A stag's ears twitch as it senses an unusual presence, like a discord in the sweet harmony of nature's silence, in amongst the vast trees and mist of Prynn Forest, which has an innocence that the rest of Prynn has lost over the years.
Around one hundred metres away, the thud of an arrow finding its mark can be heard as it lodges into an oak tree.
Frantically, birds fly up from the trees, as Queen Carina practises her shooting with her new bow and arrows. She smirks as she shoots down one of the flying starling birds, the killing of the bird wasn't necessary but its life was taken so swiftly as Carina used it for target practise while using her new bow and arrows. Turning around, Carina admires her bow.The bow is beautiful and is a smart jet black, except from the small lines of silver in the middle of the ebony wood. The arrows match the beauty of the bow, except the arrowhead is silver and the feathers at the end are silver.
They are a present from Andrea for her eighteenth birthday; one of the only gifts that isn't poisonous. But she loves the bow and arrows nonetheless, they are both sophisticated and beautifully deadly like a poisoner.
Archery is one of the only skills of weaponry that poisoners learn, particularly the Arrons as it is easier to hunt or kill from a distance and undetected, much like how the poisoners poison. They do not like any of the sword clashing or knife throwing that the war gifted crave, no that is far too close and brutal. It has none of the refined manner, none of that slick stealth that poisons and archery possess - the perfect weapons for quick clean assassinations and wicked espionage. When she is crowned she will ensure she has the best archers and warriors on Fennbirn, then no countries will dare challenge her.
Carina herself has grown quite skilled over the years after her archery instructor - a war gifted Beaulin woman - taught her well. After all, it doesn't hurt to be skilled in killing that doesn't just involve poisons. And there is something satisfying about hunting and slaughtering prey, it tests her mind in a new tactical manner that doesn't just involve slipping poisons into glasses undetected. This involves tracking, precision and skill.
Carina sighs, a little disappointed. Adrion and Silas were going to accompany her on a hunt but Octavia suddenly dragged them away on 'important business', though Carina has no doubt that Octavia only meant to spoil her day. Selfish brat. Carina knows for a fact Octavia was spoiled growing up, she gained all of the privilege of being an Arron without having to take on any real responsibility since she wasn't the heir.
Carina sighs again and strokes the white mark on Eclipse's head, while admiring the rest of the black Arabian stallion and her beautiful white blonde mane and tail. So rare and shipped from the mainland as a gift for her seventeenth birthday a year ago. Andrea loves to spoil her but at least Carina understands the weight of responsibility she carries - unlike Octavia. She can not afford to be both weak and spoiled, it is not a good combination for a queen.
Later she ties Eclipse to a nearby tree and leaves to hunt, Carina puts her bow over her shoulder and starts following fresh deer footprints made in the mud as she hunts for the nearby stag. She is lucky that it rained a few hours ago, it makes tracking a lot easier.
She continues to walk, her footsteps surprisingly quiet in the squelching mud, she is thankful for the wind today as well. It hides the sounds of her movements slightly.
After a while, she finally sees the stag in sight and she walks a few steps forward with near impossible silence as she stands, ready to take the fine stag as her prize.
Carina raises her bow as she draws an arrow from her sheath. When the arrow is secure, she draws the bowstring back to her mouth as she takes a breath, aiming directly for the stag's heart. Poisoners know a lot about the anatomies of both humans and animals so it is easy for her to locate the exact location of the beast's heart.
With one last deep breath, she releases the arrow.
The arrow makes noise as it whizzes through the air like a shooting star and the stag's head looks up from his grazing in the grass a split second before the arrow finds its mark and blood oozes from the wound as the stag quickly collapses to the ground. Dead. Almost instantly.
"Yes," Carina shouts in triumph to herself before she takes out some belladonna berries and goes over to the stag, painting it's left antler with the poisoner's symbol and then a crown to represent that this was a poisoner queen's prize. Her prize, she thinks gleefully. The symbol is a warning to any other hunters, as to take a queen's prize will lead to whatever punishment Carina sees fit to inflict. Though she doubts there will be many hunters, it is well known in Prynn that the forest is Carina's favourite hunting ground and they have also heard of her temper, so they would not risk disturbing her.
Satisfied, Carina walks back to retrieve Eclipse so she can secure the stag and ride back to the Manor to show Andrea her prize and boast to Silas and Adrion whom missed out on joining her.
