Chapter One

For a long time, nearly twenty-two years, I didn't believe in childish things. Even as a child I stuck my tongue out at Alice, Belle, fairy god mothers, and the like. I might believe in a mad hatter, but not animals that talk and certainly not birds that help you dress in the morning. I suppose that all changed when I was twenty-one. I met a man who I believed to be a burglar in my family home. And though he had been, I did not expect who he turned out to be.

You've heard of Robin Hood, correct? Well, this wasn't him. Though he did know Robin and his Merry Men. So many people think they are humans hellbent on stealing from the rich to give to the poor. But that's not the case here. They're not worried about the poor anymore. And they are definitely not human.

But who would believe such nonsense? I know I wouldn't have if I'd never met Will.

In was a late summer night. The wind still blew warm even with the moon out. I was living in my parents summer home with my younger sister. Of course my parents weren't there. No matter what they were out on business. Our governess was a better parent then the two of them combined.

I stood out on a balcony just feeling the summer air. Sometimes it was needed. I looked out at the large garden of our back yard. It was vast and beautiful, full of flowers, and during the day there were plenty of birds and squirrels. It was lovely. But then I spotted someone in the distance, a tall figure moving from the side of the house and out into the woods. The only thing that gives him away is him long, red cape and hood dancing around in the moonlight.

“Oi!” I scream across the vast garden.

He looks back, a sly grin on his face, then he books it.

I hurry, tying my robe and running quickly from the house. I move quickly for reasons I cannot fathom. He hadn't seemed to be carrying anything. And if he were they would have to be small enough to fit into his pockets. Perhaps that why I chased him.

Out into the woods I go, following just a red cape. A cape that seemed to be pausing until I caught up. A cape that seemed to be luring me out. It's not until I realize this that I begin to fear for my life. I could be kidnapped. I could be taken and never seen again, only to be a face in the newspapers.

Eventually I watch the man slip into a brush. I follow anyway, and stupidly, I might add. Because this is when I leave my life behind forever. I get tangled in the vines and twigs of the brush. My robe and nightgown are torn in the effort to get through. It's as if they do not want me to get where he's going. I can almost hear the voices of the trees whispering, warning me to turn back and forget what I saw.

I can't.

I push my way through and suddenly I am falling.

My eyes flicker open to a room where no light appears to be streaming in. Not even moonlight. The walls are wooden and the smell is of tobacco and possibly bourbon. I take a deep breath through my mouth and try to sit up. But the pain in my head makes my whole body ache and cringe. A pair of hands push me back down, hands of which the feel I don't recognize even as my own fathers. These are strangers hands.

I look up and see the man pushing me back down. “Careful, love, you took a right fall. Hit your head on a rock.”

“Who are you?” I ask weakly.

He puts a cigarette to his lips and blows smoke in the opposite direction of me. “I might ask the same of you. You're the girl from the manor. You followed me, you did. But you shouldn't have. No, you should have listened to the trees.”

How did he- “Your name.” I demand.

“Will Scarlet.” he pauses. “This is where you tell me your name.”

I groan and push myself up on my elbows. “Beth.”

“Is that all? Just Beth?”

“Bethany. Bethany Casimir.” I say, sneering at him in the same moment. “Where am I?”

Will turns his head up. “Right, you couldn't know where you are now, could you? What with being human and all.”

I give him a perplexed look. “What else would I be?”

“In this world? At first glance? People would usually say you're a Faerie. But you're not pretty enough to be a Faerie and you've got no color about you except the brown hair.” Will touches the ends of my hair and then he flips his hood from his head. He's got blonde hair with red tips, something I've never seen before.

“Thank you for the insult.” I say and sit up once more, pushing Will aside. “I think I'll go ahead and say this is a dream and I'm probably just lying in the woods somewhere. Just pinch me so I can wake up.”

He does. He pinches me hard on the arm and all I do is yelp in pain. But nothing changes. I don't wake up. In fact, I feel awake, though in pain.

