Chapter Text
I've always liked being outside. It was peaceful and relaxing, I didn't have to worry about making father angry. The one thing that I thought would make him happy with me didn't. I got married to Riftan Calypse a week and a half ago because my father forced me to. I don’t know anything about him other than his name and what he looks like. What I do know that he was forced into marriage just as I was, but I don’t know how. He wouldn’t have married me otherwise no one would. My husband left for the dragon campaign the morning after the wedding without a word. I thought that something would change after I got married, but they didn’t. I might have thought that it was a dream if not for the pain and bruises that I woke up with. After the wedding I was bedridden for three days and this is the first time I have been able to go out to the garden. It is one of the back gardens that no one really pays attention to. It's why I like it. Here I can finally relax and breathe.
I take a look around the garden and find that nothing has changed. The garden has four oak trees, yellow and white wild flowers scattered around, and shrubs around the edges, but it's mostly just grass. There is a simple bench under one of the trees that gives a nice view of the garden, but I walk past it. Today I am just going to lay on the grass. I can hear my nanny’s voice in my head scolding me for it but for once I don’t care. No one cares what I do as long as no one can see me.
I lay there for a good while just soaking in the sun. The grass was lush, soft, and smelled fresh. I closed my eyes and just let myself be. I could hear birds singing and the rustle of the branches in the breeze. It was peaceful and serene. I don’t know how long I laid there I must have dosed off because when I open me eyes the sun is a little lower. It is not low enough for me to worry about being late though, so I just watch the clouds.
I hear a rustle coming from one of the bushes at the edge of the garden. It might be the cat from the kitchen that I secretly sometimes feed, so I get up and walk to the bush. I looked in the bush I did not see a cat I don’t know what it was actually. It was a fluffy brown animal that was the size of a small dog or a large cat. It had a tan snout that reminded me of a horse’s and some long hair on its chin like a beard. There were little nubs on top of its head like horns that have not grown in yet.
The animal and I stared at each other for a long moment before it decided to run. I follow it without thinking. I don’t know what possessed me to follow it, but I just knew that I should. It runs out of the garden to the wooded area near it. I follow it to a small stream where it looks like it was trying to cross. As I came up behind it, I heard a snap and looked down to see that I had stepped on a stick. I looked back at the animal and saw that it had decided to jump in the stream. The animal thrashed around, and I realized that it couldn’t swim. I didn’t think I just knelt at the edge of the stream and reached in to try to save it.
The animal went under the water as I almost grabbed it. The water was deeper than it looked. As I tried to reach for it again I fell into the water. The water was very deep. It felt like I was sinking in the middle of the ocean. I couldn’t see the animal or anything else for that matter. My lungs and throat felt like they were burning. “I’m going to die” I thought and started panicking. Thrashing and struggling didn't do anything, and I kept sinking further. I felt the last bit of energy leave my body everything went black.
I woke up coughing up water. My lungs hurt, and I feel very sore and achy. For a few moments I just lay there trying to catch my breath. Finally, I sit up with a groan and look around. I looked around and saw plants that looked very different from the ones in my father’s castle. I realized that I wasn’t in my father’s castle or anywhere near it for that matter.
“Whoa, are you okay", said someone behind me. I turned and saw a young girl wearing the strangest clothes I have ever seen. She was wearing green pants that stopped below her knees. She had a green shirt and a light brown apron-like cover over it all. The girl herself was shorter than me, had pale skin, black hair that was styled in a large bun on top of her head, and a green and yellow headband with white puffs on both sides. Her bangs covered her eyes, so I couldn’t see what they looked like. She was barefoot and had green fabric wrapped around her wrist and ankles.
“Where did you come from?”, she said. ‘I don’t know’ I thought.