We were happy once, but it all fell apart, then nothing was the same again.

"Lord Milori, get back here!" a scouting fairy yelled.

Milori continued running through the forest, pushing away every branch that came into his way. He was panting and out of breath, but he couldn't stop. No, why was this happening? His name rang throughout the forest as fairies continued to call out his name. He wasn't sure the specific direction the scouting fairies were coming from and by extension Milori had no idea where he was going after all the twists and turns he made.

The voices were getting louder, at least that's what he thought, and things were starting to appear more familiar. These trees were becoming more and more spaced apart and there were some small patches of grass. Clumps of snow fell from the tops of the trees and icicles formed from the ends of branches. Oh no, this was beginning to be too familiar. Milori knew exactly where he was now and he didn't like it at all. The voices he had been hearing weren't those of the scouting fairies that were chasing him after all. They were something much worse.

Milori stumbled into the open and almost fell at someone's feet. He was crouched low to the ground, panting hard. When he looked up Clarion was staring down at him, shock was what her face read. A sparrowman, Benedict was his name if Milori remembered correctly, was standing beside her. "Milori, what is the meaning of this?" her voice was shaky and she was no longer looking at him, but what was in his hand. He glanced down to the crown still in his hand which he had almost forgotten about.

The group of elite Scout Fairies came zipping out of the forest and suddenly pinned Milori to the ground. "Lord Milori, you are under arrest, for the commit of treason and stealing of a royal possession." They bound his wrist together and tore the crown from his grasp to hand it back to Queen Clarion.

"Clarion, it's not what you think... this isn't what it looks like!"

"Queen Clarion." She turned to face Benedict for a moment and then back to Milori.

"Take him away," she ordered.

The scout fairies began to drag him off, but he tried to their grasps making it a struggle for them. "Clarion, no please, I can explain! I'm innocent! I can prove it!" Then they dragged him off.

"Queen Clarion, let's go get you a cup of tea," Benedict suggested when he saw her nearly in tears. She wiped her eyes and nodded to him. "A nice warm cup of mint tea is going to have your name on it."

Clarion barely sipped her tea, instead she threw it at the wall, "That lying!" The cup instantly shattered against the door and tea was everywhere. With a wave of his hand the cup pieced back together, the tea disappeared, and the cup floated into Benedict's hand. He handed the cup back to Queen Clarion. "Stealing!" The process repeated. "Traitor!" She was about to throw it once more, but then she let out a sigh and put the cup back down onto the counter. "I trusted him! I loved him! Then he crushed me... and I let him do it."

Milori was shoved into a cell and locked inside. "Traitor," one of the guards muttered. Milori let out a grumble and stared at the wall. I'm innocent, Clarion. I love you, please believe me. I never meant to hurt you. He walked up to the bars of his cell and glanced over to see what the guards were doing. One was reading something and the other was flirting with a art fairy. Milori grabbed two bars and tried to pull them apart. The one reading put down his magazine and looked over. "What are you doing over there? Stop that."

"I have the right to speak with someone!" he yelled.

The guard came over, "What do you want?"

"I need to speak with the Minister of Autumn."

The guard let out a sigh, "Get a messenger fairy down here."

Milori began to doze off thinking about early that morning. He and Clarion had been walking down to get her crown after it being knocked from her head the day before and getting dinged. Of course it was an accident and no one got in trouble, but the crown's keepers insisted they fix it immediately. That was the moment where everything began to fall apart, the instant they were told that the crown was missing.

"Who would do such a thing?" Clarion had asked bewildered.

"Look, we're going to find it," Milori said.

"Well, I'm not exactly worried, I mean it has no value outside of the hollow."

Seeing him stumble out of the woods and to her feet with her crown in hand probably made her want to slap him. She most likely hated him.

A few minutes later, "I request the Minister of Autumn's presence."

"Will do sir," she paused for a moment and looked back at the guards, "We still believe in you."

The messenger left and went to find the minister and an hour later, which almost felt like days, the minister came down to Milori's cell. "How are things up there?"

"Queen Clarion is pretty bent up, and your trial is tomorrow."

"How bad is she?"

"There's a few broken glasses in the kitchen, but the cooking fairies can handle it. Benedict is with her. He hasn't left her side all day."

"Great."

"So do you really think you can prove you're innocent."

"That's why you're hear."

"You want to drag me into the middle of this! What do you expect me to do!"

"I don't know."