Shadow Graced
Prologue; Taken
Heya! This is my first fanfiction for Graceling, so I hope you enjoy it! Please R&R!
Thanks, Gypsy Stars x
Two young girls, no older than 6 and 7, scrambled over the rocks, one Graced, one not Graced. The Graced girl tripped, stumbled and fell, landing with a soft oof on the mossy rocks. Her elder sister turned around and spotted her, and ran back over the rocks to help her up, her curly auburn hair flying madly in the wind. Her younger sister looked up at her and grinned, meeting one pair of sea-green eyes with a pair with one deep, chocolate brown eye and one electric blue eye. The two sisters looked as different as sun from sky, or black from white; one had curly, auburn hair and the beginnings of a tall, slim figure and creamy, pale skin, while the other had tangled, jet black hair, a shorter, sturdier figure and darker, more exotic-looking skin, but their eyes met and their expressions were identical; pure joy and excitement. The elder, not-Graced sister helped up the younger, Graced sister and then scampered away, laughing.
"C'mon Maylin!" she called back over her shoulder. "We'll be late!"
"I'm comin' Karla!" replied her sister. "Wait!"
Laughing, the two girls ran, clambered and scampered over the rocks that marked the shoreline, the rolling sea occasionally splashing them with salt-water. Both girls' dresses were wet with spray, but neither cared.
The biggest wave yet crashed over the rocks, and it caught Maylin by surprise. She stumbled again, and fell, but this time she slipped off the wet, mossy rock she had been standing on, and fell towards the waves. Karla screamed as Maylin disappeared beneath the foam and spray, but the girl surfaced almost immediately, laughing.
"Rawr! I'm a big-bad-sea-monster!" she grinned, and dissolved into giggles. Karla laughed too, and soon they were standing waist high in the sea, splashing each other and laughing.
"Princesses! Lady Karla, Lady Maylin!" A voice behind them called out, and the two girls turned to see a footman in royal livery hurrying towards them along the rocks. They waved, hitched up their skirts, and began wading towards him. As soon as they reached the safety of the rocks he grabbed their wrists, and Karla started. Servants didn't normally touch them apart from their nurse, Helda.
"Please let go of me" she said in her most royal voice, but the man only laughed.
"None of that Lady Karla. I've orders to bring you along."
"Well, I'm ordering you to let go of me." The man stopped and looked curiously at her, as if considering her properly for the first time, before sweeping her a low, mocking bow.
"When did I saw my orders came from your parents?" he sneered. Karla gasped, and began struggling in his grip, but he only tightened it and laughed again. Maylin began to sob, while struggling just as hard as her sister; biting and scratching as hard as she could. Then Karla managed to knee the man in the groin, and he yelped with pain and dropped her and Maylin. The younger girl struck the floor... and didn't get up.
"Maylin!" cried Karla, but the man had recovered, and he shoved her away.
"I've no need of you" He sneered, and then spat out a word that stung her worse than any blow.
"Ungraced."
Karla staggered back, and suddenly his fist was in her face and the world went black.
Royal servants would find her hours later, bleeding and unconscious, but alive. She would be taken up to the palace, and within two days no sign of her injuries would be visible upon her. But Maylin would be nowhere to be found.