A year had passed since Alice and Jonathan's wedding. Stella was now an active two-year-old and walking quickly. She loved to run through the hallways, wild and free. She pretended that she was a wild animal, prancing through the forest. Sometimes, she was a bird soaring over the mountains.
It was her second birthday. She was very excited. She was excited for her third also. She always loved to turn older, hoping to get a horse. She loved horses. She tried often to tell her parents how much she wanted a horse using the few words she knew. Stella sat, trying to be calm on the couch by a window. She waited for her parents to wake up so she could start opening gifts. They never seemed to wake up early enough. Her eyes were staring outside somewhere beyond the large window. She heard soft footsteps, getting excited.
Queen Alice and King Jonathan walked into the room, holding something behind their backs. Her eyes widened with curiosity. What was it? She held her hands out, wanting to grab it from them.
"Here you go Stella. Happy birthday!" Alice said happily. She gently placed the item in her hands. Stella now held a stuffed animal horse. It was brown with black hooves, mane and tail. On its forehead was a white diamond shape. She laughed with joy and hugged the horse tightly. She was so happy that she had gotten the horse toy. She ran up to her mom and dad and hugged their legs. She wasn't tall enough to give a normal hug.
She quickly ran down the hall to her bedroom and sat down in the middle of her room and laid the horse down on a pillow that she had dragged over. "Nice bed." She whispered patting the horse on its head. Her eyes gleamed with excitement as she watched the horse go to sleep on the lovely bed she had made.
**
Once I reached the stable, I handed Armastus over to the care of the stablemaster. He was the best person at taking care of horses and knew a lot about them. "Thanks Dave!" He waved at me.
"No problem Stella!" I smiled and waved back before continuing back into the castle. It was a lovely day. It was fun visiting my friend and riding on my horse.
I was walking through the halls of the castle, when I turned the corner I ran into Ella who hadn't seen me coming either.
"I'm so sor- Ella! what's wrong?" Tears were streaming down her face. She looked at me sadly.
"P-p-princess! I-I'm so sorry!" I looked at her confused.
"What are you sorry for?" Ella inhaled.
"Its Hunter! He's gone!" I froze. What if someone else found him? He could get hurt. I could get in a bunch of trouble.
"When did you notice he was gone?" I asked frantically.
"I went down to the kitchen to get some food for Hunter and when I came back he was gone. I think I might have left the door open," she said. She had stopped crying now, but her face was still red. Her green eyes were still wet.
"We should probably go look for him then." I suggested. This was going to be hard. He could be anywhere in the castle or even outside of the castle. "We should probably split up." Ella nodded. I could see that she was worried.
I headed off in the direction I came from, hoping that they could find Hunter quickly without catching anyone else's attention. It would be bad if someone found him before we did. I couldn't help but fear that he was going to get himself into something he wasn't supposed to.
I had checked in all the places I could think of that were on the south and east side of the castle. He wasn't in the kitchen, the ballroom, the servants quarters or guards barracks, nor was he in the courtyard. I had stopped in lots of the guest rooms along the way, too.
