( This story has not been professionally edited and may contain grammatical errors, please be forgiving )


    
Chapter One

My eyes opened to the light, closing lazily to block out the morning glare but then curious enough to desire another sight of it. Soon the blurred images came into focus, but not into my mind, for my mind had been dulled by sleep, and had temporarily lost it's sharp edges.

I inhaled deeply, enjoying once more the consciousness of breathing. If there was one thing that wasn't beyond the grasp of my drowsy mind, It was the fact that I had been sleeping for a long time. So long that It wasn't humanly possible.

I stood up and began to roam the vast hall, aimlessly, like someone who was ensnared in a trance. I came back to the bed in the centre. It was carved and casted in fine gold. It had wings at the edges and the two fitted, they could close and form a confinement. In between them, there was space where I thought a crystal would fit in as key.

I noticed a mirror at the other end of the hall. As I walked to the mirror, I observed that the hall did not have any windows. And although I had not found the doors, I knew there were closed. So what then was the source of the bright orange morning light? I wondered.

There was no speck of dust on the mirror? It was so clean, it could reflect one's soul.

I regarded the person in the mirror, at first with curiosity and wonder. For It was a girl of about eighteen, slim and tall and graceful. She had smooth, lovely white skin, a small oval chin, a snub small nose, a small mouth and big bright hazel eyes. I noticed her ears, they were sharp and lengthy. A fae! I muttered, then realising I was gazing at my own reflection, was thrown in a fit of confusion. I certainly had not forgotten my own face. How did I become so....changed?

I brought my hand to face and ran it all over it, pulled at my ears and covered a palm on one eye, playing mimic with the glass piece.

Looking down I saw the straight long auburn hair floating at my waist and the silk green dress I was adorned with. My foot were bare and I noticed for the first time that the warm smooth floor was made of gold. I took in the ethereal bliss of the wide room and a few words came floating into my mind. They were enchanted, room, enchanted room.

A voice yelled in my head which must be the sound of my own mind awakening. I suddenly felt like I had been doused with cold water.

I started running towards the other end of the hall, only intuitively aware that the door was that end. The door pulled open before I had reached it. A gust of cold wind hit my face.

A woman stood at the door. Her Cruel golden eyes met mine, I gazed at her sleek golden-red hair, her tall and lithe graceful figure draped in a green majestic gown. Her red glossy mouth,  her pale white skin and the straight white  nose she carried a little higher. My brows creased in recognition. Queen Titania

She smiled coyly.
"The little beastie is finally awake"

I walked past her, crossing into the open. My interest piqued by the stars that studded the dark blue sky above. It was night, the room, the illuminating sunlight of the room was all an illusion, like a dream and yet it would not go away.

And slowly,  my memories began to aid me. The dream room was what it was called, or more so the dream dimension. Wherein one is kept to fall into an endless slumber and dream. The dreams are however not revelant, what is, is that the person is locked away from the world and...time.

I took more steps forward, stepping on the moist grass, the pieces fitted now, I had never left faery.
"My father?" I was thinking of him now.
"How long how have I been asleep?"
I heard a low chuckle behind me.
"Your father?" The queen asked wryly
"Who knows how much time have passed in the human world, he must have been dead for centuries, you have been asleep for a very long time, child"

I stood there unable process my own feelings, not in the least, my thoughts. The Queen came over to me, to peep at my face. She had been anxious for my reply.

She studied my blank eyes with a troubled look. My long-term adversary, short for words.

"It's getting cold out here" I told her as the wind hit against my skin "we should return to the castle"

I was given a room at the castle, the same I had used the first time when I had been dragged forcefully into the faerie world and summoned at the summer court. My first time into the world of faery, I had seen enough wonder to satisfy a lifetime craving for it.

Had it been under more pleasant circumstances, I would have be happy to be a part of a world as this one. But the circumstances hadn't been pleasant at all.

Being attacked and hunted by beings, I had no idea existed, even beyond the far reaches of my imagination. And rescued by unexpected deliverer only to be pulled into another world and allied with a race, I never imagined existed.

I had met my mother, she was king Oberon's daughter. My mother who I thought was dead, was alive and an immortal fae.

