A/N ok this is my first fairytale fanfic, and I've got no idea what it's going to be about, but hey here I go, please review and be kind... please!
I woke up to the sun streaming into my suite. I saw my maid, Annie at the hearth setting my fire for the new day.
"good mornin' Princess Kayla, 'tis a lovely day, your cousins are arriving today aren't they?" she said, when she noticed I was awake,
"yes, so I must have a nice dress, they aren't my cousins though Annie,"
"they're royals, therefore you're related," I smiled at my maids strange logic. I was princess Kayla of Galidren, and my father and mother were the king and queen. I also had a little sister, Shaylee, who was 14 to my 16. that day the royal family from a near-by kingdom were arriving, the king for talks with my father, and the rest of the family to join with ours in hunting, riding, and other royal sports. They had a prince who was 17 and twin daughters who were 15.
"here's your dress, they'll be arriving soon so you'll be wantin' to be up and dressed," once she was gone I got up and looked out my window, as I did every morning. It was a gorgeous day, sunshine everywhere, glinting on the long lake that was next to our castle. Once I was dressed in a green dress that matched my eyes, I brushed my long brown hair out then called Annie in to fix it into a style. There was then a knock on the door,
"enter" I called, and a page came in, and bowed,
"princess Kayla, your father, King Callum and your mother Queen Riona wish to speak to you before their royal guests arrive,"
"tell them I shall be right down," he nodded and backed out of the room.
When I entered the dining hall my family was already seated and eating,
"ah Kayla, dear, we must go over a few things about our visit, now their son, Prince Tynan will not be arriving with the main party, instead he will arriving on horseback with some servant of his. But the main party shall be here within the hour, so I want you and Shaylee to be with your mother and I when we greet them, none of your usual wanderings, do you hear?"
"yes papa, of course," Shaylee and I said, as I sat down and waited for the servant to bring my breakfast out.
An hour or so later, we and the rest of our house hold were lined up at the moat, greeting the family. King Robert was a jolly man, who seemed like a kind man, I couldn't say that for his wife and daughters though, Queen Melinda and Princesses Gabrielle and Libertine were the kind of people you just knew would be stuck up. They greeted my mother and father formally but completely skipped Shaylee and I. I could feel the tell-tale signs of anger burning up already. I was very quick to anger, a trait a lady shouldn't have, my mother often used to say, but not unkindly, as she herself had the same anger, and I could see her counting to ten at the rudeness of our guests.
Later I found myself with Shaylee, sitting outside under the trees. Papa didn't often let us do this, but we usually managed to slip away, especially when he was busy with state business. That was how we were the first to meet Prince Tynan. Shaylee had almost been in tears at her dismissal by the other princesses when a large black stallion rode up, followed by a slightly smaller bay. We leapt up (as elegantly as possible) to meet our guests, hoping they would be slightly nicer than the rest of their family. Two boys, both of around 17 got off the horses, laughing. I went to the one who had been on the black stallion,
"Prince Tynan? I am Princess Kayla, and this is my sister, Princess Shaylee." the boys glanced at each other as we curtsied to them, but both bowed and started to remove their cloaks, Prince Tynan cleared his throat,
"yes, well good to meet you, I take it the rest of my family are here, I must off and meet them, good day fair ladies," and with that he set off into the castle, I had to try very hard not to gape, or worse shout after him. All in all he was quite plain for a prince, he wasn't ugly, per se, but he had short brown hair and muddy brown eyes. I turned to face the other boy, he was much more stunning, he had blonde hair that was almost shoulder length, and was wavy along with a pair of blue eyes, that shone like sapphires. I was almost dissapointed that he was a servant, I was about to turn into the castle when he said,
"good day, Princesses, I am Tyler, Prince Tynan's hand-servant. It's nice to meet you," I looked at him curiously, no servant ever talked to me, not one from somebody else's party anyway.
"oh well, I" I wasn't sure what to say, or how to talk to a servant, "Tyler, well you have similar names don't you," he grinned,
"yes it is a coincidence,"
"quite, come on Shaylee," I took my sisters hand to lead her inside but Tyler followed us.
