Seeking the One

Princess Aurora

''Happy birthday, little brother!''

I jumped on Jaxon's bed, pulling him up and hugging my younger twin brother close to me, ruffling his brown tresses as I jumped up and down. If one would take a glance at me and seize me up, they wouldn't think that I was the Crown Princess of Illéa and that I had just turned nineteen. I was acting more like a sixteen-year-old.

Apparently, Jaxon felt the same, and he groaned as he tried to escape from my tight embrace. ''Thanks, Rory, but couldn't you have congratulated me at breakfast?''

''Of course not!'' I exclaimed, not letting go so easily. ''I wanted to be the first one to congratulate you.''

Jaxon's slight frown and look of drowsiness disappeared, and his bright blue eyes twinkled as he finally seamed to wake up. ''Congratulations to you too, Rory.''

I jumped off his bed, almost knocking the books on his nightstand over. Typical Jaxon, always reading until the crack of dawn, which explained the big yawn he was trying to stifle.

People told me that Jaxon and I were nothing alike, and I agreed. While Jaxon was intelligent, calm and studious, I was carefree, sensitive and spirited. He would have been the perfect Heir, but fate had it that that role had fallen on me. Not that I despised the prospect of my future, I was certain that I would be a good Queen in my own right, but sometimes, I couldn't help but be envious of the brilliant mind my brother possessed.

While Jaxon had his brilliance, I had my spirit. I was told that I was a lot like my aunt Yasmin, Dad's sister and the Princess. Unfortunately, I didn't have her artistic side, but I did have my people skills. I was great at making people love me, and according to my Dad, I was a good decision maker and I had a keen sense for what was good for Illéa.

Dad had never tried to put too much pressure on me, as he already had enough of that when he was the Prince. My grandfather, King Edward Schreave, had died during Dad's Selection, which had devastated the family and the country. He was a good King, a beloved one if I could believe what people said, and my father had big shoes to fill. Luckily, he had Mom at his side, and together they were great rulers.

Mom had started out as an Eight, but the Selection turned her life around. She climbed up the entire caste system, going from an Eight to a One, and the people admired her. She was a great role model, as she didn't let her disability stop her or make her any less worthy. Her life was one of hardships, as she was born to a mother who didn't really want her. She was found in a dumpster by a man named Martin Dells, who ended up raising her. When she was eight years old, she lost her legs, caused by a few boys who lived in their neighborhood. She had to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair, as she refused to get prosthetics. Mom was a strong and optimistic woman, a great Queen and she certainly deserved to be admired.

Together with Mom, Dad had managed to change the caste system. It wasn't gone yet, as that sudden change already proved disastrous in the past, but the castes Eight, Seven and Six were combined and contained into one caste, the Sixes. The biggest change was that there were no more Untouchables. The mentally and physically ill were taken care of in special clinics, and homes had been set up for all the runaways and addicts. The caste of Eight was no longer used as a punishment, and the people wouldn't be treated so inhumanely and like animals as they were before. The jobs that belonged to Sevens and Sixes were now all compiled in the caste of Six.

Though I was the Crown Princess, no one knew. The public wasn't aware of who the Heir was, which Dad did for a reason. As every other Royal, we were to have a Selection. Because we had turned nineteen, ours would be announced on the next Report. Dad wanted to make sure that no one could use us to get to the Crown, and to protect us, no one would know through which sibling they would actually acquire the Crown. Of course, they could still sign up for the Crown and take a risk, but they were not assured of the person they were competing for actually being the Heir.

I looked over at my brother, who was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. While I was a hopeless romantic and had countless of crushes, he preferred to bury his head in the books. Unlike my father in his younger days, Jaxon was not an expert on the ladies. He had been hesitant about having a Selection, but as the perfect son that he is, he did not protest. My hope was that the Selection could bring Jaxon out of his shell, break down the walls he built up with books instead of bricks, and give him some confidence. He deserved love. Just like that, my birthday wish for this year hit me. Please, let Jaxon find love. Let him find the best girl there is and fall madly in love with her, and she with him.

''Why are you staring at me?''

I was broken out of my wishful thinking by Jaxon's suspicious voice. The corners of my mouth curved into a smile. ''I'm just thinking how lucky the girls in the Selection are going to be to get to compete for you.''

Jaxon rolled his eyes. ''You know as much as I do that my Selection is going to be a disaster. You, on the other hand, will breeze right through it.''

