“Sorry for the wait boys.” Meredith comes back into the room with both medicine and what looks like breakfast for Jonah. 

Jonah grabs the tray, but his gaze is distant. 

“My stars Tamen, what did you do to him?”

“Nothing?”

The blank stare is still there but he shakes his head, a hand rubbing his temple, “My apologies, I’m fine. I’m just...it’s probably that headache you predicted a bit too soon.”

“Oh, Dear. Here dab some of this on your forehead and eat up. We’ll give you some space to gather yourself.” 

Meredith and I leave the room, and I join her in the kitchen. 

“Poor kid, I wonder what happened to him.” 

I stare at the curtains separating us from the medicine room and shrug. “Have you ever heard of a kingdom in the West called Nuve?”

Meredith scrunches her brows, “Huh, you know that does sound very familiar, but I can’t recall.” 

“I’ll go finish my morning duties.” 

“Alright.” 

*****

I smile at the kids as they run around playing some ball game, this time more children from the village have joined them. 

After eating breakfast our guest fell asleep. He and I haven’t talked much, but something about him seems to be out of place. While he doesn’t seem dangerous, a strange feeling settles around me. Who even is this Jonah of the West? 

My cloth runs along my blade. With a wince, I notice I was biting my lower lip too hard. I haven’t pulled Nieve out of her sheath, but last time Willis used her he didn’t clean her after. I should probably do that. 

“You seem lost in thought.”

My gaze travels up to my grandmother, and I smile. “Just thinking of what I did wrong while practicing.”

She smiles and sits next to me on the bench. She carries baskets. With every movement, she makes the smell of thyme, oregano, and basil are evident. The one that overpowers them all, however, is the entrancing smell of the ostravia. This is the basket she places between us as I sheath my sword. 

“I got some ostravias to make another dish for tonight with them. Since I doubt you had any on your trips.”

I smile, “That sounds great, Mamá.” 

“Is our guest still sleeping?”

I nod, “He’s been eating more though.”

“Good.”

“What did he have anyway? I had kept him warm and he still turned blue. I also controlled his fever and it was like he just kept getting worse.”

The woman stretches her legs and smacks and massages her thighs, with a smile she looks at me, “Altitude sickness.”

“Alti-”

“Nana Fela!” As expected from the children, they all run over as soon as they take note the woman is done with her morning work. 

“Let me guess, you all want a story.”

Mamá laughs, “Don’t tease them Tamen, I remember very well the nights you were even more eager than them to hear tales of the Sky.”

I smile, “They’re great stories.” Although they’re fairy tales. 

“Then perhaps you’d like to join us, I’m telling one of your favorites after all.” 

I stand and follow everyone into the house. The windows are all open, so the windchimes by each window sing softly as the cool breeze dances in. Although the stories aren’t real, and only those too young and too old believe in them, the small home Mamá built for us always has a way of pulling you into the words and tales. This time is no different as we all walk over to sit in front of the biggest window. Mamá, on her old rocking chair, the children on the carpeted floor, one of the youngest taking my old place as he sits on her lap, and myself leaning against one of the pillar frames. 

It always starts the same, with a long, long ago, and the prince in the sky. How he fell and crashed into the lake, washed up ashore in the village to be found by a girl. She brought him to health, as his fall had left bruises. 

As I shuffle and adjust my weight against the pillar my hand brushes over carvings. With a glance, I crouch and smile at the chipped wood. My fingers run over the marks as I read the engravings. T- 3 yrs old, T- 4 yrs old, T- 5, and all the way up to 11 yrs old. Standing, I see the highest one. It’s a few inches taller than me, perhaps 2. Next to the marking, it reads The Prince. 

A bump on my shoulder makes my head turn, Merideth. “You still got time to grow, I hear Skyland boys don’t stop growing until nineteen,” she whispers. 

I roll my eyes but smile recalling my childhood. This truly was my favorite story, I was smitten with the Prince who fell from the sky. It wasn’t just because he was a prince, but because he was full of honor, bravery, and chivalry.  He was more than a prince to me, he was a knight in my eyes.  When Willis arrived I thought he was just like the Prince in the stories. I wanted to be just like them. But stories are just daydreams, and childhood heroes become disappointing adults. 

My gaze goes to the woman that raised me, and I smile. In a world full of lies, I guess there are some truths though. Just a dash of good, in the smallest places. 

“And there’s only one way to get to it. Within the blue mountains, where you see fish swimming in the sky, bluebirds burrowing in the ground, and dirt made out of stars. And only a girl has truly seen this prince-”

“You’re a knight?”

My gaze follows the voice to the entrance of my room. A sudden light feeling comes over me as a tingling pain strikes my chest, my breath caught at the back of my throat.