Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nancy sighed, as she looked herself over in the mirror. Her blue-green dress not only brought out her light blue eyes but also complemented her long, straight, red hair, which for now was in a bun. Simple but beautiful jewelry was placed in just about every place jewelry went. Even a delicate tiara was placed in front of her red bun. All gold and pearls was the theme.

Tonight she was supposed to impress some prince. Wasn’t his name Aubrey? Again she sighed. Her father had been unable to get her a husband when she was younger so now she had to impress a prince. She wished she could choose her own husband and wasn’t forced by law to marry royalty. Who had ever heard of a princess marring lower than herself?

She glanced out her balcony window. It was night by now and the stars were beautiful. So beautiful that it coaxed her to go outside. “I wonder which way’s home...?”she thought as she gazed off into eternity. Her father had been able to get them rooms at this palace. Soon her escort would be coming to take her down to the ball. She didn’t want to go. She gazed to the woods. Ever since they had come here she had been having strange dreams about the woods, all set at night. And that young man....
She heard her door open and close. Must be him. She thought as she turned around expecting to see her escort but instead saw a teenage boy, very dirty and in dirty clothes. He was definitely a thief- a very cute thief. They stood staring open mouth at each other. Why did he look familiar, foggily familiar...?

Running guard’s feet could be heard coming to her room. The thief looked at the door then at her. She was blocking his only escape route. He ran towards freedom then stopped as he was about to pass her. He turned, looked at her, put his hand on her check, lifted her face up, and kissed her; kissed her passionately. He withdrew as the guards started beating on the door, which the thief had locked. They both looked at it then she looked back at him as the guards broke in, but he was gone.

One of the guards rushed to her “Are you okay, ma’am?”

She looked away from the thief’s freedom to the guard “I...I think so...”

***

“Hey Forget about it Cody, a thief with sandy brown hair and hazel eyes, said messing up Aden’s reddish hair.

“I can’t, ” He said, pushing Cody away, then wiped his face off with the river water.

“She’s a princess and you’re a thief.” Edwin, a thief with dark brown hair and brown eyes, said chuckling at his friend’s new behavior.

“She might not be She could just...be...rich....” He realized that case was pointless too.

“Are you sure it was her?” Edwin asked.

“Yes ” Aden said annoyed. He swore that was the millionth time they asked him.

“Hey you don’t have to get annoyed at us ” Cody chuckled ‘so.... you kissed her? Was that really gonna be you guyz first kiss, Fire? ”

“Look, I know...”

“Why wouldn’t she let you kiss her before?” Edwin smirked “Ya’ll meet a few nights ago, meet every day at night.” Aden rolled his eyes as Cody and Edwin laughed at this “You’re instantly in love.... yet she won’t let you kiss her.”

“Hey Thieves ” Aden said, madly standing up then walking away. “I’m going to go see her.”

“What are you going to do?” Cody asked “Get cleaned up and waltz right into a ball for royals? And what do you think they’re going to say. ‘Hey! Welcome in thief who just stole from us?’”

Aden’s shoulder dropped. “I just wish I knew why she never told me...”
“What do you expect?” Cody said putting a leaning arm on his shoulder “She was probably embarrassed or something. I mean, what would’ve ya done if she had said ‘By the way, I’m a princess.’”

“I probably would have realized the pointlessness of it,” Aden admitted “but I don’t think that would have stopped me.”

“Always about danger.....” Edwin joked leaning on Aden’s other shoulder.
“Thieves ” He pushed them both off at the same time making them fall near to flat on their faces.

They both sat up an rubbed their new found sores. “Whereya goin’?” Cody slurred.

Aden stopped for a second before continuing without saying anything.

“Girls are bad for him.” Cody said.

“Agreed.”

***

“Sweetie I just heard the news Are you okay?” Crysta said running into her daughter’s room. “My word She gasped as she saw two beautiful rainbow, butterfly wings coming from Nancy’s back.

“Mother, what’s wrong with me?” Nancy asked worriedly. Why did she have wings?

Crysta turned to the guards; “I need to be left in privacy with my daughter, if you don’t mind.” The guards nodded and left the room, closing the half-fixed door behind them.

“Mother...?”

“Shhh.....” Crysta sat down beside her daughter and looked around the room for a way to put what she needed to say. She had kept it a secret for so long from everyone but her husband and toughs who already knew that she hadn’t even bother telling her daughter. Why did she have to do that? As she got up and walked to the balcony window she reviewed her young mistakes. Had she been to rash when she fell in love with the man she called her husband and shared a daughter with? No sons, just a daughter, his son’s where of his other wives. That didn’t matter right now though. Right now her daughter needed to know what she was. Her daughter needs to know she was a half-fairy.

She sighed as she looked out the window wondering what thoughts fled through her daughter’s mind as she stood there. No words can explain the truth... Was the thought that flew through her mind, so she let them go; she let her wings go so her daughter would also know Crysta was a fairy and Nancy would also know she was a fairy human.

“Mother? ”

“My child...I’ve been living a lie for years.” She sighed. “I was banished from the fairy world in my....” She had to stop to think of the age she was “...my... 200th year I believe...yes, it was my 200th year.”

