Chapter 1
Taken
"I'll see you tomorrow, dear." Mrs. Hugh the town baker reminded me as I prepared to go home from her shop. I retrieved my worn coat from the coat rack and kneeled down to put on the old shoes I have owned since two years ago.
"Of course, Mrs. Hugh. I'll be here just before the sun rises." I assured her as I walked out of the small mahogany door. I had worked for the kind woman ever since I knew how. She owns a small homey café with the most delicious aromatic coffee and the townsfolk just love it.
Mrs. Hugh smiled warmly at me and I started to head out of the café. I walked home since it would be too costly if I were to hail a wagon. The sun was already starting to set and the clouds were thick so I fastened my pace. I need to get home before it gets dark.
I do not want to have another run-in with another shifter. They would follow me with their eyes and it would always creep me out. They watch you with cold and vacant eyes, telling you the horrors they've been through, and I do not wish to behold such things. It would easily burn in my mind and I would never forget the empty looks in their faces.
Shifters are creatures, which can transform to a specific animal. Each shifter has a certain animal in them which takes over their body whenever they feel extreme emotions—or whenever they feel like it. I once had an encounter with a shifter in the middle of shifting and god was it shocking. The sickening sound of its bones realigning to form a panther-like creature, but bigger. I had run home after that.
And since I was very unfamiliar with the different creatures inhabiting our kingdom, I have decided to borrow books from the small library once in a while. Good thing the library is just beside Mrs. Hugh's bakery. I would not have any problem walking a great distance just to borrow a book.
I arrived home and locked the door. My mother was already setting up the table and I rushed to help her. "Let me help you with that, Ma."
"Darling, you're home! Oh, nonsense. You're tired and hungry, let the old woman be." She said and waved her hands in the air.
"As you wish, Your Highness." I curtsied in front of her as if she was the queen. Well technically, she is the queen of our home. I wonder where father is. He doesn't seem to be home.
My mother chuckled. "Oh stop that. Now, take a seat. I'll just go get the food." She then made her way to the kitchen. I sat down and let my gaze roam around the house. "Mama, where is Da?"
"Your father wouldn't be coming home tonight, sweetie. Hopefully, he'll be back tomorrow." Ma answered as she placed a bowl of chicken soup and a loaf of freshly made bread on the table.
"Why wouldn't father be coming home, Ma? Where is he? Is he alright?" I started to get worried as I took a bite from my bread. I chewed as I await her response.
"Calm down, dear. He will be staying the night at Maintown," She looked at the window behind me. "It seems there is a storm brewing, nothing to worry about. Didn't you notice the dark clouds?"
"Oh. I-I forgot." Because I was distracted thinking about books and shifters. My mother once reprimanded me for coming home late at night and staying at the town library to browse for shifter books. However, it seems all books about shifters were mysteriously kept and I just couldn't find one. Ma told me different kinds of books about shifters once adorned the great library at Maintown and even the town's library. But since the heartbreaking tragedy of Olanov ten years ago, when the royal family of the High Kingdom of Azvalea had been killed, all books about shifters and the fae have been confiscated to avoid the same fate happening to the royal family of Duntell, the shifter royalty. And that was the last time that Olanov had seen a fae. They had been too crestfallen for the loss of their great rulers that never once did they leave the safety of their magical kingdom in the clouds.
