Bound

The forest was a dark and beautiful place, so many strange creatures walking about, the unusual (but enchanting) curves of every tree, the bird singing, the wolves howling.

Eirian sat up against a tree with a book opened on her lap. She always loved reading different things and would always be jealous of the characters and what they had and would dream of a fantasy of her own, though she already somewhat lived one.

Eirian Jade Roberts was her full name, and she was in line to be the next queen of her country, England.

Though she never really cared much about popularity and royalty and stuff like that and never had much interest in being queen. She didn't want to rule a whole country, it seemed stressful and like a lot of work, which it was.

The princess didn't like being "proper" as they would call it. Eirian liked to run around and explore and absolutely hated wearing long dresses (they got in the way). She doesn't like doing what she is told, she likes to do her own things. And Eirian would mess around so much to the point where she would get scolded for coming in the caste filthy.

No matter how much they tried to teach her to be a lady, she would never listen. "Sit like a lady," they'd say. "Act like a lady." "A lady doesn't get dirty." "Fix your posture, don't hunch." "Eat like a lady, for heaven's sake! You're going to be the next queen, use the proper silverware!"

Eirian looked up from here book, there was a rustle of leaves behind her which made Eirian stand up. She crept closer to another tree to see if anything was there, "Hello?" She spoke aloud to nothing in particular.

When nothing answered, she assumed it was just a deer or the wind and she was being silly for thinking otherwise and made her way back to where she was sitting to returned to her book.

She stared at the pages, but nothing was processing in her mind like she'd forgotten how to read. Her mind began to fill with thoughts, and she suddenly began to feel anxious.

She stood up abruptly and began to wonder the woods more, trying to get a clear head and become more relaxed.

As she walked through the woods, she kept feeling like eyes were staring at her and kept turning around periodically to see nothing every time. She took a deep breath in and continued walking until she found a lake.

She went down to the water and bent down on her hands and knees to peer into it. Looking at her reflection, she leaned closer to the lake and studied herself.

She studied every tiny detail of her face, from everything that bothered her to everything that was okay about it and when she was done, she sat down on top of her legs and peered out into the open space around her.

She sat there for several moment enjoying the peaceful sound of nature: enjoying the calmness of the wind and fresh air. She thought about how she could stay there for hours and hours, because of how soothing and pleasant it was.

Her foot began to cramp, and tingling started to arise in her foot, indicating it was starting to fall asleep and stood up to shaking it off. She began to lose her balance and screamed; Eirian ended up stumbling to the side of the land before the water, losing her footing and fell in.

She shot up out of the water choking on it and swam to the edge to grab onto the side to catch her breath and wipe the water from her eyes.

Eirian felt a hand on her arm helping her out and she plunged back under screaming not sure of what had touched her.

There was a splash of water next to her, the person jumped in and pulled her out and she stumbled out of their grip.

When she looked up at them, Eirian saw a boy that looked to be around her age with dark black hair, brown eyes that wore black pants and a black button up slightly opened, revealing his chest, and barefoot.

The boy took a step toward towards her and she stepped back. He looked stunned.

"Are you okay?" He said cautiously

Eirian stays quiet taking another step back.

"I promise I'm not going to hurt you," he says gently and takes another step forward.

"Well, that's kind of you." She said nervously, not that she was afraid of him but because he was compelling to look at. He was beautiful and strange, he almost looked delicate.

"I'm Kyler." He stated his name.

She took another step, this time forward; beginning to calm down. "Eirian." She spoke more confidently, holding out a hand to him.

"Lovely to meet you." He said looking down at her hand and accepting it to shake. "You should go home and get changed so you don't freeze. May I take you back?"

"Uh," Eirian was unsure but felt oddly comfortable with him, "why not." She agreed and led the way.

"Why are you all the way up here?" She asked

"I was walking a few days ago and lost something. I was trying to find it, but no luck." He thew up his hands in an "oh well" shrug and laughed it off.

"Well, I'm sorry you couldn't find it."

"It's wherever, I don't mind."

"Um, my home is just around the corner, I think I can take it from here though. Thank you for walking with me." She said and turned around to look at him, but he was gone; vanished into thin air.

"Kyler?" She called out his name, squinting her eyes, trying to see where he had gone. Eirian stood looking into the open woods and got a chill of wind making her shiver.

And very reluctantly, with no luck in finding him, she walked the rest of the way home a little disappointed, but mostly confused and cold.