**Note: As my story is still in the making, all names, places and events may be subject to change.**

**Another Note: The prelude to my story is below, if you haven't read it yet.**

Chapter 1 - Part 1

“Cressida, can you open the shutters?  I can’t see anything in this darkness,” Faeryn told her maidservant as she tried to dress in the early morning.  Cressida pulled the shutters back, revealing the prairie below the southeast tower bathed in a golden-warm glow.  Faeryn paused in what she was doing and walked over to the window, gazing out at the beautiful sight. 

            Cressida observed her new mistress with interest.  She had been serving Faeryn for almost three months, but the princess still surprised her.  If one observed her when she appeared at court, one would think that she was already a woman.  Faeryn dealt with her father’s councilors with such a noble bearing that people often mistook her for the queen.  But in private she was still a girl.  Here she was now, standing at the south window in her white under-dress, her long, wavy light-brown hair falling free, craning her head to try to get a glimpse of the western mountains.  At a moment like this the princess did not seem to be all of her sixteen years. 

            “My mistress, the view of the mountains would be better from the northwest tower,” Cressida suggested meekly.  She couldn’t quite understand the princess’s longing for the mountains, but then, she still could remember trying to get a view of the castle whenever her family went to town when she was little.  Perhaps it was the same sort of thing with the princess.  After all, it hadn’t been so long ago that she herself had been a young girl, and she still remembered what it felt like.  “We could go there as soon as you are dressed.”

            Faeryn turned and smiled at Cressida, but the smile was immediately followed by a sigh, and the regal princess that she was returned to her face a little as she spoke: 

            “I wish I could, Cressida, I wish I could, but I have a meeting with the chancellor today, and my father has made it plain that I must attend.  But perhaps another day.”  She sighed again, and the girl was back.  “You know, Cressida, I want to visit the mountains someday.  I want to see what lies beyond the first peaks.  I am tired of only looking at them.  But my father will not let me leave his court long enough to go anywhere near them.”

            “That may change soon,” Cressida said.  “You know that your Womanhood Ceremony is not that far away.  Perhaps your father will change his mind when that happens.”

            “I can only hope.”  Faeryn paused for a moment.  “Father wants me to learn more about managing a kingdom and stepping into the affairs of the outside world, but how can I do that if I am not in the outside world?”

            Cressida thought about that for a moment.  “Pardon my objection, my mistress, but perhaps it is better that you learn these things before you are introduced to the outside world, so that you will be ready.  My mother never let me go ten miles from my home while I was growing up, but in that time I learned how to serve, and that has brought me here, farther from home than I could have imagined at first.  I may not know much, my mistress, but I have learned that you don’t learn how to swim by jumping into deep water the first time, if you know what I mean.  Your time will come.”

            Faeryn looked out the window, her head resting on her closed fist, her eyes focused on the courtyard below.  She did not speak for a few moments.  “I suppose you are right,” she said at last.  “My governess did not teach me to embroider by starting me off on one of those large tapestries that hang in the Hall.  I suppose I shall have to be content with the small square of cloth I am given at the moment.”  She lifted her eyes as she saw a falcon that had been resting on the castle wall take off and fly far to the west.  She watched it ‘till it was out of sight. 

            “I still long to see the mountains, though,” she added quietly.  “I don’t think I could live my life and die never having seen them.”