Stella and the knight of Lockheart wood

"Stella there is another tournament. I think you should go." she looked at him with eyes of disbelief.
"You know I always go and nothing, ever happens. How many years of rejection should we go for and the last one! you know how long it took me to recover. I am still recovering"
"Yes but after 5 years and besides he has moved on, so should you."
"But I only found out he moved on Monday!"
"Welp there is no time like the present for you to jump back into the saddle and go and enjoy another good joust."
"Which will only be a good joust until the man realizes, its me he is fighting for and hightails it to another waiting girls arms! Good job girls! way to be creative with that toilet paper, keep twirling!" Rose said in two voices, one addressing her friend and one her charges.
"His horse has your secret name." That stopped her.
"Fine." She said fighting the terror twisting her stomach. The pain of rejection so many times it was a wonder she wasn't more hardened to it. Surely vomitting would have been appropriate but instead it was silent agree ment. And the two stood there watching the girls laughing and dancing on the village grass. Unaware of the turmoil inside of their leader.  Happy to dance away never knowing and never caring.

"You will go with me?" Stella asked silently.
"HAve I ever not?" They both smiled though fear still twisted her gut.
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The Joust
It was not your normal day for a joust. The air was not electrified the crowds were not even paying attention. When the knights lined up to compete.  She sat there nervously, not sure which knight was the one she was to watch that day as several were about. The horse bore her secret name, she scanned them there was only one that caught her eye. A Paint white and red with a crystal blue eye and a soft brown one. ITs rider didn't look like the other knights. He must be a foreigner she thought as she saw him sitting there twirling a leaf upon the back of the Mare. He was actually laying down, not even sitting up preparing and his armor did not look like a man prepared for battle. His helmet was in goofy colors and he just twirled the leaf smiling. Even his armor was a bit of a rag tag assortment. Perhaps that should have warned her off, been a sign. Maybe it would have saved her from heart break...but she liked him.

There was something warm and care free, confident and awkward all at the same time. Like a boy waking up from a dream and realizing he is a man but unsure exactly how to be one, caught in a world he never fully wanted to be a part of. Almost like a man broken out of a long dark spell and cast back into a world of light, rediscovering truth and beauty.

She liked it. The bell was wrung and the joust began. She had almost left before it started but her friends told her to wait.  He went out and it wasn't epic. He did not arrogantly sweep her off her feet or kill the other opponents he faced that day. BUt he seemed to know her heart, her mind and he ran each phase of the course like she would have, like she had in the past ...or so it seemed.  Something in it all felt so right and something in it felt off, just a hair but not enough to stop her interest. not enough to keep her from jumping on the back of his horse and riding to the top of a cliff over looking the valley of all of her dreams and watching the sun set in his eyes with only the soft nuzzle of a horses warm breath between them.

That had been the first test and he had past. not 100% he had forgotten dinner, but he had passed. With more flair and poise and love and passion than anyone she had ever met, and her heart skipped a couple beats and she couldn't help but wonder.

She wasn't supposed to go down to wear the knights stayed and stabled their horses, but she couldn't help it. And he was supposed to tell her to leave but he didn't. HE always welcomed her with open arms and a beaming boyish smile that more than melted her heart. They never kissed but their eyes were melded to one another and he nuzzle her neck and her nose with the tip of his and she would giggle and run away and he would catch her and they would walk and talk and she would sing to him. And he liked her singing like no one had ever liked her singing and she feel madly and passionately in love with him, unlike any man who had ever tried to win her heart before.

And though the High King knew they were breaking protocol he never seemed to stop them, or maybe they had stopped listening.  Hadn't it already been stated that moonlit walks unchaperoned were unwise? BUt still Stella found her melted heart enraptured and she didn't care. Didn't care that merely a month or two before she had received a summons to leave the country for awhile didn't care that he had been called somewhere else. They had waited forever to finally meet and surely this love was one that could never be defeated that would find a way...or so she hoped and she melted beneath his gaze and waited with expectation for the King to announce him the winner and set them apart as the Lord and Lady of the Lockheart wood. To reasign her to another calling or a different way...to change the heart of the knight from the quest that he was on.

