The sun was high in the cloudless sky and though the two stood in broad daylight, each of them were a only an indecipherable silhoutte to the other. Maybe it was due to the way she squinted at him, or the fact that he would only peek out of the corner of his nervous eye as her. Whatever the reason, shaky, electric, confused ground barely held the woman from the man.

There was a bird flying overhead, a new slave fidgeting against the coarse rope the began to callous her raw skin. There was a few specks of sweat on the captian’s neck. A daring, heartfilled glare from the prisoner. Crystal stood  with her mind reeling for reason as she stared down the man who had taken part in kidnapping her and wondering how a man such as this captain had once been a sweet boy named Lance. A boy who had smiled at her in the woods with the mischevious grin of a kid who had stolen a quick kiss. And she, she the princess of the town, had tried at a stern glare that could only turn up a shy smile.

And here was this boy turned man, two feet taller, a hundred pounds heavier, infinitely more handsome, and certainly changed. The only remnant of her boy was lurking beneath the glassy hazel eyes that met hers every so often, lingering for that one moment, that one butterfly sparking moment, to gaze over her beauty. He would move on and she would retreat back into anger to cover her confusing attraction, her overwhelming fear, her deep insecurity. Crystal was always this way. She was strong. She was undefiable. She conquored.

That was how she had managed to evade the strong hand of her father’s will, wiggle out of a close encounter with slavery, and go on to live with her mother’s gentle tribe deep inside the Escabon forest. It was how she had managed to make this strong captain look more like a child now and it was also how she had kept her eyes dry from tears for the last four hours of waiting. She did allow her thoughts to turn weakness in her heart, however, and now those dreams were making her wish that she hadn’t have been so free willed in childhood. She was the favored one, regardless of where she went. In father’s palace, his domineering palace that held home to the three-way tie of the worlds most amassed power, she was adored, graced, and always listened to.