“Am I the only one here curious upon why you have changed?” Nether asked somewhat quietly.

  The area went a bit silent, and Matilda looked around.

  She hadn’t officially told anyone else, but Matthew, and he had kept his mouth shut.

  “I died. Now I’m back alive. I didn’t want to be Sahara anymore. Any other questions?” Matilda asked her.

  Nether went quiet and looked at Steven. Steven had taken a moment…It was one thing to think it and accept the thought, but it was another to hear it directly…

  Steven then looked back at Nether and slightly shrugged, he believed Matilda…It was Nether that wanted to ask more questions!

  But the fact that Sahara had died did truly make Steven go quiet…Another who had wanted to protect her. He had pledged, basically, to be her brother and he had failed…

  “Steven?”

  Steven looked back at Matilda straight away. “Yes?”

  “I missed you.”

  A genuine smile went on his face. “…I missed you too.”

  Nether still wondered why they weren’t asking this Matilda more questions, why they all just accepted her…What if she wasn’t real!?

  Well, you haven’t changed! So sceptical!

  Matilda looked at Nether and widened her eyebrows to her thoughts.

  That was when Nether felt like someone might have kicked her in the head…

  With a look of reading thoughts like that, a look of…

  “Sahara?”

  Matilda frowned, “Matilda.”

  Nether blinked and then bowed her head in a bit of frustration. Why did it feel like she had been the st to know!?

  Feeling a hand on her knee, Nether suddenly looked up at Matilda’s beautiful smiling face. “Congratutions! I see you got married and had a child. A Golden Heir at that.”

  “You know?” Nether asked.

  Removing her hand, Matilda winked at her, “Who do you think sent him the letter!”

  “I had my thoughts on that.” Steven stated.

  Nether on the other hand suddenly stood up, “It hurts people feelings if you leave them st to find out something.”

  Matilda looked up at her and then said, “Then must anything be said? If nothing is said then that is the only way that no one will be st to know something…Besides, there is more than one way to know something. Watching someone, seeing how they act…I never acted in a way to deliberately make you angry like this. You can decide to trust my words or not, I don’t care.”

  Nether stared at Matilda for what felt like the longest time and then she slowly sat down, mumbling. “I just feel like I’m always st to know.”

  Matilda hated to be harsh to Nether, but she really did have a weakness about being the st to know…It was an interesting weakness but still, an annoying one…Well annoying right now, because they hadn’t seen each other for so long and it felt like that had been a fight!

  “Mother?”

  Kin came in then and sat between Steven and Matthew.

  Before Matilda could talk to her son, another body came in, to the other side of Matthew…A burly, sleeveless one.

  “We could almost start telling stories at this rate. Being around a campfire like this.”

  It wasn’t a voice like it was full of enthusiasm, which probably wouldn’t fit him, this…An.

  “Yes! An tell me a story!”

  And so, another body came and sat beside An.

  He looked at her and then to others but said nothing.

  Matilda eyed him and didn’t care what she was missing out on outside of An’s thoughts.

  So, Madeline and An hadn’t become a couple. Madeline had confessed to him, but An had not accepted it. Was Christian ok with the fact that his daughter was wanting to be with someone so much older than her? Band One, now An, was at least in his high twenties when they had been here about twenty years ago, probably early thirties…But none of that mattered to Madeline…

  But there was something else there, in his memory.

  It seemed that An had ‘looked around’, as one might say. A romance here or there but no marriage…He was most certainly not a virgin though.

  Interesting…

  Matilda wanted to let out a ugh, considering who he had been with once…

  An gred at her, “Princess, you will not pry into my thoughts.”

  Smiling at him, Matilda widened her eyes, “I wish to state my innocence…”

  An shook his head, “No, you were in there! Stay out!”

  Matilda continued, “I was going to state that I wish to, but I couldn’t!”

  Actually, to be precise aren’t I divulging myself into memories, not thoughts? So really, I’m innocent! Well innocent to his cim…

  He shook his head again, “Did it ever occur to you that people don’t want you to hear their thoughts?”

  Matilda just stared at him then.

  Memories! Mem…Ories…

  A silence entered the group, and they did remember some of the times that she had indeed done that, or doing it now…

  Matilda then looked at everyone and then went into thought.

  She did see a few shows, or whatever, on Earth about hearing other’s thoughts, there was even a name for people that could do what she does. For the life of her she couldn’t remember one movie or show.

  Her earth days were nearly all but gone…Well most of it…

  Feeling arms tighten around her, Matilda looked up to Matthew, as he stared at her. He silently asked her if she were alright and she nodded, even smiling back at him.

  “It’s fine. It’s interestingly fine!” She said, looking back at An with an even bigger smile.

  An went serious and even stood up. “I am going to turn in too!”

  As he left, Matilda looked into a certain area and smiled…

  He’s single Katherine…Don’t shy away too much!

  “I am also tired, goodnight.” Madeline quickly vanished, as her idea of a good time left.

  It suddenly grew to a very small gathering of just four left…Kin, Steven, Matthew and Matilda.

  “Mother, tell us more about this Golden Haven meeting.”

  It was probably best that she had waited till about now to state more on the subject anyway. There were a few that didn’t need to participate, like that of An, Nether and Lavendar.

  “There’s not much more to really say…I just need the Golden Emperor…So that I can try to connect with the people easier.”

  “…Oh…” Kin said…Almost like he was defted.

  Was he still a bit dramatic, like a child?

  Matilda pyed with his hair and pulled him over to her, “Do you want to be an Emperor?”

