Celtic Fiction Novel- We Come Back: Vol. 1: Chapter 2.1
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The Bonds that Tie Us
Traveling on light, was always quite the experience,
but not nearly as impressive as the planet Pastel. The prism that brought me home, lied within the woods that lay outside of the palace which I called home. I looked around before I whistled. I could feel a strong dense cloud of energy and wind rushing towards me. He was coming, running to me; this was one of my favorite parts of returning home. I threw myself behind the nearest oak tree. A beautiful, sapphire horse with large shimmering white wings flew across the palace bridge. As he reached the trees he landed gracefully, as if his weight equaled that of a feather. He looked around, and began sniffing and listening, knowing he would find me if he only waited. I tried not to make a sound but it seemed the suspense always caused a nervous giggle to escape. As soon as it did he ran around the tree, finding me with excitement.
“Oh Starling, how I have missed you,”
I scratched behind his ears and kissed his head before gently leaning against him and breathing in his familiarity. He lowered himself onto his knees, so that I could more easily swing myself up on to his back. I held on to his hair, and whispered, “Let’s go home.” His wings rose up and he ran towards the bridge before lifting into the air. I always felt so free riding on Starling, and as I approached the palace, that sense of freedom slowly seemed to fade away. It was getting late and I knew I would barely have any time to change.
Leading up to the palace, was a long wooden bridge
with beautiful hand carved railings on each side. An enchanting, flowing river rushed underneath it. Planted alongside the bridge on both sides inside the river were tall aspen trees. At the end of the bridge, was a cobblestone roundabout that featured a glowing fountain in the shape of an oak tree whose branches extend out in four different colors, one for each of the seasons. I was as astonished by its presence as I always had been, as if I was seeing it for the first time.
The palace though, rivaled the fountain.
It was made from various stones, allowing for different shades of color at different times. At this particular time of night, it had a beautiful light blue glow. There were six towers, three on each side, and a huge stone staircase led up to shining double wooden doors.
Starling flew behind the palace to the stables.
“Thanks love.” I threw an apple to Starling before running inside.
I used the kitchen entrance, where various creatures
who helped maintain the palace pretended not to see me, a common occurrence. As I made it up the stairs to the main floor, I quietly opened the door, and looked around to make sure the room was empty. I tried to sneak down the hall and up the stairs to my room, but my family’s butler, a rather protective bear of a man, caught me.
“Keeper Astraea, shall I send for Trix?”
I froze before spinning around.
“Thank you, Andean.”
“Very good.”
I turned and walked briskly up the stairs
and down the hall to my bedroom. As I was removing my cloak, my best friend, Trix knocked on the door. “Come in.” Immediately upon entering the room, any formalities ended.
“I laid out your clothes for you Raea, since you’re late. They’re on the bed. Where have you been?”
“Help me with these buttons, won’t you?”
She came around and started undoing them.
“To answer your question, I was unforeseeably detained.”
“That’s guarded of you. What happened?”
“I’ll tell you later. Tell me, who’s here? I thought I saw a set of winged carriages out front,”
Trix knew I was hiding something worth hearing, but logged it away for retrieval later.
“Well, you did see extra carriages. There are two in fact. One carrying the Caretaker Serrons’ family, and the other carried…” she trailed off.
“Who was in the other one?”
“The Shipmaster, Dyvin Garring.”
“Garring! Why is he here?” I exasperated.
My seasonal parents flung Dyvin at me as often as possible.
“They seem intent on my happiness only being allowed if it occurs with him. He is my best friend’s mate, and has spent nigh thirty years with us. Does it not occur to them that if I was going to fall in love with him, it would have already happened? Why does he even bother?”
“You know why Raea. He’s keen on you, and it’ll take drastic measures I daresay, to persuade him otherwise.”
I sighed deeply as Trix finished helping me dress.
“It’s not that bad, he could smell like fish,
and live on a ship,” Trix giggled.
“Trix!”
We laughed together, Trix always made me feel better. I knew how much I actually loved everything to do with the ocean, and often tried to persuade me into considering Dyvin.
“Now, is there anything else you need to gird you before we go down?”
“No thank you, Trix. I’ll meet you down there.”
“Try to enjoy it with me, at least the food!”
As Trix had now gone, I braced myself for the evening
that lied ahead, but as I headed down one side of the grand emerald staircase, I found my mind wandering to the previous part of the evening, with Mr. Staun. His attempts to know who I was, were worthy of applause, though he had gotten nowhere.
It seemed odd now that I hadn’t spoken to a human since…
well since I was one.
“Why is that?” I sighed out loud. He certainly seemed an entitled man and acted as if it was hard for him to have me reveal so little and refuse his offers.
“I own this land,” I mimicked him under my breath,
and then laughed at his ringing tone of superiority. I was determined to not let him preoccupy my thoughts the entire evening, and yet I was already failing.
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