|   yukino agria

"Come back here!"

I'm fiddling with the bobby pin, praying that the five lessons with Lucy was enough, that I didn't choose to run only to get caught an hour after.

click.

My gut knots up, a sign that I'm forgetting something. But my family locket is still around my neck, so I choose to push the feeling aside and run until I'm outside the palace boundaries.

After an hour of running, tripping, dropping to rest for a few seconds, then running again, I find myself far enough so the place is tiny and no servants/soldiers are visible. Turning back around, I see a fork in the road. If I remember correctly, the left should go to the nearby village and the right to the Woods of Legends.

The Woods of Legends are an unknown and unpredictable place, and no one that has come out alive has their memory intact. If I went in, the soldiers wouldn't dare try to look for me  - but I might not survive long enough to make my way back out. On the other hand, the village is the obvious choice; the one where I'm more likely to be found, considering the many people and that my face will soon be plastered over the kingdom if I'm not found for a few days. But at least I'd be alive.

But townsfolk don't really look for missing people in plain sight, like amongst the festival crowds  or with--

"Is that the princess?" someone cries.

I turn right.

. . .

Hours later, at dusk, I stop by a narrow stream and scoop some water into my hands to soothe my dry throat.

I reach for my knapsack and my heart starts to rush when there's nothing inside it I can grasp. I search the ground a few steps around me, but there's no trace of anything. That's what I forgot. The most important things: food, sticks for a fire, and money.

My legs give away again, and I land on the soft grass with a thump.

When I face the clear, blue water again, expecting to see my (probably unruly) reflection, an image of the man appears.

He's sitting by a desk, with his face cupped in his hand and is using a foreign type of pen to scribble words onto a paper. His blond hair is a mess, his lips are in a tight line, and there are very dark circles under his eyes. The aura he's giving off today is sending shivers down my spine; it's unlike any feeling my boring lessons have given me in my lifetime.

"Why did I accept this?" I see him mouth. He could've spoken, but I can't hear anything. I start to stare at him, but then his image disappears and I'm left staring at my reflection - as if he was never there.

It's always how it goes; one of us (if he's real) sees the other and we try to mouth things to each other, even though it doesn't really go very far in terms of conversation. Sometimes, like now, he doesn't seem to notice me there, being able to watch him.

Tired, but refusing to let my eyes give away in such an open area, I scan my surroundings. Not too far in front my path shrinks when it meets bunches and bunches of tall ebony trees; I've found the Woods of Legends.