Emma's always known she is special.
It starts with her earliest memory. Her mother and father are whispering to her. They're telling her stories about bandits and shepherds and saviours that are wonderful and exciting, and she stares up into their faces, believing every word they say.
She's three when her brother is born. He is Nicholas Leo Swan, which she thinks is a long name for the tiny thing that sits in her lap and looks at her with wide eyes for a few precious minutes before falling asleep. Her parents smile as they introduce him to her, and she thinks she's the luckiest sister in the world.
Though they've now grown to a family of four, the stories continue.
When she's five, two things happen. The first is that she gets a sister, Eva Redell Swan. Nicko is bouncing up and down in excitement, and her mother is smiling with tears in her eyes as her father hands Emma her new sister.
The second thing is that she starts school, and on her very first day learns that apparently it isn't normal to talk to birds or believe in curses.
Which, in her opinion, sucks.
She cries when she comes home, and her mother consoles her by pulling her into her lap and telling her a story about a princess who didn't believe in herself and the prince who convinced her to. Her father arrives from work an hour later and grins down at her while carrying Nicko on his shoulders. He tells her he's got something special for his little girl and pulls out two wooden swords from the boot of their beat up old car.
They're the best gift she's ever gotten.
That day she starts learning how to swordfight. This is apparently another thing that is not normal, and she loses the few friends she has. Who needs friends anyway, she thinks. She has Eva and Nicko and she has her amazing mother and father, and they're the only people she needs in the world.
Her lessons are every week, and while at first Nicko only watches, he manages to weasel his way into it by the time he's four. She loves the sword, the feel of balance and power that it gives her and she relishes the feel of victory when she defeats Nicko in a duel. Nicko's also quite good, but he's got two years' experience less than her, and besides, he's a boy and so doesn't stand a chance.
Her mother watches fondly as she cradles Eva and promises Emma that when's she's a bit bigger she'll teach her how to use a bow. That sounds really exciting, but she doesn't dwell on it too long because Nicko's almost winning, and she has to parry a particularly fierce blow.
Life isn't always fun, however. They barely have enough money to get by. Her mother works two jobs, babysitting during the day and waitressing at a diner on weekends. Her father works at the nearby farm and covers for any absentees at the animal shelter. The jobs don't pay well, but they take care of the bills. There are also rumours from the neighbours, whispers of how her parents turned up on the side of a highway with no money or ID. Her mother shakes these allegations off like the queen she really is, and her father tells Emma that it doesn't matter what other people say because she always has her family.
Sometimes it's difficult to have that much faith. There's no denying that her parents are different. They barely understand technology, and have had no formal education. Their only car was bought only after they realised how much regular people expected them to have one.
But Emma understands why they are different. They are a king and queen after all, and kings and queens can hardly be expected to know how to use mobiles or to have gone to high school.
So they manage.
Emma turns ten, and her archery lessons start, as does Eva's swordfighting. Eva doesn't seem to like it as much as her siblings. Out of the three of them she's the gentlest and the quietest compared to fierce-spirited Emma and fun-loving Nicko. The three children of a legend. They make quite the trio: gentle raven-haired Eva, Nicko with his determination and protectiveness, and wild curly-haired Emma.
Emma likes archery. She ties her hair back in a single braid and shoots arrow after arrow thwack, thwack, thwack into the target as her mother watches with pride. She learns tracking and self-defence, and is one of the girls the bullies at her school never go near. She still has no friends, but she's learnt to live with that by now.
Time passes.
She's fourteen when she first defeats her father in a duel, and the grins on both their faces have never been bigger.
They have a celebration at home. Her mother sings as she bakes a special dinner, Eva climbs adoringly into her lap, and Nicko gives her an impressed high-five. Her father is the proudest of all, though, and opens a case she has never seen before to show her a real sword.
It'll be hers someday, he tells her.
She's fifteen when her word ends.
This is how it happens: Once or twice every year, her parents have gone on a two-or-three-day trip to search for their friends from their old land. They have never taken her along, because it's been too dangerous. They tell her that they'll take her before her twenty-eighth birthday. But this year it's different.
She waits four days.
A week.
A month.
They don't come back.
So, how was it? Should I continue?
Thanks for reading.