-Prologue-
Adeline
I was riding through the Forest of Morr with my father by my side on a black stallion with spots on its rump. My horse was a young caramel mare I had yet to name.
My father and I took many rides at least once a week, sometimes more if there was time, through the forest. One time I could have sworn that I saw a figure wearing a red tunic dart through the forest. I followed its motion with my eyes as it darted behind a tree. I passed if off as one of the trainers of Air Kingdom.
“Adeline, what do you think of the forest today?” Father asked me. He slowed his horse down to a slow trot.
“The forest is as mysterious and shady as usual,” I said, I was being humorous in the last part but in the first part I was completely serious. Describing the forest as mysterious is not usually something you hear from an eleven year old.
But it was entirely true. The Forest of Marr, or any forest in general, was intriguing: the way the leaves overlapped each other, shading the sun from the sky so that only a couple rays of sunshine and blue sky were able to peer through the dense foliage.
“In the forest, anything is possible,” I told my father smiling up at him faintly. He took his hand off the rein that attached to the horse patting me on the hand trying to maneuver his hands around my small diamond tiara that rested atop my pinned up curls.
He smiled down at me, “I know I’m not supposed to have favorites but I know you a lot better than your other sisters.” This gave me a sense of pride. I liked being someone’s number one person. We rode together in a comfortable silence.
“How do you feel about marriage, sweetie?” Father asked me changing the topic swiftly.
“It is something I know will happen to me in the future, but not something I dream about,” I answered honestly looking up at my father questioningly.
He looked down at my rounded face. I smiled up at him showing off my dimple.
He tapped me on the nose twice, “You, Adeline, are a smart little girl.” I smiled up at Father.
There was a rustling behind us Father turned his horse around with skill, his horse, Regal, snorted menacingly. I turned my horse to mimic his. I looked up at Father expecting praise but all I received was a flash of fear cross his face.
An Air Hunter emerged from a tall bush.
“Your Majesty,” he said bowing at Father, “Princess Adeline,” he said bowing at me as well, “Her majesty the queen is in labor.”
Father didn’t need to hear more. He galloped out of the forest with Regal running at his fastest. I urged my stock legged mare foreword.
“Thank you,” I yelled over my shoulder. My high-pitched, child voice echoed through the forest.
My father leaned closer to the horse’s neck trying to become aerodynamic to get to the castle faster. My horse trotted a couple paces past him, my heaving pants in sync with my pony’s snorts.
We reached the gate and I jumped off my horse and ran to keep up with my father’s long strides. Two servants opened the door for us, my yellow riding dress flowing out behind me. My father’s cape whipped me in the face as he made a quick turn into the Royal Chambers.
My mother, Queen Clarissa, was panting on the large bed, a lump of silk fabric where her protruding stomach was hiding under.
The royal doctor lifted the blankets that covered the queen. I quickly retreated from the room. In a matter of minutes I heard my mother scream from the top of her lungs, quiet down to heavy breathing then scream again.
Soon, her pants were joined by another shrill scream of a baby. I entered the room to find my mother clutching a red faced baby in her arm to her breast. My mother’s face was sickly pale, one of her hands shakily clutching her pendant.
I rushed over to my mother as she handed the crying child to the doctor. A wet nurse quickly came taking the baby out of the room weaning the baby under her bodice.
Father was sitting next to Mother his brown eyes full of fear. However, Mother’s blue eyes, identical to mine, were fixed on my face. She extended her arms to me shakily.
I tentatively embraced her trying to be careful. I knew Mother was dying, I overheard the doctor talking to the wet nurse that if Mother and Father had another child there was a good chance that the queen would die.
Mother looked at Father fingering her necklace scratching the scales on the dragon claw that held a sapphire jewel.
“Give her,” she said in a stuttering voice lifting the necklace from her sweaty neck unevenly. My mother handed the necklace to my father her hand shaking violently. He nodded unable to talk. I widened my eyes.
My other sisters came into the room huddling around our mother. She tried to smile for us but we knew, even Selena the youngest, knew what was about to happen.
