The Crow and the Butterfly

A chirp, a snap, a whistle.

Hayden squinted her eyes, trying to block out the noises.

A light breeze brushed across her face, and the sound of rustling trees could be heard.

Hayden clutched one of her hands tighter against her sheets, only it didn’t feel like bed sheets.

It felt like…grass?

Hayden opened her eyes, expecting to see her two Avenged Sevenfold posters across the room. Instead, she was greeted with the sight of the outdoors.

Tall trees stood all around her, their branches extending towards the sky. Small songbirds fluttered carelessly through the sky, singing their beautiful melodies back and forth.

The wind blew, harsher this time than the last. Dirt and dust flew up from the ground and pelted Hayden in the face. She coughed and brushed it off of herself, stopping when she felt where her Avenged Sevenfold shirt should be.

In its place was a long, simple looking dress with a sweetheart neckline. Patches of different fabrics, carelessly stitched together, lined the top half. The bottom half was a plain, dirty looking green and extended halfway down her calves.

Hayden scrunched her face in confusion, wondering what was going on. Then it hit her.

She must be dreaming.

It sure didn’t feel like a dream. Hayden hardly ever remembered her dreams, but when she did, they weren’t ever this vivid. It was like she could control her thoughts and actions as if she were awake, nothing like a dream.

Shaking her thoughts away and deciding to believe it actually was just a dream, she looked around her, observing her surroundings to a greater extent. She was in a small clearing in what appeared to be the middle of some woods. Off in the distance she thought she spotted a large stone structure, bearing a similar presence to that of a castle.

She couldn’t help but smile a little. It was almost like a fairytale.

Hayden froze when she heard a strong rustling in the nearby bushes. She figured it was probably just an animal, but to be safe she jogged over to a tree and hid behind it, trying not to make too much noise in her dirty white flats.

She knelt down, hoping not to rip this dress of hers. Apparently, in this dream, she wasn’t exactly rich. It didn’t appear that way, at least. She looked like those poor homeless people who lived in the bus stops downtown.

Peeking around the tree, Hayden caught sight of what looked to be a sword just inches away from her face. Her eyes widened, her thoughts immediately pessimistic. She was going to get killed in her own dream.

At least it was just a dream.

“Who goes there?!”

Hayden opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She was too distracted by the giant sword about to slice her nose off.

The sword went away and the owner took a step back. Hayden was still staring in shock at the air where the sword was moments ago.

“My apologies, miss.”

Hayden slowly lifted up her eyes, taking a moment to see what this person was wearing. Judging by the tights and the small skirt like-thingy, she almost thought it was a girl, but the voice told her otherwise.

“Need some help, miss?”

He had such a deep sounding voice, and it sounded familiar to Hayden. She couldn’t place where she had heard it, though.

She could see the outstretched hand from the corner of her eye and cautiously lifted up her left hand to put in the stranger’s. With an abnormally strong grip, he pulled her up to her feet, making her stumble a bit. He easily steadied her as she nearly fell against his chest.

He chuckled, “Sorry, miss. Sometimes I don’t know my own strength.”

Hayden stared at his chest. He was a bit tall. His muscles, or what she could see through his thin shirt and some kind of thick, animal-made armor. He kind of looked like Shrek, only not green. And not an ogre.

She hoped.

“That’s…alright,” she replied softly.

“You don’t sound like you’re from around here, miss. Whereabouts are you from?”

Hayden was still trying to place his voice. The way his words were spoken was different, but his actual voice was oddly familiar…

“I’m…not sure,” she said. She honestly had no idea where she came from. In this dream world, anyway.

“Do you need help finding your way back to your home, miss?”

Hayden tilted her head to look him in the face, not realizing that he had gently pushed her a safe distance away, yet still slightly close. What a gentleman.

Her mouth dropped open when she saw who exactly was standing in front of her.

“Are you alright, miss?”

She coughed uncomfortably, “Um, yeah. I’m fine.”

He smiled, dimples showing through, “So would it be alright if I escorted you home, miss?”

Hayden played with a stray string on her dress, “Y-yeah. That would be fine. And you don’t have to call me miss.”

She had no idea how she could possibly speak normally in this situation. The only reason she could come up with was that it was because she knew it was a dream. Why not take advantage of the opportunity?

Even if he was talking kind of weird…

“Then what should I call you?” he asked.

Hayden straightened out her shoulders, unintentionally sticking her chest out a bit, “You can call me Hayden.”

His eyes went down to her chest, quickly averting upwards as if nothing had happened. She wondered if he would do that in real life too.

“Nice to meet you, uh…Hayden.”

Hayden smiled a bit. He sounded a little more…normal now.

“And what’s your name?”

She already knew the answer, she was sure, but decided to ask anyway so as to not be suspicious.

His dimples showed again, “Sir Matthew Charles Sanders, Miss Hayden.”

