As The Clock Strikes Twelve [6]

Chapter Six

‘Childhood Friends’

Sheanna was surprised to find that Sedare was a very good listener. He said not a word the entire time she told her story, and he didn’t take his ball out of his pocket once, as if showing respect for her.

When Sheanna had finished telling her tale Sedare looked up at the sky, abstract from the rest of the world, as if letting her story sink in. Sheanna had told him pretty much everything . . . except for her real name. She realized that she probably had to keep her identity hidden; after all, no one else used the name they used in the other world, did they?

Sheanna had, of course, spoken as highly of the other world as she could of, and she told him a few of it’s advantages; she said that there were 'horses' that went very, very fast and which could hold maybe five people in them; she told him of the ‘birds’ that could fly high in the air, higher than any bird could go which could hold maybe a hundred people; and of course she had told him of the device that allowed you to talk to other people no matter how far you were from them. That was a lot of news to sink in.

When he finally tore his eyes away from the sky, the bit of sky which peeked through the trees gracefully, there was a large smile on his face. He took his ball out of his pocket and looked at it, turning it around in his hands. Finally he spoke.

“Well, Princess,” he said, “you make very realistic stories.”

“It’s not a story!” Sheanna felt her heart drop. She had really expected more of Sedare, even though she had only known him for a few minutes. “It’s true.”

What was she to expect? That he would believe all the stories of the other land? But then a thought came to her, and immediately she went digging through her pockets.

“What are you doing?” he asked, leaning against the tree he was standing near casually.

As Sheanna searched, she accidentally revealed the rock clutched in her hand. “What was that for?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Sheanna murmured, throwing the rock back into the forest. Then she pulled something out of her pocket, something small and silver, and she looked triumphant.

Sedare gave the device a curious look. “Princess, what is that?” he asked. Sedare sat down on the ground and beckoned Sheanna to sit near him.

“It’s a cell phone,” replied Sheanna, walking over to him and sitting down next to him. He looked at Sheanna carefully as if asking her if he could have the cell phone, but then just slowly took it from her.

“Cell phone.” He repeated the word as if it were some magic spell as he looked over it, turning it in his hand. “The device that allows you to talk to other people, no matter where they are?”

Sheanna smiled. He was speaking these words as if they weren’t from some foolish tale as he had before, but as if they were the truth. “Yes. Want me to call someone?”

“And they’ll hear you from out here?” asked Sedare.

Sheanna nodded, still smiling, and turned on her cell phone. She decided to call Tessa, and as soon as she had gotten the number in she pressed speaker.

Though the sounds of the cell phone dialing the number and connecting to Tessa seemed pretty regular to her, Sedare looked at the phone as if it were some magic device that was set on hurting him. Sheanna refused to smile too broadly, for she didn't want Sedare to think she was silently making fun of him (though she was).

Just when Sheanna was getting tired of waiting and was about to hang up Tessa answered. “Hello?” Her voice seemed to echo through the forest.

“Tessa! Hi!”

“Oh, hey Sheanna!”

"Hi!" cried Sheanna brightly.

"Hey! Guess what happened at school today?" Before Sheanna could stop her, Tessa went on a full-out description of every little thing that had happened that day, some of which Sheanna didn't really care.

She gave a helpless glance to Sedare, but he returned it with confusion. It was only when she had spoken that Sheanna realized the probelm. "Sheanna?" he repeated the name softly, a question in his eyes.

Oops.

“ . . . and you know what, Sheanna?"

Sheanna didn't respond. Even though she had already confirmed once that Tessa called her Sheanna, perhaps he would forget about that if she didn't do it a second time.

"Um . . . Sheanna?"

"Who?" asked Sheanna innocently.

“What? You’re acting like you’ve never heard your own name before!” Tessa gave a loud laugh that sounded almost empty and ended somewhat abruptly.

Way to keep your identity hidden.

“What?” Sedare said in a whisper.

“Um . . . Tessa, I’m going to have to call you back,” Sheanna said, looking down at her hands helplessly and turning red.

