The King and the Girl

Prologue

As you walked to your favorite spot to watch the sunset, you pulled your cardigan closer to your chest. Your mother hadn't been home in months, and you had long since given up hope that she would come home. A squirrel ran up to your foot and tapped it, looking up at you expectantly.

"Well good morning, Happy. It's nice to see you again so early in the morning." You reached down and he climbed into the palm of your hand. You lifted him onto your shoulder smiling at him. You gave him a small piece of toast out of your bag and handed it to him. You continued walking, telling the creature all about the book that you had finished last night.

The sun hadn't come up yet, but you were now at your favorite spot to watch it come over the horizon. You sat on the bench that you had painfully carted through the woods when your mother disappeared and took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air as Happy sat next to you.

"You know Happy?" he looked up at you, listening as he always did. "Life is lonely." He cocked his head to the side, seeming confused. "I just wish that for one day, I could live somewhere that people understood me. Maybe even have an adventure of my own." You smiled sadly as you pulled your newest book into your chest.

The heroes in your stories always had grand adventures, seeing beautiful places that you could only imagine. That was why you never stopped reading. Your real life had never been a very sociable one, as most people were intimidated by how smart you were, and tended to avoid you.

"Maybe someday..." You dreamt aloud, still talking to the creature who had now curled up in your lap and began to fall asleep as you watched the sun slowly rise from behind the trees in the distance.

After a few more minutes of admiring the colors in the sky, you put Happy back on your shoulder and began to walk back to your house, when a sudden gust of wind swiped your book from your hands and began to carry it into the trees, off of the worn path you had created from your daily morning walk. 

"Hey!" you called out to the book, quickly chasing it. You ran through the woods chasing your book, hoping the wind wouldn't knock it into a puddle of mud, or near another animal that would likely eat it, or you. You jumped over fallen branches, and had even crawled through a few logs as you chased with everything you had "come back!"

Suddenly, the book stopped flying in the breeze and landed near a lamp post and an intricate bench that you had never seen before. "That's strange." You looked around and saw nothing but woods. "Hello?" you called. "Is anyone around?"

Nothing. You took a breath, realizing that you were completely and hopelessly lost. You sat down on the bench and began to read your book that you had spent so long chasing, when you felt yourself begin to drift into a deep sleep.