"Jennifer! Jennifer!" After what seemed like ages, Emily had made her way to the bottom of the hill. She had almost given up hope when she saw Jennifer's sack on the ground, the tomatoes were splattered across the ground and Emily was sickeningly reminded of blood. She didn't let that thought bother her though, and bounded through the trees. "Jennifer!" She practically screamed. When she slowed down it wasn't because she had seen her sister but because she had seen her sister's horse. Ginger was lying on the ground covered with blood a stab mark right through the heart. "Jennifer!" She called again weakly. Her sister was no where in site. Whoever did this to the horse, who knows what he did to her sister. Emily collapsed on the ground, sobbing. This was all her fault; they should have just stayed home. She'd give anything to get her sister back; she'd give Larine anything she wanted, and more, just for her sisters' life. She sat there sobbing until her horse nudged her with its nose. "I know you're hungry." Wearily, she pulled herself up and onto Pepper. They slowly made their way about a half a mile before the horse gave up. "Your right, let's sleep" she muttered. She slid off of Pepper again and lay up against a tree where she instantly fell asleep.

The sun was too bright. It shone right through Emily's eyelids. She moaned inwardly and remembered with a pang when Larine would make them get up at the crack of dawn to send them to work. She sat up straight, trying to shake the crook out of her neck. She was alone and it took her a second to remember why her sister wasn't with her. Her gut flipped over and she felt sick. Jennifer was dead. Suddenly her stomach growled so loudly that it seemed to rip through the silent of the forest. That's when she realized that she was totally alone and her horse was gone. She managed to pull herself off the ground.

"Pepper!" She called, "Pepper!" But the horse was no where in sight. Her stomach growled again, a reminder. All Emily knew was that she had to find food. She searched for a long time until finally she came to a gigantic stone wall slicing its way through the forest. A wall means people and people mean food. Now I just need to get in, she thought. Her stomach growled once again in agreement. She followed the wall through the forest until she reached a big gate. It was locked.

"Hello?" She yelled pounding on the gate, "hello can someone please let me in?"

"Halt who goes there!" A deep voice sounded from the sky. Emily looked up to see a row of arrows pointing right at her from the towers in the wall. "What do you want?" The faceless voice boomed.

"I… I…" Emily stuttered. "I'm lost, I just wanted some food."

She heard a guard scoff, "why don't you go home? What's a little maiden like you doing in the woods alone?" More guards laughed.

Emily's stomach growled in protest. "I... I... just want some food." The guards kept laughing and Emily gave up, she slouched against the gate, her stomach growling again, as the howls of the guards echoed in her ears.

"Eric!" A sharp voice commanded, "What's that girl doing out there."

"She claims she's hungry and lost."

"Where are your manners, would you want someone to leave your wife out there starving and lost."

"My wife would be right at home, where she belongs." A ripple of laughter went through the guards.

"Well don't be rude, open the gate."

"But sir-"

"Open the gate," And just like that the gates swung open taking Emily by surprise. Standing on the other side of the gate were a few shameful looking guards and in the center of them was a younger looking man, about seventeen years old, the same age as Emily. He had brown hair that reached down to his ears and piercing blue eyes. He was very neatly cut, neater then most men Emily had seen back in her own village, and stood up straight and tall. Emily found herself drawn towards him.

"Hello," he said, flashing his perfectly aligned, pearly white teeth. "What are you doing out there?"

"I… uh, I got lost."

He nodded, looking amused. One of the guards cleared his throat. "Maybe you should come in; I think we should close the gate."

"Oh," Emily said, embarrassed and took two large steps through the gate and ended face to face with the man.

"I'm Brian," he said, sticking out his hand. She looked down at it, they looked strong and soft. He had nice looking hands. She stared at it for a second and had to realize why he was holding it out.

"Um, Emily," she said taking his hand in hers and shaking it.

"Nice to meet you. So, Emily, where are you from?" To her disappointment he took his hand away from hers and pulled it to his side.

"I'm from… far away, but I'm not going back," she looked into his ocean blue eyes.

"Well then, I suppose you will need a place to stay," he offered, smiling handsomely. He turned around and she followed him through the village. As they walked through the common Emily noticed people watching them. This is odd, she thought. Was she really all that different from the townsfolk that they needed to stare?

"So you said you got lost? How did that happen?" Brian asked her, breaking the silence.

"Yeah," she answered solemnly, "My sister and I, we were leaving home." She tried not to show the pain in her voice. "But we got… separated. And I didn't know where to go."

Just then, they approached a fruit stand. "Good afternoon sir," the merchant tipped his rugged brown hat. Brian smiled at the old man and tossed a silver coin in front of him. "Thanks," the merchant smiled, showing his toothless mouth. Brian took two apples off the stand and handed one to Emily and took one himself.

"So, your sister's lost?" Brian took a bite out of the apple. She watched his teeth sink into it and felt her mouth water. Then, remembering her own apple, she took a long juicy bite, savoring it.

Once she had finished chewing she said, "she slipped down a muddy hill last night and I found her horse, it had been stabbed." She felt tears swell up in her eyes and struggled to hold them back.

He looked concerned and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "We can send out a search party tomorrow, okay"

She looked up into his crystal blue eyes and suddenly felt comforted. She couldn't help but smile. They were silent for a moment as Emily realized they had left the part of the village where most of the houses seemed to be situated. Suddenly they came upon a huge stone building. No, not building. They were standing in front of a castle.

Brian made a motion with his hand and slowly a drawbridge started to lower.