  “I don’t know. Father doesn’t seem to be interested. Uncle Steven…”

  “Mmm…”

  “He’s never brought it up before.”

  For the first time Kin found something that Steven did not talk about! His Golden lineage! After all this time and all their talks, he’d finally realized that!

  “You aren’t interested?” Matilda asked Steven out right, while still holding onto Kin.

  Steven shook his head. “I am not interested.”

  Matilda eyed him some more, making him shift in his seat, but yet he didn’t say a word.

  After a moment Matilda nodded, “You squirm with just a stare. Hate to state the obvious, Steven, but you probably wouldn’t make a good emperor.”

  Steven eyed her back in astonishment but blinked it away after a moment…Accepting it not long after…

  She’s probably right…

  That was it, Steven was so easy that she had missed him so much…All of them!

  And that was close to how the ‘party’ ended, that night upon meeting up once again with the long-lost Sahara!

  ***

  “Where did you put it?” Matilda asked Katherine.

  “In the storage cupboard.” She answered.

  “Why?” Matilda asked.

  Katherine looked at Matilda and hanged her shoulders. “It’s a parchment done by you…”

  Perhaps this one holds me up to high!

  Matilda sighed, “Find it and burn it!”

  She swore she had told Katherine to burn her st lot of letters! She was talking about the first draft ones that weren’t sent.

  It had been time, already, to have cleaned out a certain ‘trash’ area within her own little storage.

  “You are harsh to your own sister.” A voice chimed in.

  “What’s it to you?” Matilda asked An, who suddenly joined them.

  An gave her what looked like a gre and Matilda responded with one of her own.

  If there was someone who changed the most…Matilda thought it was An…

  There was no boss to him anymore!

  He gave up and walked away, and Matilda smirked.

  It seems that he thought Katherine was beautiful…

  That was a start…

  Wait, doesn’t that mean that he should think I’m beautiful too!?

  “Did you find any horses?” Matilda asked Katherine.

  “No, not ones that we could…Borrow…” Katherine said to Matilda. Obviously, Matilda had wanted her to just take the horses, but Katherine had not been able too.

  “Getting a little girl to steal now?” An said.

  Suddenly An was closer than he was five seconds ago!

  Didn’t he leave!?

  “Katherine, are you a little girl?” Matilda asked her.

  Katherine frowned and looked at An.

  If things kept going like this, An was going to make Katherine very angry!

  An sighed and left again…

  How far is that man going to go this time!?

  Matilda saw that it was just a few big steps, but this time he sat down with his hands crossed…He was a little bored…

  Anyway…Oh, wait…Perfect chance…

  “An, go with…Katherine to ask about the horses one st time, if he doesn’t want to comply it’s fine.”

  An hadn’t really been bossed around like this much for ages, but…He got up quietly anyway and finally followed after the shy Katherine.

  He would have normally said something but…He was bored…It had absolutely nothing to do with the blonde-haired beauty! Nothing at all!

  Silence carried An and Katherine right up until they hit what looked like a stable.

  An stood in front of Katherine as they saw someone, but Katherine couldn’t help but feel like he wanted to scare the person!

  “Aye, she’s returned.” The one at the stable stated.

  An turned to Katherine and couldn’t look away…

  The wind made her hair dance a bit in the breeze and a look of concentration seemed to be more to his taste, then that of Madeline’s look of lust.

  Katherine went to speak, only for the man in the stable to talk first, “You have come to try again, have ya!? Well, these are my horses! My answer is no!”

  “You have not even let her speak!” An stated, once again standing in front of Katherine.

  Katherine clenched her hands, hardly able to contain her inner thoughts or urgings and tried to pay attention to what the princess had told her to do!

  “The reason we would like to have them here and ready, if needed, is something that could benefit you greatly, good sir.”

  The man turned to her and then took a few steps forward. “You know what would benefit me…That is the only deal.”

  Katherine eyed the man and shook her head, “I’m not for sale.”

  An suddenly turned to her and then back to the man, “You dirty, rotten…”

  Feeling a sudden sense of dread, Katherine held back An, almost like she instinctively knew that he’d just go and beat up that man, “Don’t.”

  An turned to her, seeing those pretty blue eyes looking directly at him.

  How could he not be angry! How dare such a man talk like that to…Katherine!

  Looking down at that hand holding his arm, An swallowed.

  …What was it about her?

  Looking back at her, and those eyes…An stopped.

  Time felt like it disappeared for a moment as he knew of another that would look at him like that…

  A feeling of lose overcame An and he looked away.

  Katherine let him go. “Is that your st answer? Will you not help us, and by doing so help the Haven?”

  These words weren’t really Katherine’s, they were Matilda’s.

  She wanted Katherine to make sure that she states these words so that when he knows ter, that he didn’t help, that he might learn his lesson!

  “I’ll marry ya then. How’s that? An unknown girl, girls! You have no respect here, everyone knows that! You don’t deserve a rich man. You may not even get another offer!”

  Katherine put a hand back onto An’s arm again and pulled at it.

  “Then I bid you farewell sir.” Katherine stated, walking away.

  “How could you let him treat you like that!?” An stated. He really had come out of his shell!

  Katherine kept walking, not sure on what to say back to him.

  Who is this man?

  Stopping, and looking at the man with a trimmed beard and short sleeved shirt, Katherine suddenly realized that she had no idea anymore if she even liked him anymore…

  What if…He had changed?

  Without another word, Katherine left.

  She didn’t regret being a woman, she had already come used to it but once again, another aspect that had not been thought of. What if Band One wasn’t Band One that she loved anymore?