What have I done? Sheanna thought, but she honestly didn't even know. Is it a big deal to keep your idenity hidden? Did I just do something terribly illegal? Is Miss going to be mad? What about Sedare? She looked at his face. It looked sealed, guarded, dark. Sheanna looked away quickly, scared of him for a second.

“But you called me!” Tessa screamed.

"Sorry. That was a mistake." Sheanna froze. She definately hadn't meant it in that way.

"A mistake?" said Tessa's voice darkly. It seemed to echo more than ever. "What are you calling a mistake?"

Without another word, Sheanna closed her phone.

It was silent for a long time after she hung up. The silence echoed in the forest more than Tessa’s voice had, and it was only broken when Sedare moved to stand up. The echoing of Tessa's voice was replaced by how loud the twigs sounded at Sedare stood up. Sheanna tried to creep up out of her seated position, but the twigs seemed to groan extra loud, just for her.

Sedare had his back to Sheanna. He gazed at the sky again. For a split second Sheanna felt as if he needed to discuss everything with the sky, every word he was going to say, every thought he was going to think. He seemed to even hear her thoughts, though, because he turned abruptly and gave her such a dark look Sheanna turned red.

Such a look he was giving her! Sheanna didn’t know what to say or where to look.

When he finally spoke she had wished she had spoken first, even if she had only said sorry. “You . . . you lied to me?” he asked her. “About your name? What a foolish thing to lie about!”

“I didn’t lie!” Sheanna’s voice was much too sharp, and she turned guiltly red. “You asked me what they called me. They call me Day Dreamer here.”

Suddenly, and quite unexceptedly, a smile stole over his face. Sheanna smiled shyly back.

“Smart girl,” he said. “You found a loophole. Fine, you get a free ticket.”

“A free ticket? For what?” Sheanna looked him over carefully as if deciding whether to trust him or not.

“A free ticket to be mad at me.”

“Oh, so I only get to be mad at you once before I have to start paying you?”

“That’s right.”

Sheanna laughed.

“What, do you think just because you’re the Princess I’ll give you some sort of discount?” Though Sedare’s voice was serious there was a smile on his face the entire time.

“Could a discount be arranged?” asked Sheanna, smiling as well.

“Nope. Because like it or not, Princess, I’m not one of those people who will throw myself down a well for you. And if you try to lock me up for saying such a thing I’ll only escape.”

“Lock you up? Well, that can be arranged.”

The pair of them laughed for a while, and when their laughs died down the forest seemed dangerously silent.

“So . . .” Sedare tossed his ball up in the air. “Why are you in my forest on this fine afternoon, Princess?”

"Your forest?" asked Sheanna, smiling.

"Yes. My forest. Didn't you hear? I bought it a few years back."

"Oh really?"

"Yes."

"I thought this was my forest, actually. Part of my kindgom and what-not."

"I was here first," he responded, mimicking his voice like a child's.

Sheanna laughed.

Sedare grinned. "Okay, okay. Back to my question. Why are you here, Princess?"

Sheanna smiled, but only for a moment. “I’m going along with my friend to help her mother.”

Sedare shook his head, a large smile on his face. “Princess, though you seemed to be very descriptive in your story, in general you’re just plain confusing. Mind using a little friend called description from now on when you’re speaking to me?”

Sheanna smiled again, and looked at her feet to hide her smile. When she spoke it looked as if she might be talking to the ground.

“Of course. I’m helping my friend, who was the Princess of the West while I was away. Her name is Victoria. We’re going over to the East to help her mother so she won’t be overthrown. Everyone seems to listen to Victoria, so we hope we can do it.” Victoria. She had rarely called Vanessa that, and the name seemed so odd on her tongue.

Sedare began to laugh. “Princess! Don’t you have anything better to do then to go and help your friend do something as pointless as try to stop something that’s already happening?”

Sheanna looked up as if a puppeteer had pulled the string to her head. “Something that’s already happening?”