"Is this your house?" Emily choked.

He smiled, "Home sweet home."

Emily was amazed, she had never seen a castle before, her old house was off on the edge of her kingdom and she had only heard of the king.

"A-a-are you the k-king?" She stuttered.

He smiled again, finding her amazement amusing. "Prince actually, my dad's the king."

"Wow," was all she could say. The drawbridge had finally lowered and she followed him across. They entered through a gate where Brian was greeted by yet another guard. After that they approached two massive wooden doors, they each had intricate designs carved into the wood. Letters, actually, that seemed to be written in Latin. She studied the letters until Brian pushed open the doors to reveal a stunning room. The front entrance of the castle was huge. The floor was drowned in a deep scarlet carpet. On either side was a staircase and in front of each staircase was a giant knight. In the center of the room, suspended from the high ceiling, was a huge chandelier. There must have been 1,000 candles on it. Emily stood their gaping but Brian just continued.

They walked up the stairs to a long hallway. It was the most elegant place Emily had ever seen, besides the front entrance. There was a long red carpet stretching all they way to the end where the hallway turned to the left. The ceiling was littered with glass chandeliers and the walls were a deep scarlet too, matching the downstairs carpet. There were so many doors, all the same dark brown wood, Emily couldn't think of what they could all lead to. Just as she was taking all this in there was a shriek coming from the other end of the hallway. She jumped and to her surprise Brian's face was still calm.

"Brian!" There was another shriek as a tiny girl turned the corner. She was wearing a silky pink nightgown that dragged along the floor behind her, on her feet were pink satin slippers to match. She had long blonde hair reaching down below her waist. Emily wondered how long it took for her to brush it. "Brian!" She shrieked again, stomping towards him. "Your idiotic tailor MESSED UP MY DRESS!" She said the last words in such a high pitched voice Emily had to look up to make sure the chandelier didn't crack. Two women came racing down the hallway carrying one of the most beautiful dresses Emily had ever seen. "I SAID I wanted it in RED. NOT MAGENTA!" She squealed at the women.

"Miss, please-" one of the women tried to say but it the girl turned around to face Brian again.

"Who the HELL is this!" She screeched staring at Emily.

"Miss, we need you to try this on-"

"NO! It's not right!" She screamed and stomped off in the other direction totally forgetting about the other girl with Brian. The ladies hurried after her. "Fix it Brian!" She screamed again before disappearing down the stairs.

Brian gave Emily a weak smile, "I should probably take care of this." Emily nodded still overwhelmed. "Millie," Brian called and one of the women, the plumper of the two, spun on her heels and hurried over to him.

"Yes your Majesty." She said ducking her head down.

"Can you please get my friend here some new clothes and show her to a room."

"Yes your Majesty," Millie took a small bow.

"Thank you," he said with charm and hurried off toward the still shrieking girl.

"C'mon Miss," Millie said hurrying off in the opposite direction that Brian went. Emily watched him go before following the scurrying maid.

"Here you go, Miss," Millie said dipping her head in a slight bow. She opened a big wooden door into a beautiful room. Emily stepped in, and was immediately bombarded with a flood of yellow.

"It's beautiful," she said, "Thank-" she turned around to thank Millie but the frantic maid had receded down the hallway. This is a guest room, Emily thought. I wonder what the actual bedrooms look like. She looked down at the plush yellow rug and took off her muddy shoes before sinking her feet into it. She stepped across the floor gingerly and collapsed onto the double bed. It was so comfortable. She was snuggling into the perfectly fluffed pillows when the door opened.

"Miss?" Millie peeked her head in.

"Come in, Millie." Emily said sitting up straight on the bed.

"I have brought you some clothes as his majesty requested," she said, her head still bowed.

"Thank you." Emily said taking the pile of clothes out of her hands. Millie ducked out of the room and closed the door gently. Emily spread out the dress Millie had given her. It was the most beautiful dress Emily had ever seen. It was a rose pink dress with petite roses neatly spread in a row rimming. It had a large satin bow in the back and the bottom had lace over it. Millie had also handed Emily pink satin shoes with a single rose above the toe. She slipped the dress on careful not to rip it.

Blissfully she twirled around and stopped when she came to the mirror. She halted and was stunned by how the dress looked too beautiful on her. Then, she perked up, and danced across the room, sashaying with joy and pirouetting around in circles until she suddenly stopped to the sound of the prince clearing his throat. "Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude," Brian says smiling.

"Oh, it's ok," Emily said, reaching for the bedpost to stop the room from spinning.

"Sorry about, Ella" He said with a consoling smile.

"Ella?" Emily asked but then remembered the girl from the hallway. "Is she your sister?" Brian looked down at the floor, embarrassed.

"Actually, she's my fiancée." Emily had only known Brian for a couple of hours but that words still cut through her like a knife. She was his fiancée, but she was… she was… so… Emily couldn't think of what she was.

"Oh." She managed to choke out. There was no reason for this to upset her, what did she expect. He was a prince; she was just some girl he found lost in the woods that he took in for charity.

"Yeah, her parents, they are the duke and duchess in the north. My parents, well, they thought it would be good, you know, if we get married."

Emily nodded.

"When you saw her, she was just nervous, we have a big engagement dinner tomorrow, she wants it to be- perfect." He looked up from the floor. "So, I see you changed.

"Oh yeah," She smiled down at the beautiful dress. "Thanks," She added again. Then her stomach growled, reminding her of how hungry she was.

"Let's go get you something to eat." He said smiling again.