The Lady Amalthea stood at the edge of her overlook, thin fingers curling against the rough cold stone as she watched the sea. The sun was now setting, hanging heavy along the horizon; casting fiery rays of light over the dark waters and igniting the cresting foam of the waves. This is where she stood most days, saying nothing, moving not; just watching as if she was trying to remember something that had long since been forgotten. 

	“You grow more forgetful each day,” a deep raspy voice crawled in from behind her. Her head quickly turned as if she was startled as her hand came to her breast, pressing against the sudden rush that had broken her vigil. 

	“M’Lord,” she half stammered as she looked to the King. Hagard was an old man with worn harsh features; as rough and unpolished as the stone walls of his chiseled home. 

	“I did not mean to startle you,” he said as he stepped closer and brushed back the long snowy tendrils that had fallen over her shoulder. She nodded and turned back to the sea. He watched her, as he always did, marveling not at what she appeared to be but what she was beneath the façade of humanity. “You brought back with you guests this evening.”

	“I did?” she questioned as she watched the waves crash below. 

	“They will not take you from me,” he warned as his eyes burned with jealously that another was within his walls, able to see her. 

	“I do not understand what you mean M’Lord,” the Lady Amalthea said confused. King Hagard grabbed her slender and bare shoulders, gripping tightly as he spun her to face him.
	
	“You are mine, if you remember one thing, you will remember that,” he hissed from behind clenched and crooked teeth. The Lady Amaltheas eyes widened as she reeled back and twisted from his grip. A long scraggly finger pointed to her as it shook. “You may have forgotten what you are but I have not. I’ll toss you to the sea myself before I let any take you from me!”

	“You’re mad,” she whined in a frightened voice before pushing past him, gathering the folds of her silken gown and running through her room and back into the heart of the castle.