I'm sorry it took so long for this update. It's been busy and I have company but here is your new chapter. Please review and ideas are welcome.

Chapter 1:

Ivy stared out into the sea. Beyond miles upon miles of water stretching she could see just the slightest glimpse of a faraway kingdom. She wasn't sure if it was Zachavi or Lakishea. Asking her mother anything about the kingdoms and even sometimes her heritage distressed old Matilda Kandes.

That gave Ivy one thing to do…guess. Her imagination went wild on her at times. She dreamed of faraway places and people. If only she were allowed to go past the fence of her home. She was lucky enough to have a small beach of her own.

It always puzzled her why her ears were pointed but her mother swore she wasn't elven. Ivy knew better than that. She was more than human. Her senses were more than twice as sharp as Matilda's. She heard animal conversations and could talk in another language that no one taught her. She had to be at least one fourth elven.

She was never to speak of her father or anything. Sometimes she even wondered if she was really her mother's daughter. It sounded utterly ridiculous, but she couldn't help but think it at times.

"Ivy!" her name echoed out into the wind and she sighed.

"Enough daydreaming for one day Ivy Kandes. The real world awaits you," she said, staring into the ocean. She longed to go for a swim in the crystal blue water. Only she never had before…But she would think of this tomorrow because tomorrow was another day. Another day of dreaming of something that would never happen.

Ivy all but ran into the little cottage that was home to her and her mother Matilda Kandes. Lady-likeness was something Ivy didn't possess. Who needed it when you were cooped up and never went anywhere?

"There you are my little dove. Help me shell these beans, please," Matilda said holding a bowl as Ivy skidded into the kitchen, her bare feet slightly muddy but her mother didn't seem to notice. Perhaps old Matilda Kandes was used to her daughter's unlady-like antics.

Ivy said naught a word as she took the bowl from her mother's outstretched hands and sat down by the window sill to look out at the sea as she shelled.

"I'm going out to market today, is there anything you'd like me to get for you?" Matilda stirred a large spoon in the kettle over the fire. The stew smelled delicious and Ivy's stomach rumbled.

"Could I go with you?" Ivy asked, knowing it was hopeless to ask but she couldn't help it.

Right at that moment Matilda's gray streaked hair slipped out of her kerchief. Making her look even more distressed. "Ivy, you know already I have to say no. You don't know what could happen out there."

Ivy sighed, "Nobody is going to kidnap me. It's not going to happen. You worry too much."

"I said no," Matilda said in a flat no nonsense tone.

Ivy bit her lip, tears pricking her eyes. No matter how many times she asked and how many times her mother said no it still hurt every time. "But-."

Matilda stood up sharply and dropped the spoon. She shifted the kerchief on her hair again and grabbed her coin purse and without a word walked out of the cottage leaving Ivy in tears.