I have always though myself quiet lucky.

I live in one of the most blessed places in the entire kingdom, and I have complete solitude. What more could a girl ask for.

No one really knows when the drought happened,because it happened so long ago. Every family has a different rendition of how it happened. Some say it all magical dried up within a day others say it took over a year to trickle away.

I say I don’t know, because I don’t. And honestly I don’t really care. I live behind a waterfall with a giant pond at the base. Water isn’t one of my worries. Others, people who live in the kingdom, have to ration. Take limited baths (I try to avoid the village for that reason, they all stink.) and drink limited water. While I can bath whenever I want to and drink as many times as I wish to. The royals have plenty though, in order to fill up those marble baths they must have a plentiful supply of water.

You may call me selfish for choosing to keep this all for myself, but I don’t really care what you think. If anyone found out that this place existed then they would steal all of the water, just like they’ve done everywhere else is the kingdom. I would rather not lose my home to greedy people.

Right now I’m actually preparing to leave my home. Despite having an endless supply of water I tend to run out of food rather fast. I don’t like hunting, don’t get me wrong I would gladly kill a deer for a good steak, I’m just a terrible hunter. I’ve tried multiple weapons (all stolen from royal guards) and I can’t seem to figure out how to use any of them. The one time I tried to use a bow I shot myself in the foot, and when I held a sword for the first time I nearly chopped off my arm. No more handling weapons for me.

It’s a quick walk down to the Past Stream (it’s called that because now all the waters dried up so it’s more of a ditch). Some herbs grow there, over the years I’ve perfected stew. My own original recipe.

I’m currently wearing my green dress, trousers would be better but I would draw quite a lot of attention if I tried to purchase some in the village. Also I would have to wash them at least five times before the stench went away. I’ve settled for chopping it short so that it hangs halfway between my ankles and my knees. I’ve got a dark grey cloak thrown over my shoulders and the hood hanging over my head. My hair is to short to be tied back so it hangs loosely by my ears. I grab my leather shoulder bag and head out to the Past Stream.

I make quick work of collecting herbs, seeing as I have done it over a million times. I’m heading back to my home when I hear a twig snap near me. I turn to face through the trees. I don’t see anyone, but it’s a dense forest someone could easily hide from sight. I take a step closer only to have a boy jump out of the trees, pointing a sword at me!

“Don’t move!” He yells at me. Does he think I’m an idiot? Of course I’m not going to move while he’s pointing a sword at me.

“What are you doing here?” He asks. Sword still pointed right at my throat.

“I’m getting herbs for my stew.” I explain calmly, No matter how much to shout at him it probably wouldn’t be the best way to go about this.

“I saw where you came from, it was from the west. The village is to the east. That means you don’t live in the village.”

“Figure that out all by yourself did you?” It’s not a good idea to be sarcastic to someone how’s holding a very pointy metal stick.

“Where do you live?” He ignores my comment.

“In the woods.”

“By decree of the Queen all citizens must live within the cities walls.” Maybe I should visit the village more often because I have no recollection of that law ever being passed. It’s a stupid law I think.

“Tell your Queen to shove it up her ass!” I duck under the sword and ram into his stomach affectively knocking him over and running past him.

A startled yelp passes his lips before a groan when his head bounces off the floor. I hear him clamber after me. I’m jumping over pot holes and ducking under low branches. From the commotion I hear behind me my guess is that he’s just hitting them out of the way.

I find my house and duck behind the waterfall. I suddenly realise how stupid I am. Leading a royal guard right to an abundance to water that he is no doubt going to report back to his superior. I turn around to find him standing beside the waterfall, looking up at it with his mouth hanging open. He looks at me with a startled look in his eyes… before he rushes off.

I don’t know weather it was his metal armour that slowed him down or my desperation to keep my home secret that propelled me forward. But either way I mange to run into him and knock us both into the pond at the bottom of the waterfall. I resurface almost immediately but the guard remains underwater.”

“Blast it all!” I cry out load after remembering the armour he was wearing, there’s no way he can swim in that it will pull him right to the bottom. I take a deep breath and dive down after him. I open my eyes to find that I was right. His eyes are screwed shut and he is drastically waving his arms around and kicking his feet wildly, trying to claw his way to the surface. His back gently hits the floor and he shakes his head, willing himself to wake up from this nightmare. Except it isn’t a nightmare.

He’s drowning.

