A/N-This is pretty long because I want to get each of Ella's children's stories within 11 chapters, and I had a lot left to write about Darius's situation. Please enjoy!

-Next up will be the story of what is happening to Kellin back in Kyrria, very interesting things will be going on there.

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She was gone, a white spot in the sky, before I could ask her how to fall in love. I shook my head and made my way back to the tent.

Aramon was munching on a deer leg and I was instantly jealous. "Where did you get that?"

"I shot it dead," was his answer.

I sat down beside him, "Is there any chance that you might share?"

He finished chewing and swallowed, "Is there any chance of us leaving? The longer we stay here, the longer your sister stays with the dragon you do realize?"

He was unbelievable!

"I think there is a way to break her enchantment," I said, taking my mind off Elle. He looked doubtful, so I told him the exact words Odelia had told me.

"You? Fall love with her? I've heard some crazy things before but that is at the top of my list," he laughed.

"Why do you doubt it?"

"Darius, you don't even fancy Miss Farrah, one of the most beautiful maidens in Kyrria, how can you expect me to believe you could fall in love with a swan?"

" Because she won't be a swan anymore if I confess that I love her! The spell will break and she can be free!"

Aramon sighed, "My friend, there is more to love than doing it to save someone. You must have great feelings for this maiden in order to be truly in love with her. You must be willing to sacrifice your very life if she comes into harms way, you must yearn for her every waking moment, and you must notice the little things about her and love those as well. When you have an overwhelming sensation that is unnamable when you set your eyes upon her, then you shall be in love."

I pondered his words; indeed I had never felt that way about any maiden I had come across in my life. Perhaps it was because they were flaunting, and dished out meaningless compliments only to win my favor. Then I snapped my gaze onto Aramon, "Since when have you ever been in love??"

He looked taken aback, and embarrassed. His cheeks turned red, "I haven't… I just know. Hush up and focus back on your lass's problem!"

"Who?"

"It's none of your business," Aramon snapped.

"Oh come on! At least tell me if she's from my country or yours," I laughed at my newfound information. Aramon…in love!?

"She's Kyrrian, and that is all I will tell you," he positively glared.

"Does she love you back?" I couldn't help but to wonder.

"It doesn't matter, I could never have her anyway!" he shouted angrily at me, as if it were my fault. I let the issue drop there, and focused back on Odelia's dilemma.

After eating another one of Aramon's deer legs, I succumbed to sleep and crawled into Aramon's tent. For the past two days I had slept during the day so I could visit Odelia at night, and Aramon would hunt all day and sleep during the night. Dawn and dusk were the only times we saw each other. I never dream. That is how the days went by, I would wake at dusk, catch Odelia turning back into a human, we would sit and talk until either Cillian barged in and I hid, or when dawn arrived. We talked of how I could break the spell, but I always insisted I did not know how to fall in love.

One time I awoke, it was dark outside. I found myself thinking it was amazing that no rebel sprites had stumbled upon our camp, or Cillian Dremosa for that matter.

Aramon was sharpening his arrowheads when I stumbled out of the tent.

"How long has it been dark out?"

"About two and a half hours," he shrugged. I was late! I ran into the woods towards the lake but I heard voices, as in someone else was with Odelia.

"No,"

"But I love you,"

"No you don't,"

"Yes I do,"

"Cillian, if you really loved me, wouldn't your own spell break because you are a man confessing your love?" she noted logically.

He didn't answer. He just grumbled and vanished without another word to her.

She looked very nonchalant as I emerged from the wood.

"Please, break the spell," she looked at me with beseeching eyes, obviously exhausted from dealing with Cillian again.

"It's hard to fall in love…" I began, "and I don't know how to."

"Are you saying I'm hard to fall in love with?" she smiled teasingly at my repetitive statement but looked worried and quickly explained, "I'm only cruel to Cillian, I would never put you or any man what I put him through every night. I'm only showing him the courtesy he's shown me thus far."

"No, you are a charming lass, I don't think it would be hard to fall in love with you at all… but I don't know how to fall in love, as I said before,"

"Oh," she seemed disappointed.

