With her head resting on a pillow, her back pressed firmly against the blanket, Morgana lightly closed her eyes and listened to the sound of running water. The gentle, almost melodic sound of the stream was enough to send her to sleep, but the sunlight that surrounded her was too bright for sleep to even be a possibility. Instead, she focused on the sound of the stream and the low hum of Caleb and Arthur's voices in the background. They were working on some handmade arrows to be paired with their bows, Ewan and Helena had gone out to pick up some fallen branches for the boys to craft their arrows from.

At first, Morgana thought it would be a bad idea for Ewan to leave her alone with two boys the same age, their fighting skills would be of little help were they to be ambushed by bandits. Ewan, however, had assured her that it was unlikely they would be attacked so close to the wall, no one, not even a bandit, would be that idiotic. That comment did little to relieve her mind, but Morgana knew that Ewan was more than likely correct. No one had tried to attack the Upper Town in years, she doubted they would start now, not with the constant rise in guards.

Morgana stretched her arms out to the side and above her head before she sat up, blinking several times so her eyes could adjust to the lack of sunlight. After facing the sun for so long, the sudden decrease in light was hard to adjust to, but after a few seconds, her sight became clear once again. To the left of her, Morgana spotted Caleb and Arthur, hunched over, shaving the bark off several small pieces of wood. She did not understand how stripping the wood was going to help with their firing considering they were using handmaid bows, but she did not question it. If they thought it was going to work, then who was she to say otherwise?

Whilst she watched the two boys work out of the corner of her eye, Morgana looked out into the trees ahead. She watched the branches sway gently in the breeze, the trees were bare from leaves but small buds were starting to grow, indicating the arrival of Spring. Birds chirped softly in amongst the collection of branches, the sound of bird song never failed to bring a smile to Morgana's face. Morgana wondered what the landscape looked like in Summer, to see the leaves on the trees, to be able to see the birds flying to their nests and hearing the chirping of baby birds in the nests, calling out for food.

"Have you never been out here before?" Caleb asked, watching Morgana carefully whilst simultaneously avoiding slicing his finger with a knife.

"I have passed through, but that is all. Father is not one for stopping and examining the landscape," Morgana replied, turning to face Caleb, her loose hair blowing in front of her face as the wind passed through.

"I have been out her once, mother travelled to the other towns to buy herbs, I had to accompany her to help carry everything," Caleb said.

"What did your mother need the herbs for?"

"She is a doctor of sorts, mainly attends to people in the Upper Towns but she can be called away to the other towns as well."

"Did she help during the plague?" Morgana asked, remembering the time a great plague passed through the lands and killed many of the people in the Lower Towns, whilst leaving the rest of the kingdom almost untouched.

"Yes, she did. There was little she could do, but she tried to help as best as she could. Arthur and I were left with left with stall owners whilst she was away."

"Must have been hard for you both."

"Yes, it was."

Silence appeared to be the most comfortable form of communication between the two of them as their conversation came to an abrupt end and silence yet again filled the air around them. Morgana knew what Caleb was thinking and she was thinking the exact same thing, even if it was from a completely new viewpoint. Caleb had probably witnessed some of the plague first hand whilst Morgana was going on mainly secondary information.

Several years before, when Morgana was nothing but a child, news of a plague arrived in the Citadel from one of the poorer towns beyond the wall. The news did not come as much as a shock as there had been accounts of a plague rampaging through the towns in the past. There was no cure for it and the only thing anyone could do to handle it was keep those infected away from others. The Citadel was safe as no one knew was ever allowed to enter unless they had reasonable cause to do so. But the Lower Towns were not so lucky.

When the plague had passed through, the death toll was estimated to be in the thousands, if not more. It was hard to tell the exact body count as many people had been buried in mass graves in the smaller towns an attempt to contain the virus and to keep it from spreading any further. The chaos left behind by the plague was unimaginable and it took several years for a sense of normalcy to return to the kingdom, although, Morgana knew there were towns suffering from the after effects, even if the King did attempt to brush them off as though they were nothing.

With the sounds of nature surrounding them, Morgana decided to get a better look at the arrows Caleb and Arthur had constructed. Arthur had remained silent throughout the entire interaction with Caleb and she was interested to find out more but did not want to press him, just in case he did not want to talk about it. Instead, she slowly shuffled herself across the blanket until she was able to examine the few arrows up close.

