The sun sets; the sky is being painted a multitude of colors including a fiery scarlet, a majestically noble gold, romantic violet, a fading peaceful blue that is being rapidly replaced with a more ominous indigo. Isn't it funny how well nature can depict, foreshadow, and represent the mood of a story? What would a gothic novel be without a dark and stormy night? What would a Christmas story be without a peaceful, flawless, shimmering blanket of snow and frost laid out as far as the eye can see? This story is no different. The sun sets turning light into dark, like goodness into evil. It pulses with mystery and gives a strange feeling of foreboding. "What's going to happen now that the good light is gone, engulfed by darkness?"

Our protagonist is sitting on her balcony staring blindly at the many acres speckled with wild flowers and guarded by towering trees that rise and fall softly with the gentle rolling of the hills. She is sitting on her covered balcony at her mahogany writing desk with her face buried in a special book as she wipes a tear from her troubled eyes. Tears stream down her creamy white porcelain face and strands of her disheveled dark auburn hair cling to her face. She lifts her beautiful emerald green eyes to the heavens.

"If only Mum was here....." she starts but can't finish she is trembling uncontrollably. Lily is still adjusting to life without her mother. It has been about a year since her mother mysteriously disappeared leaving nothing behind but a necklace and her journal. The necklace was a family heirloom handed down from mother to daughter for as far back as anyone could remember. According to the story that is handed down with the artifact it was forged by Elven magic and a spell was cast upon it by the fairies; supposedly it was a gift to a young gypsy lady that became lost in an enchanted forest and learned the ways of the magic folk that dwelled there. The day she married and left the forest to settle down, the magic folk made her the necklace so she could always come back and to remind her she always had a home with them in the forest. The journal was that of the same gypsy lady; it told her story and of her adventures in the forest.

Lily can hear footsteps and hurriedly closes the journal and wipes the tears from her eyes and face trying to conceal all evidence of a troubled, heartbroken night before her father walks outside and catches her in the act.

"Hullo, Lils." Cè says merrily as he waltzes out on his daughter's balcony and kisses her forehead. He is a big, tall, and muscular man with a long dark auburn colored beard and a thick head of hair just a curly and red as his beard. He has sparkling blue-gray eyes filled with joy and happiness.

"Hey, daddy." she says, returning the kiss.

"Watcha doin' out 'ere in the cold? Dontcha know it's gettin' dark out 'ere or 'as that book you've been readin' got yer nights and days all messed up?" he asks jokingly, pulling the journal out of her lap just to see what it is she is reading. A look of bewilderment comes over his face when he realizes what "book" she is reading. The merry joyful look he possessed just a moment ago is gone replaced by hurt and anger. "I forbid you to read this garbage do you understand me?! Your mother told me she got rid of this filth before we got married. I don't wanna find ye readin' this EVER again!!" his face turns red with rage.

"What's wrong, Daddy?" Lily asks with earnest confusion in her voice.

"Noffin' is wrong I just don't want ye to read this junk alright. End o' discussion; go to bed right now" He says, starting to calm down a little. Lily walks brokenheartedly inside to her bedroom leaving her father outside.

"She will never understand unless I tell 'er the truth.....but what if she is too young to know the truth about 'er, 'er mother, and 'er mother's disappearance. That is really not a can o' worms I feel like openin'...." he says to himself. He sighs deeply troubled and still arguing with himself as he turns and heads back inside.