Testing For Hope

Chapter 16 - Woods Of Enchantment

"How old are you?" She said as she stepped over an overgrown root, holding onto the hem of her dress to keep it away from stray branches. "It's okay if you don't want to answer. I'm 7 years old, but most people think I'm much younger. They say I act too much like a child."

Her hair fell off her shoulder as she turned to look at me while I put away my knife. She was expecting an answer and I saw no harm in giving one. "I am 9 years old as of exactly a month ago." I replied as I looked up and saw her standing right infront of me because we stopped walking. "What?"

"You don't look 9. You look older, like my friend Vanessa. She's 10! She's so cool!" The girl turned back around after stating the fact and almost tripped on a stone that was in front of her, but I grabbed her arm just in time and pulled her back up.

After that we kept walking for a bit, eventually walking up a staircase that led to a wooden bridge overlooking this beautiful garden about halfway between the rock and the kingdom's servant quarters. I looked over to her. She was sitting on the side of one of the wooden planks and looking at the garden with stars in her eyes.

"What's your name?" I asked.

Silence replied. She was too entranced.

"We can go down to look, you know?" I suggested, hoping it would get her attention.

She looked back at me with her blue-green eyes, still transformed because her eyes weren't yet dry. She excessively nodded her head and then jumped down. I couldn't help but giggle at her antics and jumped down to join her.

She instantly went for this pretty flower that was a type of lily of the valley flower. It was super rare though because it glowed blue in the moonlight. She touched one of the petals and looked shocked when the flower felt soft.

She must have heard me behind her though because she then said, "My name is Sofia. What's yours, stranger?" She slightly tilted her head away from the flower, enough to look at me and the flower at the same time.

"My name is Pariz, Knight in Training. I'm right under my father in the guardkeep, so you'll probably see me more often." I explained this fact with pride, like my father always taught me to do when someone asked who I was.

She accepted the response with a nod and looked back at the flower.

I smiled softly when the light started to shine down on her, almost as if she was made to be there, stuck in time, forever.

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12 years later in the Woods Of Enchantment

I will always cherish the moment I first saw the beautiful angel that is my queen. For now, though, I should get up.

I got up from my make-shift bed in my tent and walked outside and over to the delicious smell that was the food supplied by the cook. They were the best talent we could buy without becoming obvious to the king. It shows, too, with the food we get from them being the best the knights ever had.

The knights under my command for this trip to the East woods were a small group, most of the knights being hungover from drinking at the pub in our kingdom. If they ended up getting in trouble with the cooks at home or their squires, then that was not my fault, as I warned them we would be leaving in the morning after preparations were finished.

The food tonight was a rabbit stew that had the most delicious mushrooms and herbs mixed in for flavour and texture. The food was finished in no time, no help cooking from my direction, as I had 2 bowls of the mixture.

The knights were staying up around the fire for warmth, but I had found that the woods at night were more peaceful when you were alone in the dark so my tent was a little bit further.

I took my clothes off gently and folded them at the end of my bed and grabbed the robe my lady lent to me when I told her I had to leave, before I said goodbye. They were laced at the ends, being that they were her's.