A/N: Greetings. Thank you for taking the time to drop by. Yes, this is yet another story known as the Princess of Hillwood. This idea kind of came to me suddenly, so I began writing and well we all know what happens after that. ;) Chances are I'm going to be slow to update this. This is just a story I'm writing for myself since I love writing in first person, but I don't have a story like that here yet. It also mixes my other two favorite genres, adventure and fantasy! I'm always worried what kind of reception I'll get when it comes to these kind of stories, but I like them so there! lol But just in case you guys might like it too it'll be here for your reading enjoyment. (:

Prologue

I've always been a bit of a tomboy. You know, a rough and tumble sort of gal. The kind that didn't mind getting dirty in the mud, breaking out of windows to watch the stars, or playing football with the princes whenever their fathers would come to speak to King Bob Pataki, superior leader of Hillwood, my own dad. Nobody could handle me when I was younger. My nursemaids tried, but no matter what they did I'd find a way to give them the slip, and cause unnecessary, and sometimes irreplaceable, damage. My sister tried to teach me how to be a proper lady, but what fun is proper? All that gets is hours of piano lessons and unbearable tea ceremonies. Yeah, no thank you.

I also had a secret. One I wasn't willing to share with anyone. The kind of secret you know you have to keep to yourself. The kind I never wanted my parents or sister to find out about. It was the reason for my late night escapades. Where I could be alone and really just be myself. Where I could be surrounded by everything I loved and watch the magic my fingers could create. The one thing I knew I could do and nobody else could. If it were normal I'm sure I would have heard about it by now, but I hadn't, so my lips were bound together. It was something I cherished, and I was terrified if anyone found out it would be taken from me somehow.

Anyway, I figured I was the only one who could do what I did, but maybe that wasn't really the case. I learned that when I was ten. My father was at the end of his patience with me, and that was when he decided I needed someone to personally watch my every action.

"Look here, young lady," he said to me, in his deep and commanding voice. The kind that had all of his servants nearly bowing at his feet. Well, more so than usual. "Why can't you be more like your sister Olga? She's poised, elegant, kind…all things a princess should be, while you..." He gave my dirty pink dress, caked in mud from playing in the garden as it rained, a once over. "Well, let's just say you have a long way to go before you make a passable princess. You have to get your act together if you want to find a prince to marry you. There's no way you're going to be sticking around here after your eighteenth birthday."

I scowled as I looked away. This was always his go to. His way of putting fear into me so I'd be motivated to want to be a better princess. If only he knew it tended to do the exact opposite. I hated being compared to my sister. I couldn't play piano, or dance, or sew, or any of the things that she could do. I didn't care to. I had something that trumped all those things. My secret remember? It was the only thing that allowed me to keep even a bit of sanity being cooped up in the castle. I also didn't care to be married. He wanted to kick me out when I turned eighteen? Good, I could finally learn what life outside of a castle prison was like.

"Until then, I have too much I have to do in order to run this kingdom. That's why I'm giving you a bodyguard."

Huh? Wait, what? "But—"

"Hey, hey, hey, no buts." He frowned and crossed his arms. "I wouldn't have to resort to this if you knew how to behave like a lady! Blame yourself."

I didn't say anything else. I saw no point. He was the King after all. His word really was the final say. The blade that took the figurative necks of many.

"Eloise, escort him in." His personal servant, a short stick of a lady with stringy brown hair, bowed and left the room. She soon returned with a boy. I could only look on in disbelief. He could not have been older than I was, and if so not by much. His hair was a dusty yellow that looked like it had been an age since he saw a comb. His green eyes sparkled with a determination I had never seen in anyone my age before. He bowed before my father and looked at me pensively. I immediately couldn't believe it.

"Are you serious? This is insulting." This had to be some sort of joke. It looked like I could tackle the kid myself. I doubted he could protect me from anything, not even an Easy bake oven.

"This isn't a joke. Of all the people I looked into at guarding you he had the best credentials believe it or not. While I was against it myself at first, you need the best person for the job and if a kid fits the bill who am I to complain?"

"Whatever."

"Watch yourself," He warned. "You're free to go now. I have no need for you anymore."

While I wish it didn't hurt that he was dismissing me, it did. If anything, the fact that he spoke to me personally at all was more than I could ask for, but I longed for a better relationship with him and my mom, who was normally always doing things with Olga. She was the real princess. I was too much of a mischief-maker, which made me a failure in her eyes. I may have been only ten, but that was how I felt. Regardless, I couldn't believe he wanted me gone so fast he hadn't told me the kid's name. Actually, he probably didn't know it himself. What does a King need to know a child's name for? He sometimes got my name wrong with my sister's.

I left and sighed, heading for my room. My feet made soft patting noises against the ground. I felt his presence more than anything and turned my glare on him deciding to vent my anger on this boy I didn't really know.

"Look here, I don't need nor want you to follow me."

"Your father seems to think differently," he said, in a voice that seemed eons wiser than his apparent age gave away.

"So? He doesn't know me."

He studied me with his bright, green eyes. I hated his eyes already. Even though he was around my age they told a story that he knew more about life than I did. "Why wouldn't he know you?"

"It's not like I have to tell you anything," I said, wishing I never initiated any sort of conversation.

"…No, I suppose not, but it might make you feel better."

"How did you trick my father into giving you the job?" I asked, choosing to ignore what he said.

He smiled. "I didn't trick him. I just actually passed the test. I was the only one actually."

"Liar."

He shrugged. "Feel free to test me yourself if you want. I'm sure it's the easiest way I'd be able to convince you."

"Stop acting like you know me." Criminy, this boy was starting to rake my nerves. As if he knew the easiest way to convince me. I wasn't a book he could easily decipher in a mere two seconds of our knowing each other.