She picked up one of the completed arrows and ran her fingers across the smooth wood. The wood was pale of colour without the darkened bark encasing it, Morgana had expected the wood to be pristine as it had been hidden away for so long, but on close inspection, she found this not to be the case. On the white surface of the wood, Morgana noticed small, darker marks, although she had no idea what these marks were, nor how they had made it to beyond the bark, she found them to be amazing. To her, it proved that even the most pristine of things had flaws, they were just hidden below the surface, waiting to be uncovered.

"These are impressive, do you make them often?" Morgana asked, gently placing the arrow onto the blanket.

"We have been making them for years," Arthur muttered, concentrating on the arrow as he stripped away the outer bark.

"Interesting. I have watched the Citadels blacksmith make arrows and swords before, but that method is far more violent and aggressive. This is almost peaceful," Morgana said.

"When are Helena and Sir Ewan going to be back? They have been gone for an awfully long time," Caleb questioned, examining the branch he had finished whittling.

"I do not know, it is not like them to delay this much."

Morgana began to worry slightly. Ewan had promised that they would not be gone too long, yet as far as she could tell, they had been gone longer than they thought. All they were doing was collecting fallen branches that could be whittled down to arrows and, as winter had only just passed, the ground was likely to be littered with fallen branches. The delay in their return did not bode well for the Princess and her two friends.

The boys distracted themselves by whittling the ends of their homemade arrows to make sharp points, finalising their creations as best they could. Morgana, on the other hand, had nothing to distract herself with, she certainly did not have the skill to create arrows and did not like the idea of wondering into the woods on her own to look for two people who were quite possibly on their way back.

With her stress levels rising at an almost alarming rate, Morgana decided that sitting down and doing nothing was unlikely to calm her nerves anytime soon. Instead, she pushed herself up, off the blanket, brushed her hair off her shoulder and walked along the edge of the stream. The grass tickled against her bare feet, but she ignored the sensation to focus purely on the stream, watching the water as it trickled by, she watched the sunlight dance across the water, creating a mirror on the surface. Morgana wished the Citadel had something as calm and peaceful as the stream, rather than the harsh noise and chaos that came with Knights.

Whilst she walked, Morgana saw something glint out of the corner of her eye. It was not the light on the water, it was something different, something she had not seen before. Slowly, Morgana bent beside the stream and reached her hand into the water, pulling her sleeve up and out of the way, to shield it from getting wet. She felt around the bottom of the stream until her hand bumped into a rock that to her was larger than the others. Morgana grabbed it and pulled it from the water, splashing herself as she did so. In her hand lay a small, rounded stone, though from the way it was shining in the light, Morgana doubted it was any normal stone.

She ran her fingers along the exterior, taking in the light blue and white colours that merged together. Morgana had seen many stones before, some ordinary, many precious, but she had never seen one as unique as this. Most of the precious stones Morgana had come across were one colour, not two, and they certainly did not have the same beauty as this one. The way the light shone on it, the way the colours came together, all of it was just mesmerising to the young Princess.

With the stone in her hand, Morgana made her way back to the young boys, hoping they may be able to shed some light on the origin of the stone she had stumbled across. The stone felt cold and smooth in her hand as she knelt back down beside Caleb and Arthur who were too busy carving the ends of their arrows to look up. Morgana turned the stone over in her hand, feeling the smoothness of it against her palm.

"Where did you find that?" Caleb asked, looking at the stone in Morgana's palm.

"In the stream, I do not know what it is," she replied, letting the stone lay still against her palm so Caleb could get a better look at it.

"It looks like Moonstone, but why that would be in a stream, I do not know," Caleb said.

Morgana had heard of Moonstone before, her father used to tell her stories of the stone that fell to the Earth from the moon. A stone that was worth more than gold. It had not been seen for over a century, so why it was just lying the stream, untouched was a complete mystery. Morgana slipped the stone into the folds of her dress, planning on keeping it safe until she was back at the castle. If it was Moonstone, she was going to hide it from her father as she knew what he was like when it came to stones of value, especially ones more valuable than gold.