The sun had just finished setting over the prosperous and prestigious Golden Kingdom as its royal family continued to eat their dinner for the day. It would feel like any ordinary evening for them if it was not for the extra guest they had seated with them. Recently, the princess of the Kingdom, Keira, had come of age and her parents had taken it upon themselves to find her a husband. As expected, she was widely regarded around the kingdom as being one of the most beautiful girls in the world and attracted the attention of men far and wide. Whether it was due to her enchanting voice or her extremely long and bewitching black hair she, there was just something about her that made her desirable.

While Keira would be fine with any run of the mill gentleman, her father felt the opposite. Being king he felt that only a powerful or wealthy man was worthy of his daughters hand and personally picked out her potential suitors, only for her to reject them. She hated how they would treat her with forced kindness and speak only of their status in order to impress her. She secretly longed to find someone who could treat her as if she was a simple peasant and disregard her title of princess but she had yet to find such a man.

In an effort to avoid conversing with her suitor of the day, Keira was spending most of their dinner staring down at her plate while moving around her food which seemed to work until her mother took notice of her irregular behavior.

"Is everything alright Keira?" She asked. "You've been awfully quiet this evening."

Keira finally looked up from her plate and gave her a fake smile. "I'm fine mother. Just enjoying our company for this evening, that's all."

Her mother gave her a look that implied that she knew she was lying before returning to her dinner. "Well I would think that you would be a little more talkative then. It's rude and unladylike to ignore your own guest like this."

Keira let out an audible sigh at the mention of proper etiquette.

"Your mother's right Keira." Her father advised as he tipped his wine glass towards the man sitting across from her. "This fine gentleman is your suitor. You should get to know him."

She sighed again before looking up at her suitor sitting at the seat across from her. He was a rather slender man with black hair and a thin mustache wearing an equally thin blue tunic with yellow trimmings on it and seemed rather nervous to be in the presence of her family.

"Why don't you tell me about you do then?" She finally asked in a rather uninterested tone.

"Keira!" Her mother snapped.

Her suitor calmly placed his fork down before pulling out a handkerchief and dabbing his forehead. "It's quite alright, your highness." He placed the cloth back in his pocket. "I can understand if your daughter is a little uneasy this evening. I am actually a bit uneasy myself! It's not every day you get to be in the presence of such a fine young woman."

Though she was tired of hearing that compliment from so many different suitors, Keira gave him a small courtesy smile.

"Regardless of her feelings, she should be taking a greater interest in suitors such as yourself." Her father remarked. "Less of course she would prefer to lead this kingdom by herself in the future." He glanced over at her.

Keira looked at him for a moment before shifting her eyes back towards her suitor and finally her food. She then pushed her seat away from the table and got up.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Her mother asked rudely as she pointed towards her chair. "Sit back down, you have a guest here."

"I need to go get some fresh air." She answered as she began to walk towards the doorway.

"Nonsense, come back here at once and finish your dinner at once now." Her mother ordered.

"I'm not hungry." Keira muttered just loud enough so that her mother could her.

As she turned into the hall she could hear her parents begin to shout for the guards causing her to pick up her pace. Such was routine for them when she 'acted like a peasant' as they put it but she didn't care. She was already growing tired of her latest suitor and felt that it was time to return to her special spot to clear her head. Her special spot was just a simple pond out in the middle of the forest that surrounded the town outside the castle's walls making it the perfect spot to relax as the chances of being bothered out there were just about nonexistent. She couldn't wait to get there.

The moon had already taken its place high above the trees when Keira finally reached her special spot. She carefully removed her shoes and set them at her side as she took a seat next to the water's edge and stuck her feet in cool and clear water. She leaned back on her hands and shut her eyes as she took a deep breath as a small gust of wind ran through her hair. How she longed to be as free as something like that wind. To be able to go where she pleased and explore the world without being confined to her castle's walls or to public's image of her, that was the life she wanted. Suddenly a voiced called out to her, causing her to open her eyes and lose that image of her ideal life.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" It asked.

She quickly pulled her feet out of the water and turned around to see a hooded man with two similar looking men behind him.

"A pretty young girl such as yourself shouldn't be this far out in the forest all alone at this hour." He advised in a cunning manner.

Knowing his intentions weren't pure, she began to back away.

The man and his followers took a step towards her. "Don't be afraid."

"Get… get away from me." She warned.

"Aw come on, we're not going to hurt you, right guys?" He asked as the men behind him nodded their heads while laughing quietly.

Unable to trust them, Keira turned around and headed into the forest as fast as she could. It wasn't long, however, until her bare feet began to hurt from being exposed to the rough forest floor causing her to slow down. She briefly stopped and noticed a large tree nearby and hid behind it to catch her breath.

"She went this way." She heard one of the men yell to the others as their footsteps got closer and closer to her.

Her heart began to beat faster and faster with each approaching sound until it seemed that they were on the other side of the tree. She closed her eyes.

"Please…" She whispered to herself.

Almost as if something answered her imaginary prayer she opened her eyes as she heard her pursuers footsteps continue off in a different direction. Breathing a sigh of relief, she leaned back against the tree and slid down to the ground to catch her breath. Once she felt relaxed she returned to her feet and took a step forward, only for her foot to land ontop of a sharp rock. She gave a large shout and fell backwards as she clutched her injured foot. She could feel some blood coming out of the newly opened cut.

"Did you hear that?" She heard one of the men shout.

"She's back over there!" Another cried.

Wasting no time, Keira got up to her feet and resumed running but stepping on the twig covered ground proved too painful for her to handle with her injured foot and she soon fell down.

"Need a hand?" One of the men asked as.

Before she could do anything Keira felt an arm wrap itself around her neck and pull her up.

"What's the matter?" He asked mockingly. "Tire yourself out already?"

Keira flailed around to try and get free but her efforts proved futile.

"Ugh, what do you want?" She fearfully asked as she looked back at him.

"We just wanted to talk with you." He joked before tightening his grip around her. "But since you had to go off and run we're going to have to make catching you worth our while."

Her heart filled with fear. "I-I-I'm the p-princess." She stuttered. "If you t-try anything you'll regret it."

"You hear that? She's a princess." The man repeated as he turned around to his two followers. "Looks like today's our lucky day."

The man then threw her to the ground as the others circled around her. All Keira could do at the moment was look up at them with fearful eyes and let out a whimper.

A/N: I told myself I wouldn't post this story for a while but I just couldn't resist doing it for some reason. I know it's another short intro chapter but I feel it's again necessary to start this story out.