The First Lost Boy (Wattys 2017) ON HOLD

e l e v e n

It was midday, only a few days after the incident at the lake between Harry and Gwen happened. She had forced the lingering feelings of jealousy and anger back and had decided she were going to pretend Harry merely didn't exist. Like she didn't care in the slightest if he was going to distance himself from her. In fact, she was doing just the same. If he wanted to pretend that  they hadn't shared a few moments together then fine. Let's see how he liked it, she thought.

And boy did he not like it.

He watched her now with longing eyes as she sat on the dirty ground just beside the wooden table where the other lost boys were shaping slingshots. He couldn't hear what Gwen was saying but he watched in fascination as her mouth moved, her fingers nimbly tying the bamboo into a knot. She didn't even have to be out there helping them but he noticed over the past few days that she liked to busy herself with a task. It was surprising, mostly because Harry faintly remembered how girls were not supposed to lift a finger when it came to building. Gwen never seemed bothered by it and Harry wondered if the partial reason behind it was so she could get away from him. If it was, well it was working.

Tristan was supposed to be tying knots too but instead he had his chin perched in his palm, elbow resting against his leg as he stared up at Gwen in wonderment. Harry recognized the boy's awed face and he briefly wondered if he looked like that when he stared at Gwen. If he did, he pitied himself. He shook his head, gaze sweeping from Tristan to the other boys that were at the table behind her. Shockingly, they too had stopped their task and were listening to Gwen speak. He was curious as to what it was about so after a moment of hesitation, he slyly tried to casually walk by just so he could get a small dose of her voice. He hadn't heard it in days and oddly, it was leaving him agitated.

Thankfully for him, Gwen was so focused on what she was doing she hadn't noticed him when he sauntered by. His ears perked up to catch her in the middle of a sentence. "...tales of a princess who was stolen from the king and queen by an evil witch. The princess was just a baby and the witch took her to a tower where she raised her as her own. The princess grew up to believe the witch was her real mother, but she always felt as if something in her life was missing. She wanted to go out and find it but the witch forbid her to go out. She locked her in the tower, sealing away the doors and telling her it were for her own safety. The princess believed her, because well, why would her own mother lie to her? She didn't know the witch merely wanted to hide her in the case of the knights finding her. It had been eighteen years since she disappeared but the king and queen sent out their guards to look for her, every single night."

"Did they find her?" Harry had found that he had stopped off to the side, just a few feet away. He was entranced with her story and leaned forward in anticipation to hear the answer to Tristan's question.

Gwen hummed, pressing her lips together as she stared down at the knot she was making. "Eventually, yes. You see, the princess had very long hair and used it to climb her way out of the tower one day when the witch was gone."

"Long hair?" Tristan asked in awe.

"Yes, longer than mine." Gwen smiled down at the slingshot, gaze briefly flickering up to catch Tristan's mouth gaping open. "There were rumors that it was magic, some say she was a powerful good witch while others claim she could raise dragons. No one really knows the truth but people say it's one of those reasons that the witch took her...but anyways, after she used her hair to get out of the tower she reached the ground but when she did, she found a boy. He was a thief but a good man at heart and he promised her he'd show her around the kingdom's town in exchange for jewels she might have in the tower. She agreed, and they went on their way but as time passed she became quite fond of the boy. And he, her. He didn't want her to go back to the tower and he stopped caring about the jewels she had promised him."