“Mother...why did you never tell me?”

“I told no one. Only you father and the fairies knew.” She chuckled. “Literally the fairies knew.”

I’ve a banished fairy for a mother?

“Look sweetie, I had.... elaborate thoughts when I was younger...ones that got me in trouble. I guess I got what I needed....” Surely with all his wives I got what I needed... Crysta put up her hand, as her daughter was about to say something. “Now, I want you to forget about all of this and go have fun.”

Fun...right.... “But what about my wings? What do I do about them?”

“Oh...you mean to hide them. Well, that’s the simplest trick in the book. Close your eyes and imagine pulling all your powers into your inner core.”
When Nancy did, she found that it was easier than it sounded. There was one question bugging her that she just had to ask. “Do all fairies’ first kisses give them wings?”

Crystal smiled.” You mean half fairies or below. Anything above is born with wings. Actually, no, but most do for they carefully pick whom they give their first and only kiss to. The ones that don’t...well, usually they don’t get their wings.”

“Then why did I get wings?”

Crysta was relieved from answering this by a knock at the door. Crysta quickly hid her wings as the door opened. The gentleman bowed. “I’m here to escort Nancy to the ball.”

“Oh John, you finally came ” Crysta said, “Nancy’s so excited, aren’t you sweetie?”

“Yes, madam.” Nancy said with a fake smile. I forgot she lies.... Does that have something to do with why she was banished?

After the two left, Crysta sighed and dropped her fake happiness. Her eyes were directed to the escape route. Her daughter’s true love was a thief...

?? What do you mean by that?

I like it so far, however, my eyes were swimming a little because of the way you were formatting, and it was kind of startling to go one place/set of characters break different place/set of characters without any way of really seperating them. Perhaps something like a line of sorts could be used to alert readers as to when the setting and character set is changing.