We stood, facing each other in silence for a couple moments. My, it was awkward. I wonder how father fell in love with mother. I recall that they knew each other for some time and they started out as friends. Although, Kellin told me that in some private letters he had found in a secluded section of the library, that father wrote to mother confessing that he had loved her since he first met her. Could love happen so fast?

"So how was your life before Cillian ruined it?" I asked and clamped my mouth shut, it was a rude sort of question but I was curious.

She wasn't offended at all, instead folded herself up and sat down, ready to tell a tale.

"Well, it was fun. I was first born in my particular line so all inheritance was mine or my future husband's when I was old enough to wed. I had four younger brothers, they fought all the time and played pranks on one another," she smiled at long forgotten memories. The part about pranks reminded me of my own family.

"My father was kind, my mother was strict however. She kept saying to me "Odelia, you must sit up straight. Odelia, please don' speak so loud!" but I would soon forget only to be reprimanded again. I was never lonely, maybe that is why I hate being alone now." She sighed and gave me a sideways glance, "I am so happy that you found me, Darius."

Something inside my stomach tingled, or I think it was my stomach. It was caused by when she said the last line. "I am so happy that you found me, Darius." Why did my stomach or something around my stomach tingle?

"I'm happy to have found you," I found myself smiling.

She was playing with strands of her hair as she told me more about her life before Cillian. She absently braided them, and then un-did them. One side of her lip would curve up in a half-smile when she remembered something happy; I suppose she never smiled all the way because she knew that those times would never happen again. She would also blink many times after telling a fond memory, probably to keep from crying. After all, all that she had loved was gone. When she would mention Lars, her eyes fixated on me, searching my face.

"Why do you do that?" I asked after she had done it at least ten times while telling her stories.

She didn't act coy, which was a relief. I find coyness very frustrating. So she told me straight, "You sort of look like him, you have the same light blue eyes." Then her lip curled up into a half-smile "I remember one of the last times I spent with him was when we were laying on a grassy knoll in the gardens. It was late August, which meant he would be returning to Kyrria soon, and the leaves were a furious red on the trees around us. But we were joyful nonetheless because the next summer we were to be married. The sky was a bright blue, and when I looked into his eyes, they were the same shade of blue as the sky. He told me, he said, "Odelia, I will love you always and forever.""

She continued to half smile, but blinked many times, while absent-mindedly braiding and unbraiding strands of her hair.

"And you will always and forever love him back?" I asked, feeling heartbroken for her loss. In a way she reminded me of my sister in this situation. My sister was a prisoner; probably never to be loved again as Odelia had been fated.

"I would have loved Lars always and forever, but I can't live in a fairy tale. Lars has been dead for a very long time, and he broke my heart when he ignored me when I tried greeting him that last time."

"You were a swan though, he didn't know!" I argued, defending my great, great great, grandfather.

"Yet, it was odd that a wild swan would so willingly approach a human like that. Such matters should be investigated, especially when one comes across a desolate kingdom that had only been thriving the summer before, and when one's love hath disappeared." She countered bitterly.

I saw her point.

"He didn't even try to find me. He simply rode in, looked around and decided I was gone for good…" she blinked rapidly as tears filled her blues. Her voice was filled with such pain as she mumbled once more before her tears fell, "he never even tried."

I was hugging her in an instant, trying to comfort her through her painful memories.

She looked up at me with wide eyes that seemed as if though they were made of glass from the tears' reflections in the moonlight. My stomach knotted that time. The way she was looking at me caused the knots, but they weren't painful. It was a different sensation.

And yet, another sensation occurred, when she yawned and laid her head onto my chest tiredly; my neck developed goose flesh. She had told me a lot about herself, and it was understandable since she had no one to talk to for a very long time. I was her sole confidant. I rested my cheek on her the top of her head and caught the scent of her hair: pine. It was nothing like the perfume owned by the girls at court. They had strong flower and fruit scents. The fresh pine aroma caused a shiver in my spine, especially coming from a girl, because no girl had ever smelled so earth-like.

"I wish you could fall in love with me," she murmured very quietly, tranquilly, and I had to lean closer to even hear her.

"I wish I could too," I said, meaning it. I wanted to save her so badly, and she was resting almost peacefully in my arms, which was causing all sorts of sensations to wash over me.

