The prince and I rode off down the mountain and all the way into a valley between those two mountains.

I asked him as I keep thinking about it, "How do people know me? What do they know about me?"

"Do you notice how different you are?"

"In what way?"

"Have you seen other children?"

"Yeah. What about them?"

"You met one even without leaving your farm?"

"How do you know about that? You've been watching me?"

"Well, I passed around sometimes, and I even visited once. You mustn't have known that since you're a hermit."

"A hermit?" I chuckled. "What are you saying? I'm only four and I can't leave."

"Why's that?"

"I was told. Wait, look!" I pointed out the sky half-lit by the sun beyond the side of the mountain. "Is it morning yet? We've been travelling for hours?"

"Bring us up there."

After we rode to the top of the mountain, the sun was beautifully hanging in the northern sky.

"I didn't mean to forget about this place," I just said.

"You already know this place, huh?"

"Yeah. Where the sun won't set during summer, let's stay here."

We rode down the mountain, across the meadow, and to the riverbank. Dismounted and freed the horse.

A gusty place, as I looked at him and asked, "What now? What do we do?"

"I don't know. I mean, we can walk around."

"You aren't tired yet?"

He just looked at the sun. And I just looked at it too.

"You still haven't said why people know me," I said.

"About your mother..."

I looked at his bright green eyes and waited for his next words in silence. When I looked back at the sun, I was only hearing the strong wind that never stopped whooshing.

He faced me and said, "I'm sorry about your parents."

I only responded to the sun and gazed at the running river and squatted down to touch the cold water. "You have green crystals in your eyes."

"Is that how you describe it?"

"Pea galaxies."

"And yours... Are they lemon?"

"Golden."

He tossed a rock and said, "You seem to know things."

"You do know things. How do you know things? Do you travel?"

"Quite like that."

"Do you know time travel? Do you travel through time?" I looked up and saw him walking away. "Where will you go?"

"Doesn't matter. And don't follow me."

I stood up and kind of shouted out, "So, you do time travel! I know you do magic!"

He was still walking up the mountain and shouted, "No, I'm not doing that!"

"Yes, you do!"

I ran up to him until I got close.

He stopped and turned around. "I said, don't follow me! That's an order. You should listen to your highness."

"I know... The lizard. It was you."

"What?" He chuckled. "What lizard?"

"And the boy with a crook yesterday, he's you, isn't he?"

"No! Of course not! Do I look like him? I don't know what you're talking about right now. Just don't follow me and stop being weird."

"Can you even hear yourself? You speak like someone from..."

"Oh, you can tell? And how do I speak?"

"Like gibberish."

"Gibberish? What does that mean? Is it a foreign word?"

I just looked at him as he walked away.

"You were in some of my dreams, either," I said.

"Now you're dreaming of me? You must be thinking about me." Then he turned to me. "Right, what do you want? I mean, I know you're alone and sad or grieving or something, but I can't help you, okay? And, anyway, thanks for the ride. I must... I should go."

"I'm not even stopping you."

"...yet you're following me."

"And I really don't need any help or anything if that's what you were thinking."

We went awkwardly silent until he said, "I guess, I'll see you around?" And he gave a wave with a smile before leaving.

As I was watched him walking away, the sun had already risen on the other side of the mountain.