Sedare nodded. “We’re overthrowing her today. Well, the people of the East are; they invited me, but I didn’t really see any trouble in going. They could take care of it themselves. Yes—” Sedare looked up at the sky “—they probably would have already set out by now.”

Sheanna's face and heart dropped. What would happen if they overthrew her? Sheanna had read books of what the townspeople did to other people they didn’t particularly like, especially if they had a large role in the town; and Sheanna closed her eyes as if to block out that thought, even though it was in her head.

How could Sedare talk so carelessly about it?

When Sedare saw the anger on Sheanna’s face a small smile broke onto his face. “Are you about to use your ticket, Princess?” he asked softly.

Sheanna, though, didn’t ever give him a proper answer. “How could you talk about it as if it’s just some party, some gathering? What the townspeople can do is vicious, terrible and vicious. How could you be so fine with it all?”

Sedare laughed. “You really couldn’t have come from this world, Princess! This world is very vicious, very dangerous. I should know.”

Sheanna looked him over again and fell silent. This world is very vicious, very dangerous. That wasn’t at all how she imagined her fairytale world. She imagined it happy, and she imagined liked being called Princess and being looked up to. But she felt odd with it all.

“It’s not what you thought it would be, is it?” asked Sedare as if he could read her mind. “Yes, the grass is always greener on the other side until you get to the other side, isn’t it?”

Sheanna nodded. When she was little she had sometimes heard that expression and never really completely understood. But now she understood completely.

“So you live on the East side?”

“Oh, no, I don’t. I just happen to be friends with people from the East side.” Sedare slid down to the ground and poked it with a stick.

“So you live on the West side?”

“No.”

“The North Side?”

“Why don’t I put your curious mind to ease and take you to where I live?”

“Well . . . I really should be getting back to camp.” Besides, she thought, I still barely know you. It could all be a trap, couldn’t it?

“C’mon, it’s not far away. I’ll even take you back to your camp afterwards. What do you say?”

Sheanna bit her lip. What should she say? Oh, I'm sorry, I don't want to come with you. You're a stranger. You're probably some villain looking for little girls wandering the forest like me. I mean, all the stories have villains in it; and isn't this world just like a story, a disastrous story?

Sheanna wasn't sure yet, but the world didn't seem like a story to her at the moment.

"Fine," she finally said. "Do you live far from here?"

Sedare laughed. "No. Oh, no, I live very close."

The two of them trudged through the forest for a while, and every step further away from the path made Sheanna glance anxiously behind her shoulder. Maybe she should of let Mikel accompany her after all.

No! she thought quickly. If Mikel is accompanying anyone it should be his daughter, his blood related daughter who loves him, not some princess who only just learned his name a few hours ago.

It didn't take as long as Sheanna had anticipated to come to Sedare's home. He finally pushed through two oak trees so tall they might of reached the sky, so thick that Sheanna could barely see the sky, and revealed a clearing.

The small clearing was surrounded by unusually large trees. Sheanna had believed that the trees in the woods were large, but after seeing these trees the others paled in comparison.

There was barely anything in the clearing; only a bag that looked as if it were a potato sack and a pink and black blanket that looked as if it had been knitted long, long ago. It was very large and certainly looked comfy, but it looked so lonesome lying on the forest floor, as if it had been forgotten.

"This is your home?" Sheanna couldn't keep the pity from creeping in her voice. Sedare shot her a slightly confused look and she glanced guiltily at her feet.

"What do you mean, 'This is your home'? Oh, right! You've lived in a castle all your life, haven't you?"

Sheanna opened her mouth to shoot back a rude remark but then bit her lip. He was right. Even before she had become a princess she lived in a mansion.

"You can't tell me you don't like it?" For a second Sheanna thought Sedare was kidding, until she saw the way he looked around. How lovingly he glanced at the place! As if he were looking at the most beautiful palace in the world. Then he caught Sheanna's glance.

"Please don't tell me you're a stuck-up princess," he moaned. "C'mon, look around you! What do you see?"

