Epilogue

The beauty of Time

Or

The Fate's Mockery

“Oh thy beauty, no one has ever seen the moment flowers are blooming;

The morning still dawns, but the moon does not leave completely.

And it didn't seem to move until the moment in me it begins dawning,

That time is never enough when your beauty is next to it perpetually.”

Edwina whispers at fate's mockery of endless possibilities.

From the moment, Edwie's fate was ordered by the Chief who ruled this Kingdom named Alffenda, to be left as their friendly captive and as a loner Elf under watchful eyeshadows to live in this town. She took this as her only escape from the burning reality to peer over the edge of the roof, she was given to live. It was getting dark now, with just the fiery red gaze of the setting sun in the west, which poured a river of red and yellow and orange down what had been the long, straight main road of the town, she's been treating her wounds or one can say held captive with watching eyes all around the building from the day she woke from the nightmares she's gone through.

The people in this Kingdom had probably spotted her miles outside the city.

Why?

There was nothing special about her. As far as she knows the Old Lady in this town and everyone else who tried to see the miracle that she is, had made that very clear: she was just a mere Elf lost in the woods. She'd been found mostly dead and chewed up by something, and Edwie didn't even remember it clearly. She didn't even know how old she was exactly. The tribal Elves who had found her out in the foothills estimated her age had been sixteen or seventeen. But she had been thin, so she may have been older, or perhaps she had been younger.

Edwie only knew her name: Edwina. Unsure if that's her name, not where she was from, who her parents were, nothing. Apparently, by the time she'd come out of the trauma of whatever had happened, she had no memories at all.

From the building she was in, Edwina could see the whole town from here. It seemed like a house built of stone, right into the stone of the valley and mountainside, affording a view of the bay, the city, and a massive shining building up a large, well-kept twisting cobblestone path. It looked like a castle, or a massive sacred temple, with walls and gardens, and towers and windows, and here she didn't have the words to describe the structure further.

The room in which she was left alone was once again for the fifth time crowded except for the man who himself is the crown Prince of the respective Kingdom named, Alffenda. If it is up to him, the watch guard standing outside her door could have easily convinced everyone including the Blonde who took a liking to her, to lock her up right next to the creepy woods she was just rescued from. As if reading her thoughts the guard spoke with a mocking grin.

“He’ll become a leader in a few months when he turns twenty"

Shaking her head, the Old Lady patted the couch cushion next to the Blonde.

But the Sexy Blonde wore nothing but a blue silk veil draped and wrapped-just barely -around his hips and chest, and with the wind, the sheer fabric plastered against every line and curve of his body as Mendes swirled in the wind.

Edwie gawked.

His skin was shining gold, with a slight sheen to it, and his hair long and Ash blonde, and his body carved and chiseled and utterly perfect, with eyes that now had round pupils, but irises of the same strange dreamy blue. The sexy Blonde strolls to the side, leaving enough space for her to accompany the seat but his slight moves make his silk veils shift and frame every single part of his anatomy.

Edwie weighed her choices, then decided to humor him and sat on the edge of the couch as her new clothes, a light dress of some sheer fabric in a beautiful shade of blue and some undergarments. The undergarments she figured out easily enough, but the dress was far sheerer than anything she'd worn before.

'Did mythological Elves who follow heavy traditions have something against clothing, or was this just the style for this Kingdom?' Edwie questioned her sanity. It was beautiful, even if it was... sort of revealing. Edwie was used to wool and leather, not silk and linen.

She lowered her Necklace over her neck. The sharp points on the burr pulled instantly at the delicate fabric. She didn't want to take it off, but she didn't want to ruin a borrowed gown either. Sighing, as she wore it on her wrist as a charm brace.

" You know, why are you here? It could be because you're beautiful and we collect beautiful things." Says the blonde

" But why? I'm no one. " Edwie says

"Because you intrigue us. And what intrigues the creatures, intrigues nature, and what intrigues nature, intrigues us. So on and so forth." The old lady speaks for the first time since she walked in.

"You are beautiful," the Blonde counters, examining her from a distance with his ice-cold gaze. "Just in need of feeding to bloom."

