My Hero?

   "The minutes become days, and the days become years! How long has it been?" Ophelia mumbled dramatically. She lay on her bed, face down, trying to cut herself off from the emptiness. 

   Now normally, Ophelia was fine with being alone. She had pleanty of things to keep herself happy. Each morning she would prepare breakfast for herself and Lissa, and on occasion, Deeda. Then she would often read, or sew, or work on one of her other projects, like a flute she carved herself, or a handmade clay ocarina, and then paint them to her hearts content. Eventually, she planned to learn to play them, but without Deeda to teach her, she could only admire them, imagining the sweet, sweet music they could play. 

   Recently Deeda's visits had become less and less frequent, as well as shorter, and the young princess was starting to suffer from the social isolation. Despite all her wondeful things, the girl could still grow very lonely. 

   "You know, it has only been about two hours." Another girl said. Too high pitched to be Deeda, and it was most certainly not Lissa, for squirrels couldn't talk. 

   Ophelia just moaned. She knew exactly who the voice belonged to. "Go away Fig!" 

   "Oh, you know very well I cannot do that Princess! Now, where are your manners. Shooing away your only company?"

   Fig wasn't company. She was a pest. "Fig, listen, your just a peice of my imagination. A very loudmouthed peice of my imagination." The princess sat back up, so that she was eye to eye with the fictional girl. "I can cause you to disappear, you know."

   "If you could, wouldn't you have by now?" There was a taunting look in Fig's forest green eyes.

   Ophelia sighed, not willing to fight with her own mind. "I swear, there is no one more irratating then you."

   "Princess!"

   "But I have been wrong before." The princess admitted. A boy was calling out for her. A boy by the name of William Hatchet. 

   Fig skipped around the princess, pointing to the door. "Oh, go see him Princess! He's such a nice boy, beautiful hair colour he has, such a wonderful combanation of brown and red." She giggled, as she ran her hands through her own thick auburn locks. "Lovely, lovely colour!" 
   
   "Now you keep quiet. He's going to think I'm absolutely crazy for talking to an imaginary girl." Ophelia swatted her hands at Fig, until the girl disappeared into thin air.

   "What is it now William?" Ophelia called, leaning out the window of her faded yellow cabin.  

   "The same as always your highness, I've to to fetch you, to bring you home, like a good knight should." William stated proudly. Ophelia took note that his voice had dropped considerably since the last time they'd met. He sounded like a brave adult now, but his appearance that other wise. He was such a scrawny boy, no bigger than most girls. 

   Ophelia sighed. "If that's all you want, then you should know my answer. I am not going with you." She rested her arms on the ledge, leaning her cheek in her hand. "Besides, you aren't even a real knight. You haven't a suit of armor, or chain mail, for that matter."

   "This may ruin your illusions Princess, but not all knights wear shining armor."

    "I could settle for scuffed armor, you know." She joked. To further irriate William, she yawned, a false sign that she was bored.  

    "Not all knights wear armor any armor." He corrected, trying to avoid her tormenting. 

    "The ones of Sanbura do."

    "Real men like the knights of Fransica do!"

    "Real men, ha!" She said sarcastically. "I won't be leaving with you today Will."
    

    "You can't stay in here forever!" The young boy said bluntly, putting his hands on his hips, as if he were telling a child that they couldn't do something. 

   "I can too!" Ophelia replied in a saucy tone. She left her window and ran out the door. "I won't, but I most certainly could! I have everything here!" The princess guestured proudly to her beautiful cavern. 

   She had made a good point. Everything in the cavern was like paradise. The sun poured in light, from mod morning to later afternoon, it shone brightly. The leaves of the thick trees provided shade, keeping the quaint little cabin set dead center of the stone ring cool during the hot summers, and warm during the icy winters. 

   William shook his head. "Princess, really? There must be something you don't have here."

   "Hmm, what don't I have?" Ophelia asked herself outloud, pacing in a circle around the scrawny boy. "Well, I don't have any quiet when you're harrassing me."

   William clenched his fist. He was growing more impatient with Ophelia each time he visited. This would have been the forty-second time he'd attempted to bring her home, by his count. "Do you not care about your poor stepmother? She's back in the castle, worried sick about you! It was hard enough to lose her husband, but to lose you?"

