There was a giant forest behind the house of Sarahs parents. It was so big, that Sarah and her friend Felicitas, both around ten years old, only managed to explore a small part of it. But, that wasn’t because of lack of explorer spirit. When the two were together, they spent most of their time in the forest. Their fortress, built by themselves out of some branches and leaves, surrounded by a shaky fence, was their hideout. From here they started their adventures. Fought monsters, searched lost treasures or just went on expeditions.

“I think, at the spring of that small river we will find a treasure for sure!” said Sarah confident and climbed over a couple of roots that had grown over the shore of the river.

“Why do you think that?” asked Felicitas.

“I have a good feeling about this.”

Felicitas and Sarah were both equipped well for this trip. Each of them carried a spear and a small backpack with supplies. The standard equipment for exploration missions. The goal for today was, to find out, where the small river came from. They never had been in this part of the woods before and that was reason enough to check, if there were any monsters left to hunt or treasures to find.

The riverbed lead up a small hill.

“What would you do with all the gold, if we find it?” asked Felicitas.

“I would buy a castle, wherein you would be the princess and I would be your guard”, said Sarah. She had to duck to pass under a fallen tree, that was overgrown with a thick layer of moss.

Felicitas stopped in front of the tree. “Why don't you want to be the princess?”

“I am more of a fighter and you are better with words. Besides, every princess needs someone, who protects her”, said Sarah and peeked up from below the tree. “Come on, I have to show you something.”

Felicitas followed Sarah past under the tree to the other side. After a short distance, the thicket thinned out and they could see a little lake. All around it was grown over with bushes and trees. On the other side, a small waterfall fell over a bunch of big rocks into the lake.

“Wow, that's beautiful!”, said Felicitas.

“Yeah.” Both stood there for a moment before Sarah said, “but that is not the origin. We have to find a way up those rocks.” She pointed with her spear in the direction of the waterfall. Felicitas nodded and both started to cleave a way through the thicket.

“You know, I think the people would be happy with you as the Protector of the Kingdom, and me as the princess”, said Felicitas while she followed Sarah.

“Protector of the Kingdom?”, Sarah smiled. “I like the sound of that”, and with her most noble voice she added, “your Majesty.” Both laughed.

So they reached the top of the waterfall in high spirits.

“From up here you can nearly see our fortress”, noticed Felicitas.

“Hm, I can only see leafs.”

“Yes, me too, but our fortress has to be under that big tree over there”, said Felicitas and pointed into the direction they came from.

Sarah tilted her head and thought about it for a little, before she answered: “Yeah, I think you're right.”

“Let's take a break”, Felicitas sat down near the waterfall and let her feet dangle over the ledge.

“But, the treasure! It can't be far anymore.” Sarah wasn't sure what to do. She really wanted to get the treasure, but on the other hand, they had traveled all morning and a break would be nice.

“I'm sure the treasure won't be running away”, said Felicitas. “We can't say for sure how far it is and the Protector of the Kingdom should definitely be rested, when we encounter monsters.”

“As you command, your Majesty”, Sarah saluted, jumped beside Felicitas and sat down. “Let us see what our master provisioner packed for us today”, Sarah took off her backpack, opened it and peeked inside. “Looks like once again the trees of the forest were her source of inspiration”, she said in her noblest of noble voices and pulled out an apple. Trying to imitate her mothers voice, she added: “They have a bunch of vitamins and are mighty healthy!”

Felicitas laughed so hard, she nearly fell off the rocks.

“Would your Majesty like to have one of those delicious apples?” asked Sarah.

Felicitas was able to pull herself together long enough to answer in a courtly tone: “I have to decline. I am in possession of such a fruit as well”. To prove it, she too pulled an apple out of her backpack. “You can surely eat it yourself, in the end we both want to become tall and strong!”

That made Sarah to give up her faked seriousness and both had to laugh until they fell over. It took a while for both to calm down. After Felicitas was able to catch some breath, she took a big bite out of her apple and pointed into the sky. “Look, that cloud looksh like a pflower.”

Sarah glanced at the cloud and then with a look of reproach to Felicitas.

“What?”

Sahrah took a huge bite before she answered: “It ish not very princesshlike to shpeak with a full mouth.” Both had to start laughing again.

Suddenly there was a rustle in the bushes not far from them. Sarah and Felicitas immediately stopped and grabbed their spears.

“What was that?”, asked Felicitas.

“Perhaps it was a bird”, but Sarah acted, like she did not believe that explanation herself.

The rustling came closer. No, that wasn't the sound of a bird jumping through the bushes. It had to be something much bigger.