I reach him and hold down one of his hands to avoid getting hit in the face. Instead he brings his other hand to wrap around mine. He’s grasping it like a prayer, like these are his last moments. I really hope there not, I would feel incredibly guilty if I was the cause someone of drowning. It’s quite difficult to undo his armour clasps with one hand but i still make quick work of it. I’ve already gotten his leg guards and chain mail off and I’m about to unclasp the last side of his breastplate when a stream of bubbles escapes his mouth and his hands go limb around mine. I want to gasp but I’m underwater so that would be a stupid idea. Instead I use both of my hands to undo his breastplate and I wrap my arms around his middle and start kicking like crazy to carry us both to the surface. After we get there I push his limb body up so that his head it well above the water, meanwhile I’m struggling to hold his weight up and keep my own head up while is swimming both of us over to the side. I keep gulping down mouthfuls of water.

A pull him on the side of the bank so that he’s lying on his back. Honestly I don’t know how to wake him up, or even if he can wake up. Feeling panic set in I decide the best course of action would be to slap him right across the face.

Surprisingly it does the trick.

He wakes up with a cough and then proceeds to throw up a lungful of water. Thankfully he does this on the side that doesn’t have me kneeling beside him. I laugh out of pure relief. After he can breath again he turns back around so he’s lying on his back again and taking deep breaths.

“Did you slap me?” He asks. My happiness instantly evaporates, yea I slapped you not like it was to save your life.

“Yes but I saved your life you ungrateful little bugger, I just brought you up from the bottom of the pool.”

“If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have been at the bottom of the pool.”

…I forgot about that bit.

“Either way your alive and breathing because of me so now you owe me.” I state getting up from my kneeling position as I start to ring out my hair. He is quick to get up after me, swaying on his feet for a brief moment before following the direction I’ve started walking in.

“I owe you nothing!” He exclaims. He grabs my arm and turns me round to face him. For some reason my brain chooses this moment to realise that since I undid his chest plate he’s just wearing a white shirt that has turned see through because of the water and… wow. I mean he’s a royal guard so obviously he has muscles they probably all do. But still… wow.

“I’m not letting you do back to the palace and blab about my home so that tomorrow I have the royal guard knocking down my door.” I don’t actually have a door I have a waterfall but still I think I get my point across.

“You can’t stop me from doing anything.” He steps closer, good makes it way easier to kneel him in the groin. Which I do.

He drops to his knees groaning. “Wanna bet?” I ask my voice dripping with sarcasm.

I pull him up and drag him behind the waterfall. I sit him down in the seat in front of the fire to let him dry off. He’s still stiff, no doubt expecting another assault on his private parts. Unfortunately causing him pain wouldn’t be the best way to get him to do what I want. Which is stay here. He’s definitely not going to like that. Maybe I should chain him to the walls. However I don’t have any chains so that’s kind of impossible. I walk over to the basket of herbs I dropped earlier and start chucking the greenery into a pot that rests over the fire. He watches me carefully. I can feel his eyes burning into my skull and I can feel my patience growing thin.

“Since you’re going to be staying here I should probably know your name” I say turning around he face him.

“I’m not staying, you don’t need to know my name.” He says voice flat.

I hold out my hand for him to shake,“well my name’s Louisa.” He stares at my hand before turning his head back to the fire.

“Well then Mr Serious,” I say as my hand drops. “I hope you like stew.”

He stands up abruptly. “I leaving.”

I don’t panic. “Do you even know how to get back to the village from here?” I ask. “And even if you do get back what are you going to tell them? That you found a whole waterfall in the woods because you chased a defenceless girl after having pointed a sword at her when she posed no obvious threat?” He stops walking and I throw a silent party in my head.

“Your not defenceless.” He decides turning to face me.

“Finally we agree on something.” A muse. “Although your colleagues might no be to impressed to find out that you got knocked down two times and then proceeded to drown.”

“My colleagues-“

I cut him off. “Won’t believe a word, and even if they do, the chances that you find this place again are very slim. And if by some miracle you do I can guarantee you that when the Queen gets my greedy hands on with water that you’ll never see a drop of it ever again. She’ll be to busy guzzling it down in one of her fancy cups.”

“That treason!” He yells walking closer to me. I just laugh in his face.

“She’s not my Queen I can say whatever I want about her.”

He looks defeated and I feel victorious.

“Before you go off and get yourself lost at least have stew.” I say walking back over the pot and ladling the liquid into two bowls, I pass one over to him. “I don’t have any spoons so I hope your not posh enough to refuse to drink from the bowl.” I say bringing my lunch to my lips.

I see him bring the bowl to his mouth and drink.

“My names Charles.” We loos at each other. “Since I’m going to be staying here awhile you should probably know that.”

We both smile.