All Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer
Prologue
The Forests of Caldonia lay in a mile wide circle around the Castle of Caldonia. The large evergreen trees pulsated around a large tree on the outskirts of the forest. This tree had become known as the tree of life or death. The ground around it reeked of the stench of death and decay. It vibrated with a sense of power, a raw natural power of old magic and sacrifices.
A royal servant of the Queen of Caldonia snuck in the forest the night of the Queen's birth of her first child. If the child were to be a boy, the Queen would rein on. If the child were to be a girl, the Queen was to be dethroned on the child's 13th birthday. The Queen had had twins, a rare occasion and had died during the birth. The king, a rude unkind man, would now rule the kingdom. The twins themselves were of the identical kind, one girl and one boy. One look at the twins the king had order that the girl was inadequate and had a servant disposed of her, while he convinced people that the Queen of Caldonia had had only one child, a son named Helios.
Chapter One
Bella sat high above in the tree of death as she called it. A stench swirled around of death and sadness wrapped around the tree and ultimately her. She breathed in heavily as a fresh breath of air passed through the tree; her short, chopped brown hair blew slightly. She had an Elvin shaped face with big yellow cat eyes. She stared, unfocused, into the distance, like she was seeing the future, and blinked widely, jumping down from her perch. Her thin, medium height frame looked graceful, like it was floating down to the ground.
She landed like a cat on the floor, one hand slamming down against the murky mud. It splattered on her face and green tunic, but she didn't notice because she felt the forest's distress. Bounding across branches, she leaped to where the problem was. Spying through the trees, Bella saw the royal servants having a bout in the middle of a clearing close to the Castle. Several people crowded around a servant lying on the floor with a pool of blood surrounding him. Bella climbed up the tree, quietly as not to be heard. Once at the top the sun glared behind her, blackening her against the sun and look like an avenging angel. Raising a hand in the air she called out to the servants below, "Beware, The Huntress is here. Leave my forest now!" Her voice echo through the forest, like every tree was shouting it back at them.
The servants screamed and begun running out of the forest in a loud frenzy.
"The Huntress!"
"Bella!"
Several people screamed as they ran.
Bella laughed loudly as they left behind the harmed servant, a replaceable. Bella felt bad though, so she jumped down to help him up. He moaned, when she grabbed his arm, trying to skitter away.
"I'm not going to harm you," Bella said, looking at his cuts and bruised, taking in the damage, "What happened?"
"We were having dual," He said as though it happened every day. He shrugged and looked into her eyes with his sparkling gold ones. She was mesmerized. Shaking her hand she looked at the ground so that she could talk.
"What's your name?"
"Edward." Bella smiled. A wonderful name, she thought as she took in his whole appearance. Edward had shaggy brown hair with tints of gold. He wore a red tunic, a servant's uniform, and brown leather boots.