elliott stops you and says, “A Princess never does housework.”

“Neither should the host, I am your guest and I insist on doing my own dishes,” you retort back wanting to help him in some small way for everything he has done for you, “I feel bad, you have done so much for me and I have yet to do anything for you.”

“I need no repay, the pleasure of your company is enough for me,” Elliott replies in a soft voice and he continues to wash your dishes.

“I am sure my company has not always been a pleasure,” you say in a partially teasing voice.  As you say this you take up a spot next to him and begin drying the dishes.

“What are you doing!” He exclaims.

“Helping, if I cannot do it all myself I wish to help,” you think for a second, “I command to you to let me help!” You both laugh at that.

“Using your powers of authority already I see, I just never thought you would use them to help with housework!” he says while he smiles at you, “it is good to see you laugh!  You did that so much before, it was strange to see you not.”

“Well, since I cannot remember the person I was like before I have to make it up as I go and hope to get it right!”     

         “I can tell you a little of what you were like before if you would like.”

“Oh, very much so, then I will know what everyone is expecting of me.  I just hope that I was not a cruel Princess to all of you, I would not want to be like that again.”

“Let me assure you that you were never a cruel Princess.  You have always been very generous and caring to everyone, all types of elves: the rich and the poor, the ugly and the pretty, the nice and the stuck up.  You always had a good sense of humor as well.  We all knew you would be a wonderful Queen later in life so we were not scared of the future.  That is another reason when you were found to be missing everyone was all the more upset,” then continues almost in a whisper, “I know I was missing you very much.”

You stare at him after he says that, and reply in a soft and gentle voice, “you were missing me very much?  Why is that?”

He seems to mentally shake himself out of his thoughts, “well…because…you are our Princess, and you are responsible for the liveliness of us all.”  You stare at him and somehow you do not believe that that is the real reason, but decide not to push it.  If…or when your memory returns, you will probably remember anyway, so it is no rush to pry into his thoughts right now.  If it is something really upsetting you do not want to find out and then have to ride with him for the supposedly long ride back to Everland.  So you tell him, “oh, okay,” and go back to drying the final dishes.

After the dishes were all done Elliott does a few more little re-arranging things in the cabin then looks at you and says, “well…are you ready to take off?”

“Yup, I guess so.”  So he grabs his saddlebags and bows and arrows then you follow him out of the cabin.  He waits for you exit, closes the door, and then walks to his waiting white horse.  You follow him again and watch as he effortlessly hikes the bags onto the horse, then seemingly glides onto up with his bow and arrows.  He reaches down for your hand and again pulls you up in front of him like you weigh nothing.  This time you instantly tense up feeling the heat behind you from him.  He seems not to notice but instead starts his horse off galloping away.  You immediately get pushed back into him, still very tense.  After a few miles or so you start to get tired staying so rigid so you force yourself to relax and get quite comfortable.

You ride on and on throughout never ending trees.  After quite a long time you start getting very bored.  “You know,” you say still looking straight ahead but talking to him, “in my memory, elves are suppose to have pointed ears, I do not have pointed ears, see,” you say jokingly while you pull your ears away from your head.

“That is what a typical elf is supposed to look like,” he concedes trying to be all serious but failing, “but everyone is different, and you are just weird!”  Then genuinely he continues, “our ears are slowly getting what the humans call “normal” ears, most do not have points, see?” You turn around on his horse and see that it is true, you never noticed before but his ears are just slightly pointed at the top, just like he said.  He could almost pass for a “normal” human especially since he does not have the intense look with long blond hair and piercing blue eyes anymore.  That look was pure fantasy, untouchable sexiness almost.  However, you admit to yourself, he looks absolutely incredible just the way he is, and can be just as intense.  Then you think about what you were just thinking before with normal humans and mumble to yourself,

“Huh, that is odd.”  How is it that you know so much about humans?  Well, you guess that does not matter too much.  “Why is it that you have to wear a wig and a different eye color to go into battle or whatever?  I know you said you wear the traditional hair and eye color, but why?”

“Well, that in along the same lines as the ears.  Slowly throughout the years we have lost the traditional eye and hair color.  All elves used to have blond hair and blue eyes, but we have slowly gotten some darker colors mixed in with the blond and blue.  I am actually the first elf to have both dark eyes and hair.  And some of us have chosen to cut our hair short as well, just because it is easier.  Sometimes I let it grow out but other times I keep it short like now.”  You try very had to totally concentrate on what he was saying but it is hard because it tickles when he talks, you can feel his breath in your ears.  Plus, you were imagining running your hands through his short hair, and staring into his deep eyes.

“This is so odd.  When I think about elves I always think, pointed ears, blond and blue.”  You think and then continue softer, “I wonder why that is?”