He bowed courteously, and Hayden found it right to do to same.

“Nice to meet you, Matt.”

He looked at her, confused, “Where you’re from, do you usually refer to people by their first name and first name only?”

Hayden nodded, “Yep.”

Matt laughed slightly, “Such strange language, you use. Ah, well, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”

Hayden was suddenly hit with déjà vu. She stumbled back a step, the story she told Lily flooding back into her brain.

“So Sir Matthew, whom Hayden didn’t know was a knight just yet, told her just how weird he thought she spoke. It was nothing like he had heard before.”

“M.Shadows wouldn’t really speak like that, would he, Hay?”

“No, Lil, he wouldn’t. But keep in mind this is a fairytale. Things happen.”

“Oh, yeah! So go on! I want to hear what she says!”

“Alright, alright. Anyway…”

“Are you okay, Miss Hayden?”

Hayden took a deep breath, “I’m fine. And I’m not a miss, just so you know.”

Matt let go of his grip on Hayden, taking a step back, “My apologies. I didn’t realize that you were a mistress. You looked a little young.”

“Hayden, what’s a mistress?”

“In this sense, a mistress means the head woman of the house, kind of like Mom. But…um…it can also mean a girl who…you know…gets around…a little…”

“A slut?”

“Lily! Don’t talk like that! You’re nine!”

“You do, Mom does, Dad does. Why can’t I?”

“Just…do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?”

“Yeah, I do!”

“Okay, so…”

Hayden’s eyebrows shot up, “I’m not a mistress! I’m still a virgin!”

Matt looked confused, yet slightly amused, “That’s not what I meant by a ‘mistress’, Miss-I mean…uh…Hayden.”

Hayden flushed in embarrassment, “It wasn’t?”

Matt laughed, “No. I meant you were the head of a household. I didn’t know that you were married.”

“I’m not.”

Matt smiled, “Well, then, there’s no problem with me escorting you, is there?”

Hayden shook her head, “Not at all.”

He extended his arm, which Hayden linked hers through. She was enjoying her dream so far, and it was pretty entertaining. If this dream followed the storyline she told her sister, then she already knew what would happen.

Too bad she couldn’t remember the ending…only a few parts of the story were clear to her, and the ending was not one of them.

As he cleared the path for her and allowed her to walk through, as a gentleman would, she couldn’t help but let herself wonder about him. In her tale, she hadn’t given many details, and she was curious if there were details in this dream that even she did not know.

She turned her head to Matt, “So, if you don’t mind me asking, where are you from?”

Matt kept a mostly serious expression, his eyes alert to his surroundings, “I’m from the Kingdom of Sevenfold.”

Hayden wasn’t surprised, “And where are you taking me, then?”

“The nearest township is Burnley, in the Kingdom of Agony. I assume that’s where you’re from,” he said, giving her a quick side glance.

“That sounds kind of…depressing,” Hayden noted.

Matt shrugged, “The king and queen aren’t nice people, I hear, but the princess sure is.”

“Little did Hayden know that Sir Matthew was actually talking about her. Still, she wanted to hear about this princess and learn more about this Kingdom of Agony, as well as the Kingdom of Sevenfold.”

“What can you tell me about your kingdom? And mine, I guess.”

Matt shrugged, “There’s not much to mine. We don’t have a king or queen, per se, like yours. There are five families that rule over it, mine being one of them.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Not really.”

Hayden decided to save that conversation for another day, if she ever saw him again.

“So what about mine?” she asked.

Matt scratched his chin, “Well, from what I’ve heard, it’s not a pleasant place. Burnley is a remote town on the very edge of the kingdom. There’s a big, old, nasty castle at the very highest point of town. The Princess of Agony is going to be put there by her parents, so they say.”

Hayden bit her lip, “Princess of Agony, huh?”

“Yes. But I hear her title doesn’t suit her at all. From what my friends say, she’s a rather kind and gentle young lady. Would never hurt a fly.”

Hayden released her arm from Matt’s, not feeling the need to latch onto him.

“One last thing,” she said, “you never said why you were around here.”

Matt nodded, “Yes, fair Hayden. You see, I heard of the princess being trapped and came over, since my kingdom is the neighboring kingdom, to save her, like a knight should.”

“A knight, huh?” Hayden said. She could think of a few other flattering titles for ‘Sir M.Shadows’.

“Yes. I enlisted the help of my four closest friends, but as you can see, they’re no where to be found. I was looking for them when I found you, actually.”

Hayden nodded, “Right.”

After a few moments of somewhat awkward silence, Hayden cleared her throat.

“So…uh…how long until we get to this Burnley place?”

Matt looked thoughtful, “Oh, I’d say, another day, possibly? By foot it takes a tad longer.”

Hayden sighed. This would be a long walk.

At least she had Shads to admire all day.