I was the first to pull away from his hand and stand up. With my rapid jerk the liquid alabaster fell back into the pool. I sputtered and stumbled over my words before I found my voice again. "That's amazing. All of this is amazing. Thank you so much for bringing me here and showing me this. It's truly an honor, your highness. When I came here I never expected to see anything so wonderful."

Christian shook his hand free of the substance and stood up with me. "I'm glad you like it. I wanted to share it with someone who would appreciate the beauty of it. I didn't think Giselle or Victoria would enjoy the beauty of this place if there were no jewels or dresses to look at. They are very much like my sister in that way, she loves that sort of thing. But you, you see the beauty in nature. You were not worried with how dirty you might get if you petted the horse the day I met you and you said it was beautiful. Not many proper ladies would approach a horse like that."

"Maybe I'm not a proper lady." I said meekly. No proper lady would climb trees and run through the forest as I had done back home.

I was a bit startled by the prince's hearty laugh. "Thank the spirits for that."

I was reminded of the first time we met and our similar line of conversation then. He had said then that it was refreshing to meet someone who wasn't proper all the time. Who would have guessed that my lack of pomp and circumstance would gain me more favor with the prince than Giselle and Victoria?

I looked around the rest of the cave. "So, is there anything else to this cave?"

"Bored already?" Christian laughed. He seemed more at ease here when there were no people about. "There is a sort of secret thing here that I've never shared with anyone except my brothers and sisters. We used to come here all the time to play, but now Hector is off learning how to be king and Joslynn is getting married. I imagine Curtis and Clover still come here sometimes but I haven't joined them. I'm not supposed to play childish games anymore."

"A secret something, I'm intrigued. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that you were playing games if you show me." I flirted. Perhaps I was getting better at the entire courting thing now that I had someone to court.

Christian grinned excitedly and turned toward the far side of the cave were larger stalactites hung from the ceiling and in some places joined with stalagmites on the floor to form columns. "Follow me."

I did as he said. He went behind the largest column of spiraling rock to where a tunnel entrance was hidden. The tunnel was lit by different colors of the liquid alabaster running down the walls. It was not as bright as the first cave had been and cast everything in a strange glowing light. It was not long before the tunnel branched off two different ways. Where it branched it was no longer straight path, it was a steep slope downwards. The glowing liquid that ran down the walls pooled together to form a white stream going down both sides of each sloping slide. Christian was looking at me excitedly.

I looked from him to the glowing slopes. "No, you can't be serious. We cannot go down there."

"It's perfectly safe; both sides come out in another cave like the one we were just in." He coaxed.

I was still skeptical, but it did seem like great fun to slide down the tunnels. "Are you sure? How do we get back?"

"You worry too much. There's another tunnel that leads back to the cave back there. It's behind one of the other columns. So, on the count of three?" Christian went to stand at the top of one of the chutes.

I grinned and stood at the top of the other. "I'll race you to the bottom."

Christian grinned back, "One."

I turned to the slide before me and focused on how I would get to the bottom faster than he did, "Two."

"Three!" We shouted together as we both jumped onto our respective slides and raced to the bottom.

I zoomed around bends in the tunnels and laughed as I willed myself to go faster. The white liquid alabaster got caught in my clothes and I was sure that by the time I made it to the bottom I would be glowing all over. I reached the bottom and tumbled out onto white pebbles like the ones in the first cave. I didn't even bother to stand immediately. I just lay on the ground laughing. I heard Christian's footsteps on the gravel and he stood over me with his arms crossed. "That was an impressive first run, Miss Ebony, but I am afraid to say you lost most assuredly."

I sat up. "Then we must go again!"

Christian smiled and helped me to my feet. I was covered in the white liquid alabaster and so was he. We looked ghostly. Christian pointed to a hole in the cave wall near where the slides were. "There's the tunnel back."

Enthusiastically we dashed up the tunnel until we came out into the first cave. He was right; the tunnel was hidden behind a column. I didn't concern myself with it for long because I could see the other tunnel. We continued our dash back to the head of the slides. Again we jumped on three and I slid down the glowing slide and again Christian beat me to the bottom. This time it was him that called for a rematch and I had no objections. We ran back to the top of the slides. We raced down three more times, each time I was the last to reach the bottom. I even made him switch me slides to see if one was faster than the other. After the third race we both lay on the floor of the cave and looked at ceiling. All the running up and sliding down had worn us both out.

