Her pleasant smile dropped at my admission. Maybe she did not know of the royal family in Kyrria, or perhaps she considered my remark too ridiculous, although I couldn't imagine why.

"The crowned prince of Kyrria is Lars,"

Lars!? Lars?! Did she just say 'Lars?!' Lars was my great, great, great grandfather according to my lineage tutor. He was my Grandpop's great grandfather, who was now very dead and had been for about a hundred and fifty years.

"No, madam. I am the crowned prince of Kyrria." I assured her with a nervous laugh.

She studied me intently; she thought I was lying to her. "Well," she turned her head away, "I simply do not believe you."

"I AM!" I insisted.

"If you are a prince then what are you doing out here and not in your castle?" she demanded to know.

"A prince doesn't have to stay in his castle. I have a very adventurous family. It's in our blood to be out and about," I explained.

"So what happened to Lars then, if you are the crowned prince? Was there a civil war? Did he die? Are you his cousin to replace him?" She shot many questions at once.

I only answered the important one though, "No. I'm his great-great-great-grandson."

She studied me again, thinking I was pulling a hoax. Those blues of hers were so meticulous as she stared at my features trying to discern the truth. She then must have realized I had no reason to lie to her; she turned her head away abruptly and laid it onto her knees that were pulled up to her body.

A question caught in my throat "You don't know how long it's been since…it happened?"

"I do not," she answered with a hardened voice.

"Cillian must have halted both of your aging processes…" I suggested to rationalize why they both weren't dead yet. She was surely over a hundred years old if she still thought my great-great-great grandfather was crowned prince.

"I had been waiting for death…hoping it was the way out," she spoke quietly, but then there came anger, "That SCOUNDREL! No wonder I'm still alive after all this time! I can't starve, I can't drown myself, I can't age, I can't freeze to death…I can't hurt myself until I accept his proposal which he will keep asking until the end of time!" she was up and pacing and throwing small rocks into the lake irately, disturbing it's tranquility. She stood on its shores, her thin and frail looking figure shaking with absolute outrage.

"You're arrow wouldn't have done me any favors," she crossed her arms with an irritated sigh and fell into a sitting position, still staring at the lake.

I felt sorry for the girl; she was in a nasty tight spot.

"So what if you did accept his proposal? " I wondered.

"He'd win, and I would be even more miserable," she stated as a fact.

I sat down next to her and joined in staring out across the lake in silence.

"How did you find your way to Clyone?" She asked, slightly startling me.

"My navigation skills," I somewhat grumbled with sarcasm. She didn't seem to understand or care about my tone.

"Are you here alone?"

"My friend Aramon is back in the woods somewhere, and my sister was traveling with us…" I began but that lump caught in my throat.

"You say she 'was' traveling? Where is she now?" her head popped up in intrigue and worry.

"It's all my fault," I looked at the ground and tried concentrating on not showing any emotion. My combat instructor told me the men never cry. If an emotional moment should arise, we just look at the ground and it will pass.

I felt a cold hand on the side of my cheek, my head jerked up again but she saw the moon's reflection in my forming tears.

"Tell me," she said, but not in a demanding tone. She would listen, this I knew since she hadn't been able to talk with anyone in over a hundred years.

So I began to tell her about my family. I told her about mother and father, Mandy, Grandpops and grandmamma. I told her about odious Grandmum, Olga and how she smothered us when she hugged her step-grandchildren. I talked of Grandfather, whom I'd only met three times in my life because he was a merchant and was traveling more than my parents. I spoke of wild adventures (or what I considered to be adventures) I had with my siblings when I was younger. I even told her about the jam-eating incident. She listened intently, smiling at humorous parts, frowning when I spoke of memories when my feelings were hurt, and probably yearning for her own family to be with her again. I noticed sadness in her eyes.

"Then, we were going to travel here, to see the sea on another adventure, but it went sour." I frowned and continued informing her of how I ended up here.

"Elle is the most nurturing, talented, kind, and beautiful maiden I have ever known, and now I am returning home without her," I sighed, the lump growing so big I feared it would burst.

"You said the dragon promised you it wouldn't hurt her, so she is still alive," Odelia tried to comfort my thoughts.

"Still, it's a dragon. Dragons cannot be trusted," I growled inwardly.

We both sighed at the same time and continued looking towards the lake.

A fiery glow was touching the horizon and I realized Aramon was probably worried as to whether I was alive or not.

"I must leave," I stood, I grabbed Aramon's bow and quiver. I had donned my boots a while ago because me feet were cold.

"Please don't!" she grabbed my tunic in a surprising strong grasp and looked up at me with beseeching blue eyes.

"I'll come back," I told her. I couldn't just leave her to be hassled by Cillian every night. Besides he threatened to put enchantments on her to make her love him, and I couldn't let that happen.

"Do you promise?"

I put my hand over my heart and she smiled in relief and let go. I started to walk into the forest, hungry again. The first rays of dawn were shining on the lake, so I turned around to watch the beauty. When I turned around though, Odelia was gone but there was a beautiful white swan paddling towards the middle of the lake.