Unsuited

| Chapter 1 |

Note: I've made the narrator into more of a character of her own, and any comment she has will be italicized.

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It was twenty five years since the war began; making the child that stopped the war sixteen. The child was a witty girl with a renegade spirit. Her name was Callie– Princess Caleen, actually. She had short, blonde hair and stormy blue eyes. Callie was strange, and always had been, not in the way she looked, but in the way she acted. I told you earlier she was witty, yet forgot to mention her other... charming aspects. Like: she was childish, stubborn, at times selfish, fiery and sarcastic. Although, the princess was undoubtedly all those things she was also: kind and caring, graceful and loving. Still, Callie was a fun loving, tree climbing, rebellious princess.

"Callie, dear," a womanly voice beckoned from the opposite side of a closed door. "Callie?" The woman, her maid Maria, opened the door to find her gone. "Not again..." Maria muttered walking to the opened window. She promptly shut it and left the room.

Maria was a middle aged woman who'd been working at the castle for quite some time. Before being hired she was simply the best friend of the current queen. She became a maid to help the queen raise Callie.

Maria walked down the long corridor, turned a corner, fled down the spiraling staircase, headed out a side door, and entered the back garden. Nature welcome the maid as it had to Callie since she was young. Maria walked straight to a tall oak in the center of the garden. Its branches were perfect for climbing and sitting on comfortably for hours.

"Callie," Maria called angling her head up towards a certain limb. A limb on which you could see Callie's bare feet dangling off of.

"Callie's not here," the girl replied breezily.

"No? Where'd she go?"

"Mexico."

"What? Where's that?"

"Some mythical place. Dunno."

"Alright, then. Now, Callie, I love always fetching you day after day, but today you must come down. You're meeting with Prince Leo, and you have to go change first."

"Fine," Callie sighed jumping from the tree. She landed in the lush, garden grass below.

"If you keep doing that you're going to hurt yourself one day," Maria warned.

"Probably," she answered with a shrug. "Regardless, I'm meeting another prince today?"

"Correct, Prince Leo, like I said. You both are meeting in the stables for a ride."

"Perfect..." she plotted, "Thank you, Maria!" Callie, bare foot and dress muddy, dashed to the stables to meet Leo, yet another suitor– the seventh to be exact.

"But you have to change! Oh, dear..." Maria laughed knowing the fate of the next suitor. It would go just as the other six had: badly.

Arriving shortly after leaving, Callie slipped on a pair of brown, mucking boots, and greeted the prince, "Prince Leo." She curtsied.

"Ah, princess," he bowed down swiftly kissing her hand.

"Thy touch my precious hand with the lips of a stranger? How dare you! The sight of your contorted face gives me a horrid dream!" Callie dramatically jumped backwards cradling her hand as if it had been wounded.

"Um..." he mumbled. "I... apologize?"

"You better! For you have assaulted me; I feel so... wretchedly violated! Oh, horse, this prince is no gentleman!" Callie clung onto the neck of Leo's horse. "Fear not, horse, I will save you from this villain!" She flung open the stable gate, and allowed the horse to run into the vast field.

"Are you mad?" he yelled running out after his steed.

"No, I'm perfectly happy," Callie replied kicking off the boots as she walked back into the castle again.

«<•>»

"Caleen?" the queen called into the garden.

Callie, afraid that her mother had heard of what happened earlier that day, tucked her legs to her chest, hiding. The queen rarely went into the garden to find Callie unless she'd turned down another suitor. So, this would make it the seventh time in the last two months.

"Caleen, I'm not angry. I'm here only to tell you that I'm proud of you."

Hearing this, Callie let her feet off the tree to the ground. "What?" she asked.

At the sight of her daughter suddenly falling from the tree she gasped. Clearing her throat, the queen regained her manner and continued. "Prince Leo said he wanted to see you again. I'm guessing things went well?"

"No, not at all."

"Really? He said you were a charming young woman, and he loved your dramatic flair."

"Maybe he's the one who's gone mad..." she muttered, disgustedly.