The Forgotten Child Adeline

Chapter 1

All the way across the border they swept. Easily keeping the pace from days past, they jumped over the scattered shrubbery. That is when it happened. I saw it in the blink of an eye. I hit the ground after Constance had accidentally thrown me off upon leaping over a bush. The laughter, the tears, the anger it was all pointless now. None of it mattered now. I couldn't tell him anything that my heart was dying to say. I always thought that I would die some heroic death fighting a dragon to escape the tower. He would say that I did, but in reality, the only dragon I was fighting was my own pride.

It all started the day of my 17th birthday. It was all I could ever hope for. I was having so much fun with my whole family, the people I loved taking up every chair in the castle. We had thrown a huge ball to celebrate with nearly every girl in the kingdom my age. That's when it happened. I was taken from my family and when I woke up, I was in a tower. The only thing I could see when I looked down was clouds. I didn't know how high up I was, but I had a pretty good idea because sometimes I would see birds flying far below. I could only assume I was miles away from my family, my home, and my kingdom. I didn't even know if I was still on the same land, I could have crossed an ocean. But, don't begin to worry too much about me. For you see,

I had built that tower.

My parents had never seemed to care for me as much once they had my younger siblings. You can't blame them though, I'm the ninth of 18 children. There's always going to be a middle kid, and it was just my luck that it was me. I've celebrated several birthdays alone in my room because my parents forgot about them. It's not that I blame them though, being the King and Queen of the largest kingdom in all the land is quite a challenge. Then they had to raise the little ones to be very proper and true royals. And of course, they needed all their attention focused on the older ones so that when they became kings and queens themselves they could rule justly. But in the bustle of their daily lives, I would have hoped someone would have remembered me at least once. With as many kids as us, we always ate dinner at different times to abate the inevitable fights, food and normal. While my siblings were able to enter the dining hall to eat, I always had to get my dinner straight from the kitchens. I preferred that, the kitchen staff was very kind. I started disappearing in my own home. I don't even think my father remembers my name anymore. The only people who knew I existed was my older sister Madeline, and my older brother Edwin. They never had much time for me though. She is 5 years older than me and always had some type of work to occupy her time, then she married some prince and left me alone forever. Edwin used to love dancing with me, in fact he taught me all the latest crazes, but then he met his "soulmate" and they live in her kingdom. Stupid only children.

Remember when I told you everyone was with me on my birthday? Yeah, that was kind of a lie. No one was there. Not a single person remembered that I turned 17 that day. So I decided to do something that I had been planning for a few years. I decided to run away and be alone forever since that's what I always was, to begin with. For years I had been slowly sneaking into the back library and reading the banned books on magic. That's where I discovered I had an innate knack for magic. I had to wait 9 years before I could finally complete the spell I wanted; and while everyone was off doing who knows what, I finally casted it.

In my tower, I was finally free. There wasn't a single person there except me. I didn't think anyone would notice I was gone, not if I was so easily forgotten. For five years I was happily alone in my tower. For five years no one noticed my disappearance. Then I heard it. Something, or rather, someone was hitting my tower. I decided it was just a confused bird, and tried to ignore it. I laid down to take a nap and when I awoke, a man was almost to my window. I had to do something! I couldn't just let him fall to his death, that's cruel and unlike me, but I didn't want him up here either. In a panic I took a nearby vase off my table and smashed it against his head just as he came crawling through the window ledge. Before he could fall one way or the other I finished hauling him into the tower. It was not an easy feat. What do they feed knights these days?! It took forever to wake him up, talk about a lightweight.

When he finally awoke the first thing out of his mouth was, "Who are you?". I answered and told him that I was a girl who was happy and free. He snorted. "Free!? You live trapped in a tower." Wow. Great observation. How had I never realized that before?

I responded with "Excuse you, I choose what I am or am not and no one can tell me otherwise. Now get out before I push you out that window, you arrogant, snotty, cow farming peasant!" Well, unfortunately for him I did push him out the window. In my defense, he didn't do anything except sit there gawking at me. I never knew of his fate. Occasionally, I would wonder what became of him, but never enough to spur any action out of me.

It was four days before news spread that a princess was hiding in a tower far to the west. I guess that knight survived. King Charles and Queen Sarah heard of this news and anxiously went to check on all their children. When they had finally counted them all they realized that one was missing. Charlie Jr., Madeline, Edwin, Sarah, Peter, Spencer, Charity, Natasha...

Adeline!