Emma felt like she was falling. And she was surrounded by nothing but darkness. She tried to reach her hand out to try and catch herself on anything she could grasp but she was met with nothing but air.

After what seemed like hours of falling, Emma saw a shimmer of light start to surround her. The light started out as a small twinkle around her feet and then started to slowly engulf her entire body. What started out as a white light started to turn a soft orange glow and grew brighter by the minute until it was to blinding and caused Emma to cover her eyes.

Before she felt like she was falling. Now she felt something solid forming under her feet. She slowly felt the ground under her becoming more solid as the light around her faded, but she was scared to uncover her eyes. What had happened to her? Where was she?

She slowly started to hear things again, and they didn't sound like anything she was used to. She heard a faint buzzing sound above her. The surrounding environment also smelled a little different. It wasn't the pine scent she was used to at home. That pine scent was still there, but there was another scent that followed it. She started to sniff the air a little and she smelled… was that clove she smelled? That was certainly something she was not used to smelling in her forest back home.

Home. Where had she ended up?

After what felt like hours of seeing nothing, Emma slowly began to open her eyes.

And she was met with three faces looking down upon her with curiosity… except they were floating? No, they were hovering with wings. Where in the world was she?!

"Oh my," she heard them murmur.

"Where did she come from?"

"What is she doing here?"

"Is she a human?!"

"Where are her wings?"

The men above her stopped looking at her to converse amongst themselves, paying no attention to the approaching person coming over the hill. They were approaching quite quickly from what Emma saw. Could she even try to flee? They weren't paying attention to her anymore. So, heeding one of her mother's lessons: she fled even though she didn't see any chance of her getting away. It was better than staying around and leaving things to chance. At least she was fighting.

"Hey! Come back!" she heard them call from behind her but she didn't hear footsteps. Of course there wouldn't be any. They had wings! So instead of listening to footsteps, she tried to listen to the buzzing sound she heard earlier. And she heard them, and from the sound of things they were close.

She quickly looked around her surroundings. There was nothing but trees all around her, with an occasional rock or boulder. The ground was just dirt and grass. There was nowhere for her to hide. Sure she could try and climb a tree, but what was the point when they could just fly up and find her?

When she thought that she was completely out of luck and was just going to have to give in, she came across a tree with exposed roots, enough room for her to squeeze in quickly. As she jammed herself into the small hole, she heard the men fly by, followed by their questions as they shouted to each other.

"Where did she go?" one of them asked.

"I'm not sure! I thought you had an eye on her Jefferson?" one answered.

"Me? I thought you were the one with the best eyes Victor!" the one she thought was Jefferson shouted back.

She almost chuckled at their bickering. Almost. She was still unsure as to who they were or what they wanted from her. Hell, she didn't even know where she was. And they had asked if she was a human, so that meant she most definitely wasn't home. Think Emma, think! What had happened prior to her getting here? She had been sitting down, tried her magic on rice and she had done it right! Her mother would be so excited to hear about that! And then she had gotten up and came across a fairy circle…

Oh no. How could that be? That wasn't even possible, was it? They'd been gone from the forest for years, taking their magic with them. The only one she had ever seen was Blue, but she stayed in her small form, never taking her full human size and leaving immediately after meetings to go home. Was she really in the fairy world? Crap was the only thing she could think of in that moment. Well, it did explain the wings. And why they wondered if she was a human. And really it explained everything. But she still didn't trust them.

"Hello!" said someone from beside her. Emma's only response was to scream, close her eyes, and hit the person who had startled her. "Ow, you know that hurt right?"

Emma looked up and opened her eyes to see a boy who looked to be around her age, jet black, unruly hair, and the bluest eyes she had ever seen.

"So they were right. You are a human. How did you get here?" the boy asked. Emma just stared at him with her mouth wide open. He tilted his head to the side a little and smiled at her. "Pardon my manners. It's just, I've never seen a human before and curiosity has taken over me. My name is Killian. Those four idiots who you saw before were my friends, Jefferson, Victor, and Will," he held his hand out to shake hers. It was then that she realized she was still in the roots of the tree and began to shimmy out, her knees scrapping the tree on the way out. Killian just backed up to give her enough space.

As she got out she wiped herself of the dirt she had gathered and finally landed on his hand that was still held out. Well, she may as well use the manners her father said she had but never used. She reached out and grabbed his hand and gave him a nice, strong hand shake that her father would have been proud of. Killian's smile only grew at her acceptance.

"Forgive my friends earlier. They were only chasing you so that you wouldn't get lost or hurt. A human doesn't find their way here very often," Killian said putting his hand behind his neck and smiled.

Emma smiled back at him. Honestly, she couldn't help it. He made her feel comfortable for some reason. And they had only just met. "It's okay, Killian. Please understand I only did it to protect myself," she explained. "I didn't know their intentions and so I took my chances and hide in the forest…" she trailed off. Wait. She had hidden so how did he find her?

"I found you by following your footsteps," he seemed to read her mind as he answered her train of thought. "May I ask you your name lass?"

"Emma," she blurted out without thinking and immediately blushed. Why was she doing that?

Killian smiled and moved back a little to move into a low bow. "Killian Jones, Crown Prince of the Araluen Kingdom, at your service Emma."

Holy cow. What was happening?

Araluen means place of the waterlilies.

Also I never usually post two chapters on the same day, but I forgot to upload this story the first time so you get two chapters today!