(A/N Disclaimer: This is a fan fic. That means I'm not the real owner of these people. If you don't recognize it, it's probably mine, other wise it belongs to Gail Carson Levine. Anyway, not much is known about Cecilia, so I decided to right a fic about her. Please REVIEW!!!!)

I always considered myself the lucky one. I got all the fame, fortune, and fun without the work. My brother did the work of course, but he still thought he got the better end of the deal, probably because he was higher up on the food chain, and had more power and fun (not that my life was a bore.) The good thing about this was that he completely adored me. (Now don't get me wrong. I completely adored him too, and I didn't use him and his power because he was crown prince.) That's right, crown prince. That of course made me the second in line for the throne, unless he got married and had a child of his own. And that's exactly what he did. He made quite the scene over it too. (His wife had quite the sob story if you were into that sort of thing. I wasn't, and she didn't ever tell it because she wasn't the type to sit and mope either.)

Now about a year or two after he went and got hitched, our father, His Royal Majesty, King Jerrold, went and kicked the can making my brother, Prince Charmont, the new king of Kyrria. His death didn't matter much to me though. Of course I missed him. He was my father, even if I only saw him once or twice a day, and when I did see him, it was only for a minute.

So anyway, the worry of taking of the country if my brother died was now out of my mind. If my brother would have abdicated the throne, I don't think I could have taken over the country. I had been taught since the day I was born that I was second in line. He would get the throne, then his son, and his son's son. I didn't have to learn to rule a country. It would be easier just to give the throne to the Prime Minister. The lineage of the throne was protected though. His wife, Ella, had already delivered the new Crown Prince, Edward, and unless she had been eating a lot more lately, she was definitely pregnant again.

A week later her pregnancy was announced at a Royal Ball. I was proclaimed the soon to be caretaker of the child, as I was of Edward. (Of course, this doesn't mean that I would be the caretaker. It simply means that if anything happened to my brother and his wife, I would take care of their children, and help Edward rule the country, until they were old enough to make correct decisions on their own.) This is where my tale takes us now.

*~*

"Cecilia, wait up for me!" my brother called from behind me. Not Char as you might think. It was Edmund, my youngest brother, only of age seven.

(A/N on page 84, Char writes a letter to his father saying that he is well, and so are his mother, sister, and brothers. I decided to include that fact in my stories. I'm also assuming that Ella was sixteen when she married Char, making Char eighteen since he was two years older then her, and also putting Cecilia at sixteen since Char was two years older then her too. Now that it has been two years, Ella is eighteen, Char is twenty, and Cecilia is supposed to be eighteen. I decided I wanted her seventeen in this story though. So just pretend she's supposed to be seventeen…)

"Yes, Dear?" I asked patiently. I always tried to be sweet with this brother of mine. He was sort of an accident. He was by far the youngest of the four of us Royal children, born ten years after James was, and hadn't had as many playmates as the rest of us did. Not because he was hard to like though. Char, James, and I always had our own friends, each other, and each other's friends since we were so close in age. Edmund didn't.

"James said that you would take me to see the Royal Gardens today since he is out sporting with his friends," he said sweetly, his innocent baby face looking up at me. He was still a little chubby from being a baby, not to mention the fact that he was spoiled rotten with candy from his nurses.

"I would love to take you, sweet, but I have to attended to other matters." I said. I didn't really have much else to do, but I had already been to the Royal Gardens three times that week, and frankly, I was sick of them.

"Please?" he asked, starting to take on a whiny tone in his voice that annoyed me to bits.

"Fine," I sighed, giving in. I really hated giving in.

We made our way down to the Gardens with out any real incidents that I should bother mentioning, (there was a little incident involving two scullery maids, and white cake, and us running through the halls, but that doesn't pertain to this.)

My brother immediately headed towards the fountain to sail his boat. It's the only reason he ever came down to the gardens; he never came for the beauty of the flowers like I did. Don't get me wrong, I spent most of my childhood splashing in the fountain, but my tastes had matured as I had.

I chose a stone bench near the fountain where I could still keep an eye on him, but enjoy the beauty of the rose bushes across the walk. I sat there waiting for Edmund to get bored or end up sinking his ship. I hadn't waited long when he came bounding over to me disturbing my peace in progress.