Was he teasing or serious? Something seemed sharp and malevolent, but that might have just been the traumatic experience. The animals in the woods had seemed a little predatory towards her, watching everything and chasing. These lots were like that just... more. Cats play with their prey. This was like that.

" This Kingdom plays a huge role in harmony. Everything is dependent upon others." The watch guard says.

And the Blonde continues "Then if you are going to be one of us, you need to be presentable. Learning traditional, etiquette, ride, magic—"

Edwie can't help but wonder where this Sexy Beast man and this watch guard are just trying to act mysterious around her and torment her to amuse themselves.

Was she the same in her past too? But one thing she knows for sure. Whoever had done this to her would have happily traded places with Edwie.

Maybe one day she will go back to her Kingdom and thank that person.

" You are crying." The sexy Blonde observed

She touched the tears on her cheek.

" It's been a long day."

The Old lady who caught the saddened face on Edwie's ordered the Sexy blonde to fetch some food for her.

Without any hesitation, he walked as his robe fell open, and gave Edwie a full-on view of the most gorgeous male body she'd ever seen. Edwie blinked, trying to take it in, but he was already striding towards the doors, his robe unfurled behind him like a cape

Edwie stood up, dumb and struck, and walked after him, with the watch guard lurking behind her.

The doorway opened up onto a balcony that overlooked a massive gallery, and the stairs twisted up another level and twisted down three more to the floor. The Sexy blonde strode down the steps already a flight ahead of her.

Edwie tried not to gawk. The massive gallery was all polished woods and stones,

artwork and sculpture, carvings and rugs and hangings. The sexy Blonde and his guard had headed across the vast gallery-a grand ballroom, perhaps?—to another large set of doors through which more light streamed.

It opened onto a massive dining room with a checkerboard marble floor and still more artwork on the stone walls, and a fire burning in the massive hearth. Despite the fire, the room was chilling and damp, and everything was stone and the walls were sketched with vines and flowers.

Edwie approached the small table-it would be six, but the room was so vast it could have seated dozens of people if there'd been tables-while dark-clad servants scurried through swinging doors bringing food and items. There were fire hearth settings around the corner.

Soon after a long meal of various dishes, both sweet and spicy hot soups she dozed off on the couch she was told to sit till the King arrived.

The very next day, Edwie woke up in the large bed chamber next to the room where she'd remembered washing her hair the previous night.

"Sleep well?"

Edwie yelped and grabbed the luxurious blankets around her breasts.

The sexy Blonde lounged on the foot of the bed, back against one of the banisters. He had on a huntsman's leather breeches and top, unlaced and careless, with enough of his chest exposed to show his blinding physics. His feet were bare and pointed in her direction.

"What are you doing!" Edwie demanded.

"Keeping an eye on our new captive" he stretched with pure contentment and raised one knee to rest his wrist on it.

"Where would I go?" Edwie shifted the blankets and scrunched them up closer against her. Dim light crept around the heavy curtains drawn across the massive windows.

"Have you been there all night?"

Edwie did see the watch guard retire to his nest of stones after dinner. This Blonde Beast who played on her foot had a nest on the other side of the room, although she assumed he shared something a bit more comfortable with his girlfriend in another room. Perhaps not.

"I'd had to get past the watch guard, " Edwie said, annoyed.

The sexy beast smiled, a wicked glint in those eyes of his.

"So you did contemplate your escape."

"Naughty, naughty. Do we need to put you on a leash?"

"Stop it," Edwie demanded, although something about the threat promised her this happy boyish side isn't his daily routine.

The beast shifted off the bed, and said,

"It's time to get dressed. We have

somewhere to go."

Edwie shimmied out of the massive bed, still holding one of the sheets around herself for modesty. They hadn't given her anything close to covering her well enough to sleep in. The beast clucked his tongue at her and said.

"Don't make more work for the maids by dragging the bedclothes all over."

"Then keep your back turned," Edwie said.

With some struggles on her way to putting the silk rolls properly over her private parts, she raced towards the only door connecting the great bathroom for all the women in this castle.