Her lips parted in an amazing smile, the same kind that reminded me of first snow. If I could save her, then she could smile like that all the time. Without knowing what in the world I was doing, I bent my head further towards her and met her lips. We shared a long, sweet kiss. Her lips tasted like the fresh autumn raspberries that Mandy used in pies. The raspberries that I loved so much, I had to snatch them from the counter when Mandy wasn't looking because I was too impatient to wait for the pie to be done baking.

I opened my eyes and hers were closed. Wait, I wasn't in love with her! Why was I kissing her if I didn't love her? The sensations were to blame, they made me feel good, they made me feel it was alright to listen, smell, taste, touch, and look at her. I stopped the kiss and pulled away in my confusion.

"What's wrong?" she cried. I took hold of her shoulders and forced myself away from her. I was just leading her on and I couldn't break her enchantment. I didn't know anything about falling in love.

"I'm sorry," I choked out in regret, stood, and ran into the woods leaving her behind. Light was hitting my back and I didn't even hear evidence of her transformation, not even the call of a swan.

"Aramon! Aramon!" I called as I arrived to our camp.

I heard incoherent mumblings from within the tent.

"Aramon, I think I've screwed up,"

"That's not a very reassuring comment from a future king, why? What happened this night?" he crawled out, now with a short beard growing on his chin. We both really needed to shave.

"I kissed her," I admitted.

He raised his eyebrows as he dug a honey cake out of the sack.

"But, I don't why I did it. I think it could be because of what you said. Doing what I thought I should be doing to fall in love instead of actually from falling in love."

Aramon shook his head, "You have me lost. Go back to the part about what I said."

I sighed and slumped to the ground, "I might have only kissed her because that's what I thought I should do if I wanted to fall in love to save her, not because I actually was in love with her."

"Ah," he simply grunted as he ate his breakfast.

I joined him, because I had nothing else I wanted to say. I didn't want him laughing at my connection between the taste of her lips and raspberries. Or how she smelled like pine and that was unique. I had no doubt that I cared what happened to Odelia; I cared very much that she be happy after all that she had been through. It was from a sense of fairness that she should be rid of her enchantment.

I did not go back the next night, or the next, because I did not know how to deal with what had happened that night. I did not want her to be angry with me. I would lie awake instead those nights, thinking about her. Wondering what she was doing, or what she would be telling me if I wasn't so cowardly and confused about my feelings. I would sleep on the ground while Aramon occupied the tent, and always wake up with a sore back.

I could bear it no longer after the third night of not seeing her so I snuck to the lake and watched her. She sat on the shores, wandered around fallen driftwood, once she drew shapes in the sand with a stick she found. Most often though, she would hum or sing tunes. They were songs I wasn't familiar with but nevertheless her voice resounded beautifully across the lake. I always avoided seeing Cillian show up and heckle her for a marriage approval. I didn't want to witness it if she ever did agree, although I'm sure she always refused him.

I so wanted to talk to her again, especially one time when she silently cried after humming a sad tune. For some reason though, I wouldn't let myself go to her, just in case my comforting turned into another kiss.

It had been weeks since Aramon and I entered Clyone. Aramon kept a steady meat supply from his hunts, but game was becoming scarce. It was getting colder and colder, and even though all of the circumstances were getting worse and Elle was still trapped in Dregat, I refused to leave.

"Come, Darius, why should we stay if you are not in love and cannot break the spell. What is left for us here?" Aramon was at it again, trying to convince me to leave.

"I just can't leave her," I argued grumpily but I could provide no reason to why.

"If we do not depart by tomorrow morning, I will leave you and go back to civilization. I am tired of maintaining the fire, food, and shelter while you sit around moping, and I want to shave." He spoke decisively, not even in a joking manner.

I sighed in response. I wasn't moping.

Instead of trying to sleep that night, I snuck out to the lake one last time. I wanted to watch her all night. The moon was pouring its pale light onto the lake, and onto the swan at its edge.

