Chapter One
Amelia F. Jones grew up believing in the family motto, that there was only two groups of people in the world. You and everyone else. Life as a royal was dangerous, everyone strived for power and control, even if it meant murdering innocent people and thievery. Amelia knew from a young age that she wanted no part of that. No, what she really wanted was freedom, have a taste of it. Own a piece of it for herself. Princesses never had much freedom, it was all work and pain with high expectations and standards.
Freedom came at a price, she learned that at a young age, when one of her favorite cousins escaped the castle walls when they weren't supposed to, very regularly, an offense on its own punishable by house arrest, but also fell in love with a commoner, and was planning on running away with him. They were caught, and banished from the land, disgraced and abandon from the family. Nobles and royals under the age of twenty-weren't allowed to leave the castle grounds. It was forbidden. Amelia wondered often of what happened to them but was wise enough not to ask about it.
Unable to bare the thought of being sent away from her loving twin brother and parents, Amelia decided to never leave the castle walls. But the castle walls were like sweet treat for a starving person. She stuck with dreaming and hoping for a chance to escape the ever rising stone walls but she knew it would never come. She wanted to see what it really was out like there. To see for herself instead of hearing stories from the lying nobles and rich along with a few books the castle's library never bothered to burn.
The castle walls surround a medium size area, covering a few dozen large mansions that could easily have twenty three families of seven in them. The large castle sat threatening in the middle, as if it was watching the other house to make sure they wouldn't dare even think about crossing it. They would always say that it's better to be in the castle's walls, the outside world was extremely dangerous and filled with evils on the devils work. Amelia didn't believe them, she would pout and resist the urge to roll her eyes, and point out what happened regularly in the court was far dangerous than whatever was outside the castle's walls.
The more she saw the walls when she was a child the more she hated them. They were the only thing stopping her from running as far as her legs could carry her. Her one true desire. As her parents would often say, the walls were there for their protection. Too many things out there wanted to harm them. But they really meant many things out there could harm her. They thought of her as weak and pathetic. In sense it was true, when she was small child, but as she grew older the teasing didn't stop nor did they realize that she was growing to be an incredibly strong young tween. They would often exclude her in activities or leave her the task that a simple minded fool could easily do well at. It infuriated Amelia to the point where she lost her temper, and angrily punched a wall, successfully putting a small hole in the thin stone wall and breaking her hand. There was much gossip going around as the bones in her hand healed.
Her uncle seeing her strength as unrealized potential began training her, in the weapons and in hand to hand combat. By the mere age of fourteen Amelia was a very skilled warrior, due to her quick learning ability. A force even the soldiers didn't want to unleash. But despite this training she received and continued receiving, she grew bored and very much lonely. Her brother was announced the heir on their thirteen birthday. She wasn't bother by this since she didn't even want to be queen in the first place and she knew she would be a terrible queen with her restless recklessness. Since he was the heir he had many more lessons and training to attend than she. The other children and teens were bother either younger or older than she and didn't have much time to play due to their never ending lessons. Normally, Amelia would have sighed and gave into reading a nice book or practice something she hadn't quite mastered yet.
As she grown older the castle's walls grew more and more a temptation, about year ago, she had found secret escape route hidden and forgotten in the wall. She assumed it was added in in case something went terribly wrong and the castle grounds needed to be abandon quickly. She never heard or read about the escape route, she assumed the builders had told the first king to live there but he had forgotten when he had died. It made sense and would explain why there was no records about it in all the two thousand years the wall stand.
She spent the past year exploring the route, as often as she could going as far as she could ever dare to go, a few feet when she started going out, then by current times she went as far as the base of the hill were the castle and the other noble house stood on top. There was villages surround the hill about a hundred feet in each direction. The secret entrance faced the north, making the village of Harksinton the first sight you see. Amelia dreamt of visiting and exploring the village, hoping to make a friend. She didn't venture much farther than the base of the hill, fearful of getting caught and punished by her parents.
Almost a year had passed since she found the secret entrance on accident, by then Amelia had finally picked up enough courage to visit the village. Weeks went by as she completed preparations for the short trip, planning for every detail, a perfect disguise, time and day had to be picked or everything would fall apart and possibly end in a house arrested. Twice within those weeks she had considered not going but knew she would hate herself deeply if she didn't go. Careful not to let anything slip or get caught she completed her preparations the day before the intended day she wanted to go.
The morning of her planned trip her slaughter her nerves, but she managed to act her way through, taking care that her plans weren't discovered. She slipped away unnoticed and slipped on her disguise. She wore some old servant clothes that were going to be tossed weeks ago. She then bind her chest the best she could and tied her hair back. After making sure she had everything. She slipped a cloak over and headed out the secret entrance.