Chapter 31: Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31 When I finally regained my senses from that trip through the portal, I realized that I was lying on the ground, face down but I could hear water near me. I looked up and we were next to the lake with the waterfall.

“Why do you always bring me here?” I asked standing up.

“Because this is the easiest portal to get through.” Layla says standing beside me. She looked completely unscathed by our little trip, but I was assuming that she had done it plenty of times before. This was my first.

“I can’t believe that I’m actually here.” I say looking around.

“Well, you’re not going to believe what you actually have to look forward to then.

She smiled at me. And I looked at her cautiously.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“This is the Mystic Forest that we’re about to go into. Everyone here knows. that your part werewolf so if you’re allowed to shift whenever you want. You can come to the woods whenever you want to shift. Just make sure that you let someone know that you’re here. So, you don’t accidentally hurt someone.” She explained as we started walking towards the forest.

“I have complete control over my wolf. You don’t need to worry about anyone getting hurt. Let people know that. I don’t want them to be scared of me.” I insisted. I was already starting to think that I was going to be shunned by the fae’s because of what I am.

“Alright. I’ll let them know. Because a lot of people hunt in these woods. They like hunting.” She says as we started walking through the woods.

“I don’t suppose you know that TV show ‘ Once Upon A Time’?” I asked.

“We get TV here. We know that show. Everyone here loved it.” She says.

“These woods remind me of those woods.“I say.

“I know. That’s why we didn’t name it the Enchanted Forest. It’s the Mystic Forest.” She says as we entered the forest and although we were surrounded by trees, it didn’t seem to get any darker. It was still bright in the forest and we could see where we were going, no matter how thick it was.

I was amazed by the beauty of the trees, how green it was, like there was never any drought or disaster to threaten it. It was completely perfect. I stopped to look a strange looking flower that actually moved as I went to touch it. It opened up when I got close enough and it was glowing on the inside.

“There’s a lot that you need to get used to here.” Layla says behind me. And I smile and I kept on walking.

“So, where are we headed?” I asked.

“To your father’s home.” She says.

“Vincent. Right.” I say taking in a deep breath.

“You just met him. You’ll be fine. He knows all about you. He’s been watching you too. He’s not embarrassed of you or ashamed that he has a daughter that he’s never met personally. He’s just excited to have you come home. And so is the rest of the people.” She says.

“So, everyone in this realm knows about me?” I asked.

“Yeah. We’re a pretty close nit group. It is an entire realm. But we all live in one village. It’s getting to be a large village, but we extend as we need to. There are still fae’s on earth that we are looking for.

Ones that didn’t make it to the portal in time when we all left Earth. But we promised never to leave anyone behind.” She says.

“Wow. You guys must be pretty busy.” I say.

“Yeah. You can say that. But they have all been given their own guardian. So only one person at a time is looking for those people. And they are really good trackers. So, you don’t need to worry about them. We’ll find them.” She says.

“How long has Morda been here?” I asked.

“16 years. Vincent had already created the realm. But he was holding off cominghere. And as soon as he was told that you didn’t belong to him, that’s what he made the arrangements for us to all come here.” She explained and I stopped walking through the forest.

“My mother is the one that held you up?” I asked.

“She is. That’s why she claimed to have that DNA test. I don’t know why she lied about the results. But she did and that’s what made us leave.” Layla says.

“She wanted Vincent to leave.” I say more to myself than to Layla.

“We don’t know the story behind any of that. So, I’m not going to speculate anything.” Layla says.

“No. I’ll do all the speculating for us both.

I say through gritted teeth.

As we were walking through the forest, she was explaining everything to me about the village and about living here. And it really did sound like something from a fairy tale. Something I grew up wishing life could be like. Something every little girl dreams about. And now I get to live that fantasy. Well, I was hoping that I got to live that fantasy.

The truth is, I was a little scared. I didn’t know what I was doing here. I was here purely by faith. Faith on two people that I barely knew. Layla, who I had met a couple of times. And Vincent, who I met once.