Mother took a deep shuddering breath they stopped halfway. Her eyes bulged slightly then she went limp. The blue irises of her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell onto her pillow somewhat peacefully. Her lips fluttered close before she grew still.
Father left the room shaking his head unable to shed any tears in front of his daughters.
My two eldest sisters, Estelle and Angelica began to sob into each other’s shoulders. Penelope, who started crying when she walked into the room. Selena who was seven was sobbing into Penny’s lap. I stared at my mom waiting for her to spring back up and laugh her infectious laugh.
When I realized that my mother wasn’t getting up, I started to cry. One tear at a time dropping from my eye followed by another.
I realized that I was holding my mother’s hand this entire time. The fingers that were once clenched onto mine slackened slightly.
I released my hand quickly from her now cold one. I cried harder maybe not as hard as Penelope but pretty hard.
My father came back into the room his eyes red and watery. He walked over to me handing Mother’s necklace wordlessly.
“She wanted you to have it,” he said this like he never wanted to say her name again.
I fingered the necklace feeling the heat transfer from the necklace to my hands. This was followed by a slight vibration.
I stared at it in wonder. The large sapphire jewel that hung from the chain got marred slightly by my tears.
My mother wore this every day, if she wanted me to have it, I must have been very important to her.
I stared over at my mother’s lifeless, cold form. It looked like she was sleeping and I watched her still waiting for her to get up.
My mother was never coming back.
Joshua
I thought I saw the princess look at me but I dashed behind a tree in a blink.
I ran back to base camp hidden in a cave deep in the depths of the Forest of Marr, behind a waterfall. Sometimes we changed locations to the east side of the forest but usually there wasn’t much of a need for that.
“Commander,” I called to the Commander of Army Alpha, “the princess and her father rode through.”
“Excellent,” the Commander said clapping, “what news is there?” The princess and her father rode through the forest every week, this was how we trainees kept up to date with the rest of the Realms.
As trainees of Fire Kingdom we had to live secluded from all the other kingdoms of Collaner.
We trained regularly and ate whatever we caught. If we didn’t catch anything we didn’t eat. The people that didn’t catch anything specifically didn’t eat. If you were nice enough someone would share their catch with them. That was only rarely though, the Forest of Marr was extremely vast and many animals and berries lived and flourished here.
“The queen of Air Kingdom is in labor, probably giving birth right now,” I told him.
“This is excellent for Air Kingdom,” the Commander said clapping, “they could always use more heirs.” The Commander was being sarcastic at this point. The Air Kingdom had five daughters already a lot of the kingdoms thought the king and the queen were trying too hard to have a boy.
If the baby was another girl then one of the king’s four eldest daughters would be the next heir. Hopefully the Speak would work and one of them or their husbands to be would inherit it.
Right now the eldest daughter was twelve and the youngest was nine, I was twelve the same age as the eldest daughter.
“Hopefully this one will be a boy,” the Commander said bitterly. The Fire and Air Kingdom had years of bad blood between them since the King of Fire supposedly killed the king of Air.
In reality he never did, it was an accident. Our king had hit the Air king in the stomach but it was just to disembody him so he would drop his weapon. The king of Fire had no idea this would trigger some kind internal bleeding that would leave the Air king bedridden then die later.
Ever since then, the two kingdoms had been estranged. There was no alliance between them. Word got out about how the King of Fire murdered the King of Air then soon the other kingdom’s relinquished their alliances as well. Basically, all three kingdoms were conspiring together to excommunicate anyone from Fire Kingdom.
The rest of the trainees, all twelve like me, snickered quietly. They were lined up at the back of the cave with their backs straight.
We all wore matching red tunics, the color of Fire Kingdom, which stood out from the green environment of the forest.
It was because of these tunics that I thought that the princess had seen a red flash amongst the trees as I darted by.
“Come along fruitcakes,” the Commander said, “it’s time for lunchtime hunting.” The Commander always called us fruitcakes for some reason. I always thought it would lower our self esteem but it always reminded me of life in the palace.