“You're in Faerie. Okay? Now, I can't take you back yet. Not until the next full moon, that's when the brush opens up and we can move between the worlds. But for now, you're stuck with me. Could be worse, though.”

My mouth drops open. “I'm stuck?”

“Only for a month.”

“How could it be worse?”

Will throws his head back in laughter. “I could have left you there. I could have left you for someone else to find. But I didn't. Therefore, it could be worse.”

“What were you doing at my house?”

Will's eyes pop open wide for a moment, then he relaxes when he clearly finds an answer that wont sound like he'd been stealing from my family. Then, right when I think he's going to answer me, he turns the conversation on me, switching the subject like it was nothing.

“Do you have any idea what your parents do for a living, Bethany Casimir?”

My mouth opens, closes, then opens once more when I realize that I don't. I know it's political. I know it pays well enough that we can own a summer home in Ireland. And I know that it is a family job. It's why we have the things we have, why there's such stability for myself and my baby sister. Everything my parents own was passed down over several generations. The majority of it belongs in a museum.

“I thought they were ambassadors.” I say casually.

He shakes his head. Suddenly he pulls a silver garland from his pocket. Nothing too beautiful or encrusted with diamonds and gems. Yet the intricacy of it was too amazing to pass up noticing. It was knotted and Celtic in it's design and, the truth is, I'd seen it before. I didn't know where it came from or what it was, but my parents had brought it back from a trip not too many years ago. Their ownership of it was proud.

“Your parents, they're thieves. They come to Faerie and they steal relics as tribute to their time here. They think they deserve these things but they do not understand them as we do.”

I narrow my eyes at Will. “What is there to understand about a crown?”

“This crown is worthless and priceless all at once.” he tells me. “It is very old and it belonged to my family a very long time ago. So you could understand the sentimental value it holds for me.”

I nod. “I do. You've every right to take back what is yours. But why now?”

Will furrows his brow. “What?”

“They brought that home years ago. It's never left the manor. Why come and take it back now instead of when it was stolen?”

A noise outside a now noticeable door makes each of us jump. There's a smashing sound, like glass. A roar of people outside the room begin banging around. I couldn't tell if they were trying to break down the door or if someone were in a brawl and they were cheering. My whole body freezes in panic then I leap out of the bed, the pain of my injury suddenly gone in the rush of adrenaline.

Then it dies down and all I hear is just a few men. Perhaps that's what it had been all along. And they are looking for Will in a happy tone, as if to wonder where he was and who he was with. They bang on the door once more and this time, it's going to open.

Will looks down, and red and white and black all over, and give me a strained apologetic look. “Forgive me for this, love.” he says quickly, then he dips down and kisses me on the mouth.

I kiss him back without knowing I would. I expected I might slap any man who kissed me in such a way without my permission. But I lean into it, my hands touching his chest. The door swings open and I can hear the men shouting drunkenly. “Will's got himself a lassie!” the tease him brotherly.

He pulls away, eyeing the men. “I'll thank you to give us some privacy, Robin, Tuck, even you, John!”

They all cry out in laughter and slowly shut the door. They probably wont even remember that Will had me here. They will only remember their friend and the stupid, not pretty enough girl he saved from worse things than himself.

When Will turns back I take the moment to slap him, though it was delayed.

He touches his face after the blow and looks at me with shocked yet apologetic eyes. “I told you to forgive me, Bethany Casimir. I do apologize for that. It's not my nature to simply kiss a girl like you for no reason.”

“I believe they could have assessed what you wanted them to without having to kiss me, William Scarlet.” I say, my index stabbed at him in anger. Mostly because I liked the kiss. Mostly because I didn't want to like it.

He pauses and smiles slowly. “Was that your first kiss, love?”

“Don't call me that. My name is Beth.” I deflect.

But it was my first kiss. My first kiss with a man I didn't know, in a world I couldn't be sure existed without proof, and to top it off I'm not wearing any real clothes. The whole of my outfit was a robe and nightgown, which were torn from the brush I'd dragged myself through.