I had no memories of her at all, none to cling to, she left too early for that. Only those times,  I infatuated with her photographs and the stories told about her. I however had the memory of a father,  who had cherished and mourned his dead wife all his life.

It wasn't a memory,  any child would like to have. It was why I was so devastated when I found out she was alive and for some reason, had simply chosen to abandon us. And why I rejected her, I was all grown, sixteen years had passed since I was two. I wasn't a child in need of mother.
As long I was concerned my true mother was dead, my father had buried her.

Lucinda was the name, my father knew her as. She had sent Flash to bring me here. In that matter, I didn't have much of choice, the dark fae were trying to kill  me, and the handsome intriguing stranger had offered me protection and staked his life for my survival.

I wandered about the room, stopping to gaze at my reflection at the mirror. It was true what I had seen at the dream room. Where was the black-haired girl with bright grey eyes? Everything I had been taken from me, I had lost my father to time and then I didn't even look like him anymore. I no longer had his raven black hair and grey eyes. I was a little relieved that I did not look like my mother either, who was a golden-blonde fae with bright blue eyes. I blamed her for everything and despised her.

A knock rapped on the door.
"Come in" I answered
The door creaked open.
A tall, handsome fae stood before me. He had Short black hair and wore black leather trousers, a scarlet colored shirt underneath a similarly colored leather chest plate and light-looking black boots. From where I stood, I could see, the handles of the two short swords he always strapped to the scabbard on his back were popping right above his shoulders. He looked not a day over eighteen. Well he did say that he and my mother were among the new born of the summer fey. That they were just a millennium and half. That was a thousand and five hundred years. Just that? Only that? Haha! isn't it just fine? I mean it doesn't sound crazy at all, Right?

'Flash" I muttered.
His green eyes brightened, he beamed with a smile.
"Princess" he called, I thought of how remarkable his voice had always been. It was so cool, but he was a valiant troublemaker nevertheless. After all we had been through together, I considered him my friend, he was supposed to be there for me.
"Wow it's really you" he said, walking over to me.
Touching my hair, he grinned
"What are you going to do with all this hair?"
"I could cut it and make a rope then use it to strangle you"
He arched a brow, then mouthed a wow!
"Savage" he muttered then grinned "well what I can say, spending ages away from people can get you closer to your animal nature"
I pushed him aside and walked over to other side of the room. A frown on my face.
"I was asleep, Flash"
He crossed his hands over his chest.
Then whistled "someone had a really bad dream"
The light dancing in his eyes.
"Bad dream?" I laughed. The rage in me finally finding a fuel.
"Then I haven't woken up yet" I marched over to him and grabbed his shirt. He was taken back, his heart had just begun to beat a little faster.
"Tell me Flash, how is my father? How long did he wait for me to come home? how long has he been dead?"
He doesn't reply, he tries to but does not, his eyes wide.
"You're supposed to my be friend"
I started to cry, falling to the floor, My bones trembling.
"We had to protect you" he said quietly.
"By taking everything away from me?"
"It was the only way" he replied.
"No! I would have found another way if only you all had let me and treated me like a person instead of an item you keep in a safe. My father was all I had in the world, yet you all took him from me"
I took a deep breath, then suppressed my tears.
"Why wake me now" I demanded
"The sword"Flash answered "Fragarach, the answerer has surfaced"
I raised my head to look at him.
" And where is it?"
"In winter"
"In whose possession?"
"King Slan"
"Why has it not be returned? It's a property of the summer court, it doesn't matter if it disappeared for millenniums and they found it?" I helped myself to my feet and sat on the bed. My father would not be happy if I had ran from my obligations. What was that the reason why I was choosing to help or was it my own sense of morality? My own judgement of right and wrong.

