Three months went by and the search group for me hasn’t discovered my location. I was still alone in my shack. Living off of the land, and still covered in blood. I probably smelled like death warmed over, but I didn’t care.

        One day, a particularly rainy day. I heard a knock on my door.  I opened it and saw a man. He had on a cloak and was soaking wet. He took off his cloak revealing a tall, slightly muscular boy. He had short shaggy hair the color of fire. His fire red hair made his pale gray eyes stand out. He also had dark tan skin.

        “Could I come in?” He asked.

        “Yeah. It’s raining out there. I may have lost my-- nevermind.” I said. “Come in I mean.”

“Thanks. I was out looking for someone with a group and got separated.I’ve been looking for them for days, and then it started raining.” he said.

“Who were you looking for?” I asked.

“A princess.” He said

“Good luck finding one here.” I lied.

“Oh I almost forgot” he said setting down his rain soaked cloak. “My name is Landon Castrel. Member of the Scouting Corp of Brentwood Village.”

I dropped the cups of tea I had, causing the tea to spill out of their wooden cups. “B-Brentwood?” I sputtered.

“Yeah. I’m new, but they said this was my starting mission. I’m looking for an Arimo Lifebringer. D’you know her? She’s the princess.” Landon said as he helped me clean up the tea.

“Yes.”

“Do you know where she is?”

“Yes.” I said. “I am her.”

It was now Landon’s turn to drop everything. As he did so, he bowed.

“You don’t look the way I expected. I thought you would look, erm-

“More like a princess?”

“Yeah. Nice to meet you, Milady.”

“Just call me Arimo.” I said.

Landon and I continued to talk for hours. Eventually we forgot what time it was, and by the time we finished talking it was already nighttime. 

“Would you look at that. It’s night time already, and it stopped raining.” Landon said.

“This forest is dangerous at night. I’d advise not leaving til morning.” I said.

“I didn’t plan on leaving until morning though. You have to come with me though.” He said. “It’s my mission.”

“Course it is.” I snapped. “I only have one bed. You can take it.”

“No, you take it. I can sleep on the floor.”

“Take the bed.”

“No.”

“TAKE THE BED!” I yelled, causing Landon to jump.

“Fine, fine. I’ll take it.”

“Thank you. Guests get the bed.”

That night was a cold one. I lay, huddled, in the corner of my single room shack. Landon was sleeping quietly. I got up and walked quietly over to Landon. I crawled into my small bed. He stirred, but went back to sleep. He’s like a child. How old is he? I thought. I saw his journal laying at the foot of the bed. I carefully leaned over and grabbed it. I flipped to the first page:

Day 1: Today I start out on my first mission. I’m both excited and nervous. I am the youngest person in this scouting group. Since I’m only eighteen and just joined, they made me go on a group mission instead of a singles mission. I have to go now.

Day 2: We have left Brentwood. We made camp in the middle of no where several miles away from town. I wish I could write more!

Day 7: I forgot to update my journal. I’ve been busy with both traveling and working. This morning I woke up and my group has disappeared! I need to look for them, but I don’t know where to start. I’m not sure if they did this on person or if they forgot my tent was farther away and didn’t get me.

This went on for several more days, until I hit the latest journal entries.

I think this is day 10 or something along that line. I’m tired and hungry. I ran out of food yesterday and I haven’t eaten. This morning I came across a small shack, I won’t enter until tomorrow. I hope there’s someone in there, and they have food. Goodnight for now.

Today it started raining. I stayed outside for a bit to be safe, but I then went inside. I met a girl. She was covered in dry blood, but beautiful in everyway. I told her I was looking for a princess named Arimo. She dropped everything as if she knew something. The crazy thing is, I say a picture of the princess and she looked just like her. I asked her if she knew Lady Arimo. She said she was the princess. It’s crazy really. Anyways I think that’s all I can contain in one journal page.

Landon shot out of bed. It was almost as though he was awoken by a nightmare. He looked at me then his face turned red.

