Disclaimer: The characters you recognize from Ella Enchanted are not mine (duh); they all belong to the wonderful lady Gail Carson Levine, who wrote Ella. Other than that, it's all mine, hehe.

Fast Forward

By Jaina Eowyn

Chapter One: The Door

It's not easy being a princess. Just ask someone who knows.

My lungs struggled to pump enough oxygen to keep my legs pounding the ground. I glanced behind me. He was still following. I turned down a side alley, hoping to throw him off by weaving through winding alleys and streets. I had to get there before him. I glanced behind me again. My ploy hadn't worked. He was still there.

I looked ahead. There it was. I was pretty sure I'd be able to get there before my pursuer and before getting caught. I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. I somersaulted forwards to avoid the person who tried to jump me, tucking my arms in front of me to protect my prize.

I ran through the open door into the light of the lamps and thrust the flag into the waiting jar. I grinned as my teammates clapped me on the back, calling congratulations. The other team grimaced good-naturedly, but congratulated me nonetheless. Allán, our leader, smiled as he walked over.

"Good work, Val. Looks like Team Royals wins again." He smirked at his second-in-command, Dirk, who was the leader of Team Tactic.

We played these little games once a week, hiding a flag anywhere in town that the other team had to steal and return to the Silver Dove Inn before being caught and the flag recaptured, or before the other team got their flag in first. My team, Team Royals, had won the past three weeks in a row. I grinned, thinking of what my mother would think if she saw her daughter in a plain brown tunic and leggings and with dirt all over me.

Let me explain. My name is Princess Avalla Shirra Fealla Charlla, daughter of Queen Ella and King Charmont of Kyrria. My mother finally decided to take her proper title once my father became king, mainly because the people of our country begged her to. I am fifteen years old and am rather ordinary, which I am told is not your typical princess. But then again, I'm not your ordinary princess anyways.

I've never liked being a princess. When you're a princess, you have all these responsibilities and stuff. For example, today I had to go to a stupid ball that happens every year a couple weeks after my birthday. But right now, I was going out to town on my usual escape night.

Now that we had played our little game of Capture the Flag, we usually went on a little foray.

"So, what's on the agenda now?" I asked Allán.

"Well, I was thinking we might pull a raid on the royal kitchens and grab a snack."

I grinned. "And let me guess: you're probably planning to pull a few jokes in addition to the raid?"

They were always pulling pranks whenever we did a job. We stole little things like pasties, and we always left some money to pay for them if we grabbed them from an inn or something. The royal kitchens, though, I had convinced them, could more than easily pay for a few pasties, as I knew full well, since I lived in the palace, though none of the others knew that.

Allán smiled wickedly and nodded. "Dirk found some tunnels that lead into the gardens, too, he added.

Ooh, a new escape route. If I'm ever discovered, I can just use that way to get out of the palace.

"Well, come on, then, what are we waiting for?" One of the other boys asked eagerly, "let's go."

The other nine of us trooped after Allán and Dirk, our band's leaders, who led us behind a nearby stable. Under a mat of grass and leaves, Allán rummaged through the grass to grab an iron ring and pulled.

"Here we are," he announced triumphantly as he started to climb down. I clambered in behind Dirk as Allán called back, "Syrra, make sure you close the door behind you." Syrra nodded as she climbed in, last of all.

I knew I was probably taking a bit of a risk, since Teera, the cook, knew me, but I didn't really care. It just made this foray all the more exciting for me.

We all crawled after Allán, the ceiling being just couple feet higher (at the most) than the tops of our backs. We finally came to a dead end and Allán reached up to grasp a handle and pushed up just enough so he could look out. He and Dirk checked the premises before they climbed out, motioning for the rest of us to follow.

We emerged into the garden near a pavilion that the court often spent time on in the summer. We crept silently past it and I led them to the kitchens. I had professed to be a maid at the palace so that my knowledge of the grounds and other things around there wouldn't be remarked upon, so they relied on me to lead them to our goal tonight.

Allán sent Dirk in to see if anyone was there. Dirk came back shaking his head.

"All right, since there's no one there, I want Val and Syrra to go in and grab some pasties. We need eleven; here's a bag to carry them."

I nodded, knowing that there was a decent chance I'd be caught. I'd snuck down to the kitchens to get midnight snacks before and Teera had caught me. I was hoping I'd just be able to talk my way out of it if I got caught when Syrra spied the pasties and motioned me to come help put them in the bag.

"An' jus' what do you think ye're doin'?"

