I am utmost sorry guys, for the fact that I could not update. It was file after file that I deleted, trying to find a suitable plot to fit in the last of the story I had written. Hope y'all forgive me! AU fic comin' up!

Warning – Contains a bit of graphic from America and France.

Chapter 2 - Hoc regnum meum (This is my kingdom)

Natalia was tired. Her legs were weak from running too long and were ready to give way and collapse. She wished she could reach somewhere before it became too dark and when the animals began to wander about. But, she did not give up. Running around in circles, did he say? Well this time, she was sure that she was in the right way.

It seemed like forever before Natalia found a small light flickering at the end of the horizon. Hoping to all her spirits that pray that might be from her kingdom, she ran ahead, mustering all her energy and to her extreme relief, she had reached the end of the forest. She tumbled over to the ground, exhausted over running and overwhelmed at her luck. She looked at the light again, which seemed now near in comparison. Concluding it to be from a lantern, Natalia slowly walked towards it.

She strained to realize the place, it seemed oddly familiar. Then it was after a while that she realized that the forest had led to the palace orchard!

She couldn't believe what she was seeing! She had an orchard which led to the forest, and all this time she did not know it even existed. Luck was in favor with her that day, save for the incidents of her being hypnotized by the music of the vampire Spaniard to get lured into the forest and a few bruises she gained while running. She ran forward excitedly and was met by the Palace cook who had been out gathering herbs for the next day's breakfast. The old woman promptly dropped her basket at seeing her.

"Nadezhda, are you alright?" Natalia asked the old woman in concern, who looked as though she had seen a ghost.

The woman looked at her and took some sharp breaths, all the while crying exclamations and shrieks in Ukrainian. Natalia could only understand only half of what she said, and she mentally made it a point that she needed to take more Ukrainian classes with her sister.

"Благослови душа моя! Child, where have you been? Everyone has been looking for you!"

Finally, some English.

Natalia sighed. She was not her friend Michelle who could tell the most amazing stories in short summaries. But, she needed to cook up some story to convince her, and besides, telling her about vampires and her real identity as a were-wolf will only bring panic to her. "It's a long story Nadezhda, you would not understand it even if I tell you. But can you take me to the castle?"

The old woman, even though her expression still remained frightened, nodded her head in understanding. She took the young girl's hands and gently motioned her to follow her. The orchard was a good mile away from the main castle.

"King Pyotr and Queen Izabel are frightened beyond wits at your disappearing," Nadezhda explained while they were proceeding towards the moat of the castle. "The palace guards had been sent everywhere, and there was even chaos erupting from the market at your disappearance. Rumors say that they are actually afraid that you have been kidnapped by the blood-suckers that live in the dark forest."

Well they are not a rumor, it is quite true, Nadezhda...' Natalia mentally said. Quite true, especially if there is a vampire stalker chasing you whose clan is obsessed at taking over the kingdom and if you are the unlucky princess who gets stuck between the states of affairs. And to make it worse, the vampires had started to kill some of her own people to make her unwillingly hand over the kingdom. Some people did disappear and had never returned back after going there.

And all this happened because she held the contract, the contract of kingship to the kingdom of Balticland, and that made her more vulnerable than her siblings. She still did not know why her parents gave it; maybe it was to make her realize that she should be more responsible? Natalia was beyond confused.

She was still at a daze when they reached the shining, bright lights of the palace and when the guard with the silver armor and sword approached them and blocked their way

"Who goes there?" He asked angrily, quite displeased that someone had actually the courage to barge in during so late at the evening. "Ordinary people are not allowed here unless given consent by the king himself."

Nadezhda looked at him angrily. Really, couldn't he recognize the Palace Cook? Or was it just because he couldn't really clearly see at this dim light?

"I suppose I need to add more carrots in your supper, Igor. Your eye-sight is getting worse. It's me Nadezhda." She said, sighing.

Even though it was dark, Nadezhda could make out that within the silence that followed, the man was flushing red. He looked at the old woman for a while and then looked at the girl next to her. He slowly inspected her features from head to foot, and probably showed no signs of recognition as he stared rudely at her. Natalia noticed this and frowned back. Suddenly, as quickly as a bee can fly, when the guard saw Natalia's frown, his expression froze and his mouth widened. He began to stutter and realization fell massively upon him when he realized his reputation was at stake for even looking at the Ice Princess.

"Y….Your m…Majesty! Y… You h…have arrived!"

"Of course I did, you poppy head!" Natalia answered rudely, not at all pleased that he did not recognize her at first. Really, was she that unrecognizable? "I will have to remember to say that you need glasses the first thing when I meet my father, if you are really that poor that you cannot afford one."

The guard laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Then remembering to make amends, he bowed with courtesy and took the young girl's hand respectfully. "Shall I escort you to the King's chambers, milady?"

Natalia still hadn't melted the ice. She still looked at him reproachfully but accepted the offer, muttering a small 'yes'.