I was the son of the King of Fire Kingdom, which made me the prince. And since I was his eldest son I was the heir to the kingdom.
At this point in my life I was going through training. A time in every boy’s life, or at least the boys of Fire Kingdom, where we had to get trained in combat and hunting, this was to ensure the safety of our kingdom. We needed to be able to fight at a moment’s notice if another Realm or kingdom should attack us.
This had been a tradition in Fire Kingdom since the Realm was founded.
We grabbed our bows and arrows then headed out to go hunting for our lunch. A couple of the other trainees bowed at me as I exited the cave.
I patted them on the back and shook my head to remind them that I didn’t want them to show me any more respect than the other trainees.
So far only the Commander was following up on that rule. Sometimes I wished that I could take that back and be treated like the prince I was. I liked it though. I’ve been waiting for someone to treat me like a regular person for years.
Some people may think it’s weird but I kind of liked it when people insulted me or disrespected me in any way. But don’t get me wrong people are obligated to be respectful to me. However, I wanted to be treated like everyone else.
We all walked out of the cave in a perfect line carefully avoiding the waterfall.
We entered the middle of the forest, the most densely populated with greenery. A couple of the trainees split off to go look for game. Suddenly a large and extremely clawed beast roared up in front of our band of trainers.
I took an involuntary step back. We all raised our bows in unison. I was in the front row when the beast got really close to my face breathing its hot breath on my face.
“Cadet Joshua,” the Commander said slowly, “don’t move.” He lifted his hand as I started shivering in front of the beast.
The animal was bigger than a deer but smaller than a bear, the beast had claws the size of my fingers. It had hair covering its entire body with demon red eyes that stared at me with an animal like hate.
“On my mark,” the Commander said, “Joshua don’t shoot, ready, aim, fire.” All at once the trainees lifted their bows shooting sharp arrows at the beast. The beast reared up on its hind legs at once.
In one fluid motion its claws raked against my chest. I stumbled backwards, only one claw made contact. I fell to the ground feeling a searing pain course through my body. I looked down seeing scarlet blood, a couple of shades darker than my tunic, bloom from the wound staining my tunic.
Soon enough our band of trainees took down the beast with a series of arrows. The Commander helped me up and I pressed my hand against the wound applying direct pressure to the cut.
“We need to get you back to the palace for first aid,” the Commander said as the Commander carried me to the cave. He set me down on the rock that was our dinner table. A couple of the cadets’ faces twisted in disgust.
“No,” I breathed heavily from the pain. I looked at the Commander telling him with my eyes to care for me as if I was any other cadet.
The Commander looked at me his stone cold gray eyes warming just a twinge.
“Cadet Herman, get Cadet Joshua some bandages and a couple of mint leaves and gooseberries,” the Commander said to the other cadet.
Once he brought the commander the supplies he mashed up the leaves and berries. I took off my tunic seeing the red and blue bruise surrounding the bleeding cut. The cut was a crescent moon shape which was odd. The Commander applied the leave and berry concoction onto the cut. It stung a little bit from the mint but then the pain slowly subsided, but it was still there.
He wrapped my chest in bandages so that it covered my wound. It bled through the wrappings and he covered me with more.
The Commander looked at me sadly, like he was going to deliver me some news that would affect me horribly for the rest of my life. I braced myself expecting the worst.
“Sorry Cadet,” the Commander told me slowly, “this will probably leave a scar.”
I laughed breathlessly the pain in my chest coming and going.
“The girls will love it,” I told him, “give me that hard edge.” The rest of the cadets laughed at my response and a ghost of a smile lingered on the face of the commander.
“I have one on my arm,” the commander said gesturing to his left bicep, “The women do love it.”
I hesitantly touched the bloody spot on my bandages. At my touch, the pain fired up again with a vengeance of hurt I didn’t know I could feel.
I flinched slightly.
“Is this going to hurt for a long time?” I asked the Commander.
He didn’t answer me so I assumed it would hurt for a while. Finally, I had my first battle scar. **************************************************************
New Story, in two different points of perspective. Adeline and Joshua shwaddup....
Hope you like it!!!