So Sheanna looked around her, really looked around her. And what she saw amazed her.

Sure, he had only a few possessions, but look at the beauty he lived in! The trees were so amazing; their dark red bark seemed to almost clash yet match simultaneously with the dark green leaves. A few brightly clothed birds flew out of the trees, their songs even heard after their wings couldn't be spotted. The sound filled the air fuller than any song, expect this song was natural, not a song that a minstrel had been working on years to play.

There was also another sound that couldn't be really be explained, but Sheanna identified it as nature. The sound of the wind rustling through the leaves--the cold, piercing wind--the sound of the trees itself breathing, their own hearts beating, as if they were as a much as a human as Sheanna was.

When Sedare realized she knew what he had been talking about he smiled. "Now close your eyes," he said.

So Sheanna did fearlessly. Before she had been anticipating seeing where he was living, being taken away from the path, but now she liked it, like it was a once in a lifetime moment that only Sedare could have given her.

"Compare this with your castle, your home."

Sheanna didn't compare it with her home in this world, but her home. Her home in the real world.

She remembered the large house; sure, it smelled like a new car, but she remembered the bright green grass. Usually people in her world loved bright green grass, but now it seemed to pierce her memories, and it looked ugly to her. She remembered how wet and slippery it was, and how the soil was muddy and disgusting after the hill had been touched by water. Sure, there was a forest around the mansion, but a road could be heard, the honking of horns, the shouts of people, and occasionally the sound of the train going over the tracks.

After seeing this world, even only a taste of it, her real world seemed unreal.

Sheanna scrunched up her nose as if she had smelled something bad as she opened her eyes. Sedare looked satisfied.

"So? What do you think of my home now, Princess?"

Sheanna smiled and looked down at the floor to hide it.

"I love it. It's beautiful."

"Yes, she is." Sedare leaned against the tree and looked at it lovingly as if they were talking specifically talking about it. "I wouldn't trade it for the world."

Sheanna smiled again and looked around.

The two of them gazed at his home, just gazed, for a long time. Finally Sedare touched Sheanna's arm and jerked her out of the fantasy going along in her head; where she was with Sedare and he was a prince, and she lived in this home with Miss and Vanessa and all her friends, without any maids or anyone calling her 'ma'am'...

"Princess? We probably should be getting you back to your oh-so precious camp. The guards must of nearly broken their necks by now looking for you."

"Hm? Oh, yes, of course." Sheanna followed Sedare back, a bit absentmindedly, still thinking of her fantasy.

Sheanna was jerked out of her fantasy when she came back to the path. A few guards were walking around searching for something in vain, and among those guards was Mikel.

"Princess!" His voice rang above the other guards' whispers, and turned quickly towards her. "Where have you been? I told you not to go out alone!" In one swift moment Mikel made a motion to the guards and pulled Sheanna away from Sedare. Immediately the guards circled Sedare and took their swords out of their sheathes, pointing them at Sedare threateningly.

"Hey, hey!" Sedare called, holding his hands up and eyeing the weapons uneasily. "Easy there. You could poke an eye out!"

"Which is the aim," one of the men muttered, putting his sword up to Sedare's neck.

"Stop that!" Sheanna felt her voice shake more than she intended. "He's not a bad guy."

"How do you know that, Princess?" questioned Mikel. He had taken his sword out too, and looked at it lovingly as if telling it who it would get to kill next. "What lies has he told you?"

"He hasn't told me any lies!" Sheanna defended fiercely.

Nobody seemed to believe her. The man with his sword on Sedare's neck slowly pushed it until a bead of blood appeared on his neck.

Sheanna quickly realized that nobody would actually lower their swords if she told them the truth, so she said, "He's an old friend of mine! We've known each other forever. I was so fortunate to stumble over him in the forest." The guards exchanged looks so Sheanna added as an afterthought, "I've missed him tons. C'mon, tell them, Sedare! Aren't we old friends?" She gave him a warning look.

