The Cursed Princess: The Long Journey | Book 1 | Vol 1-8 | (Original Series)

Volume 3 Chapter 8: Bad News & True Feelings Revealed?

The next morning: Vladimir opens the door that goes to Rose's room only to see her sitting in the window casually. With her weapon leaning up against the wall next to her right leg. She heard a faint sound and turned her head only to see Vladimir standing in the doorway. "Good morning, Vlad." He nodded his head in her direction. She whistled a tune and a crow flew over and landed on her shoulder. "I've working on my cursed abilities and it seems like animals naturally like me. Mostly birds but I'm sure I can communicate with much more than I can imagine. I just have to work harder." He walked over and grabbed the bird's neck. "Vlad!?" He crushed it's neck and glared daggers at her with annoyance. "What was that for!?" "Foolish girl, only I can have your attention. You are my property. If you dare to get closer to anyone. I'll kill them." She froze in place as he left the room. She exhaled hot air as she whispered softly,"What's gotten into him?" She grabbed her sword and dropped down from her window. She used a vortex elevator to slow her down. She walked towards the gate and saw Seraphina. She smiled happily as she waved in her new mentors direction.

2 months later: Rose trained with Seraphina on the most ironic and hypocritical things like controlling their emotions and bloodlust. She acted like her outburst and actions towards Vlad never even happened. There was something clearly wrong with Seraphina's mind. Something that Rose can use to her advantage in the future.

Rose learned that all cursed ones have a common physical trait that they all can do. They can harden their fur or feathers as way to protect themselves from harm and use them to have more power on a up close fight. For instance Seraphina can hardened her feathers and use them as swords and sharp projectiles. Rose can use her feathers on her arms and legs as armor to deflect projectiles.

Since there's a bunch of different species of Cursed One's each species and the branch of family has their own unique ability they can do. Seraphina is a red hawk and her kind can make their feathers float in the air. Their feathers can be used as foot holds in the air for their or comrades, use as great way of fast transportation or use as a way to capture fast moving targets. Rose found out that her unique species ability was that her feathers are lighter in weight. They can fly higher, faster, in quicker speeds than other Cursed Ones like Seraphina Azazel. And on top of everything she can use her wind magic to greatly increase her overall speed. Rose can create a wind barrier for those who are traveling with her, so they don't get hurt.

And lastly was the passive abilities that cursed ones can do. Some are unique to just the individual and the family. The ability talk to other birds or whatever species of animal they are, hear from long distances, smell faraway, see and lock on targets with their special eyes, and sense danger coming. Depending on their species they'll have access to having the ability to see during the night and have thermal vision.

Rose's Mind lock ability is unique to her only. She can cancel mind control, reading, and mental spells. They can protect others from mental and physical hindering spells by making physical contact with them. They also can speak and communicate with all animals and monsters. They can unlock their mind temporarily by making eye contact, physical contact, or the creature drinking their blood.  They can share their feelings, memories, and/or thoughts with someone.

Rose worked on her feather hardening & hand to hand combat training with Seraphina. At first she wasn't as fast as Sera but over time her speed picked up the pace. And after a month of training she was just as quick and durable than Seraphina. Her flight, maneuvering, and six sense training went just as well. Her speeds went beyond what Sera could handle. Even with her explosion magic she couldn't hold a candle to Rose's sound barrier breaking velocity.

Rose walked away from Seraphina and said good luck with her princess responsibilities. She took off flying leaving Rose all alone for the time being. She decided to take the time to training her Mind Lock ability. She flew up to the rooftop of the castle, right above where her room was located. A bunch of Ravens and Crows landed gracefully onto her arms and shoulders. What came out of their mouths wasn't too crazy and was just chatter about how the people think about her presence in the castle. But then a raven covered in scars called out to her and basically said he had bad news. She held out her fingers for him to land on. He landed and then started speaking really quickly. She hushed his urgency and healed his body with her holy water magic. It calmed down and spoke normally. What she heard caused her chest to tighten in panic and worry. A mysterious figure that is going by "The Emerald Tyrant" is apparently a evil mastermind. His plans to take over the entire world has begun with her own kingdom. She decided internally that she should confront Vladimir about the information she's just discovered. But then more birds landed and spoke about the rumors of trouble happening in the Azalea and Lotus Kingdoms too. "The places we are supposed to be going to next? Well that's not good. I have to talk to Vlad."

Vlad takes form a few feet away from Rose on the tiled rooftop. He looked over only to see her talking to several crows, ravens, and hawks. His eyes widened at the sound of her thoughts. He could hear what she was thinking about. As he got closer her thoughts got even louder than before. His lavender irises became really small at the sound of how she felt and thought about him. "Oh Vlad it's you, don't sneak up on me like that." She laughed nervously a little spooked. Her thoughts on the other hand,"He looks really good in that outfit. Too bad I'm in a child's body. Of only I was in my old one or at least a bit older." He felt his face heat up as if he was being burned by the flames of hell itself. He was wearing a old western cowboy hat so the shade from the brim of his hat was concealing his embarrassed expression.

To be continued...