je t'aime Means I Love You

Chapter 1- Flying The Jolly Roger

 Chapter 1

I paced back and forth across the room too nervous to sit in the chair, or on the bed, or even on the floor. Back and forth I walked from the fireplace to the window, and each time I got to the window I would glance down at the ground that was covered in ice and snow. "Tell me a story please?" I paused and turned around to look at Christian.

I shook my head once and continued my pacing. "Why not, not even the one about the Pirates?" I shook my head again in answer to his question. "Why?" He asked persistently. He had been living in the palace for three weeks as my little brothers play mate. I might not be able to talk my dad into everything, but my little brother was a different story. I had taken Christian to his room the next morning and left them in there to play until my father had woken up, and when he had found me and we had gone to my brother’s room they were the best of friends and my father had to let him stay after that.

"Because I said so, that's why." I said a little more frayed around the edges of my voice than I should have been. “I’m sorry Christian. Why don't you go and play with my little brother? I am a little too nervous right now..." I said looking at him sympathetically.

"Why are you so nervous?" Christian asked standing up off the floor, and watching me intently. "And I don't want to go and play, I want to stay here with you!" He pouted slightly.

I held my arms out to him, the little four year old just melted my heart away. He ran across the room, and leapt into my arms, his sparkling green eyes big an adoring. “I just have a big night tonight, that’s all.” I said absentmindedly. I didn’t know how to explain the Evening Ball to him exactly, because it was my first and only time getting to go. Princes from the neighboring countries had flocked here all week, so that tonight they could meet, and possibly marry me. I was somewhere between nervous out of my mind, and disgusted almost to the point of nausea.

“Oh, Avalon can I come tonight, please, please, please? I will be good I swear.” He begged me, but I smiled at him and shook my head.

“No, you can’t some with me, it is for royals and nobles only… but I would bring you if I could I promise I would.” I said still holding him in my arms. His face fell at the finality in my tone, but he smiled again.

“I got you something….!” He said tauntingly. I raised my eyebrows in surprise, what on earth could he have brought me? He pulled out a large golden necklace, and it was beautiful, breathtakingly so. It was silver, and it had a thick braided chain that on the end hung a black diamond. It was a simple gem, but I think that's what made it so beautiful.

"How did you get this Christian?" I asked holding my hand under the gem so he could drop it into my hand. He held it above my hand for a moment, and then dropped it into my slowly letting the chain fall link by like from between his fingers. When I touched it; it seemed to glow ever so slightly, but I dismissed it as not important at the moment. "Did you find it?" I asked Christian suspiciously, he liked to find things that weren't his and bring them to me. "Because you can’t give away something that isn't yours."

"No, it’s mine, you said to give it to you when I found you again." He said looking at me confused. I stared at him just as confused as he was. I had only just met him, and I had never seen this before... I held up the necklace again and it glowed brightly again. Something in the back of my head told me to put it on so it didn't get lost. I put Christian down on the ground, and laced the necklace around my neck.

"Miss Avalon?" Asked my handmaid from the door, I turned to look at her, nodded for her to come in. As soon as she got into the room all she was looking at was the necklace. "Miss Avalon, I am supposed to start getting you ready for the Ball tonight." She said absentmindedly. Christian sighed and walked over to the fireplace poking at the fire with a stick like this was not unusual for someone to act like that maid was.

"Alright, where would you like me to sit, at the vanity in here, or the one in the bathroom?" I asked her, because it didn't really matter to me where I sat. The maid walked over to the vanity in my room, and pulled out the chair. I walked over and daintily sat in the chair slowly taking in everything that she did, puzzled by her strange behavior. She pulled my hair out of the braid that it had been in hanging down to my lower back; and began to slowly brush the blond almost white curly mess that was my hair. She worked almost like she was in a trance, combing my hair and then pinning it up in delicate bun, and then she slowly and carefully applied my makeup; however she would hardly take her eyes off the gem hanging from my necklace.

As she went on it was like she was getting older and older with every passing moment, finally I said in a stiff voice, "Why don't you leave me to put on my dress, and I will call you back in when I need it laced up." She dismissed herself from the room, and I looked over at Christian who was still sitting by the fire playing with his stick. "Why was she acting like that?' I asked him.

"You really don't remember do you?" He asked me looking down at his feet. I walked over to him and kneeled down onto the floor in front of him. "You can't remember me!" He yelled at me tears welling up in his eyes. I frowned and pulled him into my arms slowly as he sobbed into my shoulder.

"I know who you are. But I only just met you Christian, I don't know what you are talking about..." I said slowly. He sobbed a little more, and then he pulled away from me with a light in his eyes that was similar to the one the gem let off when I touched it.

"Do you ever dream about the ocean, and the wind, and the sun?" He asked hopefully. I stared into his emerald green eyes confused and totally lost. "Well, do you?" He asked me again. I reached up to wipe a piece of his brown hair out of his eyes, and then nodded. I was telling the truth, but if I hadn’t been dreaming of such strange things I would have told him that I was just to make him stop crying.

“Yes, I actually do, but why is that of any importance?” I asked suspiciously. He pulled away from me and ran over to the wall beside the fireplace. He started at the floor, and counted up seven black volcanic stones, and then he pulled at the seventh rock to reveal a piece of paper. It looked really old, and was torn and burnt around the edges. It was a small painting, in a place that I had never seen before.

I looked up at Christian, and pulled the picture out of his hands. It was a picture of me, and a man. Only, I was wearing a billowing white dress, and I had never seen the man before. He had black hair, and blue eyes, that looked strikingly similar to the ocean in the background. His skin was tan, and surprisingly mine was too. We were standing on a ship, and just in the back corner you could see a huge black flag with a skull and cross bones on it in white. I raised my hand up to my mouth; hanging from my neck was the necklace. How was this possible? I thought. I had never seen this man before, and I had never been on a ship before, and I had never looked that way, or worn anything like that, so how is it possible that this could be true?

"Who is that?" I asked pointing at the man in the picture. Christian looked down at the floor with a despairing look in his eyes. He folded the picture up and handed it to me slowly and walked out of the room without another word. I watched him leave feeling somehow like I was losing my whole world. I didn't go after him though; I let him leave knowing he would return. I don't know how I knew that either, but I did.

I walked over to the dress that the maid had laid on the bed, and studied it carefully. My mouth fell open it shock, and I fumbled to unfold the picture that Christian had handed to me. I looked from the dress on the bed to the dress in the picture, and I confirmed that they were the same dress. It was not the normal style of dress for my kingdom, but it was beautiful. I was very excited to discover that it didn't have a corset. I folded the picture back up and laid it on the bed next to the dress and picked it up, letting the light airy fabric run through my fingers, it would hold absolutely no heat at all, which meant that I was going to freeze. I put on the dress marveling at how light and comfortable it was. It moved at the slightest touch of any breeze, and was the same color as the snow outside my window.

 I sighed unsettled by all that had just happened and how long I had before i would be able to really process all of it. It was going to be a long night, and I knew it. I walked from my room, and down the long hallway to the grand staircase where I would make my grand appearance. I collected myself, and heard my father announcing my name, and I ascended down the stairs at a slow pace looking every bit as royal and elegant as a future queen should, that is until I fell.