No one cared if I lived or died. Even people I thought were my friends. My best friends. But did it mean nothing? Did they simply hang around to be amused by me? Bathe in the royal glow and reap its glories? But I guess, why not? That's what I'd done. Years of living in the luxury of who I was without knowing the price that it might come with. How it might have been earned.
An image of Veda flickered in my mind. Her charming awkward smile when she told me I had potential. The only person who didn't treat me like a prize to be won or a cow to be milked and she probably hated me. She didn't care about all the things I stood for. If anything, it repulsed her. I repulsed her. If only I had a chance to talk to her again. Ask her about what she saw in me that everyone else didn't. I grabbed the back of my head and groaned looking up toward the sky. She's the last person I needed in my thoughts right now. I had my father to deal with. I had to keep my mother together. I didn't need some know-it-all mountain girl telling me about things she probably knew nothing about. But why did I suddenly want it?
I let the mist of the forest paint across my face, the coolness soothing the burn in my cheeks. How did everything get so complicated? I started to take my next step down the same old route, but a strange unsettled fury bubbled up inside me and I tramped off through the bushes into the unknown.
The remaining sunlight vanished under the denser bush, better matching my mood. The sharp branches and thorns ripped at my legs as I trudged deeper, the pain providing an odd satisfaction. Anything to pierce the veil of the numb dreamlike state I’d been stumbling around in.
I stopped near the gnarled roots of an old banyan tree to catch my breath. Odd-shaped mushrooms gathered in clusters creating an almost perfect circle around the clearing. I dropped to the ground and pulled my knees to my chest. The darkness of the forest surrounded and provoked me like an itchy blanket. I closed my eyes and breathed in the damp musty smell of moss and wet leaves. If I lost myself in here, would anyone even bother to come looking?
"Princes shouldn't venture far from their castles."
The words whispered through the treetops. I snapped my eyes open, but no one appeared. I shook my head. Probably just the rustle of leaves and my distracted imagination.
"The woods aren't safe. Nothing is safe anymore,” the whispers returned, louder this time. “Pretty princes should walk in the light."
"Who's there?" I clambered to my feet and bunched my hands into fists, ready to strike.
A chorus of giggling bounced around me from every angle. "Silly Prince, trying to fight the fairies. Don't you have bigger battles?"
Fairies. Great. Tricksters lurking in the woods, sending people in the wrong direction just to laugh at them wandering around lost. Stealing fruit from hiker's packs then throwing it at them for amusement. Just what I didn’t need right now.
I started back the way I came, the day getting bleaker as it stretched on. Wings fluttered past my face, like a hummingbird, but more annoying. I swatted my hand in front of me and kept moving forward through the brush.
My head yanked back as my hood flew off my head, but I refused to stop. The bushes and treetops erupted as flocks of fairies burst out of hiding and zig-zagged to create a living wall of limbs and wings to block my path. Tiny lights of every color flickered back and forth.
“You don’t believe us?” the chorus chimed.
“Why would I?”
“Because we speak for the trees. The trees know things.”
I surveyed my other options. I could plunge deeper into the forest, but they might just chase after me. Waiting them out seemed unlikely. The only way out was through. I continued forward, arms extended to push the fairies to the side. Hopefully, they would be smart enough to move. I’d never heard of anyone dying by fairy bite, but knowing my luck it could happen.
“The trees speak of the coming darkness. They’ve seen it before. They can feel it coming.”
The words coursed through my blood. My pulse pumped faster at my temples. I let my hands fall to my sides, my feet rooted still like the banyan tree.
A shrill cry split through the air and the fairy shield dispersed, a cool current from the fleeing wings blew over my skin as they all disappeared into the forest. A single fairy remained. She flew back and forth between me and the way out.
“The heartless prince might have feelings after all,” she said, gliding through the treetops as a silver trail streamed behind her. “Wealth cannot buy kindness, you know. But I think maybe something struck a match. But how many tick...tick...ticks, until our prince goes boom?”
A flash of glitter exploded. I jumped back, and tripped, falling to the ground. The fairy laughed and zipped over my head as I struggled back up to standing, her tiny voice echoing through the trees.
"Enough. What do you know about the darkness? Does this have anything to do with my father?"
"I guess that depends. Who