She transformed into her beautiful self, looked around with hope but after a minute or two the hope shattered and she kicked her foot so water splashed onto the sand. Then she did something I had not seen before, it was as though she was pretending someone else was with her. She curtsied to the air, and waited for the imaginary person to bow back. Then she started to dance with her imaginary figure. Her feet left indents in the sand but she closed her eyes and hummed the music for her dance. This went on for hours, with many different dances. I noticed that Cillian was late that night, which made me dread his appearance to ask Odelia to marry him. But I was determined to watch her until dawn. I was also wondering when she would take a break from gavottes and waltzes. But she twirled and twirled, with a pleased smile on her face. That was until Cillian appeared behind her.

"Why are you smiling so?" he demanded, but amused at her antics.

"Do I need a reason?" she stopped dancing abruptly and asked sweetly, but it was a false sweetness.

"I find it odd that you look so…joyful upon my arrival when for one hundred…I mean for a long time you have only been malevolent to me."

"Why shouldn't I be malevolent? You killed my family and put an atrocious spell on me!" she suddenly screamed in pure hatred, finally taking my advice and telling him why she hated him.

He stepped back alarmed, perhaps it was the first time in a hundred and fifty years she had finally accused him of his crime. She whirled around suddenly, splashing into the lake. "I never want to be a human again! Then I can just be a swan and fly away. I will fly away and never ever talk to you again. I won't have to talk to anyone. I might get shot and roasted, but I don't care because I will never have to look at you ever, ever again!"

She dropped into the lake so she was sitting in the cold water up to her waist. She was suddenly sobbing uncontrollably. I bet she had never sobbed in front of Cillian before, perhaps as an act of bravery. He looked so struck, so shocked at her behavior, as if it was the first time he'd ever seen anything like it.

"I hate you Cillian, I hate you so much. That is why I can never accept your proposals. I've been trying to starve, drown, and freeze to death for so long but to no avail. I'm not going to beg for freedom, nor obtain it by letting you get what you want. You don't deserve it. "

I wanted to go to her, to comfort her. She was at wits end, forever stuck in a young women's form.

He gathered his thoughts and clicked his tongue at her behavior. I would expect him to feel a little bit of sympathy for her but he truly was selfish and mad. "My dear, your father would not share his kingdom with me, I was not receiving the benefits I had worked so hard for." He spoke ludicrously, advancing closer, but behind her. He kneeled down as she stared into nothing, with a dreadful sadness in her expression.

"I'm afraid it's time for you to finally love me," he said. She whipped her head around startled by his words and he grabbed her flailing arms as she tried to escape him. "It's a shame, you will become more docile, and I rather did like your spark of obstinacy."

He held her in the water solidly, as she struggled. With his free hand he cupped her cheek and started to mumble incantations.

NO! This couldn't be happening. I knew deep down though, that this moment was coming. Cillian had forecasted it the first night that I was here. I was the one that had noticed her quirks, her constant braiding and un-braiding of her hair. He knew nothing about it. I was the one who had spent the last several weeks thinking of her, I bet she was only a thought on his nightly agenda. If he really wanted to marry her, he'd be asking her all night. Now he was going to make her love him, so then he could know what it was like to smell pine and taste raspberries. I couldn't allow him to taste raspberries, and feel that joy.

An overwhelming and unnamable feeling swept through me, as I stepped out from behind that tree from which I had been hiding. "Let. Her. Go." I spoke shortly and angrily.

Cillian was alarmed, and broke his concentration from bewitching her into loving him. "What is this? A mortal man on my land?"

"Darius!" Odelia cried, overjoyed at the sight of me.

"So you two are acquainted?" he growled. He was conspired against. He pointed at me and suddenly many rebel sprites were attacking and I did not have my sword. They jumped onto me and wrestled me to the ground, shoving my face into the sand.

"Do you fancy being an oak, or perhaps a walnut?" Cillian laughed madly as I felt my bones turning hollow.

"Stop it! Leave him alone, it is me you want!" Odelia screamed angrily and fearfully.

He turned his attentions and loomed over her, "You are right, my pretty, it is you who I want." He pinched the back of her neck and she became limp but was still conscious. He held her and began to recite the incantations as before.

I felt twigs brush in front of my eyes that were witnessing the rising sun on the opposite side of the lake. I realized the twigs were what only a moment ago was my own hair. I was transforming into a tree! A tree I would be then, but not before I told her how I felt.

