A/N: I'M BACK!

So I know that I was gone for a long time. Three years to be exact. In that time I have learned a lot about myself. This is already written on my profile, but I was 15 when I started posting stories on here. Now I'm 20 and when I was reading over the stories I had written I hated them. So I deleted a lot of my stories leaving just two short stories that I think are decent. I have completely changed my profile: I changed my username, deleted stories, changed what my profile said about me, and went through and cleared out my favorite stories and authors.

I'm a completely different person than I was five years ago when I started this. I hope you can all respect that and I hope you enjoy the new direction that my profile will be taking on.

Holly stood on the balcony in her room. She was looking out over the Northern area of the lands of Nimrais. Nimrais is the elven city where the king ruled over and protected all of his people. King Brian also happened to be Holly's father which made her the elf princess.

She, like her father, was well loved by her people. After her mother had become ill and died the people had banded together in mourning and in support around the ruling family. In his grief King Brian had allowed himself to slack off on many of his royal duties. Holly had only been 16, but she had stepped up to the best of her ability. She had ruled for about a year while her father grieved. At the end of that time she, with the support of most of the citizens of Nimrais behind her, had negotiated a treaty with the human ruler. That treaty had ended a war that had been going on for over ten years. Not long after that her father had stepped back up. He had been proud of her accomplishment and took every opportunity to tell her that and to thank her for the help she provided him in his absence.

Unfortunately the treaty meant that both sides had to make sacrifices. The woods to the south of the city which used to be a popular elven hang out area, due to the vast number of beautiful clearings and small streams, and hunting area, due to the many different types of wildlife that lived there, became a neutral territory. Some of the elf citizens had found this to be too great of a sacrifice and did not agree with Holly's decision. Since then very few elves had set foot in those woods, whereas the humans had all but taken it over. That alone had not made Holly very popular with the citizens who frequented that area, which was a large number of them, especially the hunters. Those who wished to spend time in the woods hanging out or hunting now had to make the long trek to the woods of the Eastern border. Not only were those woods further away, but they were also much smaller with less wildlife.

This was the reason that she was in the mess that she found herself in.

Over the course of the last six months since the treaty had been put into effect and her father had reclaimed his place Holly had been receiving threatening letters. Those letters had simply been signed "The Hunters." Nobody could figure out if it was the actual hunters or if it was a group calling themselves that. Her father had been furious and ordered the guards to bring in and interrogate every hunter, but that had gotten them nowhere. He suggested that the guards interview every citizen in the city. Thankfully Holly had shown him how crazy and foolish that plan was.

Then just the day before yesterday she had been attacked. She had gone for a walk around the palace's large garden after dinner. In hindsight she shouldn't have been walking around on her own after dark with the threats made against her. However, she hadn't really been thinking about that or anything really. Anyway she had been walking when two men dressed in all black with black masks over their faces jumped in front of her blocking her path. Then two more men came up behind her and stopped her from being able to escape. She was stuck. "This is a warning that The Hunters can get to you at anytime, anywhere. We shall be seeing each other again soon Princess." At that moment an arrow went whizzing past Holly's head grazing her cheek leaving behind a fairly deep cut there. Holly fell to the ground in shock holding her cheek. When she got up and looked around the men were gone.

She got up and ran inside. She made a beeline straight to her father's office. He was sitting at his desk working on some paperwork when she burst into the room with tears streaming down her face. Brian had looked up to ask her to give him a moment when he saw her crying with blood leaking out of her cheek between her fingers. He had jumped up and was in front of her in seconds.

He sent his guards to get a doctor to look at her wound. The doctor cleaned out the wound and put a small bandage over it to keep it clean. Her father had fussed over her all night until she went to bed.

In the morning he told her that he was going to arrange for her to have two personal body guards with her at all times. She tried to argue that she was 18 and did not need the personal guards, but he insisted and there was no way she was going to win this one. Though if she was being honest she didn't really want to win; she had been absolutely terrified the night before and it would make her feel better to be constantly protected. She had tried to get him to let her choose her own guards, but again she lost when he told her that, as per tradition, there would be a competition among all willing elven warriors. The top two warriors would be assigned to guard Holly.

Word was spread throughout the city. Elves both young and old made their way to the palace to enter into the competition. It would be based on points. In every event each competitor would get a score from 1-10. The two warriors with the highest scores would protect Holly.

This was why she stood on her balcony looking over the lands that would one day be hers to rule over and protect. Just over the hills to the northwest she could hear the warriors warming up and making final preparations, checking over their equipment and what not, for what was to come.

A knock on the door brought her back to the palace. It was her father ready to walk with her to the stadium to watch the warriors compete.

"Here we go." Holly mumbled under her breath. She plastered a large fake smile on her face and walked out. She walked just behind her father and on his right side.

They made their way swiftly to the stadium that was just beyond the training grounds. There was a guard on each side of them. The king was taking no chances with his daughter's safety today. They arrived quickly and made their way to the royal balcony.

There were two thrones set up and a table that was covered in various foods and drink for the two. As they stepped into view Holly saw many warriors, both male and female, lined up and standing at attention. Those warriors at once, and in unison, dropped to one knee with their heads bowed when they saw the king and princess.

Brian kept them like that for only a moment before he spoke, "rise." He began. Once they were all on their feet, something they once again did in unison, he continued, "today you compete to see who will get the honor of being my daughter's personal guards." He paused while every warrior touched their closed right fists to their hearts. It was a sign of their commitment to their leaders. It was a quick touch before all hands were back at the warriors' sides. "Let the games begin!" Brian shouted before he and Holly sat down, and the warriors dispersed to begin the first event.

A/N 2: So there it is. The first chapter that I have posted in years. I'm pretty proud of it and I have a good idea of what is going to happen, at least at the beginning of this story. If you have any ideas or suggestions please let me know either through a review or through a PM.