We rode for the entire night with only a two-hour rest for the horses. Now the morning light warmed the dirt under their hooves and woke the birds who sung their morning greetings. I sat on Ruddy with my face up towards the early sun rays, eyes closed.

I use to always do this in the mornings, even when I was a child. I learnt it from my father who'd do exactly the same thing. Every morning just before the sun rose we'd go outside the cabin and put our faces towards the early sun and breath in the fresh air. I remember asking him once why we did it. His answer has kept with me even when I forgot it.

He said that it was a thank you. A thank you to the new day that has come and allowed us to live another day and move forward. The sun's rays that warmed our faces then and now was the suns reply to our thank you, a protective kiss to our forehead like a loving parent telling us to live on.

I breathed in and silently thanked the new day for arriving. I opened my eyes and looked around us. When we headed off we had started towards the mountain but was soon covered in forest foliage so I couldn't tell if we were still heading towards the mountain or not.

We were on a dirt path that was just big enough for two horses to walk side by side and no more. Orrick, the messenger fairy, was at the lead followed by Georgia, then Ashwini, then myself and lastly Beatrice. I didn't want Beatrice to be behind me but she insisted for some reason but I didn't argue all that hard since she obviously had some reason.

I was deep in thought when something hit me, literally. I immediately looked up and then around me after a felt something hit the top of my head. I looked up but couldn't see anything besides for open sky becoming lighter by the minute as the sun rose.

I looked behind me at Beatrice but all I got was a raised eyebrow like she was wondering what I was doing. I tilted my head thoughtfully wondering what could have hit me. I turned back around and stopped worrying about it... until something hit me again.

"What the...?" I questioned out loud looking around to the sides where the dense forest bracketed the path. I lifted my hand and touched my head to find something hard caught in my hair. It was small and rough easily pinched between my thumb and pointer finger. I untangled it from my hair and looked at it. It was a small brown seed looking thing. I looked around again and saw a small amount of them hanging from branches on some of the trees that hung over the path. But I couldn't see where they could be hitting me from.

I shook my head and frowned in confusion. I huffed loudly when I was hit again. "What the hell!" I exclaimed making Ashwini turn in her saddle to look at me in confusion. That's when I heard giggling from behind me. I turned in my own saddle to see Beatrice with a hand covering her mouth as her shoulders shook slightly while her silver eyes sparkled with amusement. That's when I saw a bunch of the seeds in her other hand.

My face dropped as the mystery was solved and I gave her a bland look while inside I was highly amused, she looks so beautiful with her mischievous look and playful smile. I almost was shocked by how childlike she suddenly was looking. When I first met Beatrice I would have thought she was a serious all work no play kind of woman.

I like this though.

"Really?" I asked her with a smirk and slightly challengingly.

"What?" She asked innocently, dropping her hand while a grin that showed slightly longer canines shouted out her teasing dare.

I shook my head at her with an amused smirk. "Is this why you wouldn't ride in front of me?"

"Maybe... I've been to the fairy realm a few times for business reasons since Aviva can't do it herself, so I knew these were here. If you crack them open they have a sweet seed inside that you can eat." Beatrice laughed at me while nudging her horse forward so that we were now riding side by side.

"Interesting. How come you needed to go to the fairy realm for? What type of business? And how come lady Aviva was banished from the realm?" I asked unable to hide my curiosity while throwing a seed at Beatrice that I had picked from a low hanging branch.

She easily hit my attack away while returning one of her own that I didn't bother to hit away but catch. "Well the business was mainly just financial stuff like trade and merchandising, but we still needed to have a good enough relationship with the realm so that everything would run smoothly. And you should speak to Georgia about why my sister was banished."

It sounded pretty serious the way Beatrice spoke about her sister's banishment from the fairy realm, but a teasing smirk that wasn't aimed at anyone confused me more. I threw the seed right back at her

"I'm interested too in how you guys managed to get a royal fairy to become a servant." Ashwini spoke up having been listening to our conversation.

"Let's just say that my sister is very good at charming others responsibilities away for a few nights until something more seemed to have came out of their fling that neither was expecting." Beatrice answered cryptically.

