This is classifiable brain-puke. It's very short, and what I consider to be a pathetic excuse for this particular story.

So I apologize for both the long wait and the fact that this is just my way of trying to think like Grace again.

^^"

I walked into the room trying to betray none of my excitement. The last thing I wanted was to screw this thing up. It was my chance to get to my mother. My mind wandered to her, and I wondered what she had done to explain my missing state… What about my friends? I almost didn't want to know.

I ordered up food and hot water for a bath through Marie, who seemed to take to Heart. Within a few minutes, the food and water was there. Heart grabbed the food, and gobbled it down as quickly as I had placed it in front of her. "You're going to regret that," I told her, smirking.

She blinked at me as if looking for an explanation. "Whenever I ate too quickly I got stomach aches." She shrugged and smiled as if to say 'Oh well'. I grinned. "I get it. Hunger outweighs later pain. Let's get you into that bath." I quickly stripped her down and she slowly got into the water – at first testing the temperature with her toe and then beaming with unadulterated delight. I figured warm baths most come few and far between as a servant.

Once settled, I set to work on scrubbing her down. Kid had a lot of dirt on her. First step was taking the soap bar (or the thing I presumed was soap since it made bubbles in the water) and telling her to use as much as she could possibly want on herself. With soap in her hand, she began to scrub with great fervor.

Knock knock I heard from inside the bathroom. I stood, and greeted Warren who stood there with clothes that would suit a child. "Thanks," I said genuinely, taking the small heap from his arms. He seemed to be relieved not to be carrying the clothes anymore.

"You're welcome," he replied. "How is she?"

"Full and getting clean as we speak." I glanced back at the bathroom, and smiled. Silence hung there, as I searched for something to say.

Thankfully, he cleared his throat. "I should go." I nodded quickly.

"Thanks again." I said, closing the door. Sighing, I leaned against the wood. That had been awkward. Hastily, I shook my head and moved the moment into the 'things I don't care about' category of my brain. I needed to clean Heart. I needed to escape. Thinking about awkward moments with a faerie prince you won't see again? Not so much.

By the time I returned, Heart looked clean and her hair needed brushing. Before which, I let her pick out and put on one of the outfits Warren had gotten for her. Then I took to her hair with a brush like a mad woman, which seemed to displease Heart a great deal because I have no sympathy for people with tangled hair. My own wildly curly locks had led to so many bad tangles that I had a scalp of steel. I occasionally forgot that most didn't also have such a scalp.

After a few glares from Heart, I slowed in pace and got the tangles out. (It would have been faster my way, but hey.) I turned her around so that I could get a good look. Her blond hair had slight waves to it, and framed her face beautifully. Her face cleaned was the sort of child you'd expect to find only in the magazine cover families – she was just that cherubic. And she was also yawning widely.

I yawned back and said, "Yeah, me too. Let's go to bed, eh?" I escorted her to the large bed, and she curled up underneath the sheets. Yeah… she was really too cute for her own good with her eyes closed. Feeling like it was a night (afternoon, morning?) well spent, I said goodnight to Marie and pretended to curl up to go the sleep.

Truth was I was far too excited to close my eyes just yet – even if I was feeling a bit drowsy. I would be awake when Rowan contacted me….

I woke up to a person shaking my shoulder harshly. I bolted upright, and hopped out of bed. Rowan stood there, dressed in darkly colored men's clothing. Harshly, she tossed me something that felt like clothes, and gestured for me to put them on. Nodding, I leaned over the bed to wake Heart up, but felt someone grab my hand.

Glancing up in annoyance, Rowan stood there, shaking her head furiously. My eyes narrowed. "She needs to come, too. It's for her safety," I hissed as softly as I could manage.

"We can't take her along. She won't be able to able to keep up and I don't have dark clothes for her. Besides, she's been here since infancy. Once a child is so ingrained in this world, they are trapped." I glanced back at Heart. What would I do with her the real world? Keep her as my own? I knew that it wouldn't be possible. Mom might take her in but… no. Heart needed to come, too.

"I'm taking her, whether you like it or not," I said sternly. Rowan hissed softly, and pulled me sharply away from the bed.

"You take her, and you're going to have to try to get out of the castle on your own." I swallowed slowly. Escape or protect Heart… I'd only known the girl for a short while and I didn't feel like I could trust anyone to protect a kid her age. Unless…

"You want me out of here, right?" Slowly, Rowan nodded. "So I promise to leave with no fuss if you promise to ensure that no harm comes to her." I watched Rowan consider it for a few moments. "C'mon, it's just taking care of one little girl." I wanted this to be a quick decision – goading her on should do it.

Finally, Rowan nodded. "I'll do it. Now get dressed." Smiling to myself, I slipped into the dark garments hastily. They were all just a little too big, but thankfully she'd also brought and vest and belt to help. Once dressed, she looked at me speculatively. "You'll need something to cover up that hair." Snapping her fingers, a small page cap appeared. "Braid your hair and tuck it in," she commanded. I did as she said, and once done I looked at her as if to say, 'Are we ready to go now?'

Grabbing my wrist, she led me out the door.

I won't lie, I glanced back at the room guiltily. I felt bad about leaving Heart behind. But I hoped that the stories that I'd read about faeries not being able to break their promises was true. At least she would be safe here.

Rowan led me through various passageways. It was when we finally hit one that was lined with guards that I froze. How were we supposed to get through here? Glancing back at me, Rowan pulled at my wrist, but I shook my head. Was she crazy? Finally, she won the silent struggled (damn her strength) and we were in the hall.

The guards didn't seem to notice us at all. I sighed mentally. Magic. Of course. Rowan was no idiot. All the same I felt rather conscious of every move I made whilst we walked down this hall. We moved slowly, and during the entire way I barely allowed myself to breathe. Somehow having the guards not noticing us, even though we were definitely there, brought a whole new level of creepy to things.

We reached the end of the hall, which lead into a small, cave-like room. I glanced around, and heard water running. Rowan caught me off my guard by pulling me along whilst I was looking around. The caves we now walked through were dark and smooth, and underneath our feet a tiny steam of water flowed. Tiny blue flowers hung along the walls, and glowed lightly. In a way, it was beautiful. What struck me most was the thundering sound that got progressively louder as we walked on.

At the very end of this passage, water poured in torrents. Rowan stepped close to the sheets of water, and then stopped. "This is your way out." she said, over the water. "Go." I looked apprehensively at it. This was it? The border between faerie and human was here? I turned back to look at her, but felt something hit the back of my head sharply. I fell to the ground; my head aching, vision darkening.

The last thing I felt was the sensation of falling…