Later some torturous rules and body checkups with the lady maids Edwie was pushed to bath with a lukewarm water shower and grass-scented lotion to apply all over her body after bath. With the piece of silk clothes placed outside her draped veils a blouse connecting with a knot behind her back and a skirt like a transparent sheet along with a silk shawl. Once she wore the dresses accordingly, the Lady maids made herself presentable with some basic waist and mid-back jewels. Whatever the place the sexy beast told her to take her to was still left unsaid, even after her futile attempts with the maids.

Later that day, in the woods, the forest felt dead. Silence makes the air feel heavy. No movement stirs beneath the dried leaves and twigs that litter the ground. The trees left standing are naked. Even the sunlight filtering through the skeletal branches is dull and weak.

All she wished for, as she could remember what it looked like before.

A day has passed since she landed in this unknown Kingdom, but the woods in the forest show no sign of any traces of her existence in the middle itself. Everyone says it wasn't natural. That she was driven by some magic spell. The kind of magic that knows nothing but harm to their respective Kingdom.

Elffy takes a step forward, her boot raising a small cloud of dust from the debris. She's not here to lament the woods she found. She didn’t even know the name of this place until someone told her. She's here in the hopes that she’ll see something to trigger a memory. Any memory. Anything that might tell her who she is or what happened to make her forget everything.

Edwie continues moving forward, aware of the footsteps behind her. Her companion, the Sexy Blonde Beast won’t let her wander far from his sight.

A hand touches Edwie's arm.

“This is as far as we go,” her companion says.

She pulls her arm away and turns to face the brooding young man at her side along with the Sexy beast walking behind him like he owned this whole woods in his dreams. Like all Elves Edwie has crossed, this watch guard's eyes are black and his body is covered in pale, blue-green silk that shimmers where the sunlight touches the loose robe. His hair, dark as midnight, brushes his shoulders.

“But I haven’t seen anything I remember yet. We haven’t gone far enough.” Edwie raised her voice with anger.

“Doesn’t matter,” the sexy beast counters, revealing incisors like small knives.

“ Among us, I don’t trust you, unlike my brother who got a soft spot for you, earlier from the day we saw you laying down in the middle of the woods. I’m not taking you any closer to the woods than this. '' announces the watch guard with a pretty hard and unmold look.

This watch guard was the first to try and kill Edwie after she woke up in the Old Lady's home, which is the Castle. But sweety-rocks, he wasn’t the last one to be either. The Watch Guard who seemed to be in a higher position, a captain might be, literally threatened Edwie to kill her the next time she's found alone in this Kingdom.

These Elves don’t look too kindly upon outsiders, and that’s what she is. It seems a little unfair to hate her for being something she doesn't remember, but the watch guard didn’t see it that way. Ten minutes after she woke up and realized she couldn’t remember a thing about herself, the guard walked into the room, took one look at the strange symbols on my forehead, and tried to crack my head open with a pointy rock... Fortunately, the Sexy Beast and the Old Lady stepped in before he could do any damage.

Edwie folded her arms across her chest. “Don’t you get it yet? I’m not some spy Elves from your enemy Kingdom, desperate to do as they've bid. I’m not about to run off and tell him everything I know about the Kingdom's hidden treasures and secrets”

Hearing this the Sexy Beast tilts his head to the side and watches me closely.

“ Isn't this obvious why my brother is suspicious about you! Every other Elf who survived the woods was a bunch of spies. Even though I'm halfway considering 'Why should we believe that you’re any different?”

Edwie steps closer to him, making sure to get right in his face.

“Do I look like a spy to you, Beasty, and to your Guard?”

His eyes as well as the guard's gaze dart upward. Edwie follows their gaze and sees her forehead symbol sparks jump from her skin and disappear into the thin air. Edwie raises her eyes and meets theirs. They don't step away from her.

“There’s no need to lose your temper, Edwie. You know I’m only looking out for the safety of my people.” the Beast voices

“And why would your so-called Enemy Kingdom give Tod's piss about finding your treasured culture?”