"You needn't stay here any longer, Nadezhda," Natalia said gratefully, as she turned towards the old woman and hugged her. "Go back to your family and take care, because we live in dangerous times. Oh, and before you go…."

Natalia grabbed at her small pouch tied firmly to the side of her blue waistband, before taking four gold coins and thrusting it towards the cook's calloused hands. Nadezhda looked at her sadly with a look that said 'I mustn't take it', but Natalia persisted.

"Goodbye Nadezhda, and thank you for your help." She said before she took the guard's hand and headed towards the castle. The old woman looked at her for sometime but smiled, agreeing mentally that the nation was to have only good when the Princess gains power.

Natalia soon entered the enormous castle, and without even a glance towards anywhere besides to the way which was supposed to lead to the King's chambers, she calmly walked, ignoring the astonished and astounded faces at seeing her. Exclamations from the courtiers such as 'It's the princess!', 'Where was she?' and 'How did she come?' were calmly ignored by the girl and continued as if she had just went for a walk and returned. It was the guard who had all the problems. He was getting quite uncomfortable with every single person passing by, giving strange unreadable looks at seeing the Princess. He wished he could just sink into the ground then and there for all.

After a good five minutes passing through the Staircases, Dining Room, Chapel, the Throne Room and her siblings' Chambers, she reached the King's own Private Chamber which was situated at the topmost part of the castle. When she reached there, she looked at the room, contemplating the matter for a while, and coldly regarded the guard.

"Your presence is no longer required, Igor. You may go back."

Igor nodded frightened and then exited the place for fear of his life. Natalia looked at him exit the room, with crossed arms. She then sighed and knocked on the door.

Within seconds, the door opened and a pair of light arms settled upon her shoulder before Natalia could realize what was happening. Realizing it was just her buxom sister, she smiled and returned the hug, squeezing gently.

"Thank goodness you are alright…" Katyusha said, releasing from the hug and inspecting her from head to foot. "And no serious bruises, thank god…."

Natalia smirked. Did her sister really think she was weak and would get hurt so easily? No, she was talking to Natalia Arlovskaya, daughter of King Pyotr Braginski and Queen Izabel Arlovskaya, first-ranker of the Horse riding competitions, expert in battle and knife-throwing, skilled and professional in archery and fastest athlete alive today.

Katyusha then forced opened her sister's eye-lids to check her pupils. This, in fact, irritated Natalia and smacked away her sister's hand angrily from hurting her.

"What is it, Syestra!" She asked, exasperated. "You've been examining me like if I sneaked in some ammunition in the Castle!"

The hurt look on Katyusha made her feel bad at yelling at her. She eased her rage and sighed.

"I am sorry, Natalia. I just thought for a second that maybe that blond, slicked-back haired vampire might've come in disguise as you, to attack us….."

Katyusha said with genuine worry that she may have hurt her sister.

"It's alright. Just don't do that again, it's hurting me…"

Katyusha smiled, when suddenly a beautiful white-haired, dignified woman appeared from behind, her calm yet anxious face melting into a smile when she saw her.

"I presume you've escaped without any major problems, my child?" She asked, and although Natalia was a bit surprised on hearing this, she nodded her head.

"Natalia, we need to talk…. And what Mother has to say is quite serious." Another voice, this time a masculine one, placed a hand over her shoulder lightly. Natalia tilted her head and smiled at her older brother, heir to the kingdom, Ivan. He had a severe face which proclaimed the seriousness in his tone.

The girl nodded. There was something wrong, and if her guess was right, the crisis concerned the vampires and the situation was bad, really bad.

Alfred couldn't stand it anymore. His defeat at the forest was puncturing his ego by the second. After he released himself from the tight grip of the knife, he went back to his clan only to receive a bout of angry replies and rude, unhappy exclamations at his so-called, failed attempt to kidnap Princess Natalia Arlovskaya even after Antonio lured her into the clan, when their success was at the peak. It irritated him to the most and was even worse when Arthur called him and gave him such a ticking off and shouting that he needn't repeat again.

It made him hate the girl even worse.

From then his mind was being pre-occupied by thoughts on how to give the perfect revenge back on Natalia when she surrendered. Everyone was giving rude angry looks at him, even his ex-girlfriend Alice*. With his anger and hatred increasing by the second, he decided to relieve his tension somewhere no-one would find him. Looking up, he saw the highest point of the fort of his kingdom, and he decided that it was an ideal place. Making no second thoughts, he ran as fast as he could to the place, and climbed the largest turret. He sat down with one leg hanging down, looking on the vast and thick forest in front of him and the flickering shining lights of the utopian Baltic Land on the very end. He sighed angrily. He needed to win, and win soon. With only his trusty lighter to keep him company, he flicked it open and began playing with it by repeating the action of opening and closing. But he was not caught up with that, as his mind was preoccupied by formulating a plan for the attack. He wanted to let everyone realize that he was the real hero and the bravest warrior in his clan. He wanted Arthur to knight him and give him power. And finally, he wanted to show the stubborn Belarusian Princess who's superior and what happens when you mess with him.

