Author's Note: This is the first chapter of Part I, introducing Violet Wakefield. Chapters 1-4 will concentrate on this character.
Six-year-old Violet Wakefield sat alone in an oversized chair in the palace library, reading a book she had pulled off one of the lower shelves. Suddenly, she slammed it shut.
"Eeww! Mushy stuff!" Violet exclaimed. "Why did they have to kiss? It was good until then!" With a snort, she reopened the volume and hunted for another, better story.
A few moments later, someone walked up behind her. "What book are you reading, Flower?" her mother, Queen Ariana of Yavinia, asked.
"Mommy! You scared me!" Violet said, jumping a little in her seat and dropping her book on the floor, having become engrossed in a different tale.
"An old cow like me?" the queen joked. Ariana was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her second child, and often joked around about how big she was.
Violet studied her mother for a moment, squinting her eyes as she had seen adults do when they studied something. Slowly and seriously, she said, "Mommy, you can't be a cow. You don't make 'moo' sounds, and you aren't black and white. I know: I've seen holo…holo…" she trailed off, not remembering the word.
"Do you mean holograms, Flower?"
"Yes! I've seen…holograms…of them before."
Queen Ariana laughed outright at her daughter's serious observation. "Right you are. It's called a figure of speech."
Violet looked at her mother, puzzled.
"You'll learn about those when you get older." Ariana cumbersomely leaned over to retrieve the book the young princess had dropped. "Hmm…Tales from History," she read. "Which one were you reading?"
"The one with my name on it."
Ariana chuckled. "You mean The Wakefield Legend?"
"See? It has my name on it!"
"It certainly does," she replied, smiling. "You see, it's about your ancestors."
Violet frowned. "Mommy, what are an-sess-ters?"
"They are people like your grandparents' parents, and so on. They lived a long time ago, and you are related to them in some way."
"Oh," she answered, not quite understanding. "How long ago was this story, Mommy?"
"Over a hundred years ago."
The princess' eyes widened. "That's a long time!"
"It sure is, to someone young like you."
Violet paused for a moment before asking, "The man in the story had a tail. Was it like mine?"
Queen Ariana beamed, pleased that her young daughter had made the connection. "Yes. In fact, it is because of him that you have that tail. You know, that tail of yours is going to have a large impact on your life."
Before her daughter could reply, someone came scurrying into the room. "Your Majesty! You shouldn't be up and about!" Sara, the queen's fussy maid, scolded her. "You're too close to your time for that! I've been looking all over for you!"
The queen opened her mouth to tell her maid that she was just fine when a sharp wave of pain gripped her abdomen. She sat down abruptly. "Well, Sara, for once you're right," she said, smiling affectionately.
The older woman looked pleased for a moment, then frowned. "What do you mean, for once?"
"I do believe I just experienced my first contraction."
Sara gasped, all thoughts of banter forgotten. "How far along are you?"
"Oh, this was just the first--" Before Ariana could finish her sentence, Sara had dashed out of the room to the nearest comm unit to notify the palace physician.
"Are you okay, Mommy?" Violet asked, her small eyes wide with anxiety.
"I will be in a few hours, I hope. You should have a baby brother soon. Go find your daddy, for me, please, Flower. He will certainly want to be here quickly."
The princess hesitated for a moment, then ran off to obey. Running quickly through the thickly carpeted hallway, she turned a corner and collided into someone as she ran. She began to fall backwards and would have hit the ground hard if strong arms had not caught her.
"Now, what's Daddy's Flower doing dashing through the halls like that?" King Ryo asked his daughter, laughing as he picked her up.
"Mommy told me to find you. She said that I'm going to have a baby brother soon."
"Now?" he asked in disbelief.
Violet nodded.
Nearly dropping the girl in shock, the king barely remembered to ask his daughter where her mother was before he too dashed through the halls, backtracking Violet's route to the library.
When they got there, Ariana was nowhere to be seen.
Sara came up to them breathlessly. "We moved her up to the medical wing, your Majesty. She asked me to tell you to hurry. If your son comes as quickly as your daughter did…" the maid trailed off as Ryo, still carrying Violet, quickly headed up the stairs toward the medical facility.
***
Seven long hours later, Prince Cass was born. The king and princess had to be shooed from the birthing room for most of the time because they were more nervous than the queen herself. Sara let them in later, and Ryo held his daughter up to the bed so she could see her new brother.
"He's so…little…and red…and scrunched up," she said critically.
The tired queen and her wired king laughed. "Just wait, Flower. He'll grow up, just like you have," her mother said.
Violet looked at him more closely. "Does he have a tail too?"
Ryo's head shot up at her question.
Ariana answered, after a moment, "Yes."
"They both do?" he asked incredulously. "What are we going to do with them?"
Violet eyed her father with new interest. "What does my tail do?"
"Uh, well…"
"Ryo, you might as well tell her now. I need to rest, too, so it'll keep you both out of my hair," she teased affectionately.
"Okay, dear," he said, gave her a quick kiss, and led Violet out of the room. They walked down to the library, back to where Violet had been reading hours before. The king sat his daughter down on his lap and began his story.
Violet interrupted him after a moment. "Daddy, I read that story."
"You did?"
"Yeah, right before Mommy sent me to get you."
"Oh, okay. Well, then, do you know what having a tail does?"
"No."
"It gives you powers that hardly anyone else has."
"It does?"
"Yes, but you need to learn how to harness those powers in order to use them properly."
"I want to use them to make Yavinia better, then."
Ryo laughed. "That's my good Flower," he said with a smile.
Violet sat there thinking for a moment. "So…was the girl they were talking about at the end of the story…is that me?"
Ryo paused, not sure how to answer her question. "I think so, but I'm not sure."
"Oh," she replied, her tone serious. "When do I get to learn how to use these…powers?"
"Later, dear, later."