The King of Thieves and the Princess
Once upon a time, there was a King and Queen who lived in the castle of Winchester. The castle was filled with many of the royal families' lineage. There were many children in the palace, but none belonged to the King and Queen. That is until one summer, they were blessed with a daughter with hair white as snow, just like her mother's. They named her Ororo and everyone rejoiced. At birth, Ororo was promised to marry Prince Scott of the House of Phoenix at the age of 18. As the years passed, her parents could see that Ororo was indeed no ordinary princess. Instead of having tea with her fellow princesses, she preferred spending her time in the castle's library. There, she would study maps of far lands and weaponry; and she would even discuss with the knights on fighting tactics. The King beamed at his daughter's thirst for knowledge and ingenuity to have such an interest in training with the kingdom's captain. He knew she would be an extraordinary queen one day. The Queen, however, could see that her daughter longed for a destiny beyond her princess duties. But she knew when the time came it would be up to the fate of the stars.
The King and Queen sat in the garden, watching their 10-year-old daughter practice her archery. Ororo loved the garden; it felt like a glimpse of freedom instead of being confined within the castle walls.
"Very good, my dear," the King praised his daughter. She truly was very talented with her archery skills and improved so much more with her sword-fighting style.
"Thank you father," Ororo smiled. "Oh, you should see my throw a dagger I"-
"Ororo, that's enough of that. You must get ready for the ball," the Queen chided her daughter.
"Yes mother," Ororo quickly gathered her arrows and noticed that one was missing. She looked around and looked up to see her parents holding the arrow along with a small, wrapped box.
"Happy Birthday, my child," the Queen smiled, handing her daughter the present. The young girl opened the box to reveal a lovely gold necklace with a sapphire stone.
"Mother, father," she smiled admiring the rays that reflected off the sparkly stone. "Thank you so much. I love it."
She ran into both of their arms, and they embraced her saying, "You are our greatest treasure."
The rays of sunlight stirred Ororo from her slumber. That was the last memory she had of her parents before they passed away 8 years ago. Today was Ororo's 18th birthday and it was a day that she had secretly dreaded for so long. This evening, she would marry Scott and her life would no longer be hers. Before her ladies-in-waiting came to get her ready for the day, Ororo decided to sneak off to the garden. The young woman lined up her targets and began to fix her bow to get it ready. She then started to walk and shoot each target one by one as she moved forward.
"Princess Ororo!" yelled Princess Jean, Ororo's cousin.
When the red-haired princess yelled her name, Ororo accidentally shot one of her arrows into the tree.
"Your timing, dear cousin," Ororo playfully rolled her eyes as her cousin apologized for breaking her concentration.
"I'm sorry Ororo, but you shouldn't be out here right now," Jean placed her hands on her hips. "Have you forgotten it's your wedding day?!"
Ororo was used to her cousin nagging her; she knew it came from a place of love. Ever since her parents' passing, Jean viewed Ororo as a sister since her father, Ororo's uncle, took over as King so many years ago.
"Yes, Jean, I am aware," she said as she approached the giant oak tree and began to climb it to retrieve her missing arrow.
"I hope you don't plan to do this after you are married," Jean loved her cousin but did not understand her interests. "Will you please come down? I fear you will fall or, worse, scrape your knees."
Ororo found the arrow but continued to sit in the tree, gazing at the wide lands beyond the kingdom. She had wished she had left when her parents passed away, but with them gone, there was nothing to keep her there. Ororo climbed down the tree like she had done so many times since she was a child.
"I don't know if I'm ready to be married," Ororo said to her cousin, and she began gathering her archery equipment.
"I don't believe anyone really is, my dear," Jean said, hoping to soothe her cousin's nerves. "But you are."
Ororo had completed her princess training many years ago with grace and carried herself as a future queen, that is when she wasn't practicing dueling.
"And Prince Scott loves you," Jean smiled trying to give her some reassurance.
"How can you say that," Ororo stared down her cousin with her bright sapphire eyes. "We've only been around each other 5 times, and one of those times, I was an infant."
Ororo thought the whole ordeal was ridiculous but knew that she was bound to her princess's duties. "Sometimes I wish I wasn't a princess."
A lone tear fell from her eye as she allowed her cousin to embrace her. "It's going to be okay. You're going to have you happily ever after."