We froze, halfway through putting the ninth pasty in the bag. Heavy hands slowly spun us around to face Teera, the big chef. She glared down at us.

"You plannin' on stealin' from their roy-" She broke off abruptly, obviously having recognized me.

"H – hi, Teera," I stuttered.

"What're you doin' in here, yer ma – maid-ness," she amended herself quickly after a slight shake of my head. I didn't want her to say 'majesty', since Syrra didn't know that's what I was.

"I – I was just showing my friend around the kitchens."

"In the dead of night? With a bag full of my good pasties that are for their majesties breakfast tomorrow?"

Oops. I quickly put them back. I knew I'd get a lot more of Teera's delicious pasties if I had them for breakfast instead of having one with everyone else in the group.

"Now, out of here, Val, or I'll make sure you get extra duties tomorrow."

Oh, great. That meant she'd let my governess know that I should be allowed to have more assignments for my schoolwork. I sighed and handed the bag to Teera as Syrra and I slumped dejectedly back outside.

"Where's the pasties?" Allán asked suspiciously as we walked empty-handed back to the others.

"We got caught," Syrra complained. "I don't know how, since Dirk said that there wasn't anyone in there." She shot the unfortunate Dirk a glare.

"Well, at least she didn't turn us in," I reminded them, hoping Allán wouldn't be too mad at us.

Allán shrugged. "Whatever happened, it's done. Let's go back," he added starting down the tunnel again. I shook my head.

"I need to go back before I get caught again."

Allán shrugged again. "Your loss. The rest of you, come on."

The others followed him down the hole as I went back towards the kitchens.

The next morning, I woke up to a loud knocking at my door.

"Come in," I groggily called.

My mother stomped in. "Just what did you think you were doing, sneaking out last night with some strange girl?"

"Syrra? I've known her for ages, though." In fact, she had been the one who had introduced me to Allán's band, as well as the one who had suggested I climb out my window to escape.

"Ages?"

"Well, since I was ten or so. We just meet with some of the others and –"

"Others?"

"Mother, they're just my friends."

She sighed and sat down on the bed. "I'm sorry if I sounded harsh. Truthfully, I personally don't care if you have common-born friends, since my parents weren't royalty or anything, and your father doesn't mind too much either.

"But Val, you're growing up. You're not ten anymore. You're fifteen, and you need to start acting your age. Your father and I would be more than happy to let you be our little girl for the rest of your life, but other people expect you to act like the princess you are, and I need you to start showing them that you can.

"Now, please get cleaned up. You have to go to the ball tonight, and I want you to look like a proper young lady by sometime before dinner."

She got up and left, closing the door behind her, leaving me alone. I turned over onto my stomach and screamed into my pillow.

"Now isn't he the handsome one, Princess?" Milla, one of my ladies-in-waiting asked. I looked at where her finger was pointing to a young prince out on the dance floor who was looking down his nose at the young nobleman's daughter with whom he was dancing.

I sighed and shrugged. I'd already met him. "Sure, Milla. He's also a stuck-up prig who thinks that anyone else other than him isn't worthy of existing on this earth."

Milla sighed. "You'll have to pick a man tonight, Avalla." She abruptly covered her mouth with her hand and looked horrified, as if she had blurted out a royal secret.

I eyed her. "What do you mean?" I asked suspiciously.

She looked down at her lap in embarrassment, and then glanced back up at me. "Well… your mother was going to have you choose a husband tonight…"

I shot out of my chair, drawing a few stares from the few people who weren't dancing. "What?" I hissed at Milla. She pushed herself back in her seat away from me.

"I'm sorry! I should have let her tell you."

I glared at Milla, and then pushed my chair back from the table where we had been eating and stormed off to find my mother.

I found her sitting with Arieda, her best friend from Ayortha whom she invited to just about every social gathering we held. I marched up to her.

"Sorry, Arieda," I growled, taking Mother's arm, "but we've got to talk."

I pulled her into the first room we passed. Mother stared at me.

"Val, what's the matter?" She asked anxiously.

I stared fixedly at her. "Don't you know?"

She shook her head, but the look in my eyes must have told her. She groaned and slid a weary hand down her face. "Did Milla tell you?" She asked with a sigh. I nodded. She sighed again. "That woman is such a meddlemouth. I told her not to say anything."

I nodded, having a hard time keeping from grinning at her description of Milla. It fit her so well. Just add annoying and you'd have Milla to a T.

Then my face slid back into its previous angry stare as I remembered what meddlemouth had told me. "So, when were you going to tell me?"

