She slept in darkness and dreams for, what seemed to be, ages. When she finally came to, she fluttered her eyelids as she tried to adjust to the bright light. When her eyes had adjusted she slowly pulled herself up, she felt the touch of grass under her hand. As soon as she managed to get herself on her feet, she looked around at her surroundings.

This wasn’t her bedroom nor was it the side of the road where she had hit the tree. She was however, in the middle of a forest. Looking around she saw beautiful flowers and patches of the greenest grass she had ever seen. The trees seemed to climb upwards forever and the sun burned brilliantly through the breaks in the leaves.

‘Am I dead?’ she thought to herself, it was the only logical explanation in her mind. What else could it be? Especially when the last thing she remembered was being lifted into an ambulance, the more she thought about it, the more she just wanted to sit down and cry.

This was, in fact, what she was going to do until she heard a rustling in the trees. Quite alarmed by the sound and not knowing its source she hid in a set of bushes waiting for what ever it was to walk by. What she saw was a glimpse of two men, both dressed in what seemed to be almost 18th century inspired clothing. She watched them through the leaves, waiting for them to go on their way so she could get on hers.

“Come on Eimon, stop acting so down,” the one said to the other. Leah looked him over, he had blond hair and from what she could tell bright green eyes. His suit looked something out of a pirates movie with his white shirt, red jacket, brown boots and pants. His friend had bright blue eyes and Brown hair, a cut slightly longer then his friends, and wearing much of the same outfit (although it was blue) and looking quite handsome in her opinion.

“Don’t get me wrong, Ailin, Kilila is a great girl and a friend but…” his voice trailed off. She leaned over more, now she was intrigued by this stranger and wanted to hear what was going on. Unfortunately for her she leaned over to far and fell out from behind the bushes, fortunately for her the two men had already began to move on and hadn’t noticed.

Being the curious person she was (and probably to much for her own good) she followed the two men hoping to find out what was going on. As she followed and listened to the conversation, she looked around at her surroundings. All around her were trees and flowers of any colour you could think of and the path was lined with little bushes.

“I know you don’t have romantic feelings for my sister, but it would be a fairly good match for the kingdom,” Ailin said, turning around and stopping Eimon.

“I know it would be, but how could I marry someone I don’t love.” He paused “You weren’t to pleased with the news yourself when you heard”

“Well it is only because I know my sister cares for you deeply and you don’t feel the same, I was afraid that you would only break her heart.”

“And now?” Eimon asked curiously.

“Well, I know you are a man of your word and if you say ‘I do’ I know you will uphold your promise.” Eimon simply nodded at this, not exactly sure what to say.

Leah through out this was hiding behind a tree, watching and listening to the pair. She was quite spellbound by Eimon, although she had no idea why. All this time Leah hadn’t even thought about the accident, Sean or even about the possibility that she was dead.

“Ailin, would you do me a favor and let me have some time to think”

“Sure, I’ll go back to the palace and finish up some things” he bowed, and began to walk down the path. Leah could hear Eimon sigh as he sat down on a log, looking rather sad and depressed. She decided she would get closer, slowly moving from tree to tree and dodging behind various rocks and bushes.

“What am I going to do,” Eimon had begun to talk to himself “I can’t marry her, I’m not in love with her.” Eimon’s father had become very persistent over the last few years about him getting married, he was 26 after all. He had become so instant on it that he had picked his son’s wife for him, who also happened to be his best friends younger sister.

Leah, all the while, sat there looking at this pathetic looking man. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him and his predicament. She wanted to go over there and help him, but she really didn’t think she could risk being seen. She still didn’t know where she was and didn’t want to risk getting hurt by talking to the wrong people. In her mind, there was only two possibilities, one being she was dead and the other she had lived and somehow someone had put her here. The thing that didn’t seem to quite fit in was this talk of a kingdom, last time she had checked New York or the surrounding area didn’t have a ruler of that sort anymore. On second thought, maybe she was dreaming (a theory soon disproved with a pinch on the cheek.) Her mind was so occupied she didn’t even notice that Eimon, who had heard rustling in the trees, had walked up and was standing right in front of her.

“Who are you?” he asked, while looking at her from top to bottom. She was a curious creature, he thought, one with out pointed ears and in very interesting clothes.

“I’m, I’m Leah,” she stammered, noticing for the first time Eimon’s oddly pointed ears. “I got lost, or rather I’m not sure how I got here…where ever here is”   

“Hmm,” Eimon looked her over and soon realized that she wasn’t from Serecia, nor was she from this planet. He knew that she was in fact mortal. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with her, he had never seen a mortal before, and the way they were describe to him he didn’t imagine that they could be so beautiful. He had studied mortals in books he had in the palace’s library and knew that they were easily spooked by the unknown.

Leah by then at placed herself right by a tree, wanted to feel as safe as possible. All she could think about was a good way to get out of there, she decided to slowly try and move around the tree so she could make a run for it. Eimon, on the other hand, knew what she was doing and also knew if she ran further into the forest she would only be harmed by the number of creatures living in there. Taking matters into his hands, he grabbed Leah by the waist and flung her across his shoulder.

“What do you think your doing!” she screamed, kicking and punching, wanting to be put down.

“I’m only doing this for your own good, so settle down up there,” he said, rather sternly. Leah bit on her lower lip, and stopped wiggling, she was afraid of what he might do if she didn’t listen to him. Unable to control herself she began to cry, almost silently, but a few sobs made it to Eimon’s ears. Not being sure what to do, and hating to see a girl cry, Eimon stopped and set Leah on her feet. Still holding her by the arms so she couldn’t bolt, he looked her in the eye hoping to find the words that would stop the tears.

“Look, I’m sorry I was so stern with you, but your really don’t understand its not safe for you to be around here alone. I’m going to take you back to my home, so please stop crying”

She couldn’t though, and she couldn’t stand here and let him carry her off to god knows where. She began to wiggle, almost making it out of his arms before he was able to pick her up once again and fling her on to his shoulder.

Eimon sighed, that didn’t seem to work at all. All he could hope for was that she would wear herself out and fall asleep. He still wasn’t sure what to think of this girl, other then he though she was beautiful but incredibly childish.

Leah soon did wear herself out with the crying and fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her, Eimon quickly and quietly shifted her from his shoulder and began carrying her like a little baby and holding her closely to his chest. Happily in dream land and not aware of what was going on, she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head just under is chin.  

‘What a day’ he thought to himself, who knew a walk in the woods would end up with such a curious find. However, what to do with her?