One cannot understand the present without knowledge of the past. And for the present to be clear, and then turn into an adventurous future, we have to start this particular story from where it really began...
... so let us turn the clock back a tiny bit.
With about ten years, give or take.

Seatte, WA

Lady Maya was building a castle.

It was hard physical work; an activity that required focus, perseverance and skill. As for the first two, Maya was doing good in that department; as for the latter, she learned from the best. The best being the big black labrador that used to live next door.

The girl was wearing overall jeans, red sneakers, a matching T-shirt, and two short pigtails that were fast coming loose as she moved. She was skinny and determined, and her dark eyes had a cheerful glint.

Sand flew in all possible directions as Maya systematically turned the major part of the sandbox into her own private building complex. She was bigger than most of the human hamsters on her turf, since not many kids of her age were on the playground on weekday mornings. It didn't bother her at all. She had her lessons with Mom at her convenience, usually in the afternnon when the parks were more crowded. And it was not like the sandbox was just for babies. You could do real art there, if you put your mind to it.

Maya stopped once in a while to wipe her face (and smear more dirt on them), and glance over her shoulder at the dark haired woman sitting on a nearbly bench. Sometimes she smiled too, flashing the empty place of a front tooth, before she turned back to her work.

Mom had all the time in the world, back in those days.

"But mom!" a young boy screeched, dragging out the last word into many extra syllables.

It was a sunny summer's day in Seattle, Washington. Jesse Shepherd, then six years old, would hear nothing of it. On his birthday not too long ago, his parents had bought him a new Nintendo, a video game that had become quite popular lately. He was hooked on the thing, playing with it every chance he got. Now that school was out for the summer holidays, he had even more time than before. Well, that was until his mother decided he was slowly becoming obsessed. Maybe it had something to do with the nightmares he'd been having about Mario and Luigi chasing him around with giant killer mushrooms... Still, during the day, he loved the game.

"Sweetie, mommy wants to have a little bit of fresh air... You can't stay alone in the house." a blue-eyed woman said, starting to feel slightly frustrated with her youngest son. She would have to use force, something she rarely did when it came to her children. "Listen Jesse Sawyer Shepherd, you will be coming to the park with me right this minute, or else you won't get to play with Mario and Luigi all week." she paused, "And I heard the park had ice cream today. You do want ice cream, don't you?" You could never go wrong with bribing a six year-old with ice cream.

"Ice cream?" It was all the child needed. Twenty minutes later, he was dressed in a pair of black shorts with white stripes on either side and a yellow smiley t-shirt. A hat with his favorite comic book character on the front shielded his blond head and blue eyes from the sunlight and a few action figures occupied him as the car sped along toward the park. "...I want chocolate... No wait, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla mixed together! Can I get three scoops mommy? Or how about sixteen? I want sixteen scoops of ice cream! You promised I could get ice cream mommy. You promised!" he kept going on.

Eventually he'd forgotten about the ice cream. At least for now. Being in the sandbox at the park always seemed to push everything else aside. As he played with Batman and Robin, helping them get through a mountain of sand he'd created a few minutes earlier, he looked like the happiest boy in the world. He'd forgotten about the tantrum he'd done this morning because of his video game, he'd forgotten about his mother's promise to get him ice cream... He loved the park. He'd always loved it... Wait, there was another person occupying the sandbox, a girl he hadn't noticed before.

She was throwing sand everywhere... "Hi!" he said cheerfully, "You're making a castle? Can Batman and Robin go inside?" he wondered, his imagination going wild with ideas as to what his two superheroes could do in that castle. Maybe Joker was in there...

>>"Hi! You're making a castle? Can Batman and Robin go inside?"

Maya looked up at the cheerful voice, and the blonde boy it belonged to. She was close to the bottom on her end of the castle, sitting waist deep in the pit behind the high walls, so she really had to arch her neck to look, and all he could see from her was her face, from the chin up.
Maya glanced back over her shoulder. Mom was looking at the other mom, and at the boy, and she smiled. That was a go.

The girl turned back to the boy.

"They can, but you have to dig." she nodded with all the grace of a true lady-who-sits-in-a-sandbox-pit. She tossed some tools over the wall towards the boy "And they have to swear an oath if they want to belong to the court."

'Swear an oath' is not at all an easy phrase, when one front tooth is missing.

Watching the girl with his cheerful, young blue eyes, the boy couldn't help but grin at her. Sure, his grin was slightly mischievous, with three or four missing teeth from play-fights with his older, bigger brothers, falls from the swing set at school or even footballs hitting him in the mouth. Nobody could ever say he wasn't a cute kid however, because he truly was... You know, in that trouble-maker, energetic kind of way. However cute he may be, he was a heck of a lot of trouble.

The girl he'd spoken to was covered in sand. Even more so than Jesse and his figures were. She seemed a lot of fun, something Jesse could never get enough of. So with that, he started to make his way closer to her, crawling so that his knees and hands were even dirtier than they'd once been.