Mother fiddled nervously with her skirt. "Well, we were going to tell you tonight." I didn't answer, so she continued. "We've had an offer for your hand…" She trailed off and I gaped at her. PLEASE don't tell me they actually accepted. That was all I could think. I was too stunned to speak for a moment to speak, but when I did finally start to say something, Mother cut me off.

"No, no, we did not accept. That was why I wanted to see if you would actually choose anyone tonight or if you would refuse. If you had refused, there was a chance that we would have had to accept the offer for you, for the good of the country," she added hastily. I stared at her, firming my lips into a tight line. She smiled, too brightly.

"But now that you know, you will choose someone, won't you, Val?"

I stared at her. "No. I know you'll probably send me off to some far away prince's kingdom to meet him and 'get to know him' anyways, so why bother?"

Mother sighed. "Well, yes, if you do not choose tonight, I suppose we will have to."

I nodded. "I'd rather do that, since at least then I can say I got to know him and didn't like him." I turned on my heel and marched out of the little room, leaving Mother staring after me.

I knew I had probably startled her at least a little, if not hurt her feelings just a bit. But it wasn't my fault that she hadn't told me sooner. Maybe if she'd prepared me for it instead of just springing it on my like this… But she hadn't, so that was that.

A few days later, I was riding my horse towards Maith, a nearby kingdom that had offered for my hand on the night of the ball. The prince wasn't quite so bad, as princes go, but he was somewhat clumsy and could be sort of dumb sometimes.

The trip would be a few days long, so I wore a snug fitting traveling dress, although I don't know how anyone could call it a 'traveling dress'. It was too fancy. It looked like a merchant's daughter's best dress, the one she would wear to a ball or something, but it was comfortable enough, so I was all right with it. I even had to wear a cloak with it, too. They were both a pretty midnight blue that I liked, but they were still too fancy. It was ridiculous, too, since it was almost summer and rather warm, even for late spring.

The first day was rather uneventful, but the second day, we had lunch in a beautiful meadow. I ate my own food rather fast and then wandered around the meadow for a while. To my surprise, I spied something in the distance.

I ran towards it. When I was within ten feet of it, I stopped in shock. I had thought my eyes were playing tricks on my when I was farther away, but now I was close, I could see that I had been right. It was a door. Just a plain, ordinary door sitting in the middle of the meadow. Well, that's stupid, I thought. Why would anyone be dumb enough to put a door in the middle of a meadow? There wasn't even a house around it!

I walked up to it and examined it. Upon further inspection, I found writing on the doorframe. Here is the inscription:

The one to whom this door has found,

To you I give this key.

The door will open for you alone,

For thee and only thee.

Once through the door, you shall not fear,

One day you shall return.

In three years hence,

This door you'll find

And enter once again.

Tell loved ones, friends, and all you know,

Grieve not now for me.

I shall return once more to you

And find you happily.

I stared at the door. All at once, in place of the word 'key', there was a golden key set in an outline of a key. It was just a simple, boring key with a little circle at the top. I placed my finger in the circle and pulled it out. Once it was out of the door, the shape immediately changed back into the word 'key'.

Making a quick decision, I ran back to my bags, pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled a message to Mother. I walked over to the head guard and handed it to him after I had sealed it in an envelope. I had also stuffed a few things into a bag and

"Please give this to my mother in case I don't come back." I quickly handed it to him and then started running back to the door, feeling it pulling me towards it. As I ran, I could hear his thoughts: Now isn't she an odd one. Eh, must have inherited it from her mother. Couldn't have been her father.

I've had this odd ability since as far back as I can remember. I've never told anyone about it, not even my mother. It can be rather disturbing at times, being able to hear people's thoughts. I don't even know when it's going to happen. Its like they just suddenly open up their minds to me and I can hear them thinking. I hate it, but I don't know how to get rid of it.

I ran towards the door like a fish being reeled in by a fisherman's line, except that I didn't resist. Somehow, I felt like I couldn't. It almost felt as if I had the same curse Mother had when she was younger and someone had commanded me to go to the door. She wouldn't have been able to resist when she was my age, and neither could I.

I finally reached the door and almost smashed up against it. I pulled myself to a stop just in time and grasped the door handle. Taking a deep breath, I pulled open the door. On the other side, I could see the rest of the meadow. I smiled and laughed at myself for actually thinking that it could be a magic door or something. Shrugging, I decided that I might as well go through now I had the door open. What the heck, you never know what might happen.

I stepped through and could almost feel the soft grass beneath my boots, and then without warning, I was falling for what seemed like an eternity.