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Many kingdoms from across the land gathered at the kingdom of the House of Phoenix for the Royal Wedding. Anyone who was anybody was there, including Logan, the King of thieves who managed to sneak into the palace along with his band of thieves. Logan wore a dark, long-sleeved tunic with dark trousers and a gray hood that had a cover for his mouth when needed. Logan checked the baskets that the other thieves were hiding in to make sure no one would be able to tell of anything suspicious. He noticed one of the baskets was empty. He already knew.
"Victor, it is not time yet." Victor was a thief who was always challenging his authority.
"Why do we have to hide here among the animals when you get to run around with royals?" Victor snarled at the dark-haired man.
"Because someone has to keep watch for the opportunity and have a cool head," Logan shot back at the blonde-haired man.
Victor swung at Logan, but he caught his fist, "Someone will have no head if this job doesn't go as planned."
Logan released the man's fist, "It will go as planned."
It was then they could hear the crowd cheering "The Princess is here!"
"Places everyone," Logan commanded his band of thieves as he made his way through the crowd to get into the palace area where the wedding would take place.
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Ororo stood there at the end of the aisle wearing a pale blue silk gown embroidered with pearls and silver designs sewn at the ends of the dress. Her long white hair was in a long braid swept on her shoulder with light blue flowers placed along her hair. Prince Scott sneaked a glance to see his bride, and he was mesmerized by her beauty.
'Lucky guy,' Logan thought to himself as he stopped to glance at the bride before moving forward with the plan.
The young woman held her breath as she made her way down the aisle, holding her head high. Jean sobbed quietly as she watched her cousin make her way to the prince.
Ororo and Scott knelt before the priest and listened to him as he explained the significance of this ceremony.
"It's nice to see you," the prince whispered to Ororo. "You look beautiful."
Ororo smiled at his compliment, but this was something he always said to her every time they saw each other. Sometimes, talking to him felt like talking to her brother, not her betrothed. There was no romance—just awkwardness.
Before she could whisper a reply, Logan did the signal. And it was at that moment the ground started shaking and a woman screamed, "The animals are loose!"
The entire wedding hall was filled with creatures: stallions, camels, elephants, and dragons stormed in. Rugs were trampled on and torn, and all the pews were broken and turned over. Many of the guests stumbled and ran over each other to get away to safety. Scott and Ororo watched in horror as a massive elephant charged them. Scott threw himself and his bride-to-be out of the mammal's charging direction. Guards were attempting to de-escalate this mayhem, but it was too much. Just then, the couple saw Jean, who was screaming with her dress caught underneath a heavy pew as a humongous dragon swung its tail in her direction. The red-haired princess screamed, trying to free herself before the tail hit her.
"Jean!" Ororo screamed as she sprang to her feet to help her kin, but Scott pulled her back.
"Ororo, please stay here," Scott nudged Ororo to a safe area. "I'll help her. I'll put a stop to this."
Ororo wanted to protest but nodded. With that said Scott made his way into the chaos.
She observed the entire scene and thought to herself that she knew her wedding day would be no walk in the park, but this really deviated from the wedding itinerary. It was then that the 18-year-old noticed people stealing from guests because they were too distracted by the havoc in the wedding hall.
It was then that Ororo noticed that a man in a gray hood was in their gift area. Logan was so occupied searching for what he desired that he was surprised to feel a cold blade touching the side of his neck.
"These are not for you," she said in a confident voice. "Leave now!"
Logan turned to her with his dark gray hood on and the mouth cover on. All she could see were his steel gray eyes. He stood tall over her and attempted to snatch the blade from her, but she yanked it out of his grasp. She had sliced his hand and stepped forward, not backing down from a challenge. "That was for ruining my wedding."
Logan was astonished at the princess's technique, but that didn't mean he was going to go easy on her. He just needed her out of his way. He grabbed a gold goblet and threw it at the blade, causing it to fall out of her hands due to the force. Before she could react, Logan tackled her. "Leave here, princess! You don't stand a chance against the King of thieves!"
As Ororo was pinned by him, she reached for the many gifts with her other hand to strike him on the head. With one hard blow to the head, he moved away from her. When he looked back at her he saw her holding what he had been looking for the Moonbeam bracelet.
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