“We should hide”, suggested Felicitas. Her voice sounded more afraid than she intended to.

“We can't hide up here”, said Sarah. She held her spear directly pointed towards the bushes. “We don't know what it is. If we have to, we can jump down into the lake below us.”

The noise was very close now.

“But, what if the Lake is not deep enough?”, fearfully she clung to her spear.

That's when the bear came out of the bushes. It wasn't a big bear. He looked like he wasn't expecting two girls up here either, because he just stood there and stared at them.

Felicitas stopped moving, her big fear filled eyes staring at the bear. Sarah positioned herself in front of Felicitas to protect her. The spear held steady, pointed towards the bear.

“We have to go, do you understand?”, there was no fear in Sarahs voice. Felicitas nodded vaguely. “We can't take the path we came. The bear could easily follow us. We have to jump down the waterfall.” Sarah took a short look at Felicitas, but Felicitas was only staring at the bear. “Do you understand?” This time a faint nod. “You jump first. I'll follow you!”

The bear slowly lost his patience. He just wanted to get something to drink here, but those two, whatever they were, stood in his way. He made one step forward. Immediately Sarahs spear jerked towards him, but she missed the bear. He still was out of range. The bear growled.

“JUMP! NOW!”, that freed Felictias from her frozen state. Cautiously she approached the cliff. She looked at Sarah. The bear moved another step forward. “JUMP ALREADY!” Felicitas turned around, gathered all her courage, and jumped. While she was falling, she heard the bear roaring and another sound that she couldn't put. Then the lake welcomed her and she only heard the gurgling of water.

With only a couple of strokes she was back at the surface. There was nothing to hear around her. “SARAH!” No answer. Then she discovered Sarah, floating in the water. She must have jumped right after her. But she wasn't moving and her head was under water.

“Sarah!” Felicitas swam quickly to her. She turned Sarah around to get her head out of the water and dragged her to the beach. There Felicitas laid Sarah down sideways and started pushing against Sarahs breast. “Come on! You're not allowed to be dead!” Water flowed out of Sarahs mouth. “COME ON!” after a last hearty push against Sarahs chest she finally began to cough. “Good girl!”

“What … happened?” Slowly Sarah gained back her cautiousness. Her voice sounded weak and tired. With her hand she fumbled around her side. As she pulled her hand back, to examine it, it was blood red. Felicitas startled.

“You're hurt!” Felicitas pulled Sarahs sweater and her t-shirt just far enough up to check the wound and her eyes widened.

“How … bad is it?”

Felicitas hesitated before she answered. “Just a scratch!”

Sarah smiled dimly. “You've always been a bad liar.”

Felicitas took off her own pullover, rolled it up and tied it as hard as she could around Sarahs waist.

“Ouch”, moaned Sarah.

Felicitas ignored that. “We have to get away from here and quick. The bear could come down here any minute. Can you walk?”

“I will try.” Shaky, with gritted teeth and Felicitas help, she managed to get up. Sweat shone on her forehead. Felicitas knew, Sarah wouldn't be able to hold out long. The further they would get away from the bear the better.

“Here, take my spear. You can use it as a crutch.” With most of the weight on Felicitas they started moving. It wasn't easy. Sarah stumbled across the smallest stones and Felicitas had trouble to keep her upright. Felicitas could feel, that Sarah got weaker and weaker.

“Sarah! Protector of the Kingdom! I order you to not fall asleep!” shouted Felicitas as she noticed that her Friend was stumbling along the way half sleeping. “Do you hear me?”

Sarahs head jerked back up. “As you command, your Majesty”, she answered in a low voice. Some of her strength came back, but Sarah had to fight for every little bit of it to stay awake.

“It isn't far anymore”, said Felicitas.

“You have to whistle.” Felicitas startled. Yes, she had nearly forgotten that. Both had discussed it with Sarahs parents, that they should whistle loud three times, when something bad had happened. So Felicitas took quickly two fingers to her mouth and whistled three times as loud as she could.

“I'm sorry”, said Felicitas, “I had completely forgotten about that.”

“It's okay, in return your whistling was really loud. They must have heard it.”

Stumbling, they continued their way. Felicitas didn't bother when twigs caught in her clothing or when they scratched her skin, she kept going through the woods, no matter what. With every step closer to the rescue. Sarahs father should be at home. He had worked in the garden, as the two had vanished into the forest.

“You know what”, Sarahs voice was just a low whispering, “now you are the protector ... and I ... I am ... the princess.” She smiled weakly. Her face had gone all white and was covered in sweat. Felicitas checked the pullover that she had bound around Sarahs waist and saw, that it now had several red spots.