"…It get's lonely doesn't it? Not being noticed."

His words prickled my skin, and twisted my heart. He wasn't far from the truth. Darn him. "I just told you not to act like you know me."

"I'm just saying I understand because I feel the same way."

"What do you know about loneliness?" I asked, hating that I was even curious at all.

"My parents died after I was born from a raid. My grandparents tried to do what they could to raise me, but they too passed away. Just last year in fact, so now I'm completely alone."

Gosh, I felt like a big pile of dirt right then. "Sorry," I muttered, not wanting him to know how much what he said affected me.

"It's okay. I was pretty much prepared for their death. We didn't really have much in ways of living. The food they were able to get they'd give to me. I didn't want it, seeing how weak they were getting, but my survival meant the world to them. They told me I was destined for great things. Only for them do I continue to live."

This boy definitely talked in a way that proved he was wiser than his years. What did I really know about poverty? This castle was my home. I had everything and more. The life he talked about would have been laughable to me just yesterday. I wasn't much for laughing anymore. To lose my family. I couldn't picture what that would be like. Even though they acted like I was an outsider I still loved them.

"What's your name?" I asked, crossing my arms. I wasn't interested in knowing my bodyguard. Really.

"Arnold. What's yours?"

"You're assigned to guard me and you don't know my name?" I asked in disbelief.

"I know your name, Princess Helga, but just thought to keep the conversation going by asking yours." He smiled for the first time since I'd met him, and I couldn't stop myself from thinking he wasn't all that bad looking, and…

I cleared my throat. "Yeah, well don't think we're going to get chummy or anything."

Now he was chuckling. "You don't talk like a princess."

"What the heck does 'talking like a princess' even mean? Maybe Olga would understand what that means, but I don't tend to follow the norms."

"No wonder you were assigned a bodyguard. Does your sister have one?"

"Are you trying to make me angry?"

"No. Sorry, it's not even my place to question anyway."

"You're right. It's not."

He went back to being quiet. Why, why, why did I need this…boy as my bodyguard? What could he possibly do to keep me in line?

For the most part after our little hallway introduction he left me be. I had returned to my quarters where I remained until late evening. The stars were overlooking Hillwood when I decided to sneak out my window.

It usually happened every night. When my secret would ache for freedom. Tonight my hand itched, and I knew I would have to sneak out. I hadn't seen Arnold since the afternoon, and I didn't believe him to be a very good bodyguard anyway. He was my age for goodness sakes. How much could he really do?

Taking the old fashion approach, I tied up some of my sheets together until I was sure it was long enough to reach the bottom of my window. Tying one end to one of my beds legs, I gave the makeshift rope one last tug to check the security of it and threw the other end out the window. I had been climbing out of my window since I was six. Never once had any of my nursemaids caught on that I did that, so I was very surprised to hear a voice I remembered from earlier that day speak to me.

"What are you doing?"

"Uh.." I let go of the rope, shocked, and landed on my bottom with a thud. He smiled slightly, obviously enjoying my surprise.

"How did you know?"

"Just a guess." He walked over to me and held out a hand to help me up. I couldn't help the feeling of suspicion wash over me. Did he know me or something?

"What sort of test did you have to pass?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"It's a secret," he said. "I'm not allowed to tell you. I've sworn an oath to secrecy."

"An oath? Sounds like the King is getting a little old fashioned." I said, remembering oaths from the fairy tales my mom used to read to me when I was little. I never knew my father to use them himself however.

"You never did answer my question."

"Which was?"

"What are you doing out here?"

"None of your business. No right to question me remember?" I said, smug.

"When you break out of windows you cancel that right I think."

"Even so I'm still not going to tell you." My secret was mine and mine alone. No newbie bodyguard was going to get me to spill the beans about it.

He studied me, with a serious expression. "What if I told you I was out here because I knew you would be?"

I felt a chill run through me. "And you'd know that because?"

"I'd know that because…" I moved a little closer to him in anticipation. "Well, I can't tell you anymore until you tell me why you were climbing out of your window."

I frowned, feeling like I'd be had. "Not likely. I know what you're trying to pull and I'll tell you it won't work."

He shrugged. "Suit yourself, but I want to ask you something," he leaned closer to me and whispered. "Have you ever had anything super special you felt like you had to keep it a secret no matter what?"

I sucked in a huge breath, and stumbled back. No way. He couldn't..."Never."

He watched me, his green eyes so intense I eventually had to look away. "Oh, my mistake then."

My bodyguard was a strange one. From that point on I couldn't help wondering what he meant by that, but as time moved on, I never did ask out of fear he'd learn what my secret was, but I was positive he had his own secret. Maybe even similar to mine. It always felt like he knew more than he should. What he would share with me paled in comparison to the other secrets it seemed he kept close to his heart. Guarded, and the only way in was to discover the key he probably had hidden away even from himself. Without meaning to, I slowly became intrigued by him. He told me what the world outside my castle walls was like. He even helped me learn how to use a bow and arrow, and he showed me how to make things out of wood, a favorite hobby of his late grandpa. Slowly, it felt more like he was my friend than he was my bodyguard. It probably helped that we were so close in age, but his knowledge reeled me in, and the stories he told me with his time in the neighboring village, his hometown apparently, made me long for the world outside. Like a dove trapped in a cage I wanted that freedom. To know what mountains and rivers and valleys were. Sure the stories he told weren't all good, but that's what added to the appeal. The fact that these people did what I only got short bursts of. They had a choice to live however they wanted, and only as I heard Arnold tell these stories I realized that's what I wanted as well.

I wanted the freedom to do as I wished sure, but most of all I wanted the freedom to be me.