Hello, everybody, and welcome to the last chapter. I'd like to thank you all. Thanks for reviewing, favoriting and following if you did so, but most importantly, thanks for reading this story. I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for you. And now, after I respond to your reviews for the last time, you can read the last chapter:

OddDangerSpiritualCyberLover17: Thanks for reviewing! Please read thoroughly to know why Daisy cried. Just because it isn't explicitly stated, doesn't mean there aren't hints in the writing. Besides, it is made clear why she's crying. If you have any more questions after reading this chapter, again: please, read thoroughly.

CrazyHayniac: Yeah, I also found it unbelievable that she had no idea why she was there. I mean, really? Of course Lucinda would've told her something. About the ending... all I can say is that it's probably a happy ending. Thanks for reviewing!

Enjoy!

-Writer207

Daisy celebrated her fifteenth birthday a couple of weeks ago. Not only did this mean the winter was done and that the temperature would rise, but also that she and Lucinda had their own small party. Lucinda had given her a new pink dress, which she was wearing today, as well as giving her a necklace. It was a heart-shaped pendant, something Lucinda had just retrieved. Daisy recognized it - it was once her mother's, who always wore it, except when she would go out hunting. Daisy had been grateful to receive it now, promising to never take it off. So far, she managed to keep that promise. After these years, any little thing that reminded her of her parents was welcome, since there was so little.

But times weren't always happy. Most of the time, Lucinda tried to plan activities with Daisy inside her tower, so she wouldn't be bored. Yet, it came to her from time to time. She had found a way to keep track of time. Every day, she would put a small line in a stone on her wall. Every stone would have no more than seven lines, to indicate a week had gone by. By now, the walls were covered with these lines, but not all stones were carved in.

Lately, she also had been seeing things in a different light. It started with the last letter Ademar sent her - they had stayed in touch through mail, as he always was too busy to visit. No, it wasn't Ademar - somebody sent it on behalf of him. To inform her Ademar had passed away. The letter said Sebastian and some friends ambushed Ademar on a trip. He got an arrow to the chest, dead before he hit the ground.

Daisy thought about her old friend a lot. She thought about the kingdom - it was in good hands still, as Ademar had appointed a successor in case he would die before Daisy became an adult. She thought about his killer - Ademar had annulled the marriage arrangement and had been looking for fine young men for Daisy to choose from.

She imagined his death. For months, she had nightmares. A hooded figure would come out behind the trees and raise his bow, while Ademar did not see him. This hooded figure was Sebastian, no doubt, but she could not see his face either - how could she see the face of a man she had never seen in her entire life? Without any effort, he would release the arrow and it would strike Ademar in the chest.

In similar fashion, nightmares about her parents resurfaced. She dreamt of how they were stalked by the boar, in her dreams twice as big as she knew they were. She dreamt of her parents, while they ran away from it. It always ended with her father being tossed around, always hitting a tree and falling on the ground. In both nightmares, however, she never could spot any blood.

They always seemed so real. But when she opened her eyes, she remembered they were only nightmares, the ones she could go to in her dreams, to escape her own nightmare.

The tower. Her own comfortable prison cell. No way out, no way she would ever leave without a fiancé. No way anyone would rescue her. And if someone did find her here and take her away, she hoped it wouldn't be Gilles. He would be nineteen now, the right age to marry a noblewoman and declare her queen of South Upswich. Anyone would do, as long as it wasn't him.

From time to time, she remembered a fairy tale from her youth. It described how a young princess was kidnapped as a baby by an ugly witch and then had to grow up in a tower, without ever cutting her hair, making its length longer than the princess'. She couldn't help but compare herself to the long-haired princess from time to time, though she could also still see the differences. She had brown hair that wasn't ridiculously long. She had only been in the tower for some years. And Lucinda was definitely not a witch.

But, despite everything that has been going on, despite all the nightmares, she still hoped. She hoped that she would leave the tower. She hoped she would have a caring and loving husband one day. She hoped her fiancé wouldn't be such an impatient bastard as Sebastian was. She hoped Gilles would stand down once her choice was made. she hoped her people would finally be safe when she ruled over them. And, above all, she hoped everything would be alright.

The wind blew in her face, which took her out of her thoughts. Daisy looked up at the window, wondering if she'd forgotten to close it again. But it was locked, so there shouldn't be any wind inside.

The fire that burned in the fireplace danced as the wind blew it, eventually growing strong enough to put it out. Daisy stood up from her bed and walked towards the fireplace, curious and frightened about what was going on.

She never knew how to properly describe it. It started as a green dot, floating near the fireplace. It swirled around, growing bigger and bigger with every passing second. Daisy backed away from it until she stood against the wall. She tried to look away, but she could not take her eyes off of her. What was this thing? Was it magic? And why wasn't she as afraid as she should be?

It stopped growing at one point, now being as big and wide as a grown man. It still swirled, giving off this dark green light. The wind was still blowing, butt it now was more softly, no longer able to push even the lightest of objects off of anything.

Daisy cautiously took a step towards the mesmerizing appearance. As she got closer, she thought she could see something inside of it. It was a room - no, it was a tunnel. A long tunnel with no end. But where did it lead to?

An itch came up, one Daisy could not scratch. A thought she once had pushed away, one she'd buried, had returned. I can leave the tower. For a long time, she would ask Lucinda to let her out, if only for a few minutes. Lucinda always refused, because Sebastian still was looking for her. She could open her window and her head fit through it, but that was all she could do to get some fresh air. It was all because the door was always locked and there wasn't anything in her room to pick it with. She never could escape, until now.

I can leave the tower. But where would it lead?

She dd not know, she did not care. All that mattered, was that she could get a change of scenery, that she could finally leave her room up in the tower, that she could go elsewhere. Where to, it didn't matter. For all she cared, it could lead to Gilles' castle and she would walk through it. After years of seeing the same room, she could be free once more, and then it did not matter where she ended up being.

Determined, she stepped forward and the green light consumed her.

Daisy was ready to go home now. Before she left, she did charge Sebastian with treason. All this time, nobody told her that it wasn't Sebastian, but Gilles that had attacked her home. That was more than enough reason for her to return - she needed to see what had happened, what was left, what could be salvaged. She was their crown princess and as much as she loved the future, she had to go back.

Her servants, who had not seen her those three years, welcomed her back at the castle. When Gilles heard of this, he came to her and tried to win her over again, using his wit. But having learned the truth from her servants, she turned him down. That was the last straw - Gilles commandeered his army to lay siege to Seanton castle. But during his three-year reign, he had treated his men badly. They hated the way he treated them. Many old friends turned to enemies, turned on him. The fight that ensued was short. Daisy herself did not pick up a sword herself, but she did decide over Gilles' fate.

He was spared. Everything he ever owned then belonged to Daisy, including the reign over South Upswich. And so, Upswich was reunited under Grundenwald rule. Gilles was stripped of his nobility. There was no prison cell to his name, because Daisy exiled him to the Ottoman Empire, far from home. The last thing anyone heard from him was that he had reached those strange lands.

Daisy ruled over Upswich the way her father would, guided by the advice Ademar had given her, surrounding herself with some trusted friends. She did eventually find a suitable husband, a nobleman that didn't annoy her, though he could never live up to the likes of Barry Eisenberg. Throughout her life, her friends from the future visited her. They never seemed to age a single day, while she grew older. She gave birth to a son, who received his mother's last name, and thus succession was guaranteed.

All in all, she had her happily ever after, even though it was not the way she imagined it as a child.

The End