“Well, I actually do not know why you remember things as they traditionally were, but I am sure that someone back in Everland can help figure that out for you.”

You start to feel distraught.  Why did things have to get so confusing and frustrating?  What could you have possibly done to deserve this!  Not that you knew what you have done before, but from what Elliott had said you had been a good person!  Once again the old clique can be said…why do bad things happen to good people?

Much later he stops the horse and swings off the horse then lifts you down onto the ground.  Whoa!  Your legs feel so sore from the long ride!  You hobble around for a little bit trying to loosen up while Elliott seems to walk just fine grabbing some bread and water from a saddlebag.  He then goes to sit down on a nearby rock, setting his bow and arrow on the ground next to him.  You totter over and sit down next to him while he hands you a piece of bread.  Hunger all of a sudden strikes you as you start eating.  The bread is very soft and after you gobble the whole piece up in a minute you are left feeling strangely content.  He hands you over the water and you drink a few gulps and hand it back.  He downs a little himself, then sets it on the ground, slides off the rock, and lies down on the ground with his ankles crossed, hands behind his head, and eyes closed. 

You do not know what to do, so for a little bit you just stare around at your surroundings.  However, slowly, your eyes start to glide over to where he is lying on the grass.  Your eyes travel over his body starting at his boots, lean legs, flat stomach, broad shoulders, until you are looking directly at his wonderfully serene face.  He looks completely relaxed and at ease.  Elliott's long eyelashes are lightly resting on his cheeks, and his short brown hair is all mussed up.  You notice a lock of hair has fallen over his right eyelid.  For five minutes you just stare at it.  Then, slowly, you move off the rock until you are kneeling right next to him on the grass.  You lean over him and gently take your right index finger and sweep it back, all the while intently staring at that lock of Elliott's hair.  Slowly you move you hand back to your side and glance down at his eyes…which are looking right back at you.  In his fiery eyes is the deepest look of tenderness.  Your eyes lock with his and you are drowning in them. 

Without thinking you lean down and touch your lips right on his for a quick second, straighten up, and immediately look away.  Inside you are dying!  You think, “why did I do that?  I am so stupid, he could never think of me like that!  Why will he not say anything to me!  I should look at him and see what he thinks!  No! I do not want to know!  I should just go and act like nothing happened!”  But you know you should see what he seems to be thinking.  Very slowly you turn your head back toward him and look down at his face.  It is completely blank, seemingly devoid of any emotions at all.  You close your eyes and will yourself away from this place to anywhere else in the world!

Something big and warm on the back of your head begins pulling your head downwards.  Opening your eyes you find your face is moving toward his.  Your lips touch his but this time he takes control and quickly deepens the kiss.  It feels wonderful, and you think to yourself you would be completely happy staying like this for the rest of time. 

Seemingly seconds later he pulls away, almost jerks away, quickly gets to his feet, and softly whispers, “We should continue on our journey.”

“Okay,” you whisper back just as quietly and then let him help you back to your unsteady feet.  As soon as he is sure that you will not fall over he walks back over to his horse.  He prepares his beautiful horse, puts the saddlebags back on and makes sure the horse looks okay for riding.  Then he floats up again with his bow and arrows and helps you up.  The horse starts moving towards Everland.

This time you ride in uncomfortable silence with your back ramrod straight, wanting to touch him as little as possible.  Not that you do not like him, just that it is so weird what happened!  The emotions flow through you…like you know his feel from before.  It is comfortable and strangely familiar…this cannot be right!  But you know that you remember Elliott somehow!  What is it, though?  This is so frustrating!  You do not remember anything about him mentally, or about being a Princess.  You just have these feelings from deep within, almost from the core of you.  All you remember from actual memories that have been slowly coming back is something about being in a big concrete city, and streets full of cars…and that is it.  You are so conflicted and confused!  You just want to go into darkness and disappear for awhile to think!

About an hour later your back is killing you!  It is aching like something you have never felt before, you want more than anything to just lay back onto Elliott's warm body and rest.  Just as you were about to cave in and do it he speaks, “Look Jade, I am sorry, I never should have done that to you.  It is just that…”

“No!” you cut him off partially turning around, “I should not have put you in that position!  It is my fault and I am really sorry for starting all of this.”

“But I am really sorry too.  We should just forget it all.”

“Yes,” you agree, even though you really want to talk about it and find out why you remember him, “it was just a…thing…in the moment.”

“Yes, good.  I must say, I am kind of relieved that you are not upset.”

“I have no reason to be, we both did nothing wrong.”

“Yes, I suppose so.  Now lay back, I know your back must be incredibly sore from sitting like that this long.” And he puts an arm around you and pulls you back towards him.  Again, at first you resist, and then give in and lean back.  It feels so nice to just relax, and much more comfortable.