But she didn't need to. He seemed like a born liar. "Oh, yes, we've known each other forever, it seems! How lucky was I to go out today? I've missed my old friend Day Dreamer, and now to hear that she's been given her throne! Outstanding news, really. She completely deserves it, I believe. And then she and I were just walking around, catching up. She was telling me all about her beautiful castle . . . I'm quite jealous, really. She promised me she would take me there soon--"

"God, you two have more words between you than the castle's library!" snapped Mikel. "Fine, if he's truly an old friend of Day Dreamer, lower your swords. For now." The guards slowly, and reluctantly, lowered their swords. "But don't you even consider making one slip up, boy, or we have license to your head." Mikel added it almost in an afterthought, but gave him a glare that showed his power over him.

"I wouldn't dream of it!" replied Sedare, touching his neck where the sword had grazed it. As the guards walked away they shot Sedare a look, and he returned with an equally hostile look.

"Princess, we're going to tell Victoria we've found you. Then we'll set out, alright?" Mikel looked first at Sheanna, then gave a glare at Sedare.

"Sure," replied Sheanna. "I'll stay here till we're ready to set out."

"Careful," Mikel warned in a murmur, and walked after the other guards.

"Thank you, Princess," said Sedare, looking at his finger and wiping it on his pants. "How can I ever repay you, Princess?"

"Stop calling me Princess." Sheanna didn't mean her voice to be so sharp, but was not ashamed.

"You're really going to waste such a favor on that? I pretend I'm your friend so my neck will be spared another day if I don't call you Princess? Well! Aren't I a lucky fellow?"

Sheanna looked down at her feet. "Come with me."

He looked up wondrously. "What?"

Sheanna looked back at Sedare. "Well! We pretended that you were my friend! And after putting that act on, how will they ever believe us if we tell them you're not coming with me?"

Sedare smiled and shook his head. "Poor naive Princess. We can just tell them I'm busy or something."

"Too busy to hang out with your 'old friend'? Come on, Sedare! Admit it sounds unbelievable!"

"It sounds unbelievable," said Sedare, but sarcasm hung on to his words.

Sheanna sighed. "You're honestly telling me you have something better to do?"

"I'll check my schedule." Sedare looked up at the sky as if thinking.

"You'll go get your things and meet me back here in a few minutes?" asked Sheanna, clapping her hands together.

"Yes, Princess." He gave a low bow, so low it was almost mocking.

"I thought I told you not to call me Princess."

Laughing, Sedare walked off.

------

It seemed to take a painfully long time for Sedare to return, and Sheanna didn’t let her mind figure out why she had felt so worried about him. Didn’t he live in the forest for a while? Of course he wouldn’t get eaten by a bear, she told herself.

She and Vanessa had talked for a while, but surprisingly Vanessa hadn’t asked her any questions about Sedare; but maybe that was only because she hadn’t known yet. Sheanna kept a calm face, hiding her true fear underneath her serene expression, hidden so deep that it might have been invisible if not for the very real pang in her heart every time it beat.

And though she hadn’t believed anything had happened to Sedare (or rather, that’s what she told herself), her heart lifted at the sight of him, and the relief was evident on her face.

Sedare walked through the clearing, and upon seeing Vanessa he bowed low. “Princess Victoria,” he said in a humbled voice, “what an honor!”

But Sheanna saw through it; and maybe she was the only one. She saw beneath his bow a scowl, and when he straightened up and looked at her Sheanna thought she could see a flash of loathe cross his face.

But Vanessa didn’t notice. “Pleased to meet you, sir. What is your name?”

“They call me Sedare,” he said, and winked at Sheanna when he caught her looking his way. Sheanna turned red.

“Sedare! What a lovely name!” Vanessa’s voice sounded more curious than ever. “Not to sound disappointed to meet you, Sedare, but why are you here?”

“Oh, I’m going along with Princess Day Dreamer and you to help your mother.”

“Is this so?” Vanessa raised an eyebrow and looked at Sheanna as if to ask, Do you know of this plan of his?

Sheanna nodded in response.