"ODELIA! I LOVE YOU!" I yelled, and then I was catapulted backwards, landing in the soft sand. The rebel sprites backed off, fearing the magic that was wrapping around the lake.

"CUR!" Cillian spat at me. I was reforming into human shape; I was able to move my legs once more. I felt my hair and it was prickly like it had always been.

Odelia was unconscious when I looked to her. Cillian Dremosa was furious and coming at me! I was unarmed, and I bet he still had the upper hand with his magic abilities.

He stopped approaching though as there was an enormous blast and a ring of energy and magic that seized the lake. Odelia glowed from some inner light, and then washed ashore and laid still. I ran to her and kneeled beside her form. Would she rapidly age from all the time that had passed since she was cursed? Would she die? The enchantment must have been broken for one, I had confessed my love, and two, it was dawn and she was still human.

"Odelia," I whispered, leaning over her body, nudging it lightly. Her blues opened slowly and she smiled once she realized it was I.

I was grabbed from behind in a chokehold by Cillian and pulled away.

"Stop it Cillian!" Odelia screamed outraged.

"No, he has taken the only thing I wanted!" Cillian shouted back like a small child who had not gotten his way.

Odelia jumped up and ran at us, she barreled into Cillian's side so he fell with a large 'thump'. She then jumped onto him and started punching his face repeatedly.

"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" she yelled over and over, her blows matching her chant.

I felt kind of awkward, here I was, her prince charming and she was beating the villain. I coughed to get her attention. She momentarily stopped beating him but in that moment he held his hand out and she levitated high up into the air.

I ran towards him, "Let her go!"

He smiled, "Oh."

Odelia shrieked as she fell but she was caught and levitated again to the original height.

"Come closer and I drop her,"

"If you ever loved her you would never hurt her," I snarled.

"I loved her until she made my face bleed," he snarled back just as unpleasantly.

"You did not love me at all!" she yelled at Cillian and he waved her around which caused her to shriek even more.

I did not know what to do. How was I to get her back? Luckily for me, Aramon had decided to stop waiting and find me so we could go home. Cillian cried out as an arrow pierced through his chest. He lost his magical grip on Odelia and she fell. I ran and dove to catch her fall. It was less elegant than I had imagined it to be. I had sand in my mouth, and she was sprawled on the ground next to me, but nothing was broken.

"Looks like you needed aid," Aramon shrugged as he stepped over a writhing Cillian Dremosa. "You must be Odelia," he bowed to her, even though she was lying on the ground awkwardly.

A horrible gasping noise came from Cillian and then he was silent.

"I shot him dead," Aramon mused.

"You're a wizard with that bow, I must admit," I grunted and stood, helping Odelia up as well. We dusted the sand off of ourselves. Odelia wrapped her arms around me and whispered, "I love you too." Again, I had the pleasure of tasting raspberries.

"Can we please go," Aramon groaned, "I have the horses packed and everything!"

"Why is it so cold?" Odelia suddenly noticed that it was October.

"She needs to change into something more suitable for travel." I decided.

Much to Aramon's annoyance, we took time out of travel and entered the abandoned castle of Clyone. It was actually on the other side of the lake, hidden behind many trees that used to be part of the gardens Odelia had been so fond of. Cillian had kept it up, probably with magic. Odelia fought back the urge to reminisce and quickly changed into warmer attire she found still in her wardrobes.

While she was changing, I noticed a huge leather-bound book sitting in the main entrance. Most likely, the book of wizardry Cillian had been using all those years. I decided to take it back as a gift for my poor left out brother who would have loved this little adventure.

We finally departed from Clyone.

"I will never want to return to that place," Odelia swore under her breath from atop Elle's mare.

"Me neither," Aramon agreed.

My mind was elsewhere however, Elle was still a prisoner, but it would take more than Aramon's bows to free her. I would need more help to free my sister. A wizard is a powerful being but he is still a man, and I can fight another man. Yet a dragon is a powerful being, but it is a beast, and I cannot fight a beast.

After awhile of traveling, with Odelia and I throwing suggestive glances between one another, I heard Aramon sigh happily. I looked up and finally we had reached the village, Brilet and finally we both could shave.