He had to dig. She'd said he had to dig. "I can do that!" he said, putting Batman and Robin aside so that he could use his hands more freely. "An oath? Batman and Robin don't have to swear anything! They're super!" he smiled, taking a small shovel and holding it with his little hands. For a little athlete such as him, he was still quite small and scrawny, with a tiny bit of baby fat. Still, he had no problem digging. He'd wrestled, played football and soccer with his brothers for a few years now. He could be rough and he was much stronger than the average kids his age.

Even if he didn't look it. "My name is Jesse. What's yours?" he asked, mid-way into the hole he'd been digging. "My dad said I always have to introduce myself... It's a polite thing to do. He's a Doctor." Another scoop of sand.

>>"An oath? Batman and Robin don't have to swear anything! They're super!"

"They have to." Maya argued, already back in the pit, so only her voice reached him over the wall "Every knight has to." she didn't repeat the phrase, it sounded silly, even to her ears "Okay, Robin don't, he can be a squirrel." Because 'squirrel' makes sense, and 'squire' doesn't. At all.

>>"My name is Jesse. What's yours? My dad said I always have to introduce myself... It's a polite thing to do. He's a Doctor."

"My name is Maya Morris." the girl answered dutifully, just to show him she could be polite too "And my Mom is a..." what was she again? This week? This life?This version? Maya glanced over her shoulder before she turned back to digging "... journalist. She writes." she added as clarification. In the meantime, she dug on, hoping to join tunnels with the blonde boy named Jesse somewhere under the castle walls.

They had to? Jesse frowned at the girl, then, glancing at his action figures, frowned at them also. "But they're superheroes! Not Knights...Or squirrels! They want to go find The Joker!" he argued right back. Glancing behind him at his mother, he couldn't help but grimace at her behave-yourself-look. She wasn't making things fun anymore... Why did he have to behave, anyway? She was the one that said his action figures needed to swear an oath! They didn't have to!

Sighing, the six year-old continued to dig. He would find a way to get his superheroes into that castle without having to swear to some stupid oath made by some stupid girl.

He glanced up again once she introduced herself. Maya. "My mother writes too! She writes stories. She says I get my imagination from her. I like to tell stories too... Although, I can't write very well yet. I'm going in First grade next Fall." he said. Honestly, he could change moods quite quickly. He was a speedy little guy. From being angry to being unusually chatty... From crying and yelling at his mother to stay home to not wanting to go back home for the rest of his life? Yeah, he was a speedy guy all right.

Now quiet once more, Jesse continued to dig deeper and deeper, further under the castle. It was only a matter of time before they were to connect, and then their tunnel would be big. His action figures would be able to go through without a problem.

Maya honsetly didn't understand what his problem was. She had been playing kinghts and ladies pretty much all her life (which was considerably long from her point of view). Mom taught her, after she started asking about her boy-name.
This boy just didn't get it.

>>"My mother writes too! She writes stories. She says I get my imagination from her. I like to tell stories too... Although, I can't write very well yet. I'm going in First grade next Fall."

There, now that was interesting. Telling stories was something Maya could really appreciate. Her mother was good at it too.

"I can write." she announced, voice echoing in the tunnel "And I... my brother is a knight."

She glanced at Mom for approval again, before she turned back to digging. After a few more minutes of work, she could feel the sand crumble, and her fingers touched his through the hole.

Maya could write? Well now, that was pretty cool. Jesse nodded as be continued digging. "I will be able to once school starts again!" he said and offered her a silly smile. Not that she was able to see it at this point in their little game.

"I have a brother too! Actually, I have two. They're much older than me. They're not here though... Where is your brother?" Just an innocent question from a child. He hadn't even caught her almost-slip up. Honestly, it was impossible in his mind that someone could be two different people.

Unless you were to consider superheroes. They dressed up in costumes and had code names. Now, that was a way to be two people at once... Maya was just Maya though.

As his thoughts steered to what his brothers may be doing at this point in their day, (Probably still out at one of their friends' playing football) he continued digging a little. It wasn't long however until they finally reached one another. When their fingers touched, Jesse yelled out "We did it!" before carefully taking his hands away and going to get his super friends Batman and Robin. "Is the castle finished, now?" he asked.

>>"I have a brother too! Actually, I have two. They're much older than me. They're not here though... Where is your brother?"

"He is with Dad" Maya shrugged, not even looking up for approval this time. It was a safe answer, and not exactly a lie either. Dad was Somewhere Else, as far as she knew (and Mom never tld her more than that, because she didn't know either), and Gawain was definitely Somewhere Else. For today, anyway.

>>"We did it! Is the castle finished, now?"

"Yes it is." Maya nodded in approval after she stood and looked over her brand new palace complex, and the boy outside of it. "We need a flag."

The young blond boy nodded his head excitedly. So her brother was with her dad, that was interesting. His own dad was working again, something he did a lot. He could work for forty-eight hours on end, with only two or four hours to sleep. He had an exigent job, but Jesse loved him no matter what.

"My Dad is going to be a Doctor soon. Right now he's just a Resident. He's almost done though. In a year he will be a real Doctor. Tr...Trauma Surgeon. I think that's what he said. He's going to work on the people who were in accidents..." It seemed as if the boy couldn't keep his mouth shut, but then again, it wasn't as if he had anything dangerous to keep secret. The biggest secret he had to keep at this point was that Presley had truly broken the vase last month while playing football.

