Princess Faith Montgummrey was coming in from her morning ride on Pixie. Pixie was a beautiful beige horse with a white main and tail. Faith knew that Jack one of the servants, and a good friend, would be waiting for her so she put Pixie into a gallop and charged into the stable to scare him.  Sure enough, she accomplished her task.

"My Lady one of these days I will tell the Queen about ruckus you create."

"And today is not that day" replied Faith

"No, but tomorrow might be"

"Jack, you know as well as I that you never tell my mother about the things I do."

'And how do you know that' Jack thought sarcastically.

"Have you forgotten the fact that I know what you're thinking, I can read people's mind."

"My Lady, how can I forget such a unique gift, and it still scares the hell out of me"

"You should be used to it by now Jack, I mea after sixteen years-"

 "I know you have had the gift since you were born." Jack interrupted. "I could tell right when I first saw you from the look in your eye that you carried such a gift."

"Princess Faith," said an old women standing in the doorway "the Queen wishes to see you now"

"Thank you Sara," the princess told her mother's servant "I will be there shortly." She waited until Sara was gone then she hit Jack on the arm then yelled bye as she ran out of the stable.

On the way to meet her mother, Princess Faith noticed that her oldest brother, Conrad was headed the same way. She also noticed that his best friend Prince Adrian Krippen was also with him.  Adrian and Faith had never really gotten along. They were always arguing when ever they were forced to have a conversation. The only thing that they really had in common was that they were both being forced into an arranged marriage. Unfortunately it was to each other. Faith gave Adrian a polite nod, then asked Conrad if there mom had asked to see him ass well.

"Actually, dad did."

"Why is he coming?" Faith asked, pointing to Adrian.

"I don't know, dad's servant said that he wanted to see Adrian as well. Maybe it has to do with your wedding"

"Shut up!" Adrian and Faith yelled at the same time to a laughing Conrad.

"I'm just stating the obvious" laughed Conrad.

"Well the obvious is not wanted" said Faith sternly.

"Lighten up faith going to have to start talking about it some time, and you're going to have to learn to how to like Adrian"

"Conrad, enough already, you're worse than my parents"

            As Faith entered the family room with Conrad and Adrian she found that her little sister, Liath, and her little brother, Malcolm were already in the room sitting in between her parents.

"Hello Mom, Dad," greeted Faith. As she gave her little sister a hug, Liath made Faith look into her green eyes then thought 'there's something wrong with dad.' Faith gave Liath a little nod t tell her that she got the message.

"Why did you call us?" asked Conrad.

            Faith had to agree with Liath that something was wrong, because her father kept repeating the same thing in his mind.  'How can Sam be alive?' She figured that Sam was short for Samuel, but the only Samuel she had heard of was Prince Samuel Krippen, Adrian's older brother. Though he had gone missing the day Gabriel Krippen died, twenty years ago.  Could he be the Sam that King Sullivan was thinking about? Faith would have asked her father about it, but the only people who knew about her gift was Jack, Liath and Conrad. She didn't want her parents to know about her gift, so she kept her mouth shut and decided to talk to Conrad about it later.

"Prince Adrian will be staying with us for the next few weeks," the Queen said, answering Conrad's Question. "There was a situation in which King and Queen Krippen needed to attend to"

 "Does this have anything to do with the marriage?" said Conrad, with a somewhat strange smile on his lips

"No Conrad, it doesn't. Though it wouldn't be a bad idea for Faith to take this opportunity to get to know Prince Adrian"

"I've known Prince Adrian for sixteen years, and that is long enough to know that I don't want to marry him," said Faith wishing that Conrad could have kept his mouth shut.

Faith knew how much her mother wanted this marriage to work out. She read it in her mind.

Prince Adrian, who had stayed exceptionally quiet so far, finally voiced the question that all the children had been thinking. "What was the situation they had to attend to?"

"They heard some rumors, and they went to go see if they were true, there might be some commotion up at your palace, so they asked that you stay here for a few more weeks until they return and can have a talk with you."

"Your Majesty, I don't suppose your going to tell me what those rumors are?" asked Adrian

  "No, I'm not going to tell what those rumors are, but I am going to tell you, hopefully for the last time, that you call me Sullivan."

"Yes, you're Majesty. I mean Sullivan"

"Now that's better" said the kind with a laugh.

Adrian looked over at Faith to see that she was laughing. As she laughed he noticed how beautiful she looked with her long red hair and green eyes and how her lips just slightly tilted upward when she laughed. He had never noticed this before. As these thoughts came to his head she stopped laughing and turned to him with what looked like a frighten look on her face. It was like she had been able to read his thoughts. He shook the thought from his head and turned away, going back t the thoughts of his parents.

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This takes place 20 year after Prince Gabriel's death. Conrad and Adrian are 18; Faith is 16; Liath (lee-ah) is 9 and Malcolm is 5. Please review