like so:
~~~~~~~ or ====== or ++++++ or -------- or ______ or ~_~_~_~_~

And then in each set, where you have new paragraphs, you could perhaps hit enter again before you start the new paragraph, as it would lighten the blocks of text and make them easier on the eyes.

like so:

paragraph 1, filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text, completely useless filler text, filler text filler text. Oh how I hate filler text. It's the most boring thing to have to come up with.

paragraph 2, more completely useless filler text, filler text filler text, more useless filler text. I probably ought to remember to copy and paste into a document the lorem ipsum filler text that all test webpages use.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

Do you understand? Oh, and I rated your story 3 stars because it's a good idea, and might get good sales, but you still need to do some tweaking. Mostly in the character developement area, spelling and format.

we all do that at some point... I've done it. there's one fanfic I wrote years ago that I can't bear to look at now. >.>

Aden smiled when he finally saw the fires of the thieves' party in the woods right outside the castle. He was in a suit that he just stole and planned on returning it. What use did he have with a suit? He knew someone there could get him a fake identity. If not, he could find a way in. He knew the thieves always had parties on the nights of balls. As he entered, he saw someone he knew. "Booby! How are you? Do you know where Bruce is?"

"Aden! Doin' fine! I heard you stole more than just jewels from the castle."

Does everyone know about it? "Yah...well....do you know where Bruce is?"

"Yah, over there, arm wrestlin' with that gal. She's pruty good, and plane purty too."

"I've got to go talk to him. Until then, stay away from the crudmonkies."

"Don't worry, I will. You stay away from 'em too!"

I hope Bruce isn't as drunk as him. As Aden got closer to Bruce, he noticed the "gal". Or rather, young woman, had a faint trace of make-up on her. Could she have been at the ball? Not in toughs clothes if she was. It looked like it was a black dress which had its middle torn off and at the bottom was torn to above the knees. She'd have been killed for wearing that.

SLAM! Aden was surprised she had just beat Bruce so easily. She didn't look that strong, but he knew from experience looks could be very deceiving. Especially with those half-breeds, like himself, running around. Bruce, with all his pride, stood up saying "I let her win, I let her win." No you didn't. The young woman was about to say something when Bruce noticed Aden. "Aden! I want you to meet this gal. Name's Lexie." He then turned to Lexie and said, "This here's my pal Aden." Bruce smiled with a slight chuckle. "He went in the castle less than an hour ago and stole more 'n' just jewels." The crowd laughed or whatever they felt like doing and Aden thought Does everyone have to know?

"Aden! Why don't you challenge her?" an unidentifiable voice said from the crowd. The crowd responded with "Yah"s and such.

"Of course he will!" Bruce said, forcing Aden into the seat and not letting him respond. His blank face turned into a big, apologetic and goofy smile, one that made his eyes close, to Lexie. Her face didn't except the apology and she put her elbow on the table with a ready hand. As soon as Aden put his hand in hers, Bruce shouted "Ready! Set! Go!"

Aden decided at first he'd go easy on her, just in case Bruce's claim was right. His arm bent in her favor. Next, Bruce's full strength. He thought he had used to much when the arms bent in his favor, but he found them quickly back in hers. He smirked at her as he stepped it up a notch; he was winning. She smirked back as she stepped it up; she was winning. It went like this back and forth until they were stuck in the middle, him at max and he assumed she was too. He knew that if this kept up any longer she would win. Then luck struck.

"So, you stole more than jewels?"

His eyes went from being glued to their clasped hands to her face. "And what do you think I stole?"

"What do you think I think you stole?"

"Not a kiss like it was." SLAM! Was it her surprise from the answer or was it the feeling he felt when he said it that made him win? Or made it was a perfect blend of both. The crowd cheered as she muttered with wide-eyes "He beat me." That didn't matter now, he had to get in the castle.

"Where're you goin'?" She asked him after she got over her shock and he began to leave.

"That's between me and the fairies." He said as he went to his favorite entrance. Luckily no one had discovered it yet; no one but Aden himself. Lexie. Could that be short for Alexandra?

***

John and Nancy had showed up late to the ball, missing the king’s announcement of his new engagement, but showing up just in time for the prince’s late introduction. "May I have this dance to make up for us being late?" John asked when it was time for the royals to dance with their dates, making Nancy wonder What, was he going to wait till later to ask me to dance? Royalty was the first too dance, and since Nancy was a princess...well, you can guess the rest. In descending order, the classes started to dance.

"Excuse me, but may I have this dance?" Nancy curtsied and smiled a "Yes you may" as she ended up doing to many men that night, most of them John. Maybe a little too many of them John.

Her thoughts tumbled over the thief. Who was he? What was his name? Where did he come from? What was he? Why did he kiss her? Why did the kiss release her wings? Why was he a good kisser?

The last question snapped her back into this world with a small blush. She then started to keep an eye on the prince. After all, she did have to dance with him at least once and the sooner she danced with him the sooner she could pretend she was tired or something and the sooner she could leave this stupid ball.

But there was one thing about the prince that struck her odd and set him apart from the rest. He hardly danced with any of the girls. The longest he’d dance with a girl you could barely call a minute, getting about 5 girls a song. How’s he going to get to know anybody like that? Her guesses were that he didn’t want to get to know them, already knew them, or already had someone in mind.

The last one was probably the truest. When what was considered one of the greatest love songs started to play, the prince walked over to a girl, who looked liked she wasn’t use to the finer things, and asked her to dance. When she refused, he forced her to dance. There was something in the air that said they knew each other.

"Would you like to dance?" John asked.

"My feet are tired." She lied an excuse "I think I’d like to sit this on out."

"Would you like for me to sit with you?"

"No..." she said looking over at the refreshment table and noticing that the punch bowel was empty and a maid just went to go get more. "If it’s not too much of a trouble, I’d like a drink." She smiled ever so sweetly, so John just had to say "No, it’s no trouble." She only hoped that there wasn’t another maid with another bowl of punch just behind the door.

Luckily there wasn’t, causing John to take a full song to bring her a drink, just like it took a full song for the prince and that girl to dance.

By the time John came back with her drink, Nancy’s feet were felling well enough to dance with the gentleman who just asked her to dance and her mouth didn’t seem as dry anymore. So John was left with two drinks as company.

Nancy noticed that the girl that the prince had been dancing with left almost immediately after the dance. At least after he leaned in for a kiss, but she left him kissless. Now he sat out and didn’t seem to like all the girls hoovering around him and being, literally, royal flirts. Other girls, most of the ones he had already danced with, sat at the other end of the room talking rudely about something and giving the prince evil glances.

After a few more dances, and the prince being forced by his father to do at least half dances, Prince Aubrey finally got to her. He bowed and said "Will you honor me with a dance?"

Why do I find irony in that question? "Yes, I will." She answered with a curtsied. After dancing for a few wordless moments, Nancy suspiciously asked "So, you’ve already made up your mind who you’re going to pick?"

"What?" The prince didn’t seem to expect a girl to talk fist, or at least that’s the way Nancy took it, so she repeated herself. "What makes you say that?"
"Well, you hardly danced with any of the other girls until one of the greatest love songs started to play when you forced a certain girl to dance and you danced the whole song. This was before your father came and talked to you and you began dancing at least half dances. I think she got an early start at your heart."
"We’re just friends." he protested.

"Oh, and don’t forget that kiss you tried to get at the end of the dance."

"I was caught up in the moment?"

"Naturally..." She said sarcastically. "Well, if you need a wife I guess I’m free."

"What?"

"My father said I had to advertise and that’s me advertising."

"Oh." They were quiet for a stretch of the song before the prince asked "Who are you thinking of?"

"You probably already know." she responded, not really wanting to talk about it to anyone, let alone to a guy she didn’t know.

"What is it that I know?"

"Well..." She said thinking of a how to put it. "Well, you know how there was a thief earlier?"

"Yes..."

"Well, it was my room he came too."

"That was you!?! I also heard he stole something other than jewels." Other than music, silence. "Well, is it true?"

"...yes..." she answered in the quietest voice she could.

The song, thankfully, was over. "Excuse me, but may I have this dance?"

Someone asked as the song ended, keeping the prince from responding. She turned around to see the asker and gasped at who it was...