He was being paid to keep his mouth shut and blame it on his other brother Seth though. He couldn't really say anything now, could he? He didn't want that dollar to be taken away! A dollar could get his candy. Candy was good. Especially for a six year-old who already had enough energy as it .

A flag. Looking around, the young boy tried to think of a way to achieve this task. A flag, they needed a flag. "Wait here!" he said cheerfully, his index finger raised in the typical 'one second' sign. With that, he started running toward his mother. A minute later, he came back with a piece of paper and two crayons. One was yellow, the other was purple. "My momma didn't have a real flag... But she gave me a paper. We can draw it!" he said proudly.

So his Dad was a doctor. Maya didn't comment on that. Her father could have been anything, for all she knew. She could have been a doctor too. Or an astronaut. Or a human. Maya doubted he was a human.

Maya looked at the crayons. One was yellow, and the other was purple.
Classic heraldry doesn't use yellow. It uses or, which is a fancy word for gold. Maya had a pen that could color gold. It was one of her treasures.
Many people didn't know the rules anyway.
Maya did.

"We can say the yellow is the gold" she concluded after some pondering. Once the flag was made an positioned on top of a tower, Maya stood and dusted off her jeans. Or at least pretended to do so.

"Now. Sir Batman and Sir Robin. What do you have to offer to the lady of this castle?"

The lady, of course, being Maya. It was only natural.

Making the flag was a lot of fun. With the gold and purple crayons, they managed to do art any six year-old would definitely proud of. Jesse wasn't exactly an artist, he'd never been, but with Maya's help, he had to admit their scribbles and doodles made one pretty amazing flag. Exactly what was needed for their amazing castle. Perfect for an amazing adventure with the amazing Sir Batman and Sir Robin.

"They can offer the lady...Batman's cape. What do you think? To him, that was probably the best idea anyone could ever have come up with. A cape, nobody would want anything else in the world but Batman's one and only cape.

He was a boy. A six year-old, imaginative, comic-book loving boy. Of course he would think that. "Now," he said, taking control of the situation for once. "What type of booby traps are in there? How about mushroom men? And evil dragons... Evil dragons are always fun." he said. Really, mushrooms? Hence why his mother no longer wanted him to play so much Mario and Luigi.

Oh well, he was having fun now, that was all that mattered really. Not to mention the fact that he would potentially make a friend out of this meeting.

>>"They can offer the lady...Batman's cape. What do you think?"

Maya considered the offer for a few minutes, with the dignity of the Lady of the Castle. She didn't really know what she was considering, but she couldn't just accept the gift without at least pretending to consider it first. So she did. Then she nodded.
"The cape is good. I accept it."

>>"What type of booby traps are in there? How about mushroom men? And evil dragons... Evil dragons are always fun."

"Mushroom men?" Maya blinked before she dismissed the suggestion "Dragons. We can have dragons. But they are not evil. They only eat people to defend the castle."

Maya kinda liked dragons.

"Or they can fight evil dragons who want to come in." she offered "And we can have moat. With crocodiles. Or piranhas."

Jesse grinned as his offer was expected. He quickly took off the tiny black cape on his action figure. "Uh... Do I give it to you now, or after I save the lady?" he wondered aloud, glancing first at Batman's cape, and then at his new friend Maya. He wasn't exactly the type that played Castle. He had never pretended to be a Knight, nor had he ever wanted to. Superheroes were his things. Flying, super strength... You know, Superman, Batman, Robin... Castles were games for girls.

"Mushroom men?" Jesse nodded, but before he could elaborate on where he'd gotten the idea, it was pushed aside. A frown masked his face for a few seconds, his intense blue eyes darkening a little. Oh well, she probably didn't have the knowledge required to know how cool mushroom men were. She didn't know about Mario and Luigi.

At least they'd be fighting dragons. Dragons were cool too. Not as cool as Mushroom men, but close enough. "Batman and Robin can fight alongside the good dragons protecting the lady to defeat a bunch of big bad ogars. What do you think of that, Maya?" he suggested, a grin plastered once again on his childish face. "Ogars, crocodiles and...Paganinies, if you want."

So he had no idea what piranhas were, big deal. He was six years old.

>>"Uh... Do I give it to you now, or after I save the lady?"

Maya blinked. What on earth was that boy talking about? Save the lady? From what?...
On Maya days, ladies didn't need to be saved.

>>"Batman and Robin can fight alongside the good dragons protecting the lady to defeat a bunch of big bad ogars. What do you think of that, Maya? Ogars, crocodiles and...Paganinies, if you want."

"They can" Maya allowed "But somebody has to do the bad guys. We can't be all good."

Reaching inside one of the caves, she pulled out two smaller branches with leafs on, and two rocks that might have been roughly shaped as... some kind of a monster if one looked at the from the right angle. Maya did, just before she pushed them out of the castle.

"There."

So she had no idea what paganinies were, big deal. She was seven years old.