We finally made it through the forest and I could see a castle at the top of the rocks and down below was the village surrounded by a rock looking wall. And I stopped at it’s amusement immediately.

“I know. It’s something to see. Isn’t it?” She asked.

“It’s incredible. More like something you’d see at the capital in The Game of Thrones, but still. It’s beautiful.” I say.

“Well, let’s hope that Daenerys Targaryen doesn’t show up with a dragon. “Layla joked. And I started laughing.

“Wow. You guys do get TV here.” I say surprised.

“Your father made sure of that.” She says as we approached the village.

We walked through the front gate and I was definitely out of place. Everyone was wearing strange clothing, and I was in a sweater, jeans and sand shoes.

Everyone stopped to look in our direction as we passed them and I noticed that they started bowing as we passed as well.

“Holy crap. You must be pretty special around here for this.” I say looking around at all the stands that people were selling things at in the village and looking around at everyone bowing to us.

“They’re not bowing to me. They’re bowing to you.” She says. And I stopped and looked at her in complete confusion.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you’re Vincent’s daughter.” She says.

“Is he pretty special around here because he created the realm? What is he? A powerful wizard or something?” I asked.

“He’s the King.” She says pointing to the castle. And I looked up at the castle on the cliff above the village and I’m pretty sure that my mouth dropped open. My father was the King. How the hell did I not put that together. He created the realm. He had someone watching over me since I was little because he didn’t believe my mother and the DNA test. He had that much power but I didn’t realize that he was the King.

I shook it off and I started looking around at everyone bowing to me. Something that I was definitely not used to and I started walking again.

We had to make our way to the stairs. The stairs that led to the castle which was right on top of the mountain, on the side of a cliff surrounded by woods. And Layla informed me that there were exactly 2400 stairs to climb before we got to the castle. I was never so happy to be in good shape before.

We climbed the stairs while looking out at the view of everything, the ocean below us and the beautiful scenery on the other side.

When we finally got to the top of the stairs and I was standing right in front of the castle, I got massive butterflies in my stomach.

I didn’t know how to behave in a castle. I didn’t know how to behave as a princess, of all things. I was definitely not groomed to be a damn princess. I was anything but that. I was the complete opposite. What was Vincent expecting of me here.

“Hey. It’s alright. Just take a deep breathe. And let’s walk inside.” Layla says holding my hand. So we slowly walked up to the massive doors and she pushed one of them open with a lot of effort and we walked into the grand entrance. There were two stairs cases. One to the left and one to the right. The whole place was done in polished oak and a huge chandelier hung from the ceiling.

I actually found myself turning in circles. while I was looking at everything and that was just the entrance. It was nothing that I had expected. And it was brilliant. It was the most gorgeous house I had ever seen.

“Welcome.” I heard someone say from the corridor to the left so I looked quickly and Vincent was standing there. I saw Layla bow immediately and I looked at her in a little confusion.

“Am I supposed to bow to you?” I asked.

“Absolutely not. You’re royalty here. You don’t bow to anyone. They bow to you.” Vincent says walking over to me and he embraced me immediately. I was a little stunned at first but I eventually put my arms around him too. My father. I had a father who was actually happy to see me. That’s not something that I was used to.

“Would you like me to give her the tour, sir?” Layla asked.

“No. I’ll do it myself. Thank you.” Vincent says to Layla without taking his eyes off of me.

“This house is incredible. Or should I say, castle.” I say.

“I’m glad you like it.” He says.

“I’m a little scared of getting lost.” I say honestly while looking at the two staircases.

“That won’t be a problem. We all stay in the west wing of the castle. We have everything that we need there. And when people come to visit that we don’t really like then we put them in the east wing. He smiles at me.

“As far away from you as possible. I like that.” I say nodding and he laughed at that.

“Come. Let me show you to your room.” He says as we started walking down that hallway that he came from.