"We can go to the Menagerie, too right?" he asked hopeful, "I want to see the aminals."

"Sure thing hon," I said, deciding a walk outside of the palace grounds would be pleasant. "And by the way, they're animals, not aminals."

"That's what I said, aminals."

"Of course dear," I said humoring him. I didn't want to bother tonight. The sky was crystal clear and promising a good sunset. I could watch it while he chased after the centaurs and tried to get close enough to one for a ride.

Learning from experience, I took one of Edmund's nurses with us. Not only did he posses the ability to escape my grasp, but he often got tired and wanted to go to the palace, or would pester be relentlessly by trying to bed sweets off of me.

The sun was barely have down when Edmund got tired and wanted to back home as I had predicted. He took his nurse with him. I was now all alone. Since I was no longer prominently in line for the throne, I didn't have a personal guard. There were tons of guards posted around the area anyway. And it wasn't like they ever didn't go with me anyway. I always had a guard or two trailing me.

The sun slowly crept below the horizon. It was definently the prettiest sunset I had ever seen. Sort of. All sunsets here were beautiful. That's why the castles were built here in the first place. My Great-Great-Great-Grandmother had a thing for sunsets. While she was traveling through this little town of Frell, she saw the sunset and never wanted to leave. Her husband, (my Great-Great-Great-Grandfather) couldn't resist her, so he ordered a castle to be built here. The Royal family spent their time here ever since.

Once the sun had set, and twilight had past, I decided to head back. The guards were already lighting torches and preparing for the Changing of the Guard. I was heading back when a poultry cart drove in front of me, cutting me off, and splashing my gown with mud.

"Renegade Chicken People," I muttered to my self as I tried my best to wipe off my gown with a handkerchief. I ended up smearing it more. I tried to cross the busy street, but found all the merchants and traders clogging the road. I opted for a short cut. I turned around and wove through the people rushing home to their little lives. With mud staining my gown, most of the people didn't recognize me as their sovereign. I cut through side streets trying to keep the castle in view. Somehow, in the midst of the 'rush hour' I got completely lost. I was stuck in the middle of a strange community of houses and having no where to go.

"Miss?" a voice said from behind me.

I whirled around, praying it was someone who could help me back to the castle, or at least point me in the right direction. In the worst case scenario, it was a pickpocket or a thief who would hinder me even more. Fortunately, luck was on my side. He was a palace guard.

"Miss?" he said again, "I do believe His Majesty the King would not appreciate his sister wandering around town in the middle of the night."

"Yes, sir." I said, feeling the fool. I decided I would work on my direction skill when I got back to the castle, (after I had a good long soak in a bath, of course.) We took up course in walking towards the palace, or at least the direction he pointed us in. I was started to wonder what exactly he had been doing all the way out here. I decided to use subtly and tact to figure out why.

"Why were you out here?" I asked bluntly. I never was one for subtly and tact. "Aren't you supposed to be at the palace?"

He simply grinned at this.

"Now why are you smiling?" I demanded. He was staring to get on my nerves. What if he wasn't really trying to help me? What if this was all some evil ploy? I considered taking off in the other direction as fast as I could, but I decided that wasn't the best idea. If he really was a palace guard, then I could get home by sticking with him. If he wasn't I would still be someplace other then a strange part of town lost, alone, and rather cold now that the sun had gone down, and that seemed better then this.

"Yes," he said, "I am supposed to be at the palace, but I'm seem to spend more time chasing silly girls all around town."

I blushed at this. The guards did follow me where I went, and they were supposed to help if I ever needed anything, but his ridicule was a bit much. My reaction to his comment simply made his grin widen.

The silence gave me a perfect chance to study my companion. He was young; probably the age of my eldest brother, Char, and like Char he had rather swarthy skin, more then likely from spending his days in the sun. His chestnut eyes match his hair perfectly, giving him a cabalistic and comely look. He still had a smile on his face; it was as though he never went with out one.

I had never been one to go long with out talking, and the silence between us was starting to get awkward.

"So," I began, trying to fall into conversation with him, "How'd you get into being a castle guard?"

