Element Shifters

Prologue

Disclaimer: this chapter is a bit rocky, but it rapidly gets better if you get past it. I will come back later to write it better.

    Long ago, in a world soon to be forgotten, these events shifted and paved the way of the world long after. King Hendrick found and married his love and beauty now called Queen Isabell. This world had a thinner veil between the ordinary and the extraordinary than the world does now.
    The Queen was entranced with all the possibilities that lay past what most overlooked. She was obsessed with what lay beyond the veil. The King did not share this interest but loved her nonetheless with all of her fiery passion for what most saw as nonsense.
Isabell spent much of her time studying this veil near a flower that she thought was a place where the veil was thinner than elsewhere. The flower was strange and possessed other world qualities. Isabell spent so much time near this border that to anyone with the eyes to see such things and looked closely enough could see that she began radiating a soft glow just like the glow the flower emitted.
And with the two rulers treating their people with kindness, the kingdom of Bilor was of course filled with times of peace and joy.
The royal family grew by two when Isabell gave birth to twin girls. Cora was older by almost an hour adorned with sky blue eyes, fair skin, and a good amount of silky golden hair. Everyone who saw her fell in love with her beauty and charm. The younger princess, Atlas, had a rather odd appearance, but she was just as beautiful as her sister. Atlas's eyes were stormy grey with a violet tint to them. Her skin was flawless like porcelain and her hair a dark brown woven with strands of violet. As they were the first born, the parents decided to have a divided throne where the sisters could rule together. The sisters being twins got along well and agreed about almost everything. They acted like two parts of a whole. They grew beautifully. When they reached the age of nine, Queen Isabell gave birth to a prince who would forever be the youngest of the royal family. She gave him the name Adrain. He had dirty blond hair and vibrant green eyes from his father.
As the girls matured, their interests started to differ from one another. Cora adored gowns and basking in all the young lords' attention while Atlas was drawn to the veil like her mother. She could care less of the extravagant dresses and drooling boys.
The Queen thought the violet color found throughout her daughter's features was more along the supernatural side of things. Queen Isabell was thrilled about Atlas's interest in the veil and soon found herself starting studies with her and showing her everything she knew. They always had their studies around the scarlet flower that was the closest thing to magical the Queen had discovered. The flower never wilted or died and always had the faint glow around it like the Queen herself.
Atlas loved the flower and the time spent with her mother. Queen Isabell noticed the purple tones of her daughter lit up when she was near the flower. This only fueled the Queen's obsession with the extraordinary.
Shortly after starting these studies, Cora found herself being awoke every night by her sister's dreaming. At first, she would wake Atlas up in order to cut her nightmares short, but she got tired of getting out of bed every night and walking over the cold stone with bare feet. After all, Atlas never seemed concerned or frightened when Cora woke her up. She never even thanked her. She would just smile, turn over, and drift back to sleep.
After a while, Cora became very annoyed at the nightly disturbances from her sleep because she was fond of getting her beauty rest. Finally after many months, Cora complained to their mother.
Her mother was curious about what could be plaguing Atlas's dreams. They were both taken aback when Princess Atlas starkly refused to tell them. Atlas never wavered when pressured by both her sister and mother to tell what her dreams were about in the days to come. The Queen reassured Cora that it was just a phase her sister would get over soon enough, but the nightly dreams continued.
After a while, Cora got so annoyed that she requested sleeping quarters to herself. Her wish was granted. Both girls had never been apart, so the change was something to get accustomed to. Cora was grateful for the change when she got used to sleeping alone and could finally get a full night's rest.
And still the children grew with poise and stunning looks. When the girls reached the age of sixteen, Cora was practically drowning in all the attention from all the possible suitors. Atlas was not short of suitors herself, but all that pursued her soon discovered that she was quite elusive, even from the most persistent of men. That fact, along with her unnatural features, was enough to keep all of them at bay.
Cora decided to give a handsome young lord a chance. Lord Quinn had blond hair, tan skin, and light green eyes. He was only three years her senior and was thrilled to have a go with the kingdom's most desirable lady. Atlas refused to give any of the boys even a side glance. She would rather dive deeper into the veil studies and martial arts which she picked up in secret with one of the castle's knight's sons. His training in addition to her stubbornness led to long and intense training sessions.
Reese absolutely refused to train a girl at the fine art of fighting at first, but finally conceded after Atlas practically begged for months. Reese told himself that it was just because he was bored and could use the practice if he was going to step into his father's shoes one day, and it was definitely not because he found the princess fascinating and gorgeous.
Her parents would have never agreed for a princess to be engaging in such activities, so she kept her training secret in the basement with the prison cells that had been empty for years. Princess Atlas eventually became a practiced fighter who could hold her own against Reese in training.
