Full Circle (gxg)

Chapter 6

Knallia didn't understand what was happening to her. It felt like her head was rumbling, and her left eye wouldn't stop trying to open while she slept. Something had interrupted a dream about dancing with a young man out on a balcony and in her foggy, sleep deprived brain she couldn't understand it. Was this love? Was she sick? Her eye tried to open again, and she could feel something rough on the lid. Sick, yep. That must be it. Her brain tried to focus; the rumbling was close by and her pillow was vibrating. The rough sensation was on her lid, trying to pry it open again and she raised her hand up to feel it only to encounter a ball of fur.

A purring Bandit was licking her eyelid.

That was an odd way to be woken up!

Rolling onto her back she scooped the tiny kitty up and placed it on her chest, taking her fingernails and scratching his cheeks and chin as his purrs increased. She saw the ring on her finger and smiled, remembering the previous evening. "I think I met a relative of yours last night little Bandit. He was just as sweet as you!" she whispered, smiling like a fool at her little friend. "I think I'll go find him this morning and have him meet you. Do you think that would be a good idea? He needs to meet mother and father too, I suppose. No doubt they'll immediately start planning a wedding."

Well, that was a dash of cold water on her spirit. Maybe they'd just let them be happy getting to know each other more first? An engagement would be a logical first step, right? It didn't matter. Even with all of that to worry about, she had so much more hope for her future than yesterday. Prince Martin was out of her life, no other princes to deal with, and she had met someone nice in Evan who she could hopefully fall in love with.

She stared at the ring, still petting a now sleepy Bandit who had retreated to her pillow and curled up next to her ear and remembered that she could use it to find the other ring. She closed her eyes and thought about the ring on Evan's finger, and the hand with the ring started to move, it was pointing to the south. That seemed like a handy little trick! It was still early, so she thought perhaps she could bring Evan some breakfast. That would be a nice thing, right?

She sat up quickly, causing Bandit to tumble off the pillow and blink rapidly at his displacement, and then threw on her slippers. After a quick morning routine that included combing her long blonde hair out to make it more presentable and getting ger face washed, she found a nice skirt and top as well as a pair of comfortable shoes and headed off to the kitchens. She peeked in, and saw a plate of muffins and pastries, and took it while winking at the cooks who waved back at her. Humming a little tune, she put the food into a woven bag and hurried to the stables.

She had always enjoyed the stables, the horses were so majestic, though she never had many chances to ride. Other than short jaunts to her friends' manors, or to the hunting preserve, there were few places that demanded a horse to get to in the kingdom. Well, that she had been able to see of course. None of the kingdoms in the area were too large, perhaps taking a day or two by horse to pass through, so many people just walked.

But today she would ride, perhaps to make an impression, but also because she felt good this morning and wanted to. She took her lovely grey mare, Marmalade, and then rode out of the stables with a wave at the stable boy who groomed and cared for her. As she rode out of the gates, she concentrated on the ring again, and it led her down the street. It didn't take long before she realized that she was riding into the hunting preserve, where the guards saluted her as she passed.

The royal gardens were where she would spend most of her days, if only because they were right outside of her doors. But the hunting preserve put them to shame. Not that they were well manicured, or had flower beds all over, but because the trees were immense, and towered over her head as if they were a monument to some forgotten tree lord. Perhaps Evan enjoyed the forest as well, he did compare her dress to a tree after all.