Like The Sky, part 6

"Mairin...this is so hard for me to put into words without stumbling. We have become best friends this last year. I have enjoyed your company so much, more than you know. I have learned so much from you, and you have brought out my wild side a couple times. I have been able to share my secrets with someone for the first time and not worry about them telling my father and the court. I trust you more than anyone in the whole world. But, Mairin...I no longer wish to be friends."

He trailed off and my smile wavered and faded. His words were so kind, so sweet, so sincere...or they had been, up until the last sentence. This was so unlike him.

He stared at me for a long moment and then grabbed both of my hands and held them in his. He got down on his knee and looked up into my eyes. He kissed first one hand and then another.

"I no longer wish to be friends. I wish to be your husband. Mairin, I love you. Will you marry me?"

My jaw dropped open and I stared at him in disbelief. This was so unexpected!

"Mairin, please say something..." Callan's voice quavered the tiniest bit as he spoke.

"Callan...I..." I stopped myself and thought for a moment. I knew Callan so well. We were, as he said, best friends. I realized with a jolt that I did love him. I had loved him for a long time. Is this what love felt like? I loved the feeling of love.

"I love you, too, Callan. Of course I will marry you!" I gushed, suddenly breathless.

Callan stared at the ground for a moment then looked at me. Through the tears gathering in my own eyes, I could see his brown eyes filling with happiness. I smiled widely and laughed, the happiest laugh I had ever laughed. He gazed deep into my eyes and slowly, slowly, a smile broke through his rough exterior and cracked through his lips.

My prince--my fiance--smiled for the first time.

Like The Sky, part 5

The prince and I continued to grow closer and closer every day. After nearly a year of having me around, the prince came to find me in my morning lessons. He walked into the room and looked straight at me and winked. I grinned, knowing that it meant he had something amazing planned, and his mischievous side began to come out.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but may I borrow Mairin for the rest of the day?"

I could see in the woman's eyes that she wanted to say no, but of course that would be impolite. Callan was prince, after all. Saying no to a prince could get her into a lot of trouble.

She bowed low and said, 'Of course, highness,' but I could see her glaring at me when she stood again. I knew that hard work would take up my entire next week. Oh great.

The prince offered me his arm and we walked out, me trying desperately to contain a laugh. The prince, of course, had no trouble keeping a straight face. I tripped over the door frame, and that was it for me: I burst into giggles. The prince looked at me and I thought, for a second, that I saw a grin tickle the edge of his mouth, but then I blinked and the thought left.

"So what are we doing today?" I whispered loudly.

"Wait and see, Rin. You're so impatient." I laughed at the sarcasm in his voice, and smiled at the nickname. I had long ago been nicknamed Rin, but Callan was the only person who actually called me that name.

We walked slowly out of the castle and into the courtyard. When we were completely lost in the garden's enormous hedge maze, Callan turned to me, looking more serious than usual--quite a feat--and began to speak.

Like The Sky, part 4

But the prince. The prince of Hatill. When I woke, I was staring into his eyes. His eyes...reminded me of something, but of course by that point I had no idea where or what I was. I looked at the prince, and I thought, I'm still falling. But of course, I was laying in a field somewhere. The prince--his name is Callan--he picked me up and took me back to the castle, where I was tended to by the king's personal physicians. That was when I first began to gain fame. My wounds healed quickly. Too quickly, I think, because it made people notice how different I was from them.

The prince and I became great friends. I spent my mornings learning the ways of the royals from a bold, brazen woman the king had hired for me, but my afternoons were spent more enjoyably; in the prince's wing. I never entered his personal quarters, but I spent a lot of time in the living room--the largest room in his wing. He taught me more than my 'tutor' ever managed to beat into me. I learned to write the language of Hatill, I learned to speak to the servants with respect, and I learned of the prince's disdain for his father. Callan told me that his father was starving the common people to build his empire and his army. "If another nation doesn't attack us soon, my father will go out of his way to start a war," he told me.

The prince revealed his heart to me over and again. He told me that he loved the commoners, but because he was the son of the worst king ever (in their opinions), he was hated nearly as much as his father. Callan left the castle often, but every time he had an elaborate costume and a back story to deflect attention. The people that met him when he was Hassan, his common name, loved him completely, but he didn't dare to reveal himself to them. I was the only one who knew of the prince's other self...but I still never saw him smile. I got through the steel, but the wall that remained was impenetrable.

Like The Sky, part 3

The next thing I remember was a prince. I don't mean just any prince of some tiny country that no one really cares about. I mean the prince of the most powerful nation. The sea nation, Hatill. It was set on the ocean, within short sailing distance of most of the other nations. The other nations respected the might of Hatill and kept their distance, but that did not mean that Hatill and it's rulers were lacking in their military strength. It just meant they were biding their time, ready to strike. Which, in turn, meant that any family wanting to keep strong, able bodied men and boys was forced to hide their men and live far away from the arm of government. Which meant that the prince of Hatill had been raised in a militant family, and he was as cold and hard as steel. He never smiled.

I had fallen so far and so hard that I attracted the attention of the royal family--was I a threat? A fire sent by a hostile nation? A search party was sent out, and when they returned with me, a limp, wet, burned girl in their arms and nothing else to show for three days' searching, I became the nation's newest source of pride.

No one truly knew what I was--I barely knew myself--but that did not keep my beauty from bringing me attention. Did I mention that? I may have forgotten: beauty is not something we took pride in back home. But yes, I was beautiful. More beautiful than most humans; stars tend to shine more brightly than humans.

Like The Sky, part 2

After the trees, there was silence for a split second and then the loudest, most shrill scream I had ever heard. It took me a good five minutes to realize that the scream had come from me. After this realization, the pain took complete control of me and I was lost in the fire. I knew that something was going on around me, but for the longest time I felt nothing but the pain. I saw nothing but the red-blue sky that I had fallen from, and I heard nothing but the voices of my family, warning me to watch my step and mind my ways.

I had always been clumsy. That was, arguably, my literal downfall. I, however, will swear to my dying day of being pushed. My family was well-known and well-loved in the sky, but we always had our enemies. My clumsiness only came in helpful when it came to getting rid of me.

That, of course, all changed when I landed on Earth. I don't mean I stopped being clumsy. The clumsy that I was was incurable. I simply mean that everything I had before I fell was gone--all the memories. All the memories, that is, but the one of my actual fall.

Contest

My mom requested that I enter this contest for her. :) So here you go, mom.

http://www.marilynmoll.com/2011/02/enter-the-contest-to-win-a-sprouter-and-sprouting-seeds/

And now the newest contest!

http://www.marilynmoll.com/2011/02/introducing-the-wondermill-junior-contest/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+MarilynMoll+(Marilyn+Moll)

Like The Sky, part 1

Falling is a unique feeling. There is a sense of enormous heaviness as one begins falling, and then a sudden and inexplicable sense of complete weightlessness as you plummet through the the air towards the center of gravity. throughout falling, only one thought seems to enter a person's mind: landing is going to hurt.

And it almost always does. You can sometimes roll out of a hard fall, but there's always a jarring impact.

So imagine falling from the sky. Correction: from the sky to the ground. Thousands of miles. Even though you can't possibly fathom it, try to imagine the pain that would come from that impact. Hint: It would hurt a lot.

I know, because that is where I fell from. It was a long journey, my fall, and it ended in fire and pain. And trees.

Lots of trees.