"excuse me, but you couldn't show me..."
"look, I'm sorry Tyler, but I must go and talk to your king and his family, it is my royal duty after all, you should ask someone else for directions, it is not a princesses job," I hadn't meant it to come out so rude, but he was only a servant I suppose, so he wouldn't really be hurt. I turned on my heel and walked into the castle. Shaylee and I headed straight for the nearest turret where we would be able to talk privately, I thought we could moan about the rude royals but Shaylee was moaning about me!
"how could you talk to Tyler like that? He was very nice to us, nicer than the family at any rate,"
"well yes I know, but he was only a servant and..."
"only a servant?" she interrupted, "he is a human being too!"
"i know that!" we were almost shouting now, "but it is not the same for them as it us for us!"
"there is no us!" she said and stormed off, running down a corridor. The problem was I had never really been up here before so I didn't know where it would lead, so I naturally had to follow her, it was my duty to make sure she was ok. I saw her turn into a room and I quickly followed, but when I entered she wasn't there. The room was empty except a large mirror, with silver edges that had strange runes carved into it.
"Shaylee?" I called, looking all around for anywhere she could have gone, "Shaylee? Where are you? Come out now!" I stepped towards the mirror looking closely at it. But I didn't see my reflection, instead I saw a shimmering sliver mist that looked as though it was really moving.
"excuse me but I must talk to you," the door opened and Tyler came in, "i have to say that... oh are you ok?" he had noticed that there were tears streaming down my face,
"Shaylee has disappeared, she, she came in here, and now she's gone," I wailed, unable to stop myself from throwing myself into his arms.
"it's ok I'm sure she's fine I mean... oh"
"what?" I said looking up at him,
"she definitely came in here?"
"yes I was almost right behind her, why?"
"well you see these runes?" he gestured to the carvings around the mirror, "well I think, I'm not sure now, but I think they make up a rhyme, and if they do then, well the rhyme was part of a prophecy, but no-one remembers it now"
"what does it say?" I sniffled
"the gateway through the mists,
this is the way that you must go,
and though the path be lined with danger,
this is the way that you must go,
to save the one who may be lost,
this is the way that you must go," he said, then he paused,
"but how would it know, that, Shaylee, we have to go after her," I started towards the mirror, but he grabbed my arm
"no Kayla, you don't know the rest of the prophecy, I've heard of this, gateway before, once my nanny told me about it. It is said to be the joining between this world and the fairy world,"
"that's nonsense, there's no such thing as fairies!"
"i bet this morning you would have said that there was no way to go through a mirror either," that silenced me, "my nanny also said that the ruler of the fairies was a jealous woman, or should I say goblin, as that is what most suspected her to be, anyway she cast a spell upon the fairy king so he fell in love with her. But he died and now it is only her that rules, and she turned all the fairies into goblins too, so they are all cruel and her most favourite hobby is turning them into statues and, well smashing them. I've also been told of the prophecy, that one day a beautiful maiden will get into this land and rescue the fairies and the other creatures from this spell. But that is also why, the queen will kill any maiden she finds in her lands."
"that can't be true," I thought of my beautiful sister with her long golden hair and friendly smile, "i can't let that happen to Shaylee, I'm not saying any of this is true, but just in case,"
"but what about you? We can't risk going in there, there's many dangers you have to pass before you can reach the fairy castle."
"well I shall risk it, I won't ask you to come with me though," I desperately hoped he would, as I was scared, and even a servant as a companion was better than no-one.
I stepped up to the mirror and stared into the mists,
"I'm coming too, you wouldn't last a minute out there,"
"humph, we'll see shall see about that" I said as we stepped through,
A/N hey hope you liked it, it was mainly an introduction chapter, but anyway, if you have any questions I'll answer them in the next chapter. Also I hope you like the characters (Kayla may be a little misunderstood, she is nice, but quick to anger, and also she doesn't know any different than to treat servants like, well dirt. But I'm sure Tyler will teach her different hehe!)