Months later when spirited young Atlas still hadn't shown interest in any young men, her parents started to get anxious. They planned to have their daughters and their husbands share the throne, but they were going to go against tradition and leave all the final decisions up the the future queens instead of the kings. As long as the girls agreed upon a decision, it didn't matter if their husbands agreed with them or not. And with Quinn about to propose to young Cora, the pressure was now on for Atlas to find someone to share her future with. Her youth wouldn't last forever.
Soon, not a day went by when Atlas was not paraded around the castle grounds after being dressed up, forced to attend feasts, or boring council meetings all in order to spark the interest of some lucky lord or rich merchant. Her parents also forced her to escort some poor lad around the grounds on several occasions. Atlas was headstrong though and always found ways to disappear or outright refuse when someone would become too much for her.
Atlas found the day Quinn proposed to be the happiest day for both her and for her sister. Their parents became consumed with planning Princess Cora and Lord Quinn's grand wedding, and they didn't have the time to keep tossing young men into Atlas's path.
Altas was grateful for the break. A few months later, the wedding had came and passed. Her twin sister was now married.
In the supposed to be happy days ahead, was of course when tragedy chose to strike.
     Prince Adrain was one of the first of over half of the kingdom's population to fall ill. Queen Isabell fell sick soon after due to the time she spent caring for her sick son. The King was warned to stay away from the Queen to save himself after the people saw how highly contagious and deadly the illness was. King Hendrick was an honorable king who loved his wife and refused to let her go through the sickness alone.
However, he could not risk the royal bloodline being lost, so he forbade the girls to have contact with anyone besides themselves and their newly assigned protector. He left his daughters in the hands of Reese's father, Knight Svanul, who was sworn to protect the royal family with his life.
The Knight ordered the girls and his two kids who he had kept away from his wife when she had fallen ill to move into the west wing of the castle while he dismissed everyone else. The west wing would soon come to feel cramped when Princess Cora, her now husband Prince Quinn, Princess Atlas, Knight Svanul, Reese, and Reese's little sister Thyra were all trapped there for what was going to be a long time.
Prince Adrain, Queen Isabell, King Hendrick, and Svanul's wife all passed within the months following the change. Svanul did not tell any of his charges of the deaths.
Five months came and went with the sickness spreading rampant through a now broken kingdom, and they only had each other for company. Atlas found herself missing her mother and the flower the most while she was trapped in the west wing, but the knight would not even consider letting her go visit the flower.
Thyra spent most of her time following Princess Cora around because the little girl absolutely adored the beautiful blond princess. Cora of course gave Thyra lessons on being a princess when asked by those big puppy dog eyes belonging to the bouncy five year old.
     Their protector started leaving for many days at a time in search of food after the plague lasted well into the year. Cora and Quinn were left in charge in his absence. Atlas guessed she didn't seem fit to lead a chaotic household which was fine by her. She couldn't imagine trying to entertain Thyra for hours on end like her perfectly patient sister.
     Cora and Atlas drifted farther apart. Atlas was constantly worrying about their parents and when they would finally be free of the grey castle walls. The west wing was never really used before and was sparsely furnished. It made it seem all the more sad and confining. Cora did not stand for all of the worrying Atlas did and would constantly chastise her and remind her to be patient. Atlas was not the only one going through this, but she was the only one acting so improper which her sister loved to constantly remind her of.
     Atlas would always wonder off to a hidden corner with Reese on the days his father was not there for her to interrogate on what the world was now like outside of the walls or how her family was faring. Reese had unexpectedly became not only her trainer but best friend, entertainment, and secret keeper. She could hardly think of a moment when he was not by her side since the whole thing had started except for the dreadful nights.
     On the day the royal twins turned nineteen, marked two years and three months they had been hidden away in the west wing.
     Reese had realized some time ago that he was smitten by the princess, but he had never said anything to her because of all the times she confided in him telling him about her parents trying to force her to marry someone and how she would never! Reese decided it was better to keep his feelings to himself than risk losing their friendship. He loved everything about her; her bravery, fiery spirit, intellect, and slightly rebellious spirit. He felt so lucky to train and now spar with the princess warrior who was nearly as good as him. He wanted desperately to share his feelings with her and for her to return them, but he was so sure it was not a good idea. That didn't stop his head from waging internal battles about the situation everyday though.
     Atlas was beyond restless and had given up trying to keep up with what was happening in the outside world through Protector Svanul and had instead began to pester him relentlessly about their return to normal.
     The plague had pretty much passed, but he was hesitant to let the young girls out and face the chaos the world had descended into. He loved them like family now and couldn't bear to let them figure out their parents and little brother were dead, so he stalled and assured them that they just needed to wait a little longer. He didn't know what to do.