“Elliott?” you ask.

“Hmm?”

“How much further is it to…uhh…Everland?” hoping that you got the right name, as you see the sun start to go down in the western sky.

“We should be there in about a half an hour to an hour.”

“Great.” You are truly happy to be getting done with this trek, but at that the same time kind of disappointed that it will not just be you and Elliott any longer.  Plus, you are a little nervous about getting to this city where you are the lost Princess Jade.  How will people react?  How will you react?  You wonder how you should react.  Well…you will find out soon enough.

The next half an hour goes by quickly.  Soon Elliott whispers into your ear, “See up ahead, the tallest tree?  That is the center of Everland, we are nearly there!”  You sit up and strain to look ahead through the bushes and trees to see glimpses of the city, but you cannot see anything.  Even as you are looking for the city you now start to get more nervous, twisting your hands together and fidgeting a little in your seat.  He senses that and says, “do not be nervous, I will explain everything and everyone will be kind to you.  You do not even have to talk until I get you into the castle and tell them the story.”

“You mean you will not leave me?” You say, very relived by that.

“Not until you tell me I can go,” he tells you sincerely and you instantly feel much better.

Suddenly, there is a great opening in the trees, and in front of you on a hill there is the tallest tree you have seen this whole journey!  Built right to the left of the tree is a dwelling that must be the castle.  It is as grand as anything you have ever remembered seeing before.  The castle must have at least seven stories and be at least four houses wide!  It is made of bricks that are almost shimmering and there is window after window lining the walls, with a staircase coming down from the front parlor doors that has ramps on either side of the staircase.  In each corner there is a circular tower with a cone-shaped roof.  On the roof there are guards looking down at you with bows and arrows.  They recognize Elliott and nod to him, then scrutinize you for a second, and then a cheer breaks out as one of them disappears from view. 

“Well, I am sure the whole castle will know you are back in a second,” he says dryly, noticing the guard who left his post.

Getting all the more nervous you decide to look around a bit.  Down the hill there is a small mass of buildings that you cannot tell what they are made of from a distance.  “Is that the rest of the city?”  You ask, very curious.

“Well, that is part of it, the rest are all surrounding this area. 

“Huh, I see.  It is very nice,” you say trying to be polite.  Then, sensing that this is probably the last time you will be able to speak with Elliott alone for awhile you turn around as far as you can and say, “I want to thank you very much for your help and company during this trip.  I really had a good time.”

“I have a good time as well, and no need for thanking me,” he says softly.

“But I want to thank you!  Without you I do not know what I would have done!”

“You are very welcome then Jade,” he says and lightly kisses your hair, “you will never need to know what it is like without me around hopefully.”  You wonder what that means and almost ask, but just then you notice you are at the bottom of the stairway to the castle.  He swings down and gently helps you off the horse.  Elliott takes a hold of your left hand and together you start up the stairs.  At the top you notice the doors are pure glazed wood with a small peephole and a big gold doorknocker on the left door.  Elliott knocks.  Immediately the peephole opens and a man about 40 years old peers out.  He has a sour-looking thin face with blue eyes and a head full of long light brown hair.  He looks at Elliott almost with disgust, but as soon as he looks at you his whole face lights up. 

“Princess Jade! You have returned!”  Then his face disappears from the peephole, it slams shuts, and you can hear his voice exclaim, “open the doors, open the doors!  Princess Jade has returned!”  You hear a collective shout from inside then the wooden doors open up before you.  As that happens you instinctively squeeze Elliott's hand for reassurance.  He squeezes right back, turns his head to look at you, and smiles.

“It will be fine, trust me,” and you at once feel calm and smile in return.

“I trust you,” you tell him, and…it could be the light, but you think his smile brightens just a little bit more at those words.

The doors open, and facing you are five men.  They all have long flowing blond hair swept back from their faces.  Two have blue eyes while another has green and you think the other two have brown or something like it.  They all stand in a straight line facing you with matching brown cloth boots, black pants, and forest green shirts.  And all of them have bow and arrows slung over their shoulders.  After they see you they all race towards you and Elliott saying things like, “Princess, you have come home!” “Welcome back Princess Jade!” “Oh how wonderful, you are alright!” “Where have you been?”  “We were so worried about you!” and “Who did this, they will pay!”  You feel like scurrying away into a room and locking the door!  Thankfully Elliott takes charge yelling out, “Thank you all for your concern, but Princess Jade needs to see her family and get some rest, she is very tired from the trip back!”  Everyone steps back then and lets you pass through.  You smile at them, though because it is nice of them to be so concerned and you do not want them to be upset.

