"Mamma!"
Held back by strong arms, a young girl with piercing blue eyes wailed as her mother was taken away. She was no more than 5 years old and she had no clue why her mother was being carted off in that rickety wooden cage on wheels. She looked up at her father with red tear stained eyes and couldn't understand why he wasn't helping her mother. He did nothing, but held her back.
"Daddy, why won't you do anything?" she cried.
"You're mother has made a big mistake," he said, "she has to go now."
"I hate you!" she yelled back.
The girl continued to sob as the cart began to roll away from her. From within it a beautiful woman with long blond hair and clear blue eyes looked back at her little girl for the last time. When one looked into the eyes of this woman, one might feel an overwhelming power. They were eyes that had seen so much and shed so many tears, it seemed as if they could barely give another. Yet as the little girl continued to scream, "mamma!" the woman could not help but let one more escape from her glistening eyes and travel down her smooth white cheek.
"Oh, Keena!"
Instead of her usual morning routine of chatting with the villagers and taking a stroll through town, Keena needed to get away. The night before, her father, King Marke had made a very unsettling announcement to her. She stormed through the central market ignoring the inquiries of the towns people and finally made it to the woods. She would often walk along these woods whenever she needed to think. The trees were grey and knotted and seemed to close around her hiding her from the world outside. Her father was to announce a second. He has just turned 58 last night and there was a huge celebration. It was then that he made the announcement. From what she had heard, it had been 18 years ago, her birth year, since he had had a second in place. There was something, some bad experience, that had been holding him back and Keena had no clue who could have gained his trust at this point. What was odder was the fact that he had seemed very distraught about the whole thing. It was like he was in a trance. His face had been paler than usual as he stood up at the table and held up his glass to make the announcement. He still seemed so strong and regal standing there, his black hair graying around the sides and his dark eyes, so different than Keena's clear blue ones, were as intense as ever. His speech was deliberate and he refused to disclose who the second would be, just that he had someone in mind. Afterwards while everyone was dancing and celebrating he had pulled Keena aside.
"Now, this man will be King someday, Keena," he had said. "You are old enough to be married by now."
"Father," she had gasped with indignation, "Do you actually expect me to simply marry this man just for the sake of the crown?"
"I expect you to marry him for the sake of England," he had said sternly, "The people have always loved you and you need to become a leader for them. You are, after all, part Irish and you are all we have sometimes to keep that unstable peace."
"I don't feel part of anything," she said stubbornly folding her arms. Her pouting face was almost enough to make her stern father feel sorry for his decision. "If you don't recall, I barely even knew my mother." A familiar pang hit King Marke after hearing his daughter's words. She looked so much like her mother, the same eyes, and the same smile. But her bone structure was harder, and her hair was a familiar honey color.
"You mother was a noble woman," he said, "She would have done the same for the sake of peace. She did do the same for the sake of peace."
"She did what?" Keena had never heard her father talk about her mother before, though she had pleaded with him many times. Sometimes she got small tales about her great beauty or kindness, but nothing more. Her father always seemed to treat it as a sore subject. Something significant had happened in the past that still hurt her father. Keena had sensed it for a while now. It was something to do with her mother; she was sure. It also seemed to distance him from her. It was almost unnoticeable but sometimes Keena would catch her father looking at her with a troubled look, deep in thought.
It seemed as if tonight she would only receive this small bit of information about her mother.
"Consider yourself betrothed, Keena. You owe it to your country," he said ignoring her previous inquiry.
"Father!"
"No more questions. Now, it's time you get some sleep."
He didn't need to tell her. The only thing she wanted to do at that moment was to run to her room as if she was a little girl again and cry herself to sleep.
Now as she strolled through the forest, Keena came upon the remains on an old bridge. The villagers had told her that years ago forbidden lovers, who were inflicted with a powerful love potion, used to meet at that bridge. One day they burned down the bridge in hopes to ignore their love and end the affair, but their love was insuppressible. They were caught and the man was exiled from the kingdom where he later became a knight, or so the story went. Keena had always loved that story. Though their love was the product of potion, the idea of such passion seemed so exciting and wonderful. She would often sit there dreaming of her own great romance. Then the same thought that had been reoccurring since the night before crept back into her head. What if he was tall, handsome, kind, and cunning? What if her husband to be was the man of her dreams that could fulfill these fantasies? As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she banished it. He was probably some big hulking idiot who would take advantage of her. Either way, she didn't want to think that she even needed a man to get by in this world. She wanted to be independent and this man was not going to stand in her way. Even with her need for self-sufficiency, part of her still dreamed of having a strong shoulder to lean on.