"Where is king Oberon? I expected I would have seen him by now"
I looked at Flash, his face had fallen into more melancholic perspective.
"A lot of things had happened since you have been asleep Princess, the sluagh have eaten into the Wilde lands and some of our territory, and into Winter's too, Faeryland is dying"

I bounced on my feet. The rage and pain igniting a new fire in me. I was done crying and enough sympathy had gone round for the night.
"Not on my watch!" A superhero line.
My newly found zeal was infectious. It spread a wide grin on his face.
"I'll take a bath, have a fresh change of clothes, a meal, then it's me and you" I smirked.
"We are going to retrieve the sword"

***

The horses trotted at a steady pace. The moonlight flooded the entire forest. The moon came out at best that night, I was wondering if that had any significance in the faery world, like a magical equinox. And also how big was the forest? We had been on the move for hours, could I say three? Even if I had a watch I wouldn't know. Watches froze in faery. Time was a vague concept in the NeverNever.
"Flash" I called.
"Huh?" he jerked to look in my direction, it was unusual for him to be so quiet. Besides things were no longer awkward between us.
"Are you sure this forest is called the wild woods and not the wide and probably endless woods"
He did a little mock bow
"I did not name it, my lady"
I half hoped he would fall off his horse.
I had never before traveled through that forest and yet I could tell it was greatly changed. I could sense an oddity in the flow of the magic, a new inhuman ability I had discovered after I woke. I could sense it poisoning the energy not just in the forest but in the entire faery. It was more noticeable in the forest. The forest itself had began to die.

"The wilde lands are most infected, the darkness lurks freely in those unclaimed territories" He stated as if reading my thoughts.
"And now places like this are also gradually been poisoned, did you not notice it?" He asked.
"I don't miss anything" I replied
"Besides you told me about it"
He smiled
"You still haven't ask of your mother" He reminded. Not like I needed a remainder
"I know she isn't around, I could sense it, it's not very surprising, she's never around when she's needed, and also don't call her that!"
"What?" He asked, feigning ignorance.
"My mother!!"
He heaved a sigh
"She disappeared after you were laid to sleep, no one has seen her since then"
I smirked
"It's her thing"
He frowned slightly
"I wish you didn't think of her in that way" he said and it was quiet for a while.
"Flash" I called, just to check he wasn't annoyed with me in anyway. He was much more of a serious disposition.
He looked at me and smiled softly, not the reaction I had expected

"You must be really tired, Princess, my apologises, for not having realised it at first, you just woke up and didn't even have time to process all that happened. And I had you ride halfway through the summer territory" he said.
"We are almost at the end of the forest. We should camp here and rest'

Easily he set up a fire and we tied up the horses and sat beside it. Flash had said very little, in the bright flickering light of the fire, his face looked very serene and beautiful. But then his eyes were dark and troubled and tiredness was etched all over it. He looked like a child who should be embraced and consoled. I realized I had been staring at him for long so I looked away.
" What's wrong? Flash" I wasn't looking at his face but I could feel him smile.
"Nothing fascinating, Princess, don't bother yourself with me"
What was bothering him? What was he hiding something from me? They said fae couldn't lie, but even if they didn't lie,they go in so many ways around the truth. In most cases, their words had double meanings, in all they were very deceptive. Not that I was thinking that of Flash. Whatever it was, I was certain he will tell me eventually. I only hoped it won't come a little late.
I let out a yawn.
"I know I have been sleeping like for forever, but I'm really tired and need to close my eyes for some hours"
Yes! I needed to rest but he needed it more. It seemed the only way he would get it was if I suggested it or he might just gaze at the fire till the sun came up.
I unpacked two sleeping bags.
I laid down on my back using the bag I had carried as a pillow. Flash laid down beside me, he wasn't so close, in fact he wasn't close at all.
"This" I muttered "is very unsafe, sleeping out in the open, unless Flash you still slept with one eye open"
He laughed. Then in a muffled voice, he asked
"What is our plan? Princess, of retrieving the sword?"
"You know it" I replied
"We go and ask them for it politely and when they refuse, we'll come back in the night and steal it"
He let out a little laugh and I giggled.
"We shouldn't laugh" I said "That is really the plan"
He laughed again.
" Good night, Princess"

I shut my eyes, a face came floating in my dreams, blue eyes, blond hair, fair white skin. It was my mother's. She was trying to warn me about something or was it... someone?

A/N:  I put the prologue and the first chapter together,whereas they should be separate. That's because I wrote and published the first three chapters first and then realising I had omitted a lot of basic details, inserted the prologue in the first chapter. A grave error on my part. I'm sorry if it caused you any inconvenience. I promise to fix that, once I'm done writing the book.
Thank you for precious time :-)