"Please lady Beatrice, why do you always have to say things like that." Georgia groaned from her horse in front of Ashwini obviously having heard us. "But I don't regret anything."

"Of course you wouldn't. Finding your mate is the lifelong goal for every supernatural being in every realm." Beatrice said happily her silver eyes shining no longer with amusement but with warm happiness that comes from seeing someone you care about happy as well.

"So Anon was right." I said out loud though mostly to myself.

"What was that mutt right about?" Ashwini asked with a disbelieving look like she couldn't believe that Anon could be right about anything while her hands clenched around her horse's reins. Oh dear, has Anon done something to the beautiful earth coloured witch?

"Ummm, well he was wondering if lady Aviva and Georgia, oh or is it lady Georgia now? Were either just lovers or Mates. I'm assuming though from what both Beatrice and lady Georgia have said that they are actually Mates and I'm assuming it also has something to do with why lady Aviva was banished." I deduced trying to remembering everything that has been said and what I've seen.

Though now that I think about it, wasn't Georgia there in the bathroom that day lady Aviva and I were in the bath and she showed me what being bedded was meant to feel like? If they are Mates, why would lady Aviva do that in front of her and why would Georgia even allow her to do it? It's also starting to make me think about why I haven't actually spoken to Georgia all that much since I've been here... does she hate me? Dislike me for what happened in the bathroom? Has she avoided me because her Mate touched me like she had?

I feel really bad now. I feel like I need to apologise for what happened.

I watched Georgia and saw her ears turn slightly red and I wonder if it's from anger or embarrassment. "Yes we're Mates, though we haven't accepted each other yet." Georgia confirmed her voice slightly shaking though I couldn't tell from what emotions.

"What why not?" Beatrice asked now looking slightly concerned.

"Because your sister is an idiot." Georgia grumbled hotly though I swear I could hear affection in her tone as well.

"Please tell me she's at least gotten you out of the servant quarters right? I mean you're already sitting next to her during breakfast and dinner." Beatrice questioned.

"Yes, I have my own room in the same hallway as both of you... there's also a door that adjoins our rooms." Georgia answered sounding embarrassed this time. "But she doesn't seem to understand that I don't care about finery and power and what not." She groaned. "I don't need presents, I just want her."

Beatrice chuckled beside me. "Yeah. We've always had easy lives even when we were changed. We've always gotten away with things because of our family's influence and power. Aviva has never really stepped foot out of that even though she has a golden heart and can't look pass a starving man or a dying girl." Beatrice looked at me with a soft caring smile. "It's been proven to us countless times that money speaks louder than words. Especially if it's about showing someone that you care. Do you know about Eliza?"

Georgia was now turned in her saddle listening to Beatrice intently while her horse had dropped back to clop along side Ashwini. Confusion made Georgia tilt her head slightly with a cute frown. "No I haven't."

"She was Aviva's first love." Beatrice explained making everyone, maybe even Orrick, even more interested.

Georgia's frown deemed and I smirked at the feeling of jealousy that came from her mana, which I'm still confused over. How come the feel of her mana was human when she was a fairy, let alone royalty? While with Orrick I could clearly feel his mana was different from a humans. Questions to be answered later, I decided.

"And her first heartbreak." Beatrice continued with a soft sigh seeming to go back into her memories. "She was a princess much like you but was completely rotten on the inside. As much as I tried to tell my sister that her love was fake she wouldn't listen to me. Eliza used Aviva for her money, influence and power but Aviva just couldn't see it. Mind you we were still human at this time, meaning we were just gullible girls that took almost everything at face value.

"Aviva would buy her everything and anything she ever wanted even when she could have bought it herself. She thought that was how you were meant to show your affection for someone. It didn't help when we would see all the rich men dressing up their wives in delicacies and fineries like it was normal.

"Eliza sucked it all up and used Aviva until she just chewed her up and spat her out like she was nothing when she no longer had a use for her. I've never seen my sister as distraught at she was when Eliza literally robbed her of everything before dumping her on the streets with nothing but what she was wearing. I was the one to find her and help her strap herself back together again. From then on even after we were changed, Aviva would use money to woo people into giving her what she wanted instead of being the one used. Truthfully, I don't think she knows any other way to show her affection than by giving you things. I have this thought that she might actually be afraid of showing true affection just in case she gets hurt again like she was."

