• I remember so many things…but mostly…the birds..
    I loved to watch them..to see them flutter about, to watch as the winds lifted them skywards..carrying them on forever.. Ever since I was a small child…I loved to watch the birds fly.. and one day.. much to my surprise.. I was able to join them.
    I don't quite remember exactly how it came about...but I was running along the top of the hills... my kite high in the air...it's tail whipping in the breeze..and suddenly I lost my footing.. falling for what seemed like forever... dashing towards those rocks in the ocean below when suddenly....I was lifted high...soaring towards the clouds... my body as light as could be and my soul free... Was I dead..? Had I hit those rocks and was now going upwards to the Gods? No... my body itself was being lifted as though weightless on the air..and now flying through the air was I.. It was the greatest thing I had ever felt.. well until that point... but more about that most incredible kiss later .
    I couldn't have been much more than seven or eight when this had happened and I hurried home, once my solo flight had been completed, to tell my father. I thought he would be as joyous as I was but I was so wrong.. He made me promise to never reveal my gift..that it was one that even the Gods themselves would punish me for using without discretions.. I didn't understand his reasoning why.. at least not until I was a bit older..
    The gift I had received from the Gods was truly special indeed.. not all of my kind had it and those who did not..would manipulate those who did. I found this out one horrid day when I was playing a game of tag with my bird friends. A man.. much older than daddy even..came upon me in my playful flight and he, he said things to me that sounded so sweet..so kind but then as sudden he became bitter and crude..I was frightened and I did not know what to do.. I started to soar upwards but suddenly I found myself yanked harshly back to the earth..bound with a golden cord.. I was unable to lift myself again, and I was frightened indeed.
    He began to fill my young mind with much fear..saying that I was not gifted but cursed and that his kind.. the mystics.. must relieve me of that curse.. that he would take me a way and exorcize that curse from my frail frame. He bound me further and took me up under his arm and suddenly with a nauseating swirl of bright lights and a soundless void.. I was in this cave.. dank, deep and ever so scared.
    All around were Tsoo.. evil and dark looking, at least to one only a bit more than ten. They stood around their grand alters of stone and chanted in our ancient language..words they were sure I would never understand.. But I did..oh I never told anyone but I had taken the time several years ago to meet with Helios.. He was an odd sort.. spoke of many things mystic and not.. of the nature around me.. of the stones.. and the life within them.. he told me of things that I found hard to believe but believe them I did. He told me of the Gods.. and of their love of me.. and their faith in me and it was why I would be gifted.. and so.. at his knee I began to study and learn everything that had been long lost to my race of people.
    But there was another language I learned as well..one far lost even beyond that which was written of in our books of record.. The language of the birds.. Yes.. I had found such a suitable teacher in Helios and he taught me so much.. though I never understood why..others had not heard of this teacher before.. why had he not taught in our schools.. he was so smart... brilliant even.. and he had so much to give.. and yet.. I was to be his only pupil..
    I had long ago learned to not question that which is freely given for once you do..it is taken away.. So I choose to honor Helios wish and I never spoke of this great teacher to anyone.. well there was one that I did disclose his name and teachings to... my beloved Azaes.. Him I told everything.. everything I knew, how I knew it... yes everything..
    It was not until I had reached my age of maturity that I learned.. Helios was not a simple man at all... but he himself a God.. or sub God.. something like that.. he had a commander he answered to.. but he was revered above this plane and many others and yet he had chosen me to impart his wisdom to.. and for that.. I shall and always remain ever faithful to my Gods... even when it seemed that they had abandoned us.. had left our great city of Atlantis to meet it's destruction... I held my Gods high.. for the cause of such was not by the hand of Gods but by the hand of man himself. The Gods had not abandoned us… we had instead abandoned them.
    We had forgotten all they had taught us.. all they had given us and in our own mortal greed we had pushed them away for Pantheons that were foolish and greed laiden
    We had become our own enemies..and as such we brought about our own destruction.. It took me years to see this, as I too was far from perfect..I too had first blamed the Gods.. but then..I saw something..in the eyes of a simple man that reminded me.. it is not who you are, or where you are but instead.. HOW you are to others.. it was then.. right at that moment... I learned to love someone simply because he was himself.. and not risen above to be that which he was not.
    I was a Princess, one who was suppose to be of a high station in our kind.. but I had never really felt the part.. but there were times.. when I would use that part to exact my way...that is until HE reminded me..that I merely need be only who I was inside... and not all the fancy titles... the titles meant nothing to me.. and he meant everything... and that was why I loved him so.
    He never truly saw me as a Princess, not in the way my title said but rather as a girl simple and plain with so much to offer and share... though he did ever so lovingly call me his princess with a meaning much more different than my father or sisters.
    But to those early days.. I first took flight at a young age..and not long after frightened out of my mind by men who were so cruel and unjust that it took me a long while after to recover. They had me bound by cords.. ones that were suppose to hold me.. to keep me there while they exorcized the badness from my tiny frame. Their horrid potions filled the room with a stench that made me feel sick to my stomach and the chanting they thought only they understood was vile and evil. I had heard those words before.. words Helios had made me promise to never use and then... it came to me.. as that knife was slowly lowered towards my throat.. I closed my eyes.. and clenched my tiny fists and I thought about my father.. and suddenly..as if swept into another vacuum.. I was spinning and swirling
    and suddenly in a puff of light and smoke.. I was at my father's feet.. tired and worn but safe and sound. I looked up to him but I was defiant, I refused to allow the tears to run from my eyes. I stood there so still for the moment and then I had collapsed to the floor. It felt as if every ounce of energy had been drained from my body. I was lifted into a pair of strong arms... the arms of Atlantix.. He was a personal guard to Father and always on hand. He carried me to my chamber and laid me to rest upon my bed...I slept for many hours.. Only to waken..seeing my father on the bed beside me..looking down on me with his hand resting gently on my tiny frame.