This is just the prologue to the main story, but it's important.
It's a full moon tonight.
The woods are filled with dappled silver light, and the lake at the edge of the woods is like a satin sheet, devoid of any ripples.
The castle overlooks the woods like some guardian, the people oblivious to the great tragedy that was about to occur.
The girl ran through the woods, silent as a shadow, her lithe body weaving in and out of the woods like a phantom. She was young, hardly five years of age, prettily clothed in a silken robe.
Flashback:
'Promise, me child.'
'I promise,' she said obediently.
'Promise what?'
'I promise never to visit the silver lake again. I won't-I really won't.' She said in earnest.
Her lower lip wobbled.
It wasn't her fault.
The strange ghosts that only she could see beckoned to her, and sometimes she couldn't control her self; she had to run free under the moonlight and follow the enchanting illusions.
Because even she, a young girl knew she was simply seeing illusions.
No one else ever saw them, so she assumed that they didn't exist, and there was something different and wrong about her.
She welcomed the fact; it allowed her to disappear to a fantasy world.
The day the old man had caught her at dusk nearly at the shore of the lake, she had been chasing a little girl, no older then her.
She had blue eyes and golden hair, so unlike her dark wild curls and piercing green eyes.
She had been enchanted and couldn't take her eyes off her, always one tree ahead of her, teasing her, talking to her, whispering…
Then she disappeared when they reached the shore of the lake, and the old man had found her.
She had never seen him so angry, and she had promised herself she would not disobey him again.
After all, he was the only one in the castle who bothered paying any attention to her; even though she supposed that she was royalty, she was kept out of the way and out of mischief; the old man was responsible for he well-being.
And if she disobeyed him, how would she ever catch the attention of her family?
Flashback ended
This time it was the ghost of a bird, something she had never seen before.
It was the most enchanting thing she had ever laid eyes upon; it was white specked with silver, and she wasn't exactly sure if it was a ghost or a real animal, but she didn't' particularly care either.
She was under the spell of its beauty.
She reached the lake, and no one interrupted her progress this time.
But all thoughts of her promise flew out her head when she saw a dark figure by the side of the lake, lying in the sand, unmoving.
She cautiously crept closer; the bird had disappeared, as though its purpose had been only to lead her to the lake.
She knelt by the person and saw that it was a boy slightly older then her.
He was wounded on the left side of the breast; she couldn't tell if he was awake or alive even.
She observed him with a strange detachment, as though she didn't really care what happened to him.
In a normal state of mind, she would rush to help him, for even at the tender age of five she knew a sick person when she saw one.
But she was feeling strange, intoxicated in the moonlight and the magic in the air.
He was beautiful, she noted.
He had piercing blue eyes, curly dark hair and looked pretty.
She loved pretty things, and she was innocently in love with the way his hair formed little ringlets in the cool night.
He looked up at her, seeing but not really looking.
He was sure he must have been hallucinating the angel in front of him.
She made a move to help him and have a look at his wound, but he flinched and growled, low in his throat.
She was just about to try again, when the sound of hoof beats broke the tranquility.
A huge black horse galloped from seemingly nowhere and she barely had time to register what was going on, when a black knight dismounted and strode towards her.
She made a small noise between a squeal and a moan when he reached towards her and set her up on the horse.
She was too paralyzed to move, let alone talk. He examined the boy, and draped him in front of the girl. Then he climbed on behind her and they galloped away.
She had never returned to the castle which slowly faded in her memory, the castle where she had grown up in, where she rightly belonged.
Ok, don't worry I've got the plot all sorted out and the next chapter will be during the present time, when she is sixteen once more.
Please let me know if it was worth reading…
twists hands nervously and waits for verdict…..