“How did you two meet?” asked Vanessa, looking at one from the other curiously.

Sedare winked at Sheanna again. “Childhood friends.”

Oh no. Sheanna closed her eyes to block out the scene. Please, tell me he didn’t just say that. Tell me that those words were an imagination, and when I open my eyes all of this will have been a dream, just a silly dream that I can tell my children.

But when she opened her eyes, much to her dismay, the scene was still in front of her. She felt like she was only watching what was happening or reading a book; as if she had no control over the disaster slowly forming.

Vanessa raised an eyebrow. “Childhood friends?”

“That’s right,” confirmed Sedare in a strong, bold voice. “We’ve been friends forever, haven’t we, Sheanna?”

Sheanna was too scared to speak. She tried to, but her tongue felt like a rock, and no words came out of her mouth.

Just then Mercy came out of the woods and looked at the three of them, terrified. Her eyes lingered on Sedare for a long time before she spoke, and while she spoke she looked at Sedare, as if talking to him.

“Princess Victoria, the men need your help with packing up your belongings. Apparently they can’t find something of yours.” She slowly and cautiously tore her eyes away from Sedare, and looked at the person whom her words were meant for.

Perfect timing. Couldn’t have planned it any better myself.

“Fine.” Vanessa shot Sheanna a look, a look that said, ‘We’ll talk later’. She sometimes had given that look to Sheanna in the hallway when they were having an argument that couldn’t be discussed in the hall with prying ears, ears that converted the words to their mouth to tell everyone in the school of what had happened. Sheanna looked at her feet, turning red than ever, as Vanessa passed by her and after Mercy into the woods.

“What’s wrong?” Sedare asked as soon as they had left. “Why didn’t you back up our story?”

Sheanna’s tongue still didn’t work.

“Is there something wrong?” He sounded slightly concerned. “Tell me, what’s wrong?”

Sheanna didn’t tell him.

Sheanna wanted to ask him something so they weren’t standing in dumb silence, but she could think of nothing of importance to ask him. The only thing she could think to ask him was, What took you so long to get your belongings? but she didn’t see that of any importance whatsoever.

It seemed even more painful waiting for Vanessa to return. Not only because of the silence that weighed on her heart more than hate-stricken words, but because of her fear. Her lie had released an avalanche of destruction.

See, Sheanna? This is why we were taught when we were young not to lie. Sheanna bit her lip. Had she done wrong in trying to save Sedare’s life, or had she done more wrong in lying? Or had she done the worst harm in not telling Sedare that Vanessa was her closest friend? She couldn’t decide.

But she could agree on one thing; this was a disaster.

Finally the guards brought the horses back around. To add to Sheanna’s disappointment, Sedare confirmed he knew how to ride horses well and didn’t need anyone to drive him.

Sheanna shouldn’t of cared that he wouldn’t be riding with her, but something in her heart made her want him to, more than anything. It was all she could do from screaming out, “Ride with me, Sedare!” She bit her lip so hard it bled.

What had happened to all the merriment she had felt only hours before, riding a horse down this very trail? It had disappeared. What would Vanessa say to her, what would she do to her for lying?

Perhaps it was just because they were in this vicious world that Sheanna wondered what Vanessa was going to do. Sometimes Vanessa had cried out with hate in her voice, "If I could, I would whip you with a horse's whip!" She had immediately apologized, but she had still said it.

Sheanna's eyes scanned around. She didn't see any horse's whips, only swords and crossbows--and that scared her more.

Every step the horse took closer to their destination made the fear worse. Sheanna had never, ever felt so terrible riding a horse before, and she prayed she never would again.

Night began to fall and one of the guards asked, “Princess Victoria, shall we stop now? If we keep on riding, we can run into bandits.”

Vanessa’s pause killed Sheanna. They couldn’t stop now! Sheanna couldn’t deal with Vanessa yelling at her now.

“No,” Vanessa said, and Sheanna felt relief wash over her. “No, let’s go a little further, till we find a nice camping ground.”

Sheanna prayed they never found one.