Inkway to Albreton

Chapter Two

They were in a forest. Jasmine looked around as Swift rose up on its hind legs with a neigh of glee. It bolted off down the path.

"Well there he goes," said Prince Albert.

"He needs it though," Jasmine told him. She looked up at the canopy. She had been right; it was fall here too. The forest was the strangest thing she'd seen in a long time. There were trees and plants she knew, like birch trees and dandelions, but there were also many she had never seen before. It was a conglomeration of both the familiar and the exotic, so colorful Jasmine didn't know where to look. Everything caught her eye equally; there wasn't a focal point because everything took her breath away. Yet somehow the forest breathed as one, all the yellows and greens and reds molding together to form a unified being. She exhaled when her chest began to hurt, only then realizing she hadn't breathed since taking in her surroundings. There was magic here.

"Hm."

"What?" Jasmine asked the prince. He took off his fedora and stroked the feather. He seemed to do that a lot when he was thinking. He licked his lips, staring off. "What?" Jasmine pestered.

"Well," Prince Albert said, "This isn't anywhere near Castle Albreton. I wonder why the ink didn't take me where I told it to."

"Well maybe it doesn't do what you thought it did," Jasmine suggested slyly, "I mean it didn't take you to your true love either." The prince opened his mouth to protest but then gave up and just looked sad. Jasmine felt the guilt sink in. She sighed, "All right. I'm sorry okay. But like you said even if I was with you all this time I don't remember any of it. I remember my world, my life there. But I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine. It's nothing."

"But I..."

"It's nothing." The prince turned away and put his fedora back on, head down. "It isn't your fault." The guilt grew. He sounded so defeated, yet at the same time noble, determined. He was a man on a quest. "We'll figure it out once we get to the castle. Unfortunately that'll take three days' travel from here. Swift has the tendency to run off for long periods of time."

Jasmine decided to try and lighten the mood. "It's beautiful here," she said, "I've never seen anything like this forest. I know some of the names of the trees and plants but I haven't seen a lot of them."

"It may seem a place of beauty now," the prince warned, "but there are nymphs in this forest. You have to be on guard." He held his hand out to Jasmine.

She took it gently, "Nymphs?" They began down the manmade white pebbled path. It was littered with fallen leaves of all shapes and sizes. The leaves sprawled out like an animal's bedding, making everything look overgrown. A soft wind blew tiny reddish pinwheel shaped leaves out of a nearby tree. They flew like miniature helicopters as they descended into Jasmine's outstretched hand.

"Nymphs are vile creatures," explained the prince, "They eat men."

Jasmine giggled, "So they just let women go then? They don't sound so bad to me." She was enjoying herself despite knowing she would have to walk for days on end to reach the castle. She didn't know why, but that didn't bother her. It was too wonderful here to care, nothing like that bland suburbia back home. She wondered what the castle was like. She wondered if it was anything like the castles she had visited on her trip to Europe, her only reprieve from her dreaded sophomore year in high school. It had been during that study abroad trip that she decided she hated where she lived. She had discovered then that compared to castles and cities on rivers and mountains, the suburbs sucked.