disbelief, I raised one hand and the fairy followed suit.
I looked over at Lilly, but she only grinned over both ears, as if this was nothing special for her.
The elf in front of me put her hand on the surface of the mirror, I snapped my eyes open and before I could say anything, I did the same.
A bright beam of light appeared, then everything went black and I fainted.
Chapter 3
Welcome home
"Juna, Juna. Come on wake up. You're home." I heard a female voice say.
Bright, warming rays of sunlight woke me up.
I hadn't slept so well in a long time. Wait a minute, slept? Hadn't I just been at the Triangle? Had something been slipped into my drink, perhaps?
I scooted up and opened my eyes.
I had to put my hand over my eyes because the sun was so blinding. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the bright light.
I was sitting in a meadow of flowers in the middle of a clearing in the forest.
How on earth had I gotten here? And where was Lilly?
My head was spinning.
I sat down in the meadow and buried my face with my hands.
"This must be a hallucination! Yes exactly, I'm guaranteed to have fallen down in the storage room and hit my head and now I'm lying in the hospital, pumped full of medication, just dreaming all this!" I said to myself.
"What is a hallucination? Is this a new spell?" Asked a voice I didn't know.
I took my hands from my eyes and looked into 2 ice blue eyes.
Immediately I jumped up and looked over to this mysterious pair of eyes.
There was a wolf sitting in front of me!
I wanted to run away, but my legs immediately turned to jello and I slumped back to the ground. So I tried to somehow put some distance between me and the wolf by sliding around silly.
But instead of looking at me as his next prey, he tilted his head. First to one side, then to the other.
The image had something of a puppy hearing a squeaky toy for the first time.
"Ha ha ha, Jun you are really gorgeous." I heard Lilly exclaim behind me.
"You're really scared of your soul guardian?!" she laughed.
"My WHAT?!"
I turned to Lilly and couldn't believe my eyes.
She had wings and she was glittering?!
Now I was sure, THIS HAD TO BE A DREAM!
"I'm dreaming all this! This can't be real! A talking winged wolf and my sparkly winged girlfriend?!" I laughed hysterically.
She came over to me and pinched my shoulder.
"Ouch!" I groaned out.
"This is not a dream Juna. I told you, eventually the truth will reveal itself to you." she said, smiling lovingly at me.
"What truth? Where are we here? Why is there a winged talking wolf sitting not two meters away from me?
Why could I read the runes on the mirror? And why do you have glittering wings?"
I had questions just bubbling out of my mouth.
"Shh, all in good time Jun. Right now, we should head to the crystal castle before the guards collect us." she whispered to me.
But by then it was too late.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, 8 guards appeared and circled us.
One of the guards stepped forward and pointed his sword at me.
"You there! What are you doing on the royal lands?" he asked, visibly enraged.
"King's lands?" I stammered.
"The extent of your punishment will be decided by King Matteo. Take them with you men!"
We were tied by the wrists with ropes and had to go with them.
"Shh, Lilly. What's all this about?" I asked as unobtrusively as possible.
She looked around and made sure the guards weren't looking right then. Then she answered me. "I actually wanted to answer some of your questions before we would have gone to King Matteo, so you would have at least had a little bit of a head start!"
We walked for several minutes through the forest until I saw a large and very imposing castle in front of me.
On the flags on the castle, you could see the royal coat of arms. A star above a sunset.
It looked so familiar, but I just didn't know where I had seen it before.
Once in the throne room, the guards pushed us so hard that we fell to our knees.
However, they took our shackles off.
"Keep your heads bowed until the king allows you to look at Him!" one of the guards ordered us.
"What is going on here?" asked a deep, angry voice in front of us.
"These two figures were walking around the Lovers' Glade, sir." Answered the guard, who had also ordered us to keep our heads down.
The king approached me and stopped about half a meter in front of me so that I could see his legs.
"My child, rise. I want to look at you more closely." the king said to me.
So I stood up and lifted my head so that I could also look him in the eye.
King Matteo looked like a mixture of an old wizard and an elf.
He wore a dark blue shirt, black velvet pants, and a yellow cloak that was held together below his chest with a star-shaped brooch.
There was something familiar about his face, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
He examined me from top to bottom, walked around me several times and then stroked a strand of my hair out of my face.
Then his gaze lingered on my birthmark, under my ear.
He drew back and gasped for air. Had I done something wrong?
He took several deep breaths before turning back to me in a shaky voice.
"Ju, Juna, is that really you?" he asked me.
I looked at him confused. "Yes my name is Juna, Juna Nightmoon. Your Majesty" I answered him and bowed to demonstrate my submissiveness.
Tears came to his eyes and he started laughing.
Before he or I could say anything, he took me in his arms and hugged me almost a little too tightly.
"Finally you are back my child!" he cheered.
"Back again?" I asked, dumbfounded. "Excuse me your majesty, but I have never seen you before and I don't remember ever being here either."
I told him and disengaged from his embrace.
He straightened his clothes and turned to Lilly.
"Lilly Starfly! Haven't you been to the Keeper's Crystal Castle with her yet?" he said in a serious tone.
Lilly stood up and directed her gaze over to the king.
"My Lord, I was just about to leave with her for the Crystal Castle when her guards came to us and brought us here with them! Not even Stardust, Juna's soul guardian, could properly meet her."
The king snorted contemptuously.
"Commander Irfried! You were bragging big just a few days ago that you could recognize anyone in the royal family instantly!" he shouted across the throne room.