A/N Well, this is the chappie where Eva leaves. Thank you Pca student, Chipette Star, QueenOfHearts, PlatinumGal, and kitty-kat-girlyyyxxx for reviewing! I love you guys! Desserts for everyone who review! So please, read and review and have a great day! ^_^
UPDATE 7/13/15: I have deleted the other chapters following this. As of today, they will be in a separate fic called Rest Calm and Remember Me, which is Eva's journey to find out where she came from. This is now a completed fic. I probably will be making changes to this story to make it read better sometime in the future. Thank you everyone who Favorited, followed, reviewed, and just took the time to read this fic! It truly means a lot to me. See you next chapter! Repeated on the bottom.
I forced myself up when my alarm woke me up. Groaning, I rolled myself out off bed and stretched, like I did every morning.
But this isn't any day.
Today's the day I leave on my journey to find my past. I rushed through my morning routine, this time I dressed in the tunic and breeches from Artie instead of a dress. After tucking my blue dress into the pack in the place of my traveling clothes, I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror. The tunic was a forest green while the breeches were a dark brown. The tunic was oddly loose on me. Glancing around, I spotted a leather belt and quickly attached that around my waist. There, that's better, now the bottom of the tunic makes a small skirt. After looking at my reflection one last time, I sat down on my bed and watched the sky lighten.
A soft knock sounded on my wooden door before it opened and Artie came in, taking his place beside me on the bed.
'So, today's the day, huh?', he asked quietly, knowing as well as I did that it was indeed that day.
I nodded and sighed, leaning my head on his shoulder as we watched the sun paint the sky light blue, pink, orange, and yellow. Artie only sighed and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me towards him a bit. We stayed like that until the sun was a fingers-width above the horizon.
'Well, shall we get something to eat?', Artie asked jokingly as our stomachs rumbled at the same time.
I nodded and giggled, reluctantly pulling away from his warmth and standing up. We walked together to the dining hall and sat in our normal spots. Almost as soon as we sat down, the servants came out and served us our favorite foods. The discussion between my best friend and I was light and cheerful, with a hint of sadness and sorrow. After we ate until our bellies were full, we took a walk around the outside of the castle and sat underneath a tree in the small forest I found on the first day. In the cool shade, we just relaxed and carefully watched the sun rise up towards its peak. An urge of my bladder had me standing up and quickly heading towards the castle.
'Hey! Where you going?', Artie called, still sitting under the tree.
'Bathroom', was my short answer as I made my way around the corner and into the castle's nearest bathroom.
As soon as I washed up, I had an idea. Quickly walking out of the lavish bathroom, I headed towards the Royal Florist. She was located towards the back of the castle. When I pushed the heavy oak door open, I was assaulted by the earthy, yet spicy smell of plants in all different stages of their lives. A woman in her mid-40s came gliding towards me.
'Hello, what can I help you with?', she asked in a dreamy voice.
'Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me the meanings of a few of my favorite flowers and if I could buy some of them?', I asked, earning a knowing grin from the woman.
'Ah, you want to buy some flowers for your lover? Certainly, I will be happy to help young love blossom. Come with me and I'll explain everything you want to know about', she stated, making me blush as she turned to lead me down a row of beautiful plants.
'The Azalea', she stated when we reached a beautiful light pink flower with five petals per blossom. 'It means, "take care of yourself". It's a good flower to give when you or they are leaving for a time'.
She continued down the row, listing their names and what they mean.
'The Gardenia'. We stopped at a pure white flower that looked soft to the touch with the center petals curled up tightly, like a rose, but different. 'It means, "I love you in secret". You should give this to the one you fancy'.
We moved on to the second row, going down the opposite way we went down the first row.
'The Pink Heather', She murmured, fingering a stem absolutely covered in little dark pink bulb-shaped blossoms. 'This one means, "Good luck"'.
With a small smile, the woman continued down the line.
'The Purple lilac', she stopped and bent down to smell the small purple bunches of four-petaled flowers. 'This one I will never forget. "First love". M-'.
She stopped herself short and dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve.
'Are you alright?', I asked worriedly.
'Yes, thank you for your concern. It's a personal matter that's all', she assured, composing herself surprisingly fast.
I nodded and gazed around at the flowers and plants spread before me, each having their own beauty to them.
'So, young Eva, are you decided?', she asked, startling me when she called me by name.
But, then again, almost everyone in the entire castle knows about me and my accomplishments.
'Hmm, I think I'll take the azalea, gardenia, pink heather, and the purple lilac', I stated, pointing to the ones I wanted.
A soft smile lit the older woman's face as she took some shears and carefully cut a few flowers off of each plant.
'Do you want a ribbon to keep these together?', she asked when she finished with the plants.
I thought about it and then asked, 'What colors do you have?'.
She listed off almost every color of the rainbow.
'I even have a ribbon that has red, green and blue on it', she stated, moving to get it when I nodded my approval.
The woman carefully tied the ribbon around the four plants and handed them to me.
'How much do I owe you?', I asked, half-dreading the price tag on these beautiful flowers.
To my surprise, she waved her hand dismissively and said, 'Oh, this is on the house. Not only do I want you to help young love, but I know who these flowers are for. Go ahead, you'll pay me by producing beautiful children that I can give presents to'
Her mini-speech made me go as red as the pink heathers I held in my hand as I exited with a murmured, 'thank you'.
