Chapter One
In Which We are Introduced to the Story
Once upon a time (all the best fairy tales start like that, my friends) there were three children named Arnesse, Claralinda, and Christopher. This story is about something that happened to them when they were quite grown up but, like so many stories, the beginning of it it is a lot farther back than anyone realized at the time.
Christopher was a prince who loved his family very much. It was because he loved his family that he was able to do something remarkably brave. But that is what Love does, my friends. It makes us braver and stronger than we are without it.
Claralinda was a very beautiful princess but, I'm sorry to say, she was quite vain. This may not have been entirely her fault. Her parents had longed for a child in vain for so long that when they were lucky enough to have one they found that they could deny her nothing. Of course, my friends, you know that it is not at all good for a child to be spoiled by their parents. It is even worse for a child to be spoiled by an entire kingdom. But Claralinda was. So instead of being a delight to those around her (for Claralinda was as clever and talented as she was beautiful) the princess was truly a pain.
Arnesse was an ordinary girl who lived with her parents and what sometimes seemed like and entire village of brothers and sisters (but was really just seven) on the edge of the forest that marked the border between Claralinda's father's Kingdom of Villanova and Christopher's father's Kingdom of Utrecht. But we will discover, my friends, that Arnesse is not quite as ordinary as she seems.
The Forest was huge, dense, and more that a little bit magical. It was almost completely undisturbed by the peoples of Villanova and Utrecht. Mapmakers in Villanova would assure you that the Forest was part of their kingdom while those in Utrecht would insist that the Forest belonged to them. Everyone else recognized the fact that, in reality, the Forest didn't belong to anybody. Neither country had need of lumber from it as that land was full of forests that were not magical and therefore much safer to chop down. Because of its reputation for being full of strange, mysterious, magical things very few citizens of either kingdom lived on its borders, much less in it. There were, however, a great deal of inhabitants of the Forest, even if they weren't, strictly speaking, what you and I might call people. That is to say, they weren't human.
All in all, it was a wonderful place to grow up on the edge of, even if it did mean you didn't get to know many actual human people. Arnesse liked it. It was an enchanted forest and so its inhabitants were, for the most part, enchanted themselves, or had been enchanted, or were likely to enchant you if you weren't careful, or at the very least they knew a great deal more about enchantments and magic than the average person. And nearly all of the animals living in the Forest could speak in a way that you or I or Arnesse could understand. (All animals can speak to each other and understand just fine but humans have trouble understanding them.) Arnesse had a good many friends and acquaintances among the animals of the Forest and even knew a few of the dwarves, gnomes and elves that were brave or foolish enough to venture out of the Forest's heart.
Arnesse's best friend was a frog who lived in a small pond near Arnesse's house in the summers and in a large pothole in the floor of Arnesse's bedroom in the winter. Arnesse suspected that he was one of the denizens of the forest that had not always been in the shape he was now because he was extraordinarily long-lived (for a frog) and he refused to tell her his name. She tried everything she could think of to find out (including resorting to calling him Pickles which nearly always worked on her younger brother, Benny, when he refused to tell her something) but was unsuccessful. Despite this they were very good friends and Arnesse couldn't think of anyone in the world that she loved as much as Pickles, besides her family. She'd known Pickles since she was ten, which was even longer than she'd know the twins and Benny, who'd been born when she was eleven and thirteen respectively.
When Arnesse was sixteen she was sent to The City (the capital, and only, city of Villanova) to live with her aunt. Her parents believed that it is not good for a girl to spend all her life around her family without meeting other people; that she would enjoy meeting people her own age, going to parties, making friends; and that having a job of her own would be good for her. Arnesse liked her aunt and didn't mind the people or her job but missed the forest. Most of all she missed Pickles.
When Arnesse was eighteen the husbnad of Duchess she worked for died and the Duchess, whose name was Helga, moved out of her house in the City to take up residence in the Royal Castle. Duchess Helga was a kind, round, matronly woman who was quite fond of Arnesse and, despite her age, really didn't need Arnesse's help very often. She encouraged Arnesse to make friends with the young ladies and gentlemen at the castle and often introduced her as "my lovely niece" at parties and events. It was because of Duchess Helga that Arnesse was present at the dinner the King Claudio and Queen Hero held for the ambassador from Utrecht. It was there that Arnesse first became personally acquainted with the famous Princess Claralinda.
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