After she reaches Eclipse and unties her, she climbs onto the saddle with ease and then proceeds to trotting calmly through the forest. Carina listens to the birds sing and the wind rustle the brown cracked leaves as her mind completely stills for a second. Her queendom is beautiful, it is almost as if she can feel the Goddess' touch on the wind, in the earth, all around. She is everywhere. She is Fennbirn.
The second of tranquility soon passes and she slows Eclipse down to a walk as she nears her hunting ground.
Where the fallen stag had lay, is only a small puddle of dark blood and Carina doesn't have to look far before she sees her stag nearby.
Dismounting cautiously, Carina readies her bow. She hears the sound of footsteps crunching twigs and dead leaves, as the owner of them emerges from the shadows.
Carina momentarily forgets to breath as Niklaus Arron steps out from the folds of the forest. His face is emotionless as he slowly steps towards her, from thirty metres away.
Without any hesitation, she shoots an arrow, pinning him by his cloak to the tree as a warning.
His face betrays no emotion as he quickly grabs the arrow and pulls it out with ease, twirling it in his hand with similar ease and continues walking towards her. Though Carina does see a little fear go across his face. And he is wise to be afraid of her.
Carina draws another arrow,
"The next one is landing in your head," she snarls, instantly becoming a predator"why did you take my stag?"
Niklaus at least has the good sense to look scared but continues approaching nonetheless.
"I did not take him," he explains quietly, though she can hear him perfectly well, "I moved him, there's a difference Carina."
He is bold, considering he barely knows her. Stupid, but bold.
"I could have your head for that, instead of the stag's head hung up I could easily have yours, except yours would be on an ugly pike and stuck outside Prynn Manor or Prynn Forest as a warning to others," Carina threatens, "Never take a queen's prize or property."
Niklaus raises his eyebrows, chuckling a little at that although there is undeniable fear dancing in his eyes,
"Even you couldn't execute me for no reason, especially as I am an Arron," he says and Carina smirks. There it is. The Arron arrogance that all of them possess deep down. Niklaus is as good as a stranger to her yet he is just like the rest of the rabble. She does not care for his attitude, not when he is a stranger to her.
"You are an Arron, yet I am a queen and one day this island will belong wholly to me," Carina declares, confidence laced in every word she speaks, "I don't take kindly to people, particularly naive males such as yourself meddling in queens business so try to be smart for a minute and back off because you and I both know who really holds the power here."
Niklaus nervously chuckles at that before raising up his hands in defeat,
"You are right, forgive me Carina," he says with a small smile forming on his face that makes Carina instantly want to punch him for some reason.
"Queen," Carina only says, now examining her nails as if Niklaus was of no importance to her whatsoever.
"What?" He blurts out, surprised for the first time since their interaction.
"You shall address me as Queen Carina, you may be an Arron but you are as good as a stranger to me seeing as you've only just returned here now after a decade," Carina says, recalling how Andrea once told her of her oldest son - Niklaus - who was sent to the Vends, the family of his late father. Sons aren't as important as daughters not on this island. Their gifts are not as strong and most do not possess the same cunning and wit that females display. That is why only queens rule, never kings.
"My apologies Queen Carina," Niklaus says begrudgingly.
Carina simply ignores him, dismissing him as if he is nothing more than a fly that is bothering her as she marches over to where the stag is, pulling a long piece of rope from her pocket as she starts to tie the stag's legs so she can secure it before she takes it home. She will have the kitchen prepare a delicious venison course.
"I came out here to join you on your hunt and introduce myself properly but I've clearly made a bad first impression," Niklaus says and Carina rolls her eyes at it.
"Very perceptive of you," Carina says dryly, continuing to prepare the stag, "and I've finished with my hunt I have no need of you."
Niklaus starts to protest but Carina holds a hand up and he goes silent instantly.
"You know why I think you're here," Carina says, a dangerous glint in her eyes, "it's very convenient that you're here just as my ascension is approaching, very convenient that Silas and Adrion couldn't make it yet you somehow could, you have me all to yourself. It's all very convenient don't you agree?"
Without waiting for an answer Carina continues, "I think you're here to try and curry favour with me, the next queen crowned, you Arrons are all the same, power hungry, ambitious, ruthless and I can admire those qualities in some, but not in strangers such as yourself. You may be an Arron but you mean nothing to me."
Her harsh words have made lesser men crumble but to his credit Niklaus doesn't falter.
"I don't mean anything to you ... yet," Niklaus says causing Carina to roll her eyes at his audacity, "look I've returned at my mother's request and now I'd like to be your friend."