I sat down next to him and took his hand in mine. ''Oh, come on, at least we're in this together. And think of the positive. Before us, the Selection consisted of 35 Selected. Now, there will be 36, and half of them are for me, half of them for you. Doesn't seem that bad, right?''

''I hope you get the extra two,'' he mumbled.

Since 35, the amount of Provinces Illéa had, couldn't be divided into two, the limit for Selected had been changed to 36. We could have lowered it to 34, but that would mean that one Province would be left out, which would surely cause some problems. With the limit now set to 36 Selected, it meant that one Province would have an extra Selected. This extra Selected would come from Mom's Province. The Provinces would randomly be chosen to accept male or female participants. So, though we knew Mom's Province, we did not know if it were to be a male or female one, and who would get the two extra Selected. That was up to a lottery. If Mom's Province turned out to be a female Province, hers would send two girls, which meant that Jaxon would get nineteen girls, and I would get seventeen boys. If it was a male Province, it would be the other way around, and I would get nineteen, and Jaxon seventeen.

''I wouldn't mind two extra boys. The more, the merrier.'' I giggled, as I jokingly shoved Jaxon's shoulder. ''Lighten up, it's our birthday. Let's not think about all the chaos to come, okay? In a few moments, Mom and Dad will be bursting through your door with little Elliana in tow, so please turn that frown upside down.''

Jaxon heaved a heavy sigh, before he turned to look at me. ''You're right. I shouldn't be moping around on our birthday.'' He plastered a smile on my face as he hugged me close to his side. ''Is this better?''

''Much better.''

Hi everyone! Wolfofstark here, but you can call me Wolf or Wolfie, whatever you want. This is my second SYOC, my previous one was Seeking Redemption. Unfortunately, I had to end that one early, but I did write an ending for it so it was still completed. This story will be the sequel to Seeking Redemption. As I had previously discussed in my other story, I really wanted to do a SYOC for Killian's children (the Prince in my other SYOC). I had already decided to make them twins, a boy and a girl, who would have a Selection together, so here it is! This chapter was more of a background chapter, to get a feeling or Aurora and Jaxon and their relationship, and to provide a bit of background for those who haven't read the prequel to this story. I hope it was still good though, and you understood everything!

As you could hopefully tell from this chapter, there will be 36 Selected. The Queen's province will be a female province, so that makes it: Seventeen boys, nineteen girls. I will work with main characters and supporting characters. The main characters will be POV characters, but this does not mean that they will make it to the Elite. Same goes for the supporting characters, just because your character is supporting, it does not mean that they don't have a chance. There will be five main female characters, five main male characters and the rest will be supporting. Depending on how many submissions I get, I will also have some throwaways. The story will be written in the POVs of Aurora, Jaxon and the mains.

The Royal Family will also play a big part in this story, they will be introduced in the second chapter, as I wanted to keep this chapter between the siblings. A list of the Family is already on my profile, though. For the part of the form that is about the Royals, you can send that to me after the second chapter is up.

As for the rules:

- This is NOT first come first serve. I will choose your characters according to how well I will be able to write them, how original they are and how many details they have. DETAILS are VERY important, I can't stress this enough. It's never too much, so please don't send me a few sentences for each portion of the form, because that will not help with getting your character accepted.

- You can send in one boy and one girl.

- PLEASE no Mary Sues or copies of the book characters.

- I want original characters; no one you have already submitted to someone else's Selection.

- Be diverse. Not just personality wise, but looks/ethnicity wise as well. Not everyone is white, so please send me some colored people. I would love to have different ethnicities.

- I will only accept submissions that are sent to me by PM. No submissions via reviews.

- PM me your character with this as the subject: First and last name, Caste, Province

- Have fun!

There's a list with available provinces on my profile. You can see on the list which provinces are male and which are female. I don't want to make this too long so the form can be found on my profile.

I have a pinterest account, you can find me by this link: /wolfofstark/ or by looking up my account which is wolfofstark. I will post everyone's faceclaims on there, you can already see the Royal Family's, and it will be a big part and visual of the story, so I hope you check it out! And for everyone who doesn't have pinterest but still want to know how Aurora and Jaxon look, their faceclaims are Sophie Turner and Logan Lerman.

Happy submitting and I hope you're just as enthusiastic as I am!

Before I go and end this long Author's Note, special thanks to L.C. Carraway who helped me out a lot, you're the best! If you haven't yet, check out her story about Eadlyn's son who is having a Selection of his own.

Love,
Wolf