The Hero's Prophecy* Sequel to "White Silk Scarves*

Adventure One

Ayda's POV:

"I-I don't know how I got here, your highness." Tears slipped down my cheeks as a man entered the darkened room lit by the scalding sun. If what the guards said was true, this man was their ruler. The human empirior.

My mind was whirling as I glanced around the musty room I had been forced into by the royal guards when I ended up in front of the castle. My jeans were the only blue in this insufferably pink space. "I just want to get home."

The human empirior's face softened. Judging by the gruff appearances of the screaming guards who acted like skinny old me was somehow a mountain man of a killer, I was expecting some rugged, scarred man to be this place's ruler. Instead, I got a gentle face.

His brown hair was as soft as the blankets lining the bed in the corner. "Please don't be scared. You don't need to cry." His highness wore a weak smile, and shut the door behind him with a hand so gentle I lessened the tight grip I had on my arm. "I don't like it when women cry."

I frowned. He tensed. "But if it will make you feel better, you can." At my silence, his face reddened. "Well actually, you don't need my permission. My apologies. Cry if you want. I just don't want you to be scared."

Despite fear blooming in my chest like the flowers that adorned the balcony, I loosened my tense shoulders. He was nicer than I thought. I couldn't help but want to giggle.

I forced a step forward, away from the drapes I was half hiding behind. I kind of wanted to groan at myself. I was 16, not 6. I didn't need to cower like it was hide and seek. But I couldn't help it.

When I arrived here, it wasn't exactly the happiest greeting I'd ever received. My mind was too busy whirling like waters in a storm as I eyed this place's ruler, sitting down in a stiff chair.

He bowed, his cape hanging over one shoulder. "I heard about your introduction to the castle, and I have to apologize. My father is one for the prophecies, even more so than I. He would want his prophecy to detail every second of his life if it could. I'm sure your arrival wasn't written in his, despite it being quite the spectacle. So he reacted poorly. I apologize for that."

My frown deepened. I stared at the sun. It still looked the same. The ocean did, too. That was it. Nothing else was familiar to me.

"What do you mean "prophecy? You mean like those things that tell you how your life is supposed to go?" I shifted in my seat, my mind going all kinds of places I didn't want it to. "Do you guys have those here? What exactly is going on?"

His highness straightened, his face as white as its pale complexion would allow. He wiped the look away a second later, as he fixed his weird looking tie up at his neck. "You mean to say you don't know what prophecies are?"

I shook my head, cautious. "No. I-I don't know where I'm at. I don't live around here." I eyed the blinding sky outside my fourth story window. "You-you see, I came from a different place! America! Do you know where that is?"

Confusion knitted his eyebrows together as the man straightened out his shirt, his royal posture only slightly betraying his feelings. "America...? No, I'm afraid I don't. And I know every country in Sea Palm. Every fifty years we decide a new species to rule, and I'm the current ruler, so I know every country and island."

The look of absolute certainty on his face caused me to hesitate. My fingers started to shake, and my knees wobbled. It hit me with a sickening slap. I couldn't help but ask, even though I knew I'd hate the answer. "What about Earth? Do you know what Earth is?"