The entry is huge!  Straight ahead there is a staircase that goes straight and then splits in two to curve around up to where there is balcony you can look down from.  Heading off to the left and right are hallways.  You cannot stop staring at the beautiful design of the castle and the beautiful works of art!  Paintings of people, animals, vases, rugs, everything!  Elliott, who you are still holding hands with, guides you straight towards the grand staircase, and you climb together.  After getting up you look down from the balcony and can see the doors are closed again. 

At the top of the balcony there are hallways going in both directions.  Elliott starts down the left side and stops again at the first set of double doors.  He whispers into your ear, “Here is the main living room, this is probably where you will meet your parents.  I am going to leave you here for a little to go find them.”

“What?  You are going to leave me here!  Elliott, no!  Please?” You beg him.  He is the only one is this huge castle that you know, being without him will be like stripping you bare, taking away your only comfort.

“Alright,” he concedes.  Then with you trailing behind him he goes back to the balcony and yells, “Ethan!  Please go and find the King and Queen and tell them to meet the Princess in the Amberland Living Room.”

One of the guards, Ethan you guess, nods up to Elliott and goes down the right hallway on the lower level.  Elliott leads you back to the double doors, opens them up, escorts you in, and shuts the doors again.  It is a fairly large room with a four leather couches in earth tones arranged in a square shape at the center.  A dark wood coffee table is between them with two fireplaces on opposite walls, and bookcases circling around the room full of books.  Straight across the room from the door is a large dark oak desk with a few papers on it.  Elliott, with his hand still in yours, leads you to one of the couches, sits down, and pulls you down beside him.  He lets go of your hand finally, turns your face toward his, and holding your face between his hands says, “now, when your parents come in they will probably want to hug you and stuff, but after that do not worry about saying what happened, if you want I will tell them what I know, okay?”

“Okay.  Thank you again for everything you have done for me, I do not know what I would have done without your help and support!”

“You do not have to thank me, but if it is any consolation, you are very welcome.  You are a good travel partner,” he smiles at that.

“You are a good travel leader,” you tell him sincerely with a smile.  He smiles back, a wonderful genuine smile that just lights his whole face up from within.

Just then the doors open and two people walk in, presumably your father and mother.  Elliott drops his hands from the sides of your face as you both turn towards the door.  The man looks to be about 50, and yet his face still remains young.  His age seems to come from his eyes and poise.  He has long brown hair pulled back and blue eyes.  He is wearing the same boots as everyone else, but white in color, a white shirt, and brown pants.  The woman looks to be around the same age, and the same as the man the age is not from her face but from within.  Her hair is blond piled a top her head and has blue eyes.  She is wearing a blue dress with long sleeves, an empire waistline, a partially full skirt, and white jewels lining the neckline.  In her ears are white stones.  Upon seeing you the woman gasps and then exclaims, “honey!  You are safe!” and runs toward you with her arms outstretched.  You do not react until Elliott nudges you, then you stand up just as your mother gets to you and gives you a huge hug.  You do not know what you should do, but decide to put your arms around her as well. 

Your father is close behind her, walking slowly with an expression of disbelief and happiness on his face.  As soon as your mother is done hugging and crying on your shoulder your father embraces you, and then pats Elliott on the back who is now standing right behind you.  Your father moves back then he and your mother stand side-by-side facing you and Elliott.  Your mother speaks again, “Honey, what happened?  We were so worried about you!  Where did you go?”  You turn your head to give Elliott a pleading look, not knowing what to say.

“My highnesses, please sit down, there is something we have to talk about,” he tells them gesturing to the adjoining couch with his right hand.  They give you both a strange look but then comply with the request.  You and Elliott sit down again on your couch.

“Jade, why are you not talking?” Your father asks you.

“Well…first Elliott has something to say,” you tell him looking down at your lap, not wanting to hurt him or your mother by looking at them in question, trying to remember them.

“Well Elliott, what do you have to tell us?” the king says then in an impatient voice turning to Elliott.

“As you know, I was over in the Ochu territory,” he starts.

“Yes, but what does that have to do with Jade?”

“Well sire, the Ochu saw me and ended up chasing me off of their land.  While I was being chased I caught a glimpse of someone in the woods, someone I knew was not Ochu.  I did not want to alert them to the person and put them in danger so I just continued running.  Later, after I lost them, I retrieved my horse to go back and try to find that individual.  I found her and it turned out to be Princess Jade.”

“Dear!  Whatever were you doing over there!  You know that it is dangerous place to be!  The last thing you told me was that you were going to be picking flowers over in the Golden Valley and here you were in the Ochu Forest, what were you doing there?” your mother interjects questionly.

Elliott saves me again as he says, “she does know it is dangerous, of course, normally.  However, it seems like Princess Jade is suffering from amnesia.  She does not remember anything about you or me or being a princess or anything from her life.”