His eyes glazed with pleasure with the thoughts, and that increased his rapid flicking of the lighter. He smiled evilly and began to give out a small chuckle when suddenly,

"You will ruin that lighter, mon ame…." A voice came from behind Alfred who was converged with the lighter. Not paying heed to the warning, Alfred frowned but did not cease his flicking. That voice was all-too-familiar for him but he preferred he stayed out of his way. Why? Because he was such a frog and unnecessarily poked his nose into other people's matters.

"What do you want, Francis?" He asked a bit angrily, never once looking behind to face the newcomer. That night, he was a bit more irritated, and wanted some time to himself.

Francis just smiled. He calmly came forward and sat down near Alfred, who suspiciously eyed the man. Francis just looked forward onto the scenery in front of him and with a calm face, asked, "I heard that young Princess had overcome you. Is it true? That the fastest athlete in our clan has been defeated by a mere human?"

He chuckled lightly. Alfred swore he felt his nerve rise and clenched his fists. 'Control, control.' He said mentally, chanting it like a mantra to stop himself from blowing up.

But that's not it. Princess Natalia was a rare diamond. She was stubborn as she was pretty. Like hell pretty. She was spoiled but held patriotism to her nation and her people. She was cold-blooded and murderous, but only to the people she hated. She was tomboyish and wild but deep down; she was just like the Cinderella of his dreams. And that's why Alfred was obsessed and infatuated with her. He wanted to claim the girl as his own. Her silk-soft flowing hair, her slender yet agile body, her luscious small pink lips, those violet eyes in which he could drown in if he looked at for more than 5 seconds, and those were all just the starters. And her perfectly sculpted figure, her inviting neck with which he restrained to bite into….

"Yes, that little Werewolf Princess is indeed beautiful." Francis agreed.

Alfred couldn't stand it anymore. In a flash of a second, he pinned the man next to him down with a resounding 'Thud'. Francis touched his back of the head softly, wincing at the pain, but Alfred held onto his grip. His angry, now-red eyes scared the man intensely.

"Fuck your mind-reading skills, Francis Bonnefoy! If you plan on taking advantage of my failure by going towards Arthur and saying that you'll indeed capture the kingdom but want MY reward, I'm sorry, but you're going to get a lot of bad days after."

Francis was surprised but then smiled his cocky grin, irritating the younger vampire even more. He brought his hands towards his chest as if to say 'Peace!' and Alfred, although hesitantly, released him.

"It's not what you think, Mon chere." Francis said, wiping the dusts off his shirt and trousers that had gathered, smiling. "She's a prize catch, but no, I am more interested in her sister."

Alfred faced Francis with a confused look. "What do you mean?"

Francis chuckled. He took Alfred's lighter in his hand and tossed it in the air, before catching it with a haughty look in his face.

"Did you know that little girls, no matter how rebellious they are, always cower away from the enemy in fear if they have their sister and they threaten to kill her?"

The young blonde's eyebrows' furrowed as soon as he heard this. Seemed like a risky thing to do, especially with that pipe-armed brother and the knife-wielding sister around, ready to shred them into pieces whenever they set their eyes on them. Besides, didn't Natalia remind him that she too was a werewolf?

"I am not so sure about that, Francis." Alfred said in a serious tone, "Yekaterina Braginski is also a werewolf, and besides that she always has her sister of a warrior around her…"

"Oh but you know that she is the most vulnerable when she has no-one around her." Francis interrupted. "Some say that she has a heart of a lamb, will never hurt anyone and is a bit of a crybaby. And besides that, her werewolf powers are just for namesake, she had never the courage to use them even once. It will be easy as flicking on the lighter. And after we kidnap her, Arlovskaya will be forced to sign the contract, and after that, Baltic nation would be…"

Francis flicked open the lighter and showed it at the tip of a dry branch at the fir tree near by. Gradually, it began to catch fire and within seconds, the fire began to spread to the whole of the branch. After great flames receded down, and when the charred, burnt remains of the plant was all that was left, Francis turned to Alfred to see his reaction.

Alfred's smug face twisted into an evil smile, acknowledging their accomplishment of a successful plan to get the contract signed. 'Very soon Natalia, you are going to be mine.'

Francis smiled along with him. Bumping fists and shaking hands, they formed a truced partnership and an equal deal with one getting their girl after Natalia signed the contract and after they received the kingdom.

"So, our aim is to kidnap Yekaterina, is it not Mon chere?"

"Yes, but when?"

"We will think of a time, but first, let us keep our meetings personal and secret. It is most important that we make sure Baltic land will be ours and that Natalia cannot come and interfere us, is it not?"

"Yes. Yes it is."

*Alice - Belgium. Yeah I got this idea from a friend of mine, who is writing an England/Seychelles/France love triangle story. You should go and check it out. Makes sense because she looks like Alice Margatroid of Touhou.

Cheerio, Updates and Reviews are like Maple Syrup~