I rushed to my room and dug out one of the ink paintings I did on my first day and rushed right back out, this time heading for Artie's room. I've been to his room to hang out a few times before, so I knew the way pretty well. After I opened the grand doors to his room, I quickly scurried to his neatly-made bed and carefully set the painting down on the spotless white pillows and placed the small bundle of flowers on top of it.
I took one last long look at the painting on the bed. It shows Artie and I under our favorite tree back at Worcestershire, both of us laughing and having a good time before class started again. I have a copy of this painting, packed in my bag. Scurrying out as fast as I came in, I saw that I only had maybe two more hours before I had to leave. Running as fast as I could without tripping, I rushed back out the front doors and into Artie, who was just coming in.
'O-shi-!', was all I could say before I slammed into his body.
It's a good thing we landed on the unusually soft grass that grew along the border of the forest, otherwise I might of accidentally broken some bones on both Artie and myself.
'Ugh, that's why you don't run in the castle!', Artie groaned, glaring at me from his position on his back.
I don't know if I was relieved that we were both ok, or if I was still high on adrenaline, but I busted out in mad giggles that soon spread to Artie. We rolled in the grass for a good 10 minutes before we could regain a shred of control and sat up.
'What too you so long, anyway?', Artie asked, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes.
'I had things to do', I replied, hoping he would leave it at that.
'What things?', he asked, smirking. 'Is there something you're not telling me, Eva?'
My entire body tensed up at that comment.
'No, what makes you think that?', I asked, feigning innocence and playing with a strand of my hair nervously.
'One, you're playing with your hair, something you do when you're nervous. Two, you're entire body is tensed up', he stated nonchalantly, gazing at his nails then looking into my eyes.
Damn it, he knows me too well!
Taking a deep breath, I said, 'Well, honestly, I'm hiding a few things from you, but I'm sure you're hiding things from me, so we're even'.
Now it was his turn to tense up.
Smirking triumphantly, I turned to glance at the sun, noting I only have less than an hour left. I sighed and stood up, helping Artie up as well. We wandered back to the castle for a quick lunch. The discussion was light and cheery as it could get as Artie, the Queen and I sat down to eat.
As soon as we were done, the Queen sent a servant to get my bag down from my room. We all got up and headed out to the front doors, where another servant had my bow, quiver, and sword ready. I strapped my weapons onto my figure and waited patently for my bag. For some odd reason, Artie was fidgeting nervously. It couldn't be because he had to go to the bathroom, he just went during lunch! My attention turned to the servant when he brought my bag.
'Thank you', I said sweetly, slinging the fine water-proof leather over my shoulder and glancing around at the people around me.
The Queen sighed and asked, 'Shall we move outside?'
I nodded and the small group moved outside of the castle doors where Devin and Mr. Corin was already waiting with Voniata already saddled. Sighing, I turned and hugged the Queen.
'Thank you for your hospitality', I whispered to the elderly woman.
She only smiled and gently pulled back.
I briefly hugged Devin and shook Mr. Corin's hand before turning to Artie and asked, 'Artie, will you walk with me to the gates?'
He nodded and followed me when I took Voniata's reigns from Devin and stated towards the gates. We walked in a somber silence until we were at the dreaded structures of metal.
'Well, this is it', I murmured, turning to Artie with a sad look in my eyes.
'This is it', he echoed, moving forward and wrapping me up in a powerful hug.
I felt hot tears start to run down my cheeks and I felt small droplets of moisture on my back. As we parted, I gently pecked him on his cheek and he slipped something into my hand.
I looked down and gasped at the object in my small hand. It was a necklace, but it had a silver three-pointed never-ending knot as a pendant. At the two lower points, two gemstones hung on a chain. One a deep amethyst, and the other a forest green emerald; the exact colors of our eyes.
Rendered speechless, I looked up into his eyes and enveloped him in another hug. The embrace conveyed things words couldn't even begin to describe.
'I will miss you so much, my dear friend', he whispered into my long ear as we parted.
'I will miss you, too, friend of my heart', I responded, handing him the necklace and turning around.
'Will you put it on me?', I asked at his confused expression.
He chuckled weakly and I felt cool metal sliding over my bare skin. I felt his fingers fumble with the clasp for a few seconds before his warmth faded away as he stepped back. My fingers immediately reached up to touch the cool silver pendant as I turned around.
'*Atra esterní ono thelduin, Artie-finiarel', I murmured as I pecked him on the cheek again.
'**Atra guliä un ilian tauthr ono un atra ono waíse sköliro fra rauthr, Eva svit-kona', he whispered as he took my hand and squeezed it briefly before helping me mount Voniata.
With one last long look at Artie, I touched my heels to Voniata's belly and she trotted through the gates and into town. The gray buildings soon gave way to brown and green trees as I quickly rode down the path out of town and into the forest.
Well, this is where my old life ends and a new journey begins, for both Artie and I.
A/N
UPDATE 7/13/15: I have deleted the other chapters following this. As of today, they will be in a separate fic called Rest Calm and Remember Me, which is Eva's journey to find out where she came from. This is now a completed fic. I probably will be making changes to this story to make it read better sometime in the future. Thank you everyone who Favorited, followed, reviewed, and just took the time to read this fic! It truly means a lot to me. See you next chapter!
*Atra esterní ono thelduin, Artie-finiarel- May good fortune rule over you, honered Artie
** Atra guliä un ilian tauthr ono un atra ono waíse sköliro fra rauthr, Eva svit-kona- May luck and happiness follow you and may you be shielded from misfortune, honered Eva
~Meerkatgirl13