Princess of Wind

Prologue (In which a young boy finds himself stuck in another world)

Deep within the Oakwald forest a young princess sat holding court amongst her friends, laughing with crowns of flowers in their hair and mud stains on their fine clothes. This was their safespace after all, a clearing where no monsters could find and hurt them, a clearing where the little folk stood guard watching the children under their queen's orders.

"Look," a child shouted, her silvery white hair falling around her face as she bent down to examine a partially curious find.

The child's elder cousin came first, her wavy brown hair sticking out in all angles and mixed with twigs and leaves, a by-product from wrestling with a younger girl who shared the same blue eyes ringed with gold as her and the silver hair child. A truly unique and astonishing thing for half of the six children in the clearing to have.

"What are those?" a brown eyed boy asked, his golden hair accessorized by a crown of wildflowers.

"I don't know, but they're glowing," the brown haired girl said as she peered over the shoulder of her silver haired cousin.

"What's glowing," a dark eyed child asked as she pranced over, her long black hair bouncing around her face and tangling in the flowers on her head.

"This," the silver haired girl said, the other children standing behind her and staring at the marks as they steadily began glowing brighter.

In the next second an event happened that would change the children forever: the marks on the ground grew brighter until they engulfed the clearing in a bright light before a portal appeared in front of them. With it the portal brought a raging wind that pulled the flower crowns from the children's hair, before dragging them towards it. The children began screaming as they tried to get away, their efforts in vain as they were only pulled closer and closer.

That was until two figures appeared in the clearing, a queen and her consort. Faster and stronger than the raging wind the couple ran towards the children. The male pulled them to safety, while the female smeared one of the glowing marks with her finger, closing the portal and leaving the clearing in a calm peaceful silence.

"Momma," the silver haired child called, running towards the fae queen.

"Elea," the female whispered holding her daughter close in her arms, "are you hurt?"

"No," Elea said, sniffing as tears ran down her face.

"Sweetheart," the woman crooned, "It's okay. You're safe now, everyone is safe."

"They are?" Elea asked, as her mother dried the tears in her eyes.

"They are sweetheart, see they are with dad right now," the female said, pointing to the other five children who were with the silver haired male. Elea ran over to them giving her cousins and friends hugs as the female followed behind.

"Fireheart," the male said, drawing the female away from the children, "What was that?"

"A portal to another realm. Something that should not be able to exist," she said, a frown on her face as she looked to wear the portal had been.

Her mate followed her gaze looking towards the location, hidden behind a pile of rocks. A twitching movement had caught both of their eyes, a figure moved beyond the rocks.

"Children, come here," the female said, putting herself between them and the moving figure as the male walked towards the small figure.

"Aunty Aelin, what is it," the dark eyed girl asked.

"A little movement Marion, nothing to worry about. Uncle Rowan is taking care of it now," Aelin said, while carefully wrapping a ring of fire around the children behind her. A safety precaution should anything chose to charge at them.

Rowan on the other hand was investigating the storage movements, standing mere steps away from the figure lying on the forest floor. As he cautiously observed it the figure began to sift more, rolling over until Rowan saw a dark haired child laying on the ground before him.

"Fireheart, you need to see this," Rowan said as he slowly walked over and knelt down to check on the child.

Aelin turned to the children, checking to make sure they were still safe inside her circle of flames. When she was sure that they were safe Aelin walked towards her mate, cautiously looking around for any threats.

Reaching her mate, she put a hand on his shoulder and leaned over to look at the boy. As she studied him further Aelin saw pointed ears poking out from the child's midnight blue hair and fine make of the tunic that he wore. A child from a well of family then, possibly one of noble birth, though she had never seen anyone who looked like him before.

"Rowan, what do you think?" Aelin asked, frowning while she studied the child. He couldn't be more than ten, only two years older than Elea, her own daughter.

"I don't know Aelin, but whoever he is, his parents must be worried out of their minds. I know that I would if Elea disappeared," Rowan said, giving the child a concerned look.

"Gods, please don't even mention that, I could never imagine losing Elea," Aelin said, shuddering at the thought, "We should check on him, he looks like he is alive, but there could be problems we can't see right now."

Aelin let her hand drop from Rowan's shoulder as she began walking towards the boy. Rowan stayed behind carefully watching and preparing to move if anything happened. When Aelin reached the boy she carefully knelt by his side and examined him, looking for any injuries or dangers to either the child or her and her family .

After she judged that not thing was out of the ordinary, Aelin began to gently push on his shoulder to wake him. He stirred a few moments and then opened his pale blue eyes. The child looked around for a second before his eyes met hers in a look of pure terror.

"Who are you," the boy stammered as he backed up away from Aelin. Unfortunately for him a tree blocked his escape.

"My name is Aelin and this is my mate Rowan," Aelin said, sitting on the ground in a relaxed manner, as to not appear threatening to the child, "who are you?"

"Ayden," the boy said, still sitting curled up against a tree, "What happened to me? Where am I?" Ayden asked, a desperation seeping into his voice.

"A portal, I don't know how but you came through a portal and into our home," Aelin said, feeling guilty that she couldn't give Ayden a better answer. She knew all too well what it was like to suddenly be separated from family at such a young age.

"A portal to your home," the boy said, looking around the forest, "where is your home?"

"Terrasen."