Something curious happened just then. She had been walking away from the path and into the woods when her foot stepped on something that sounded more like wood than earth. Keena bent down to examine the area beneath her. To her surprise it lifted up into a passage way. The adventurous side of her took over as she slowly lowered herself into the passageway. Surprisingly, the light from the opening had flooded the passageway and she was able to see clearly for quite some distance. Keena maneuvered her way through the narrow walls of earth until the passage opened up into what looked like a chamber. To her shock, the place looked inhabited. There was what seemed to be like a bed mat in the corner and crops hanging along the opposite wall. There was a pot and a hole above it where more light was flooding in. Fear and excitement welled within her. Who could possibly be living here? And what if they found her? She knew she could be in serious danger at this point, but her curiosity was itching for her to move on and see the rest of the passage. So she moved on out of the room, where the walls became narrow again. It started to get darker the further she moved. The light was dim, but not completely dark when the path finally opened up again and ended. There were three giant steps of earth leading to another wooden opening. She moved to examine where the passage lead when suddenly she heard movement behind her. Slowly, she turned around, her heart racing. Something was moving in the shadows of the camber. Finally she spotted the silhouette of a man and her breath hitched. He walked forward and came into view. He was thin, and tall, with long dark brown hair hanging in an unruly mess around his head. Beneath his overgrown beard and the grime on his face, he seemed to have very strong features. His eyes were even darker than her father's. They seemed to glisten with a wild look that half entranced her and half frightened her.
Finally he spoke in a raspy voice that seemed as if it hadn't been used in days, "Keena."
She froze in her spot and felt suddenly faint, "h-how do you know my name?" Her voice shook but she was determined not to appear weak and held her head high. He laughed. It was a surprisingly rich laugh that seemed to absorb into the earth around them giving it life.
"You're so much like your father," he said, eyes twinkling.
Keena looked at him in confusion. She had never thought she resembled King Marke. "How so?"
"You're adventurous," he said stepping up the great earth steps in order to better look at her. "And you are brave, just like him. You know that is why they named you Keena. It is Irish like your mother and means brave."
"I didn't know that," She said wondering both who this man could be and what she should do next. If he wasn't trust worthy, she could always try to run. Fighting him would be useless, for lean as he was she could see muscles peaking out from his ratty tunic. He was much too close for her to make an escape so she decided to stay.
"Keena, there are a lot of things you don't know," he said and her confusion multiplied, "but I will let you onto one thing."
"And that is?" she said, confidence returning to her voice.
He smiled and oddly enough it had quite a charismatic effect on her. "That is, where this passageway leads. Continue on through that opening and you will find yourself in the lowest level of your castle. Now go and please don't repeat what you have seen here. You will find out more about me soon enough, but for now it is best if you pretend you never saw me."
Though her curiosity was ten fold, Keena decided it would be wise to simply do as he said. She still had no clue who he was after all. To her delight, she did indeed find herself back in her castle upon exiting the passageway. She quickly made it back to her bedroom trying not to attract to attention of any servants. Keena flopped down on her bed of warm furs, letting down her long honey colored hair. The sun came in from a nearby window, tickling her feet with its warmth. For the first time since last night, Keena was not thinking about her engagement. With all the questions that mysterious man had provoked, there was no way she could think of anything else. He had known who she was. True, most the villagers did, but this was way different. He had known her mother. He knew her father. Something in those twinkling eyes told her that he knew some great secret that concerned her. After a while Keena drifted into a comfortable afternoon nap, the image of that mysterious man and his smile drifting through her head.
A/N: Ok… first chapter up. I'm sure you are all wonder who the mystery man is. Well you won't find out till next chapter! Muhahaha! Heh, next time I will try to add a lot more; it is hardly interesting at this point. This is for you, Liz, so you better be liking it! I'm actually having a lot of fun with this. If you know the actually Tristan and Isolde myth, then you can see how I tried to make it tie in with the moive (something the movie failed horribly at doing). This story will be like 1 million times better than that silly movie… ……you just wait.