But alas they were two that never should have met. Or should they have, as we know God is sovereign...

There had been lapses of judgment and two times when the lovers had fought so bitterly with that they almost ended a couple of times when her heart had wanted out for he had neglected it, but over all he had won her and she stood in the stands waiting for the High King to declare that this was the day, the day the knight and his lady would become one.

But that day never came. Instead the knight was sent off on a quest. Stella did not want to let him go on the quest fully so she held on to him.  He had been called to battle a mighty dragon and the woman who had once enslaved him with her intoxicaitng liquor. The girl did not want to leave the one she had finally found but she was never made to be a lady who stood and waited. For she had a calling on her life to go. Quests she too had to fulfill. Something in the knight scared her to let him go and fight this dragon. Some how she knew this woman and this beast still held him in their power. She had caught faint traces of their lingering spells on him. flares of their magic at moments, old wounds on him not quite healed. Things that made her love him more.

Instead of the King sending them into life together he seperated them and sent them to different worlds. Where they could not be together. SHe yearned to know how he was and everyday they would talk so much that neither was focused on where they were and then one day she saw it, something had changed. His eyes were not his own, his voice...
Stella fought hard she did all in her power to get to him without denying the kings calling. But she was held back her hands tied in another world her heart and tears unable to reach him, to free him.  She wreathed in agony as she saw him fall deeper and deeper under the spell of the woman, and her beast, the spell that she didn't realize, but had caught her paritally too and now threatened to destroy both of them.

The knight saw it before she did and tried to cut their ties, lashing out at her trying to seperate her but he was so trapped that all he did was cut her through the connection she held.  FInally broken and sobbing she ran to the King and laid bare her soul and He said she had to let the knight go completely. BUt he won't make it she begged Him. SHe had tried to get others to go to his rescue but no one could enter the land that he stumbled into. ITs my fault she cried if I had let him go sooner maybe he would have defeated...."No," the high king said. "He made his choices and they are his and his alone. You bear no responsibility as he bears none for you. Be faithful to me I will see you through."

And turned one day as minion from the drag snaked its way between their worlds and cut into their heart and she shattered their connection. Destroyed it best she could.

And there was silence for two months. During that time the King was finally free to work and He allowed the enemy to capture the knight and bring him down as low as they could.  unti lthey thought he was destroyed.  But at that point the king had created a door that he set the man through and rescued him back out into the light.

When Stell heard that her knight was free she quickly without the Kings say connected and did her best to begin restoring the relationship. Only to later realize how foolish her hasty actions were.

Shoot no time to finish this story but to make a shortened story even shorter she realized that this knight though free of the strong hold was still not finished with his quest and neither was she. The high king showed her that he had to fight this battle alone as did she and so once again only this time, with both  of them not under a spell they prayed and severed their ties so that they could focus on the missions before them.

Neither know if they were together to be brought back forever or if their lives and love was only for a season.  IF another knight in a far away place is fighting for her and if a maiden he has not yet met is in need of him...or maybe their paths will cross again...only this time forever.

ok needs major editing but since I don't know how to save and come back to it...here goes!


The next day he rode up on a different ride a

priscilla & rain

Laughter filled the air. "Again, Again!" A voice shouted followed by the smiles of sweating beaming faces.  Well done ladies! thats a good days work I will see you again to morrow at Dawn.
A groan rose up, "always at Dawn" Priscilla grimaced to her freckled friend rain.
"Yes" rain smiled always at dawn.
"what is it with her and dawn?" Their instructor walked away, twirling the ring she always wore about her finger. A look on her face both anxious and at peace. She did not fit in here. In this school where everyone had jet black hair and eyes as graceful as the horizon. Small and delicate they were. But she was tall and muscular, not lean and wispy like the girls here.  She looked like strength, yet there was a wounding she was hear to heal from or something. No one really knew where she came from. she had come in Drugged and tired they said. YEars ago, a wearly look upon her face. On a quest she said. She always whispered about two knights and a king. Would the one come or was there another in a far off land, but year after year, she battled alone. Trained. She was happy.