“But I want you to be my protector! I am not good at fighting, I am not as brave as you and your spear is much better than mine!” Felicitas was desperate. “These are all good reasons to live, do you hear? You're not allowed to die!” She forced herself with Sarah through the next bush. The thicket thinned out. They had to be close to the edge of the forest.

“Look, the forest gets lighter. You have to hang in there for just a little longer!” Felicitas said to Sarah.

“Sure thing”, was the weak, barely audbible answer. Together they bridged the last meters and reached the edge of the forest.

Felicitas whistled again three times. From here they could see Sarahs house. Someone had to hear them. She put Sarah gently down beside a tree. Felicitas panicked as she saw, that Sarah had closed her eyes. Without much thought she slapped her. “You have to stay awake!”

Sarah woke up again. “Ouch”, she tried to pull up her hand to touch her cheek, but she didn't have enough strength to do it.

“I'm sorry”, Felicitas ran gently her hand across Sarahs cheek. “I run to the house and get help.” Sarah nodded, but before Felicitas was able to run, there was a snap and a rustling in the underbrush. Something came closer. Fast.

“The bear”, shot through Felicitas head. She grabbed the spear, that lay in the grass and in a fluent motion she pointed it towards the bushes. She whistled again three times as loud as she was able to.

The noise came closer.

“Run away and save yourself”, said Sarah quietly.

“No”, said Felicitas with a far more stable voice, than she felt herself. “You saved me before, now it is time for me to return the favor.”

Suddenly Sarahs father broke out of the bushes. He was out of breath. He had heard Felicitas first whistling and hurried to the girls fortress. Then he followed the second whistling to them.

“What happened?” He pushed the spear away and immediately hunkered over his daughter to check her.

“Sarah was attacked by a bear in the woods, we have to take her to the hospital! She got badly hurt on her side, I tried to stop the bleeding with my pullover, but I think it doesn't work. The blood is still coming out and she gets weaker and weaker”, it bubbled out of Felicitas, who was grateful, that it wasn't the bear.

Sarahs father looked at Sarahs side and immediately realized the seriousness of the situation. He tightened the pullover more and scooped his daughter up into his arms.

“Let's go”, he said to Felicitas and both ran down to the house, into the car and drove to the hospital.

Sarah survived that day. Barely.

Steam hizzed. Felicitas had trouble to get her eyes open.

“A slight disorientation is normal, when you've been that long in cryo”, she heard a voice. She recognized it from somewhere. Felicitas brain slowly managed to separate itself from the world of dreams.

Dreams, yes. That one she dreamed too often. It was that disastrous day from around twenty years ago, that changed her life from the ground up. She became a doctor. And Sarah, the encounter with the bear didn't stop her from going to the military. She had to be somewhere on this spaceship too.

Felicitas was slowly able to recognize outlines again. With her left hand she fumbled for the rim of the door of her sleeping chamber and pulled herself forward. Immediately her eyes blacked out and she had to fight for her balance.

“Easy, easy”, a pair of hands helped her to not fall over. “It’s not good for the body to be such a long time in cryo sleep. He first needs to readjust to be able to keep up with the stress again. Take your time.”

Felicitas nodded. Gina, that was the name that belonged to that voice. She stood in front of Felicitas and examined her from head to toe. In her hand she held a light blue cup, that was filled with a violet substance.

“Here”, she gave it to Felicitas. “With that, you'll get better soon. That stuff will help your body to get back on track.”

“Thanks Gina”, Felicitas took the cup. In her own hand it looked much bigger and the content much less appetizing.

“Just don't look at it for too long, or try to smell it”, said Gina in a good mood, “otherwise you won't be able to get that stuff down.” With a grin on her face she went to the next sleeping chamber and pushed buttons.

A last skeptic look, a deep breath and Felicitas took a big gulp of the violet juice. Only with a lot of effort, she was able to keep that stuff down. Not only did it taste horrible, it also had the consistency of syrup, that made it difficult to swallow.

But it was worth the trouble. Quickly Felicitas felt her body coming back to life. She felt less shaky on her feet and the room had finally stopped spinning. In a last effort she gulped the rest.

“That's disgusting”, she shook herself and went out of the sleeping chamber.

She was in a long corridor with sleeping chambers on both sides. The hallway was filled with people, either pushing buttons to wake up more dormant people, or awakened people that tried to get a bearing in the real world.

Under the console of Felicitas sleeping chamber, there was a storage box for clothes. She put the cup on top of the console, opened the box and pulled out some comfortable pants and a matching long sleeved t-shirt. She dressed up, looked around, to see if she knew anyone else here and then headed for the dinning hall.

Ten years of sleep made hungry.