“They won’t stop until they have control over every line we've created to protect nature and from their lunatic practices.

That includes our female population. We worship our Landladies. And every single baby born in this soil.” The Beast retorts with such passion in his voice, as his eyes gleamed with true fire.

“And I won’t stop until I get my memories back.” Edwie glare equally at him until it becomes clear he won’t back down. She takes a deep breath and raises her eyes to the sky. Edwie stares at wisps of gray cloud between the naked branches. Maybe if she's honest about how lost and confused she feels, the guard and the Beast will lighten up a little.

“You don’t know what it’s like,” Edwie says softly,

“ Looking back at your life and seeing nothing but a gaping hole and a few pieces of random, unimportant information.”

“No. I don’t know what it’s like. I also don’t know what it’s like to trust an outsider. That too a female with absolute knockout charms.” The Beast wraps his fingers around my upper arm.

“Which is why we’re leaving now.” to which the guard snorts at her futile attempts to escape from their clutch.

Great. Attempting to open up to him was a stupid idea. Back to the angry, argumentative Edwina. And she knows that she's fine with that; hiding her true feelings seems to come more easily to her anyway.

The guard attempts to direct her back the way they came, but instead of going with him, Edwina grabs onto a low branch with her free hand and refuses to move.

“Stop it,” she says.

“Stop treating me like a bratty kid. I can walk without your assistance, so stop pushing me around.” Edwie snaps at him. The Sexy Blonde notices the change in her mood and asks the guard to go easy on her. Hearing him, the Guard slowly releases his fingers.

“Fine. But if you make a single move to—” but gets cuts off by Edwie.

“Yeah, yeah! I know. You'll cut my brain in half with your pointy rocks. That's it I've said it myself for you. Happy! I’m not going to—” Like earlier times... She gets cut off by The sexy Blonde who laughs.

What happened to these two? And what has she gotten herself into? Edwie murmurs.. shaking her head defeatedly.

“Let’s get out of here quickly,” the guard says. He pulls her to her feet, then releases her arm. At least he’s learned he doesn’t need to drag me along.

Soon Edwina was obliged to run between the Sexy Blonde and the guard.

They throw a quick look over their shoulder, then face forward and ignore her.

Fine.

She can do the silence thing.

They run for at least half an hour. The Blonde Beast and the guard breathe as easily as if they were walking, but the sounds coming from Edwie's mouth start to sound more like gasps. Her lack of energy is a state she attributes to being cooped up below ground. She traveled around the village with the Old Lady, of course, but the guard wouldn’t let her go beyond the woods until dawn.

The Blonde slows suddenly, and Edwie almost runs right past him.

"Stupid Mountain man with rock-hard muscles!" To which the Sexy Blonde laughs and tucks her towards the gateway to their Kingdom."

" Home Sweet Home... " The Blonde whispers as he nudges the breathing statue out of her zoned in trance.

What were you thinking is hard? He questioned. Whatever it is, he awaits for her to open up to him. And she says out loud.

"Recently, I have taken time to find the moments of beauty day by day... I question myself, why time always flies when the beauty never dies in the break of day" gazing at the unique beauty this arena holds along with its charm.

And for her to survive on these creepy Wooded roads,

Edwie was bound to make her life as an arrow, the tip a deadly sharpened point, so people never came so close, fearing that she may disappoint, she'd sit and watch in silence, as the world would pass her by, wondering how far she'd fall If she ever tried to fly.

But what's the use of being a lone discoverer for all it costs? Hearing her calls then came a charming knight.

He watched her with such interest like it was her he'd tried to find, As though he knew all of her darkest secrets, and the thoughts within her mind, even though he looked like all the others, But what did she not know; Was while she'd made herself an arrow, he had made himself a bow, And apart they'd both been useless, But they'd finally worked out why, since he needs someone to pull him back as she needs herself a ride, If they ever want to fly,

So he aimed at her with precision, and she flew straight from the start, knowing how blind it sounded, until she landed with a solid thud, on the target of her twin flame’s Heart.

Now the sole question that revolves in Edwie's mind is who that mystery Man is! Or does he ever exist?!