A Knight's Mission

Prologue

It was the most tragic day the kingdom of Soter could remember:

The day when they had to lay down their Queen's coffin into the ground.

The entire population felt pain and sorrow for their beloved Queen, but it was nothing compared to the pain felt by the King and his daughter that day.

He had been loyal to her since the day they were arranged to be married, and their love grew stronger after they brought their daughter, Caterina, into their lives. To the kingdom, she was like a second mother to the citizens who came to her whenever they needed help and support.

The Queen never failed her kingdom, and she never failed her own family. Her daughter looked up to her and wanted to be just like her as a queen and a leader. Caterina began to feel pangs of guilt that day believing she took her own mother for granted and didn't love her enough when she became ill and extremely tiresome.

The King spoke a couple of words of how much he loved his wife and would always miss her, but he wasn't able to finish without collapsing in front of his kingdom and therefore, left his words for his beloved departed only.

The kingdom sang a song that the Queen loved to sing in the church, and as much as it made Caterina and her father break down in tears, it also brought a smile to her face knowing her mother would never be forgotten in the hearts of the people.

Long after his wife's departure, the King spent days following her example by helping his citizens and giving them what they needed without hesitation. But this left Caterina lonely and misguided with her grief. Just as she was becoming a young adolescent, it brought much more confusion and frustration than she could handle, which made her avoid telling her father how she had been feeling without worrying him.

A few months after, she asked to go with one of her maids outside of the castle to purchase more food for meals. As they traveled throughout the kingdom, Caterina saw her father's villages and towns for the first time. But she got so excited discovering everything new to her, she ended up getting lost for a few hours.

She ended up getting found by a young boy and his parents who agreed to take care of her until her family funds her. Once they took her in their home in the woods, she gave them a fake name so they wouldn't know she was of royal status. When the boy noticed her hand was hurt from being lost, he helped mend it with his mother's supplies and guidance.

She ran back to her castle before her father came back home, and asked the staff not to tell him where she'd been, promising she would never venture outside the castle again. But since that day she stayed in that house in the woods, she never forgot the boy who cared for her hand and how he was so gentle and kind-hearted in his aura.

Caterina had no knowledge if she'd ever saw that boy again, but she knew that if she ever got the chance, she'd let him know that he's left a mark on her heart and soul which was previously empty when her mother passed away.