Warrior Princess

Lemme put it to you this way; there's no way around it. I'm a princess. Woo-hoo. Yeah, all the riches I could hope for and so much adoration and fame. Ain't it grand?
Not. No seriously, you try living a life where everyone knows what you're doing and when. I'm serious! It was unbelievably hard to even get five minutes alone without someone coming to make sure I was alright. That I didn't need anything or that a servant hadn't been ignorant and misunderstood what I actually meant. I'm pretty sure "Go away. I want to be alone," is universal. I mean, seriously.

Alright. Now that I got that off my chest. I'm Punk Shock. Not a very princess-y name, huh? That's because it's not my birth name. And no, I don't care to give it away. A girl's gotta have her secrets after all and you're about to get my life story. Let me have just that one, deal?

Alright. It all started back when I was maybe four. I knew even then that the life I had wasn't the life I wanted. I know, you've heard something similar to it before. I'm not the first princess to go rogue and try to be a normal girl. And I certainly won't be the last. Though I do get the romanticized version so many others are in love with. Who wouldn't want their Prince Charming to sweep them off their feet and make all the bad things go away? The reality of it isn't that cotton candy, sugar sweet. I should know.

My parents didn't get married because they loved one another. They got married because their parents saw it as a politically beneficial move. The truth is my folks could barely stand one another. Seriously. They don't even sleep in the same room. It was a miracle I was even born but of course every kingdom needs an heir. I will say this for my parents: at least they weren't all uppity about getting a daughter instead of a son.

That was the beginning of it. My parents loved me but they didn't love each other. As a kid that really messes with your head and gives you the wrong idea about how it is to be a grownup. I was always with Mom or Dad. Never Mom AND Dad. I honestly thought for the longest time that boys and girls weren't supposed to be together. Ever. Nevermind the fact I was a girl and my Dad wasn't. Hey, I was a kid. Logic didn't quite factor into it yet.

Don't get me wrong. I did ask them why we couldn't all be together. I had fun with Mom and I had fun with Dad. I wanted us all to have fun together. They always told me that the other was busy or something and just couldn't manage it. That held up for a while. I bought it and accepted it. Until I was eight.

It was on my eighth birthday, actually. I had just finished opening the gift from my father, Mother's had been earlier, when he was called away for an emergency meeting. I couldn't find Mother when I went looking for her so I got adventurous. What could I do? I was left alone in a giant castle and didn't have anything to occupy me. I got jewelry for my birthday so it wasn't like I had new toys to occupy myself with.
My adventurous streak ultimately lead to sneaking out of the castle. I had been out once or twice before when my Father or Mother took me with them on an errand. But I saw the opportunity to explore on my own. Everyone knew who I was; I figured if I got lost someone would bring me back because that was the right thing to do.

Eight year old logic aside, I set out. I walked right through the front door at that. Usually there were guards present and I didn't even think about it twice when I saw none. I just left. Walked down the steps, passed the gate and entered the city proper.
Now, when you're eight buildings still hold a lot of wonder and awe. Looking back on it now it was so funny how fascinated I was with the shop fronts. To see all the people inside, looking at so many strange and wondrous items. I didn't care that they were ordinary objects; they weren't like anything we had in the castle and therefore they were exotic. I still laugh every time I see belts displayed or cheap shoes.

But yeah, that's not the point of this memory. The point is for the first time without one of my parents to tell me not to stare at this and to keep my eyes straight ahead I saw families. Mothers and fathers with their children; sons and daughters alike. They were everywhere. I saw children on their father's shoulders and I saw children holding the hand of each parent at the same time. More I saw fathers kiss the mothers and saw them all laugh and share things together. I saw parents hug. I saw parents together. I had never seen mine like that. It made me wonder if something was wrong with mine. If maybe something was wrong with me. Mainly I was jealous. I was the princess, how come those common kids had something I didn't? It wasn't fair. Yeah, I was a spoiled brat in my younger years. It began to change quite quickly after that.

As was to be expected they discovered I was missing and before long I was found roaming the city. In the residential districts no less. I had followed one family home to see what else was different. Maybe it was when families were out in public they acted different. But no, I had peeped into enough windows to see more of the same. Happy families doing things together. Things I had always done with just one parent at a time.
Angered, confused and hurt I confronted my father about it. He wouldn't even respond to me about it. He just berated me for running away and nearly giving him a heart attack. And when he was done chewing me out it was my mother's turn.

I'll never forget the look on Mother's face when I screamed at her, "I bet the common children only have to get in trouble once because their parents are together!" I didn't even understand the implications of what I had said just yet. But it did get me another round of angry words from Dad.
I cried myself to sleep that night. When Mom came in to comfort me it hardly helped. Dad wasn't with her but I knew he was close. He came in right as she left. That was the first time I had ever seen them so close to one another. And you know what? It was weird. I didn't understand it then but it felt wrong nonetheless.

I didn't leave the castle again for a few years. Not until I was fourteen and had my first visit from another royal family and their son. I avoided the adults. My parents were in the same room with his parents but they didn't act like his did. His loved each other. By then I knew the difference and it only made me bitter. I felt like I never had a family. I had parents, sure. But not a family.
This boy, I'll leave his name out simply to protect him, showed me new things. Before you get ahead of my story I don't mean he showed me love or anything like that. Rather, it was more like I learned about having a family from him more so than I did from my parents.

