CHAPTER 1 LOST TIME
It isn’t every day that one wanders by happenstance into a magical forest.
But it was this day that Heather had followed the bouncy blue ball all the way to Tessa Loch. The ball had dribbled and skittered along the moor road as Heather had tried to keep up on her old vintage bicycle.
The ball stopped just outside the Deep Pine Wood as she left the bike by the side of the forest and stepped inside.
Heather wandered for what seemed like hours but the watch on her wrist said she had only been in the woods for a few minutes. She was well aware that falling under a fairy’s spell could take her into a time outside of time where she could get lost in the fairy realms spending endless days and hours picking daisies and doing magical work.
But this time Heather heard a sound in the clearing up ahead. She moved silently in the tall grass and pine needles knowing that she really couldn’t sneak up on magical beings.
The last story she heard of this wood invited her to keep herself secure and not allow anything or anyone to try and enchant her. She needed to be very discerning.
There was a song of ultimate glee and laughter rising up from the clearing as she knelt down just outside the boundary of the magical space.
She’d heard townsfolk speak of the magical Deep Pine Elves before. But in all her time as a child and young woman in Tessa Loch she had never really encountered one.
But today must be her chance she thought as she peeked through the bushes to see a small group of very gnarly and old elves working diligently on something she couldn’t quite make out.
They hummed and prattled about and Heather could see that they were entertaining a very large green frog.
The frog had a crown on his head and he appeared to be beaming some sort of light into the area around the elves.
Then Heather heard something she wasn’t sure she could actually explain to a mere mortal. Only another magical person would truly understand what was to come next.
CHAPTER 2 THE PRINCE STEPS FORWARD
Heather saw the small frog crown fall to the ground.
The elves continued with their spell. And in the blink of her eyes Heather saw the green frog become the most beautiful man she had ever laid eyes upon.
He stood there before the elves and then Heather heard the most old and gnarly elf speak.
“Now it is done my prince. You have successfully cloaked yourself for way too long. It is time for the journey to start anew and for you to step forward. You know that which you must do.”
But Heather didn’t hear the instructions for before she could blink again the bouncy blue ball passed her by and dribbled itself right into the clearing of Old Pine Elves.
“We are not alone,” the old elf said swishing away his cape and allowing the others to hide themselves.
They could have gotten very defensive but this time they would camouflage and wait. Who was watching them and why?
The frog prince knelt down and said something to Branch the oldest elf. But Heather could no longer hear anything in the forest.
The Deep Pine Elves had cloaked themselves and she would have to leave.
She might never see the beautiful man again and she tried her best to remember him before all her senses shifted and the forest would bury them away.
She had to hurry to write her story down for once she stepped outside the boundary of the Deep Pine Woods all would be forgotten.
CHAPTER 3 THE MYSTERIOUS PRINCE
Heather biked all the way back to Rockaway Pointe. She was so thirsty from her excursion that she stopped at the Chai House Tea Bar for refreshments and to catch her breath.
She looked at her quickly scribbled notes about her forest woods experience but could only vaguely recall what had happened there.
She decided to read them on her next show appearance at the radio station. But for now she tried to recall that face she had seen in the forest.
Who was that mysterious prince and why did he seem so familiar?
She racked her mind and could vaguely recall him from somewhere far off in time.
But before she could dream any further the door to the Chai House opened and a man stepped through the threshold.
Heather glanced up only to see a wisp of energy float by and the sound of a man’s laughter as he ordered a drink.
The barista Melissa seemed enchanted by the man as she could only laugh and smile back at him in admiration.
He had that effect on people.
Drink in hand the man stopped in front of Heather’s table and looked at her as she looked back.
“May I?” He said gesturing to the empty chair.
But all Heather could do was smile and wave him to sit down. She was flabbergasted and a little nervous but she couldn’t recall why.
And just outside her range of vision the blue bouncy ball stood by.
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