Wassap? Before we begin, I would like to thank my reviewers, for always reviewing, skatergurl95, for being an ever patient ear when it comes to this story, and my beta, Animestar73. this story would be a lot worse if not for you!
It was past midnight. The stars shone in the night sky, and the moonlight gave a ghostly glow to all it touched. Rose looked out across the empty training field. Girl or no, she hadn't expected to make it to sergeant. She had been surprised when she had made it to corporal! But sergeant…
She sighed. Her parents had probably sent out a search party. Her best bet was probably to walk into her closet and to fall asleep, pretending to have been there all along. The royal guard were a really unintelligent bunch, and they would believe that she had been overlooked. The trick was to make it look like you could be overlooked.
Sergeant Bri…
She grinned. It had a certain ring to it. A sergeant, though…
Ha! All of those sexist pigs in the royal court would have to listen now! But if she was to tell them, then they would take her out of the army. It might be a better idea to wait until she was more widely known.
She looked around the camp. It might be in her best interests to get moving now. With a small jump, she grabbed on to the lowest branch on the tree above her, and swung herself up in to the tree and climbed up as far as she could go with out the tree bending. She deftly threw herself to the next tree, landing so gently that the tree barely rustled. Anyone watching would have put its small movement down to wind.
Within minutes, the castle was in sight, its tall turrets coming into sight first, and then gradually the rest of it appeared.
It was a splendid castle, but it gave the impression of being big rather than actually being big, like somebody short can fool you into thinking they're taller. On the inside though, it was very beautiful. Her mother had a thing for colours and now the castle was bright and vibrant instead of being cold and dull like it once had been. There were scarlet's everywhere, leafy greens, buttercup yellow, lavender and here and there you would see a beautiful bronze. The only place that her mother had been forbidden from ever touching again was the great hall. It was still a horrible mustard yellow, although the queen had once attempted to paint it deep red before her husband noticed. She got halfway across one wall before she was caught.
Rose got to the edge of the forest, stealthily climbed down from the tree, crawled across the grass and peered cautiously through the hedges. Just as she had suspected, her mother had doubled the number of guards outside the west entrance. She cursed. The only magic she could do now to avoid them was known only as 'the shadow walker'. She sighed. It was a very advanced piece of magic and if she failed to weave it just right, then she would drain all of her magic and collapse. Well, collapse if she was lucky.
She closed her eyes and began to weave her delicate strands of magic around herself. When she had finished, she was almost invisible. All that existed of her, was an entity almost entirely made out of shadow. If she came to a stop and stood completely still, you'd never see her.
James stood outside the palace on watch. They were told to keep an eye out for the princess, but so far, she hadn't showed up. The grounds were completely silent, except for the odd pair of guards on patrol. Sooner or later, she had to come back. As he watched the grounds, some movement caught his eye. Just across the path, something shadow-like way moving towards the entrance. It was only visible if you didn't look directly at it though, which was probably why nobody else seemed to have noticed it. It was almost invisible. And then the thing disappeared under a bush and melted into the shadows, making it completely invisible. He shook his head and muttered something about needing to go to bed. There was no way that he would come out here again at night, even if he was on overtime.
The next morning, Rose crawled out of her closet, bleary eyed and yawning, and was 'surprised' when she saw two guards standing outside her room.
"What are you two doing in here?" she asked, a surprised look plastered on her face.
"We were guarding your room so that we could inform the queen when we found you. And now, if you excuse me, Your Highness, I must go and find your mother." The guard bowed and quickly exited the room.
She sat on the bed. "I really don't know what happened!" she said to the remaining guard. "I mean, I was just looking for a dress of mine inside of my closet, I got tired and I think I must have fallen asleep. I was using my cloak for a duvet and one of my dresses as a pillow when I woke up."
He nodded. "That may be why we did not find you when we searched your closet, Your Highness. Her Majesty got worried when you did not show up for dinner."
"Oh. I was just tired. I suppose I-," Rose started to say, but was interrupted by her mother, who had just come through the door.
"Wherewere you? I was so worried!" she embraced Rose, and Rose felt a small tendril of guilt curl around her mind. "Everything happened yesterday. You disappeared, we hired a new guard, one of the guests choked on an olive pip and a neighbouring country has declared war on us."
"What? Which country?"
"Palindor. Apparently, we have some land which belongs to them so they're going to attack us if we do not hand it over."
"Well? Are we going to hand it over, or risk open war?"
"I checked the archives. We've owned that land as far back as we can trace it. The Palindrian King is just trying to blackmail us. We shall stand our ground."
"I see. So we shall have to employ our army?" Rose hesitated for a moment. "Including those in the training camps?"
The queen nodded. "Your father will have to go with them as well, to lead the troops."
"Oh." She nodded. "Mother, I'm going for a walk in a few minutes. Just so that you know."
Her mother grinned, and the smile on Rose's face slowly slid off. When her mother smiled like that, that meant that she had thought up something that would make life a little more difficult for Rose.
"I want you to take a guard with you. He will stick to you, as you will stick to him, like glue. Understood?"
Rose nodded weakly. She would lose him among the branches of the forest later on, but he might be difficult to shake off. Her mother smiled that same mad, gleeful smile.
"Good." She turned around and called for someone just outside Rose's bedroom and then came back in, trailing the poor guard behind her. "This will be your new guard. Right! Now that that's sorted out, I'm going down to talk to your father." With a smile, and a small wave, she walked out of Rose's bedroom, her dress trailing behind her. Rose turned to the Guard and plastered a smile on her face. What ever she did, she had to act calm! She had to pretend that she didn't know him.
"Hello. I assume you already know me?" she said with a hint of a smile. "I'm afraid, I haven't heard your name yet." As if she didn't know.
He bowed gracefully and said, "My apologies, Your Highness. My name is Darian."
Haha! I'll bet that you saw that one coming! If not, then maybe, I'm getting better at this element of surprise thing after all. Lol. Please review, people! I love hearing what you think! And, as Thai Libra will tell you, I answer them back personally. Or at least, I try to.
So…
Please review! i will give you Cyber-Cookies if you do!