Carina laughs and it is a cold sound, much colder than a girl of her age's laugh should be, "friend? I didn't know an Arron would know the meaning of the word."
Niklaus smiles but it does not reach his eyes as he steps closer to her, helping to secure the stag and surprisingly, Carina lets him assist her, "well I may be an Arron by blood but I wasn't raised as one, not really, boys are never as important as girls on this island, hence all my sisters being raised at Prynn Manor and me being raised, elsewhere."
It is true males aren't as important on the island but that's the way things are. That's why Fennbirn is a queendom, with gifts behind imagination rather than a giftless kingdom like the countries from the mainland.
"Do you expect sympathy? That Andrea wasn't a good mother," Carina sneers, her annoyance increasing by the minute, "I don't have time for such things. I am a queen, I don't need friends or sensitive males at my side. What I need are allies, strong allies who will rally behind me."
"And I want to help you with that," Niklaus
insists and Carina narrows her eyes at that, ignoring him completely as she mounts her horse, nudging her into a trot.
"I'll prove it to you," his voice calls out from behind her and Carina rolls her eyes again. A male can't do anything to help her, even an Arron.
But it will be entertaining to see him attempt to prove himself. If he desires her allegiance that much then this could be a good thing. He is clearly ambitious. And that's something she can use.
—————
They have a feast in Prynn Manor that night, with the stag as the main course after she'd brought it back, except it has been tainted with several different poisons. The venison is covered in a special blend of belladonna and hemlock sauce and it is seasoned with extracts from a cassava plant.
All the poisoners in Prynn Manor laugh and enjoy their meal as Carina boasts to them of her hunt with the stag, she does not mention Niklaus and wisely, he doesn't bring it up. There are more guests than usual today, now Andrea's sons are all here and her brother, Vincent along with his children Kol and Lydia. And Laura Arron is here, a cousin of theirs, not of much importance but was invited nonetheless so the other Arrons in the family didn't get put out.
"So Carina," Kol, Andrea's nephew begins, as he sets down his glass of belladonna berry wine, "you didn't encounter anything strange in the woods did you?"
His question makes Carina blink as her first thoughts go to Niklaus Arron and then she shuts the thought down immediately though it still lingers slightly. She looks at him briefly but he only raises his eyebrows at her. Fine then.
"Only the usual," Carina begins, smiling, "horrible monsters that lurk in the shadows."
Andrea's niece, Lydia, who is only young, covers her eyes in fright and Vincent, her father, chuckles lightly as does most of the table.
"Lydia," Vincent says in a fatherly tone, "Queen Carina was joking, of course there are no real monsters in the forest."
Lydia still refuses to peak out from where her hands cover her face and shakes her head.
"Father is right Lydia," Kol tells his younger sister, "it's nonsense, monsters are only in children's stories."
Carina laughs inwardly at that. Monster. What a funny word. Of course monsters exist, Carina and her sisters are proof of that and the queens before them, so much blood spilt with each generation.
"Do not worry little one," Carina says, trying her best to smile kindly at the little girl, "the only monster around here is your Aunt Andrea when she hasn't had enough sleep."
Everyone laughs at her comment, not seeing how blank her facial expression has become and how her eyes stare blankly, not focusing on anyone or anything. Andrea doesn't laugh, she just smiles coldly though it looks like more of a grimace. She doesn't take kindly to family gatherings it seems.
Amara, who is sitting next to her, raises her glass and says, "A toast, to Queen Carina, the greatest poisoner queen and huntress that has ever graced the halls of Prynn Manor."
Every poisoner raises their glass and takes a sip of the belladonna wine, each with satisfied smiles on their faces as they all revel in the taste of poison. Well apart from little Lydia who has maywine instead.
They are all so strong and they expect so much of her. She cannot disappoint them. She doesn't think this ascension will be easy. Not in the slightest. Her sisters are powerful. But she wants it more fiercely than anything, to be remembered, to receive glory and victory, she wants to be strong and she wants to be feared. So she needs to ensure it.
So Carina tries to smile with them as she drains her glass but to her confusion it does not take long before she feels weak. She doesn't understand but there is no time for thinking as she feels nausea approaching already, her gift cannot fail her, not now. She barely has time to excuse herself from the table before she runs to a room and collapses onto an unfamiliar rug. Like a snake, darkness slithers over to her and engulfs her in a silent embrace as she falls into darkness.