2 CHAPTER 2 STONIA EMPIRE

Jane remembered this painful feeling. It was like the time she slipped on black ice outside her apartment and landed flat on her back, knocking all the air from her lungs.

Back then her and Jun were newly weds, he had seen her fall from their window and rushed outside in the dead of winter without a coat to help her. She inhaled slowly to help release some of the pain before opening her eyes to the bright sun.

A blue jay flew overhead, she shielded her eyes from the light and realized she was no longer in the bustling city of Seoul a couple of blocks from her work place.

She was in the middle of a forest, she sat up stunned looking around listening carefully for any sounds of the city. A car honk, or a truck passing by but it was silence, only the sounds of undisturbed nature surrounded her.

"Where the hell am I?"

As she stood she felt a sharp pain in her head, and then the flash back appeared.

Jun had told her he was seeking out a divorce, and had moved out of their home. She ran off upset, and he tried to stop her…

She could see the horror in his face and when she turned to the sound of a car horn . The next second she was flying across the crosswalk, the warmth of her pooling blood had comforted her as her last breaths slipped from her mouth, Her ex husband clutching her lifeless body screaming her name over and over.

"I died."

Her legs went weak as she collapsed onto the floor and she began to study her surroundings with a different mindset. Was this heaven ? In the middle of the forest?

She noticed mushrooms, a kind she had never seen before that had a slight pink glow to them. The grass she sat on faintly smelled of lemons. The more she looked around the more she began to think this was her personal heaven, surrounded by different plants, trees, flowers, fungi, and nature. That was until she heard the woosh of an arrow zip by nearly hitting her ear piercing a nearby tree.

"Christ! What the fuck was that?!"

Another arrow zoomed by this time entering the ground near her foot, she let out a scream and got up and began to run with all her strength. It wasn't long until she tripped over a large tree root rolling onto the ground covering herself in dirt, and badly spraining her ankle.

"Ahh! God damn it, that hurts."

She pulled off her sneaker to reveal her ankle that was already becoming extremely swollen.

"Shit."

It was when she heard the sound of people nearby that she began to panic, this definitely wasn't heaven. But she had better figure out quickly where she was before she got herself killed again. With her ankle so badly hurt, running was not an option so she crawled to a nearby tree to lean against and hide behind.

"Do you think it was man or woman?"

Her ears perked up to the sound of what seemed to be two men.

"With a scream like that my guess is a woman, but a trespasser nonetheless. They could be an assassin sent to cause you harm my lord. Maybe we should head back to the palace so that you're safe."

"I will do no such thing. If it was a woman I hardly doubt she was a killer with how she ran off at the sight of our arrows. People wander into the huniting grounds all the time."

"Yes… But with certain circumstances."

Jane was calculating everything as she listened to their conversation, she wasn't dead, at least she didn't think she was at the moment. She had no idea where she was, nor how to return home. One of the two seemed kind enough, maybe she could ask them for help…"

"I'm a Botanist, not an assassin. I mean no harm…"

She came out of her hiding place, hands in the air. She was stunned to see two very elegantly dressed men on the backs of stallions who looked at her in shock.

She looked down, her clothes were bloodied and dirty. Her jeans ripped from her knee to her mid thigh, her once white button down filthy with dirt.

The blond man of two quickly jumped down drawing a sword. Its pointy tip touching the hollow of Jane's throat.

"What woman in her right mind would be wearing a man work clothes? Who are you, and what are you doing on the Emperor's hunting grounds?"

Jane felt herself go pale at feeling the sharpness of his blade at her throat she began to tremble, hot tears falling from her eyes.

"I-I don't know h-how I got here. I-I thought I had died and that t-this was heaven when I woke up. P-Please believe me."

The second man leapt down from his steed, touching his friend's shoulder.

"Simon stop, she's pale with fear, this isn't how we treat our people."

"But your highness-"

"No buts."

While the two bickered, Jane could hardly tolerate the throbbing pain that seemed to be attacking her whole body. Her breaths became shallow, her face draining form any of the remaining blood it held.

"Please just tell me where I am so I can go home please. How far is Seoul from here?"

Both men turned to her with confused expressions.

"You have no idea where you are?"

Jane shook her head to the best of her ability.

"I have no idea of this kingdom Seoul you speak of. But you are in the Empire Stonia, of which I Beau Delmar am the crown prince."

Kingdoms? Empires? Crown prince? Jane looked at the two men up and down again. One had his sword pointed at her neck but the other man's remained in its sheath on his hip. Their clothes reminded her that of the fairy tales she read as a child.

And they never heard of Seoul? Her mind became fuzzy with shock, her consciousness slipping. She began to lean forward into the blade that was near her neck.

"Good god Simon put that blade away!"

The crown prince caught the young woman in his arms quickly as she fainted. He looked at his best friend with confusion.

"Where do you think she came from?"

Simon who was also the palace wizard withdrew his sword looking at the unconscious girl. The backpack that they had found must have belonged to her, inside he found a card with her image.

"Says here her name is Jane, Jane Sooyoung Kim. I have my ideas as to where she is from, we should bring her back to the palace immediately; she doesn't seem to be in the best of condition."

Beau looked down at the bloodied girl in his arms with worry, he pushed the many loose strands from her face shocked to see such a lovely face behind all the mess. Her facial features unlike anyone in his kingdom, her features actually reminded him of his mother. It was the first time he ever seen someone with hair as black as his, a true beauty had somehow thought his father's hunting grounds was heaven and that she had died. He gave her petite frame a once over. She must had gone through hell and back…

"Yes we'll let the physicians look her over."

Simon helped his friend lift her so that she leaned against him on his horse. The two galloped quickly to the palace worried by her blood loss, Simon looked over to whom he was assuming would be a very confused young lady when she woke thinking of all the different magical text he would have to read to figure out where she came from.