With a prince at my side I was able to leave the castle without incurring the wrath of my parents. We had to take four guards with us, two from his father's stock and two from mine, but we could walk the streets freely. I asked him about his kingdom and he readily told me all I wanted to know. I told him about mine and he sympathized with me. He was actually angry that my parents weren't together because they loved one another. Come to find out his father was in such an arranged marriage at first. He whispered the story to me because it was quite scandalous but his birth mother had an affair with another noble in the kingdom and had been caught. It was a shameful thing that genuinely hurt his father. While his mother didn't love his father, his father loved his mother. It was a one sided love that in the end caused his father a lot of pain. At first when his father remarried he didn't like his step-mother but when his real mother seemed to have forgotten him he warmed up to his new one and eventually accepted her. His step-mother loved his father and he loved her. That was a real family.

Heartwarming, isn't it? In a weird kind of way. Almost makes you think all royal families are messed up, huh? But that story allowed us to bond and when he offered to show me how to use a crossbow I leapt at the chance to learn something new.
And I loved it. I felt like I clicked with him better than I did my parents. It wasn't forced, it didn't feel like anything was missing. Dad never did anything like that with me. He did the same kind of things Mom did almost as if he didn't know to do anything else.
And you know what? When he left that prince gave me his crossbow. He was sneaky about it, mind you. There's no way my parents would let a lady have a dangerous weapon.

Sadly, I never saw him again. I only ever saw him to begin with because lo, guess what? My parents had been trying to marry me off and something about the talks with his parents make him 'unsuitable' for me. I never even got to decide myself. That upset me the most. Even if it never became love I felt as if I had been denied a friend.

That crossbow became my identity. It became my driving force. I didn't want to be a princess if it meant I would wind up like my parents or even like his birth parents. I envied the commoners then. They could be whatever they wanted so long as they had the will and determination to see it through. Me? Oh, I had an easy path. I was a princess and everything was given to me. If I asked for it, it happened. Within reason of course, there are some things you just don't ask for.

For me that was the freedom to use my crossbow. I'll admit it, when I first started to sneak out I used the crossbow in ways I'm not proud of. I shot small animals. They weren't hurting me or anything but I needed something to take my frustrations out on.
Eventually I graduated to vigilante status. I was the, huh, what analogy would you get? Oh yeah, I was the Batman of the Wondrous Waters. Er, sans the cape and sweet ride. Maybe Robin Hood is more in line? Without the stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. I was rich, I gave freely.
My parents never found out it was me cleaning up the streets and slipping hard-pressed families gold to get them on their feet. No one ever found out. I got good at hiding and being secret like. Not exactly stealthy but good at getting away before the dust settled. My crossbow evolved over time and eventually I retired my first one for something with a bit more punch to it. Think taser in crossbow bolt form. It was wicked cool.

As could be expected as I got older and found myself with more freedom I wandered farther and farther from home. I was gone for two days on one occasion. I had a nasty argument with my parents before I left; the details don't matter. But I was sure they were going to be worried sick and less mad the longer I stayed out. But, as mad as I was at them I couldn't stay away for long. I knew they would have people looking for me and I wanted to show up without being caught. Sort of my way of telling them I was better at the game than them.

I so didn't see coming what I found when I arrived home. Ice. Everywhere. A magical ice that locked the whole kingdom away in a tomb of silence. Snow trolls, not to be confused with their less-powerful frost troll kin, had ransacked the kingdom and turned nearly every house upside down in the quest for wealth. Why? Well because of me apparently. We had the wealthiest kingdom in the area. For those of you outside of the royal life a wealthy kingdom means wealthy people; the common folk. Wealthy kings and queens are a no brainer. It's also harder to rob a king but his people? Easy pickings.

Oh I was mad. My crossbow had never done more good than it had that day. Though let me tell you, electrocuted trolls don't smell so good. Their hair is so dry and brittle it caught fire fast. Now, it is funny to see them run around and flail about as their beards burn. But the stench, bleah.
I am proud of the fact that I single-handedly defeated them. I knew the kingdom better than they did. I used it to my advantage and they had left enough destruction in their wake that traps were a breeze to throw together. Yeah, I knocked a few more walls down but no lives were lost and the wealth was returned.

I could go into detail on that battle but I won't. See, royalty has this habit of telling about their exploits and exaggerating about it to awe listeners. I don't want to be accused of doing that myself. The people know what happened and how it all went down. They're all free now. That's good enough for me.

And besides, the story spread without my aiding it. Gill Grunt came to the kingdom to meet me. Just between you and me? I think my parents only allowed me to go in hopes he was there to court me; not recruit me. I went with him willingly and without another thought. That was more my lifestyle anyway. No perfumed baths. No servants to see to my every whim and no strict codes of conduct on how to do everything from walk, talk, dress and even breathe.
I had my freedom, my crossbow and my eagerness to do something good for others without expecting anything in return. I had my calling.

I am a Skylander.

Woo, it's been a while, huh? Looks like about a year. I decided to dust this off and see what comes next. I'm going with Earth next followed by Air then Light and Dark. From there, maybe I'll start over and follow my same element pattern with more Skylanders. We shall see.