   It was just a ploy. Queen Analie, Ophelia knew very well that Ophelia was safe and out of harms way. Deeda had ensured it. Deeda had even gone to the extent of training the princess to see through such plans.

    "There is bound to be someone who will want you to leave, but you'll know better." Deeda had once said, as she introduced Ophelia to her new home. 

   "Leave me alone! Analie is well aware that I'm safe. She may not understand, but I need to stay!" Ophelia bit her lip. The thought of a sad, lonely Analie brought tears to her eyes, but she wouldn't allow William to know.  

   "Why do you need to stay?" This was the first time William had actually asked the reasoning behind the plan. Ophelia had figured he'd asked during his forty one visits before this, but he never had. 

   "For love." Was all Ophelia said, as she tried to compose herself. "That's all you need to know."

   A puzzled look crossed the boys face. "Love? Love for whom?"

    "T'is none of your concern!"

   William shrugged. "You'll have to come with me sooner or later."

   Ophelia shook her head, a taunting look crossing her face. "No, I really won't."

   "It's that ol' witch keeping you here, isn't it princess?" William asked, crossing his thin arms. "I wouldn't trust that woman even if my life depended on her. I especially wouldn't trust her if I was someone, like, oh, say, the Princess of Sanbura"

   William had gone to far. He could insult Ophelia's plan all he wanted, and mock her romantic ambitions, and call her crazy, but he would not speak so ill of Deeda and get away with it! 

   "You'd best leave Deeda out of this! She is the most trustworthy woman in all of Sanbura, in all the continent, in all the world!" Ophelia cried, stomping her foot with frustration.  

   "For what? What makes her so trustworthy?"

   Ophelia huffed, turning to her cabin. She could not tolerate another minute of William's questioning. "Good bye William!" She snapped. 

   "But Princess!"

   "I said good bye William!"

   The princess slammed her heavy wooden door behind her, causing the entire circular cabin to shake slightly. 

****************************************************

   "Well that was rude." Fig said, skipping beside she princess, who threw herself on the bed, shaking slightly, as if she were crying. "Princess? Are you alright?"

   "Mhat if e watt?" Ophelia sobbed into her pillow. 

   "Pardon?"

   "What if he's right!" She repeated, sitting up to face Fig. Her ivory skin had taken on a pink shade, and was drenched with tiny tears, that ran down her cheeks, diving down onto her violet dress, staining the expensive fabric. 

   "About Detendra?" Fig asked. It was quite clear that Fig had little affection for Deeda. She said her full name like it were a poison pin placed on her tongue. 

   Ophelia payed no attention to her. "I know Deeda's honest." The princess sighed, wiping away her tears. "Fig, I don't know any more. They are both on opposite sides of this, both dead set against the other... But they are both good people, they have good intentions! William only wants to bring me home, he doesn't know of Deeda's brilliant plan--"

   "Because you refuse to tell him."

   "But Deeda, Deeda, she knows what she's doing, she's knows it is going to work!" Ophelia stood up, quite proud of her idea. She ran over to her window, and pulled the blinds open. "Of course, neither is lying, they are both just wrong!"

   "You're going mad."

   "Perhaps." The princess admitted. "But aren't we all just a little bit mad." She reached up, and pulled a rope, letting a ladder drop down. With great care, she climbed the shakey rope, and pulled herself on to the indoor balcony above. 

   "Yes, but-- Ophelia! Sit still and listen!"   

   Ophelia stopped dead in her tracks. "What is it Fig?"

   Fig followed Ophelia up to the balcony, sat down, and let her legs dangle freely over the edge. "You've lost sight of yourself. Of who you are, because you've been on your own. You need to get out of here soon."

   A bright laugh slipped the princess's lips. "I don't, Fig, really, I like it here."

   "No, you don't. You're lying to herself."

   "No." Ophelia scoffed. "No I'm not."

   "Ophelia, there are two people in this situation who are lying."

   "And who are they?"

   "You should know."

   "Why?"

   "Because I'm a tiny piece of you silly." Fig said with a laugh. "I only know what you know."