“Aye, Beth.” Will says, his smirk fading. “We're going to be here for the night. You can sleep in the bed, as you were. I'll be sure to keep you safe.”

I look at him with confusion. “Safe? Am I in danger?”

“You're the daughter of thieves who come here for our artifacts. People don't take too well to humans around here, love. You can thank your family for that.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “If I didn't know any better I'd think you hold some hostility toward me. You're worried about all that stuff they took from here but you only grabbed the crown. Tell me why.”

“I have no hostility toward you. Your family, however, yes. I'm reasonable enough to know you're clueless about who they really are. That doesn't make you any less valuable, though. So if you try to leave my side you will be very sorry you did. They will use you as a bargaining chip whereas I just want you to go the hell back where you belong. Understand, Beth?”

I bite my lip and look away, suddenly afraid. “I shouldn't have followed you.”

“No, you shouldn't have. But you did. Now for the next month you will be introduced as my servant and prisoner. Understand?”

I nod slightly.

“You'll only have to pretend. I will keep you by my side until I can get you back home. My men will know no different than anyone else. So sit down,” Will pokes me in the shoulder, making me fall onto the tiny cot. “Keep your mouth shut, and let me do the talking.”

“I have a question.” I say, even though he just told me to be quiet.

He tilts his chin up a notch. “Fine.”

“You clearly have a problem with humans, Will. And you've no reason to trust me. So why protect me? It should make no difference to you if I'm safe or not.”

He sighs and sits down in the chair in the corner. “Look, I'm no fan of your family. But I will not sentence you to a fate they deserve.”

“You make it sound like they're terrible.”

Will smiles, but it doesn't meet his eyes. “Perhaps in your world it is not so terrible to find artifacts and bring them home. Perhaps theft is not as punishable as it ought to be. Humans have a tendency to take what they want and not ask questions about the sentimental value the item holds. In your world they are archaeologists, maybe even common thieves. But they have caused much pain here in Faerie for so many. I doubt you want to hear that about them but it's true. This crown,” Will pulls the crown out and shows it to me, his fingertips delicately holds it. “is not even the most precious thing they have taken.”

I look away, suddenly heartbroken to know that my family is a long line of thieves. Not ambassadors. Then again I can't just believe him. I have to tell myself that maybe this is a ploy to keep me on his side, to keep me silent and compliant. But it might be better that way. The better I act the easier it will be for me to get through this time.

The weight of it all makes me want to curl into myself. But I stay stone cold and try to act as if this information doesn't bother me.

“Tell me, Bethany Casimir,” Will begins. “Why does none of this shock you?”

That much he had right. Though the weight of a new world was on my shoulders, the weight of knowing my parents are criminals was not. So I shrug. “I don't know them well enough to disagree with you.”

It is this that makes Will soften, his whole body relaxing into the chair. “I am sorry.”

“Don't be. I'm not.”

“Go to sleep, Beth. Tomorrow we must be on our way.”

I lay down, my front facing Will in the corner of the room. “Where to?” I wonder.

He pulls his hood over his face and relaxes, his boots up on a stool. “Avalon.” 

Reviews

[Inject Positivity]

Well the start was very very enjoyable... the setting of the story was lovely... the best thing i have found in this piece is your descriptions and story telling style... you had created a perfect atmosphere to perform the story... the characters seemed very alive... i enjoyed the intensity of the story... simple use of words and very well presented, not for once i felt bored reading this one... im giving you full ratings and hoping that i will find the next chapter very soon...

[Jebat Serawak]

I enjoyed your writing. Good job!

[Raina Mist]

This is beautiful! I want to read the next chapter! I like how you added classic fairy tale references like in the beginning. Nice job!

[tlhisler]

That is so great! Very original! Can't wait for more!

[Tsubaki Kuro]

Very good. You have great potential as an author. Can't wait for the next chapter.