She opened her eyes and stared directly onto the roof of the canopy bed made out of the finest silk in the whole Kaston Kingdom. On her lap pressed something heavy, about the size of a melon and after taking a closer look at it, she recognized Bao's head resting on her legs. The boy probably fell unconscious whilst sitting on her bed since the rest of his body was contorted enough to let his feet point in the opposite direction of his head. With slow movements, she pushed her torso up until reaching a normal sitting position, maintaining an eye on Bao who still slept deep and soundly. Most of her servants stood beside her bed with tears of joy rolling down their cheeks, some of them even wanting to go as far as to scream with their mouths wide open but Elincia quickly raised her hand to stop them. A finger on her lips ordered them to remain silent while with the other hand she signalized a maid to get closer to her. The maid bend over Elincie placing the head right in front of her mouth.

"Please send someone immediately to the king to inform him that his son's disease has been cured now and tell him that I'll pass by tomorrow to check his condition, just in case there are any side effects." the young girl already wanted to leave when Elincia grabbed her arm. " There is something else I forgot to say" She whispered.

After giving her subordinate the missing instructions and watching her leave with a happy news for the King, everyone else left the room under the supervision of the head butler with exception of Bao who still didn't move an inch from her lap. Her legs started to feel numb under the burden of his head but she endured it. With a careful tug, she leaned her shoulders against the wall which adjoined the bed. Elincia tilted her head and looked at his sleeping face, continuously stroking through his hair while reminiscing the past.

Most of her followers if not all of them were saved by her from either harsh environments or deadly diseases but it was the first time since she felt the hidden elven villages that someone else came to her rescue as far as she could remember.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

In the deep and dark Karsuva Forest where she lived were nothing but animals, plants and trees, not that she had anything against them but after decades of living there they started to feel more like a cage rather than the free elven grounds which everyone talks about. Her parents, and the obligations towards them and her race as well as the stupid tradition of avoiding any contact with outsiders, held her from leaving. At first.

A fated encounter should change Elincia's life and her view of life forever.

She was around thirty or forty when an unknown person somehow lost his way into the Karuva woods, an unprecedented event or at least nothing that she was aware that had ever happened. She could hardly recognize the person hidden under the grey cloak that relied on a thin hiking stick, which seemed to burst into a million pieces under his weight but somehow still withstood every step. After approaching the mystic appearance they started chatting about smaller, unimportant facts until they began to talk about her life in the forest. A talk she would never forget.

"If that's what you want to do, then just go out there and explore the world as you would like to do." He asked.

"But, I can't leave back my family just for my selfish wish and what about the elven traditions? I would never be able to come back here again! I... I just can't."

"That is just the price you have to pay to pursue your destiny, the gift that was given to you to accomplish. If you really want to do it and you feel within yourselves that it is the right thing to do, then you should pursue it.

are just risks you'd have them even if you don't leave. Just do it if you feel it is the right thing to do."

"But..."

"Do you know the interesting thing about the word but?" He interrupted her sentence. "But is just an argument for our limitations, and when we argue about our limitations we got to keep them. So the question is, do you want to remain restrained by your shackles that bind you to this forest or do you want to break free of them?

What that person said made her take the leap of fate, leaving the woods and wander around Nelenia, saving lives and exploring lands never seen by an elf.

Something on her lap moved, ripping her fingers out of Bao's hair and brought her back to the present. With a gentle yet bright smile, she stared directly into his eyes.