tails of the past

Finally going back home

 In the morning, I was woken up by Ashleen again. "Good morning are you feeling, ok?" she asked. "Yeah" I said in a groggy tone. "Good, now get ready," Ashleen said as she pulled a bag over her shoulders. "Where did you get that bag?" I asked as I sat up and rubbed my head. "June gave it to me, she said I would need it," Ashleen said. "That was nice of her" I said as I ran my fingers through my hair. "You should use a hairbrush, it'll take less time," Ashleen said as she handed me a hairbrush. "Oh thanks" I said quietly. We spent a few minutes getting ready before a knock came at the door. "Hey, time for breakfast" June sang on the other side of the door. Ashleen opened the door and nodded. "Are you both packed and ready?" June asked with a sweet but mysterious smile. "Yep, all ready to go" I said, and Ashleen nodded.

June and I made our way to the dining room where the queen and Zen were already eating. "Good morning you two, Emma, how are you feeling?" The queen asked. "I feel fine, I'm ready to head home" I said as I nibbled on a piece of toast. "That's good, I have all the documents you need" The queen said. "Mother, if it is alright I would like to escort Emma out of the kingdom" Zen said. "Yes, that is quite alright, but a guard will be with you" the queen said. Zen nodded and turned to me smiling. I smiled back. Once we finished eating the queen clapped her hands. "Guards please bring me the documents" the queen said, and a tall guard walked up to her with a blue folder. "Here you are Emma, it was nice to have you here and I'm terribly sorry for what had happened" the queen said, and I nodded, taking the documents from her. "It was lovely staying here; I'll try and visit sometime" I said, and Zen looked even happier while June rolled her eyes.

We all got up and I went and got my bag out of the guest room I was staying in. "Ready to go, my lady?" Zen said. "Yep" I said as we walked through the halls out the front door of the castle. "I'll be escorting you two to the border" sir smith said as he bowed to us. "Oh, Andrew hi" I said, and Andrew smiled. "Lovely to see you again before you leave" Andrew said. "Let's not dilly dally now we need to get to the gates" Zen said, and Andrew started walking in the direction of where we were supposed to go. "June is currently sneaking Ashleen out; we need to hurry" Zen whispered in my ear. We walked quickly and once we got to the gate Zen grabbed my arm. "I wish you safe travels my lady and I hope to see you soon" Zen said as land close to my face. My cheeks quickly heated up but before he could realize I was blushing Andrew cleared his throat. "I must take you back to your mother, young prince as orders states" Andrew said, and Zen nodded. "Farwell Emma," Zen said as he waved to me and turned to leave with Andrew.

I walked out of the kingdom and followed the wall west which is what June had told me to do. "Emma" June said as she stepped over a bush Ashleen followed close behind her. "Ok we ready to go?" I asked and Ashleen nodded. We said our goodbyes and Ashleen and I started our walk back to Phenix.

The walk was peaceful, we didn't talk much but it was a comfortable silence. It took a few hours, but we had finally reached the village. "Where are we?" Ashleen asked. "Welcome to phoenix village, where I live" I said, and Ashleen smiled. We walked through the village and met Ava at her house working on a weapon of some sort. "Ava! Hi, how are you?" I said and Ava quickly turned to look at me. "Sweetheart! Hello, how was your trip?" Ava said. "Oh, it was wonderful, and I made a new friend I would like you to meet" I said, and Ava put down her hammer and leaned against the fence of her porch. "This is Ashleen, I met her while in Weatheroak" I said as Ashleen waved. "Well, aren't you just a social butterfly, hello Ashleen, I'm Ava" Ava said. "It's nice to meet you Ava," Ashleen said with a small smile. "Oh Emma, I have good news, but it'll be better if you go home to see it. It was all Nico's idea," Ava said, and I tilted my head. "Ok then we're going home to see what Nico did" I said, and Ashleen nodded.

And we did just that, we walked to my house to see Nico sitting on a hanging porch bench with Lilith. "What's going on here?" I asked and the two looked up. "Emma you're back!" Nico said excitedly. "Welcome home, how was your trip?" Lilith asked. "My trip was nice, and I got some documents for you" I said as I dug in my bag and pulled out the blue folder. "Lovely! Thank you so much for doing this Emma" Lilith said as she took the folder from me. "It's no problem," I said. "Hey Emma, who's your friend?" Nico asked. "You want to take a wild guess?" I asked and Nico laughed. "Magic huh" Nico said, and I nodded. "This is Ashleen, she's the fire girl" I said, and Nico smiled. "He read the books?" Ashleen asked. "Only one of them, but he has a good understanding of what's going on," I said. "It's nice to meet you Ashleen," Lilith said.

"Emma, you should go inside" Nico giggled, and Lilith started giggling too. "Why did you say it like that?" Lilith asked, still laughing. "What did you two do?" I asked and the two just beamed with excitement. Ashleen looked at me confused and I shrugged.

  I pushed open the door to see the house full of furnisher. "Did you guys do all of this?" I asked as we all walked in. "yep! We thought it would be nice" Nico said. "Yeah, we thought it would be rather nice to help you out and plus Fay wanted to help" Lilith said. "Thank you, guys this is Amazing," I said. Ashleen seemed content to look around the neat room. "This is lovely," Ashleen said quietly as she ran her hand over a table. "Glad you like it," Nico said. "I believe you two had a rather tiring trip, so we'll leave you be, Fay is upstairs somewhere if you need her" Lilith said as she grabbed Nico and started for the door. "Alright, thank you guys, I really appreciate it," I said.

Once the two left Ashleen started up the stairs and I followed after her. 'You're back' Fays voice rang through my head and Ashleen looked around confused. "Did you hear that?" Ashleen asked. "Yep, that was Fay, she communicates through our heads, I guess" I shrugged. "How fascinating," Ashleen said. Fay then walked through a door with a snowflake painted on it. "Hey Fay" I said. 'Who is this?' Fay asked. "My name is Ashleen," Ashleen said. 'I know that name,' Fay said as she cocked her head to the side. "Yes, your name sounds very familiar to me as well, but I can't tell why," Ashleen said. 'Well, it's nice to meet you, Nico suggested we have multiple beds in each room because he believes the five of us will reunite and so far, he's right; Fay said, and Ashleen nodded. "I guess I'll room with you then" Ashleen said as she walked into the room Fay just came from.

'How was your trip?' Fay asked, finally turning her attention to me. "It was fine, but did you feel anything strange at all while I was gone? I turned cold as ice for a bit" I asked, and Fay nodded. 'Yes, I felt sleepy, like all my energy was being drained from me but I quickly regained it' Fay said. "That might have been me, I got attacked and suddenly I was like an ice cube but so much colder" I said, and Fay nodded. 'That would explain the bandage, but I'm sure everything is alright' Fay said as she turned away. I peered into Fay's and Ashleen's room to see a lot of blue snowflakes and the window where Fay's bed was iced over. Fay had stuffed animals all lined up on her bed and seemed quite relaxed. Ashleen set her bag down on the floor beside a bed with a light orange blanket and sat down feeling the blanket with her hands.

I decided to find my room and when I opened the door, I saw a small bed pushed into the corner with a desk next to the door to the balcony. I set my bag on the chair and pulled out the three books I had. I looked outside and noticed the sun going down. "I need to sleep," I muttered as I flopped down on my bed. Sleep quickly consumed me.