"My father wanted me to be a knight. My mother didn't. Somehow, they compromised on palace guard. What my mother doesn't know is I'm in training to be a knight. Knights have to serve as a palace guard for two years before they're allowed to finish training as a knight." He said.

Our kingdom was small enough that there weren't enough nobles that wanted to be knighted, so we let all men, rich enough to pay the training and such, try to become a knight. That was no easy task. I knew from my older brother, (who never stopped talking about knights and fighting, and swords) that being a guard took money to become one. Think of all the equipment and the horses, lodging, and training.

Once you got past the financial part there was still the actual training part. Many, many, knights had died in training. Others were crippled, and some just couldn't keep up with all of the work. Then there was the knowledge part. They studied everything. From battles, to healing, they cover it. Once you make it through this, you become a castle guard. If you do well during your two-year term, you are sort-of a knight in training. You travel around doing knightly sort of things. Once you do something real good, like slaying and ogre, you finally get knighted. Let me say again, it is no easy task.

"So," I continue, "Is it living up to your expectations?"

"Being a guard? Or training for a knight?" he asked, his eyes glancing at me before looking back to the path we were on.

"Both." I replied. The castle still wasn't in sight. I probably had a while for conversation.

"Well," he began, his grin coming back, "I didn't know I would be about the city like I am-"

"It's not my fault!" I put in with a pouting-sort of tone. How was I supposed to know there wasn't a shortcut to the castle?

"But the training is rather hard." He finished, ignoring my last comment.

I snorted at this. He had said it like I had expected it to be the easiest thing in the world. Some men could be real egotistical at times.

"So after you become a knight, what do you plan on doing?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I'll figure that out then."

"You don't know?" I repeated appalled, "You're just going to wander around without a purpose of direction? You should really figure out what you are going to do with your life. Aren't you at least going to buy a house? Or get married?" I lectured; people who never think ahead bother me.

He stopped dead, and turned to face me. "You really need to stop asking so many questions," he said sounding extremely annoyed, "And no, I do not know what I'm going to do, I'll figure it out when I become a knight, of course I'm going to buy a house, and if all women are like you, then I'm not going to get married!" By the end of this sentence, he was almost yelling.

"It was just a simple question." I said quietly, turning away from him and walking towards the castle which was now very much in sight. Char and James used to always tell me I talked too much. Then they realized no matter what they said I would still talk a lot, so they refrained from saying that in the future.

"Your Highness," he said coming up behind me, "I did not mean to offend you in any way. I—I just meant that I'm still getting a hold on this whole becoming a knight thing, and I don't know where it's going to take me."

"Apology accepted, and you can call me Cecilia," I said. "Since you've already called me everything else under the sun." I added darkly.

"Your Hi- Cecilia, come off it already would you?"

"What do you mean come off of it?" I asked. Here I was bickering endlessly with a man I didn't even know the name of.

"You know what I mean," he retorted, "You're acting as though I'm an ogre!"

"Perhaps because you are acting like an ogre!" I said furiously back at him.

"No, I'm not!" he yelled back, "You're the one saying awful things about other people!"

At this time we had arrived back at the castle and were standing at the gates. I couldn't let him remember me as a total prat, I was his sovereign.

"Well, I thank you for escorting me home Sir-?" I realized I didn't even know his name.

"Thomas," he replied gruffly.

"Well then I thank you Sir Thomas for bringing me back, even if you were rude and-" I stated, getting cutoff by Thomas.

"I was not rude." He said slowly through gritted teeth. "You're the ingrateful wench." He stated coldly. "And not what I would have expected from a princess. You're just a silly girl." With this he turned and walked away, leaving me at the castle gate. I turned around in a huff.

With any luck, I would never see this Sir Thomas again. I had no luck at all.

(A/N Yea!!! My first chapter!!!!! Please click that little button down there on the left and review. Anyway, this, being my first ever Ella fic, I don't have people to thank. L I'll live though…

About the plot. It's NOT going to be a love/hate thing where they finally realize their love and get married and crap. Not that I'm ruling romance out though, I'm just writing so many of those right now, that I decided it would be best to add something else to the plot. You'll see what that is later…

Once again, PLEASE REVIEW!!! I don't know how good or bad this is…)