“What are you doing?!?” he yelped. He snatched his journal out of my hand. “Don’t read that!”

“I got cold,” I said cooly. “and bored.”

“How much did you read?” he asked.

“All of it…” I said quietly. “So you think I’m beautiful?”

This caused his face to turn bright crimson. I laughed.

“Quit laughing! You shouldn’t read other people’s stuff!” Landon cried.

“Oh calm down. It’s not the end of the world. I won’t tell anyone. I didn’t know you spied on me.”

“...No…”

“Don’t lie. I read your journal remember.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s the middle of the night, go back to sleep.”

“Ok.” Landon finished with a yawn and fell back asleep.

He’s adorable. I thought.

The next day, I woke up to Landon staring at me from across the room. It was creepy, but I was used to having someone standing over me.

“Good morning.” I said with a yawn.

“Morning.” Landon said. His face was red.

“Your face is red.” I said. It then turned an even brighter shade of red. I started laughing, and I fell out of the bed. I hit the floor with a loud THUNK, and kept laughing. “You’re absolutely adorable!”

What I just had said did not help. He started to smile, and then laugh. Together, our laughter was loud and booming.

When we were finished with our hilarity, we wiped the tears from our eyes and looked for breakfast.

“Do you look for each of your meals every day?” Landon asked as he moved branches aside.

“Yeah. I can’t keep the food because it will go bad, so I find animals and plants that are small enough to feed me for one meal.” I replied. I picked up a tree limb and threw it to the side.

“Crazy. How long have you been out here? I mean we were sent out to look for you three weeks ago, I think.”

“Dunno. I few months maybe a few weeks. I can’t remember.”

“Why’d you come out here in the first place?” he asked.

I stopped and turned around. Tears were welling in my eyes. Chai’s death had just become a wound who’s scab had just reopened.

“Did I say something?” He asked gently.

“No. I need to tell someone.” I replied shakily. “I had just gotten married. Me and my husband, Chai were on our way to our honeymoon location, and bandits attacked our carriage. We fought for what seemed like hours. Chai had suffered a cut to the shoulder. The bandit group leader had been defeated, and I was asking him questions. Chai kept-”

I paused to wipe my eyes.

“Chai kept gripping his shoulder like it was bothering him, but he wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. I kept asking questions and Chai collapsed. He broke out in a fever and started sweating. I was then, that I knew the daggers the bandit leader had were poisoned. It was too late to do anything and I don’t know how to heal people. Chai died slowly and painfully. Once he was dead I beheaded the bandit leader with my blade.” I finished. “That’s why I’ve been missing.”

We stood in silence for a while, then Landon spoke. “Why didn’t you just come back? I mean I understand you loved him I guess, but why didn’t you just bring him back.”

“What?” I asked confused by the question.

“Why didn’t you just bring him back so you could be comforted by your family and they could help you through the loss.”

“I don’t understand.” I sputtered.

“You’re thick headed. You should have just gone to your family and worked through your problems. Your parents are worried sick that you might be dead! You really did a stupid thing. You put yourself before the others who care about you!” 

        “Me, being stupid? ME BEING STUPID AND CONCEITED! I CARED ABOUT HIM! I LOVED HIM!” I yelled. “YOU THINK I PUT MYSELF BEFORE MY FAMILY! YOU’RE SAYING THAT I DON’T CARE ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE”

        “Yeah I am. You made a stupid decision. I was sent out here to get a princess. Not a melodramatic teenage girl. You have your whole life ahead of you have your whole life ahead of you! You had to know that you and him weren’t going to last forever. You are only sixteen!”

        I had angry tears streaming down my face. I stormed off back to my shack. I ripped the door off of it’s hinges. I threw my belongings out of the shack and started to destroy my building. I tore it down wall by wall. I threw all of it away. The only thing left was Chai’s grave and a pile of rubble.

        I stood there, exhausted, and let out a scream. I then fell to the ground and passed out.