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McLovin
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Subject: The Stonecastle Family

My Name is King James Stonecastle of Stonecastle Keep. You may also know me as Patches. Until Recently My past was not known to me.

When I was a teenager growing up in My Fathers Kingdom I met a girl named Gabriella who was the daughter of a lord in a neighboring kingdom. We fell fast in love and for one brief summer we could not be apart. As a token of our budding love I gave her a locket bearing my family's crest identical to the one that I had. Nearing the end of the summer unfortunately we were caught in an uncomfortable situation by one of her father's men and he quickly reported the misconduct to his lord. Her father was very angry and forbade us to ever see each other again and took his daughter from Stonecastle Keep.

I was very distraught over the loss of my love and in a fit of anger, and against my parent's wishes, I joined the army fighting a war in a far off Land. During my service in a remote area of the far kingdom I was injured and left for dead in a wooded area.

A woman named Nadia Dragon found me near dead and nursed me back to health. When I awoke i had no recollection of my life before that moment all I had was a locket bearing a Crest. Still being a young man Nadia Dragon's father, Old King Magoo, offered to take me into his home and adopt me as his son and I gladly took his kindness.

Nadia and I became fast friends and we were rarely seen apart. When Nadia was older she met and married King Graywind, becoming Queen Graywind, and I stayed with her as her personal body guard and loyal friend and brother.

My Mother, Isabella, after being told that I was killed in battle, lost all will to live and eventually fell to illness. My father, Cedric, greatly grieved by the news of his son never gave up hope that I might be alive since no one could confirm my death.

The years had not been kind to my father, with his son gone and presumed dead and his wife tragically taken before her time. After many years of searching my father finally heard of a man who was a brave and noble warrior serving a royal family in a far away kingdom and was asking questions of his past. My father with a new spark of hope sent a group of his trusted personal guards to this land in search of his son. Unfortunately by the time he sent his guards in search of me his health had already greatly deteriorated.

When the guards presented themselves at the gates of Graywind Castle asking of this brave and noble warrior runners were sent immediately to the Queen. Upon hearing that these men were looking for their long lost prince the Queen grew excited and summoned me to the great hall. The Queen convinced me although I did not want to go for fear of leaving My Queen, to go to see this King who was perhaps my father.

On the long journey back to Stonecastle Keep I started to have vague deja vu of my surroundings and then upon reaching the King's Keep I had the very real feeling of being there before. As I was led to my ailing father's chamber things became more familiar. When I walked into the room and saw my father it all came rushing back to me. I remembered everything, my childhood, my lost love, my battles in the army. I reached into my shirt and pulled out my locket and remembered the painful significance it had.

My father beckoned me closer and asked me to sit as he wished to tell me of the events of the past years. He told me of my grief stricken mother and how the news of my death had affected her which saddened me deeply. He told me of his failing health and the fact that he did not have much time left. Then he told me of her.

With a grim face my father then told me of how young Gabriella was with child when I went away and after a very hard pregnancy she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Arianna. I was over come with grief at hearing the sad fate of my beloved Gabriella and also filled with great joy at hearing of my daughter's existence. Unfortunately my father's face was still somewhat grim and he told me of how Arianna was treated badly by the lord and misunderstood by the villagers and eventually ran away. I suddenly had a very heavy heart again.

Then I was faced with a hard decision: Do I leave my Fathers ailing side in search of my daughter or do I stay and comfort my father? My father decided for me as he wished to look upon the face of his only grandchild once before he died. He ordered me off to look for her and vowed he would live long enough to see her.

With a group of well trained soldiers I went first in search of Gabriella's father. I confronted him and at first he was reluctant, but with the proper persuasion I convinced him to tell me all he knew. He said that she had run away in the night and that she always talked about the sea.

Not much to go on but very determined I headed straight to the coast to the nearest port I could find I went from coast town and village searching for a young runaway for several weeks with no luck, the trail had run cold. With desperation and a deep heartache I continued to search.

One cold and dreary afternoon I walked into a dirty pirate infested port city. With not much hope of finding her I grudgingly continued my search of the city. Not paying attention to where I was going, I turned a corned and ran straight into someone sending them sprawling to the street. I reached down to help the person up and looking up from the ground was the face of my beautiful beloved Gabriella. Arianna on the other hand was staring at my chest. She reached her hand up to grab the locket I wore around my neck and reached into her blouse to pull out the identical locket. Dumbfounded she stood and asked who I was. I explained to her of my lost love and of my lost child, and the significance of the locket. All she could do was stare at me with Gabriella's eyes, a tear running down her cheek.

Arianna told me of her life after the village with a pirate crew. She maintained that she had a good life with the pirates. She was reluctant to follow me back to my father's kingdom as she felt she owed her pirate family. I asked her to take me to the captain.

The Pirate captain was a likable sort with a mischievous grin. I explained to him what had happened and he told me that there was no way that he would let the girl who brought life back to his ship leave. With some sweet-talk from Arianna and significant lightening of my pockets the Pirate finally agreed to let Arianna go back with me.

Finally after many weeks we were heading back to the land of my birth. Upon arriving back at Stonecastle Keep there was a gloomy atmosphere about the place and I knew something was wrong. We rushed up to my father's room to see that his health had greatly diminished since my departure and he beckoned me to his side. I pulled Arianna behind me to my father. With a great smile he looked upon my daughter's beautiful face and told her she look exactly like her mother. My father then grabbed my hand and told me that it was now up to me to take care of the kingdom and with that he died.

I was greatly saddened by the death of my father and I was uncertain about ruling my father's kingdom. After much deliberation with Arianna, learning more how quick to learn this young woman had become, I decided with her help to rule my father's kingdom.

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