I was completely blown away by what I just heard. I truly can't see my Mistress, my lady, being anything but an even tempered, highly intelligent and incredibly powerful woman that knows what she wants and knows exactly how to get it. I can't picture her waiting hand and foot on someone like a lost puppy that lapped up any kind of attention it would get from someone that couldn't care less about it. It was almost saddening.

"Well that explains a few things." I heard Georgia mutter to herself thoughtfully before she sighed and shook her head with a soft smile. "I'm going to have to slap some sense into that woman when we get back."

Beatrice chuckled while she nodded in agreement. "It's the only way she's going to learn even if she's smart enough to control a whole territory full of incredibly dangerous creatures."

"Has other things happened to her?" Georgia asked softly. "Sometimes she gets this dark look like she was remembering something unpleasant or painful, while other times she just doesn't look like she's even in her body anymore."

Beatrice sighed as well. "A lot can happen in three hundred years."

I could see and feel the sadness coming off of Beatrice. I didn't like it so I didn't bother stopping myself from reaching out a hand to grab one of hers. She looked at me and smiled while I squeezed our now linked hands encouragingly. Did whatever made lady Aviva as silently strong and powerful yet incredibly closed off as she was, also happen to Beatrice? I couldn't help but wonder and worry silently.

"We're here." Orrick suddenly gruffed out from the lead making Georgia turn back around in her saddle and nudge her horse up until she was beside the messenger.

We came to a clearing and I couldn't help but gasped at the sight of what looked like a giant gash in the surface of the earth. A cliff dropping off into darkness margined the clearing and forest while the river we had been riding beside for a little while turned into a trickling waterfall that fell down into nothing.

"That's a long way down." Ashwini whistled lowly as she slid off her horse and walked to the edge.

"It's called the Gap." Beatrice answered and then shrugged. "A horrible name and terribly derivative but it's effective. The Gap is the portal between realms. There are multiple of these large cliffs in the world all over the place that will lead anyone who dares fall into it to another realm. This is where we will be entering the fairy realm from."

I reluctantly let go of Beatrice as we got off our horses and walked to stand beside Ashwini looking down into the pitch blackness down below. "And how exactly will we be using this to enter the fairy realm?" I asked cautiously.

"We jump." Orrick answered for her.

"What? Are you insane?!" Ashwini exclaimed stepping away from the edge of the cliff. "I'm not jumping down there! We'll die!"

"We won't Ash, I promise you. I've done this multiple times before and I assure you that if the portal stays open we will get through to the other side without trouble." Beatrice smiled at her.

"If the portal stays open?" Ashwini asked her dark skin becoming paler by the second. "I don't think I want to go through with this."

"Don't worry Ashwini. The portal is still open and will stay open until later on in the afternoon. We can easily enter through the portal without any complications." Georgia assured the scared witch.

"O-Okay." She stuttered nervously.

"It's okay Ash, we'll go through together." I smiled at her reassuringly. "Just close your eyes and hold my hand."

Ashwini took a deep breath in and slowly let it out before giving a firm nod. I held out my hand which she accepted and clenched onto in a firm grip before she closed her eyes holding onto me tightly. I smiled at the others. "We're ready when you guys are." I told them.

"Alright. Orrick and I will go first, then Vaden and Ash and my lady will take up the rear. Is that okay?" Georgia asked looking at Beatrice who nodded. "Good then. Orrick."

"Yes my lady." Orrick bowed to Georgia then headed to the furthest part of the cliff that hung over the black space of nothing bellow.

I guided Ashwini to stand a bit away from the two fairies and watched as they took three steps back before running and jumping over the edge. Within a second they were gone and it was now our turn.

"You ready Ash?" I asked my scared friend beside me.

"Don't give me any warning, just push me or something." She hissed both hands now latched onto my arm in a white knuckled grip. I found it quite amusing.

"Then let's go." I said excitedly rushing forward and over the edge into the black abyss bellow, Ashwini screaming bloody murder beside me. I think I'm going to go deaf from how loud it is.

I just laughed, exhilarated by the free fall feeling that had my stomach moving up against my throat. This is fun.

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