"How do you slide so fast?" I asked.

Christian answered me from where he laid a few feet away, "Lots of practice. I used to come here with my family."

"There must be some technique or something to going faster. Is it because you weigh more than me and it pulls you down faster? If that is so, that is completely unfair." I tried to work out other ways I could go faster and win a race.

"No, it's not weight so much. I remember the last time I came here with Clover. That little munchkin is the fastest slider of the whole family. She's like an arrow the way she flies down."

"Then what is it?" Clover was definitely not heavy and somehow she managed to go faster than everyone.

"You have to lay a certain way as you go down. The best way is to cross your arms over your chest and arch your back. That way there's less of you touching the slide so you go faster."

I thought about what he said. It made sense, and if it was how he beat me every time I was willing to try it. "Right, so when I catch my breath we are going to go again and this time I will win."

Christian chuckled, "We'll see. I can be very competitive."

As planned, once we were ready we went back up to the top. We didn't run this time because we were too worn out to go dashing around. On three we jumped once more into the sloping tunnels and began our speedy decent down. This time I did what Christian had told me and arched my back with my arms crossed. I did go faster and this time I was the first out of the tunnel. It was only a second before Christian came sliding into the cave, but I had won. Re-energized with my victory, I jumped to my feet. "I won! It worked!"

Christian sat up and laughed at my silly little victory dance. "We should probably have to go back now. It must be near midnoon."

I had almost forgotten about the world outside this cave. It was so strange here. There was nothing to mark the passing of time and everything else was so foreign it felt like another world altogether. "How can you tell? It feels as if no time has passed at all. Maybe it hasn't."

Truthfully, I had just figured out the strategy for winning our little races and wanted to go a few more times. Christian stood up and started toward the way back to the first cave and the portal back to the castle. Not wanting to seem like a petulant child, I followed. I wanted to ask him if there was some way we could come back here at some other time, however I thought it would seem imposing on our friendship. It was his generosity after all that had even led to my being here and I shouldn't expect him to be more generous than he was already being. I put thoughts of returning to the back of my mind and focused on remembering it while I was here now.

The first cave was the same as when we last left it. On the far side beyond the glowing pools, the solid white wall stood looking as if there was no doorway there. I knew there had to be or else we would be stuck here. I wondered how Christian could find the portal back to the hall of pictures; to me the wall looked like solid rock. I had not turned to see it when we had first arrived so I did not know if the portal even appeared. I decided to ask Christian instead of trying to figure it out on my own which I most certainly could not. "How do we get back? I do not see anywhere where it looks possible to pass through."

Christian started feeling the wall. For a moment I worried that somehow the passage to the castle had closed and we were trapped. As much as I would have liked to stay in the caves a bit longer, the idea of being trapped there did not suit me at all. "You can't see the other side from here, but there should be a bit of rock that doesn't fit as it should. I have always had trouble remembering where it is. It moves you see and could be anywhere along this wall."

I started feeling the wall further down, not knowing what I was looking for. "How do you mean it doesn't fit as it should?"

Christian slid his hand along the wall and the rock seemed to ripple slightly. "Ah ha," He said. "Found it, you see how it moves when you touch it?"

I felt the wall near his hand. It did not feel like stone but rather like a very heavy curtain hung there that only appeared to be rock. It seemed the area was about the same size at the picture frame on the other side. "So, now what do we do?"

Christian offered me his hand and I took it. "Just like before, we have to go through the wall."

I took a deep breath and together we walked straight into the stone. This time I managed to keep my head up. It was different going through from this side. It felt as if I had walked into that heavy curtain and for a moment it was stifling, then the imaginary curtain disappeared and we were back in the hall of mist with the hall of mirrors on the other side and the cave behind us.

Whew, re-reading the chapters looking for mistakes is tedious.
Well, that was one picture in the hall of pictures. With the next chapter I am introducing a new character who will pop up semi-frequently in the rest of the story. I'm excited to know what you all think of him.