The runaway princess

Chapter 1

Selecta sat upon the sturdy wisteria tree that had been sitting there for almost centuries. The wind teased her long pink hair on her dark brown skin. Her nails chewed up and her eyes as blue as ice. She had a light blue dress on that matched her eyes with a furry white cloak. Her features were soft and her eyelashes long.

The sky was as clear as day yet the air was cold and the ground wet with thin melting snow from the day before. There was not a bird in sight nor a flower to be seen. The days around the castle were dreary as the winter season started to ease its way in. Selecta, unbothered by such things sat there lost in thought.

She thought hard about what her father told her a few days ago. The word marriage lingered throughout  her mind, never leaving her for just a second. " why?" She mumbled while knitting her eye brows until they started to wrinkle in between. Selecta's thoughts soon changed to her mother, Athanasia which made her tense body loosen up.

Selecta's late mother Athanasia was a beautiful women. Her hair was long, pink, and curly almost like Selecta's. Her eyes were as green as emeralds and her voice sweet like candy. Her skin was dark and her eyelashes were amazingly long. Athanasia had passed away twelve years ago when Selecta had just turned ten. Even though Selecta had little to no memories of her mother or childhood she still thought of her often. Even though it was many years ago since Athanasia had passed her name was like a taboo everywhere you went. Every time you'd say her name every one went silent and didn't speak a word for a minute or two.

Selecta's thoughts slowly came back to her main problem of marriage. Her father told her that she had to marry for the kingdom but Selecta still refused. She had told her father many times that she wanted to be a ruler all by herself but her father thought this was a foolish idea. "I can't keep running off to the town" She thought knowing that this was the only way she'd been getting out of this horrible decision. The snow then started to fall and it got colder and colder She thought long and hard for a second until a brilliant idea came to mind. She quickly sweeped the snow off of her blue dress and ran to her room.

She picked up an old-looking bag she'd found while being in the village and stuffed it until it started to overflow. A small knock came at the door as she struggled to zip up her bag before she quickly hid the bag under her bed. "Come in!" She said. "Princess your father wants you to come down to his office this instant" a small old lady who was a maid at the castle and also Selecta's caretaker before her mother died said. "Tell father to leave me be! Oh! Also tell him that I will never marry anyone and will rule by myself whether he likes it or not!" She shouted angrily at the young lady. The old sighed sadly before she started walking down to the king's office.

Selecta sighed in relief before she changed her dress into the shabbiest one she had and threw on a black cape, making sure to tuck all of her hair into the hood. She quickly got her sword and hid it in a brown scabbard she had gotten years ago. She then creeped out her room. She barley sneaked past the servants and knights and was about to pass her dad's office when "Why can't this girl understand that she has to find a potential marriage candidate or the kingdom will be ruined!" He yelled angrily. Selecta peeked in the room to find the maid who was just at her door staring at her feet while rubbing her hands together. Her father was sitting on his chair while rubbing his temples. There were four fine-looking gentlemen sitting across from him looking pale with fear. "You know what I'm going to drag that girl down here since she wants to cause so much trouble! She keeps going out to town everyday with those common folk just to get out of choosing a partner!" He shouted. "Does she really think she can rule alone!" He yelled and Selecta saw fo just a moment while he was shouting a fearful expression crossed his face for just a second but she didn't think too much of it.

Selecta was fuming at her fathers words, her eyebrows were clenched and her hands were balled up into fists. She was about to bust through the door and tell her father that she didn't want to marry anyone but a mischievous whisper stopped her from doing so . "You do know that if you bust through that door and give your father a piece of your mind that he'll find out you're fleeing from the castle and then all your plans to escape this marriage will go to waste." Selecta turned around to find  a nicely dressed young man. He had long brown hair and dazzling green eyes. His eyes were as playful as his words and from that angle you'd think he was an angel. In one swift movement she took to her sword and pointed it at his neck. "Who are you and how did you know that I'm the princess." She said in a low voice while glaring at him with her icy blue eyes. "For starters I'm one of your potential marriage partners. I mean I don't wish to be here but it's not like I can defy the king's orders, and what type of marriage candidate would I be if I didn't know what you look like. " He whispered back to her. She stared at him for a moment before she quickly put her sword back and took off and the man followed after her.

Selecta was making twists and turns trying to throw the man off her tail. "Why won't he just give up already!" She thought annoyed that the man wouldn't leave her be. She could hear the man try and call out to her but every time she kept going faster trying to get him off her tail. Selecta soon thought about how she was going to get past the knights without getting caught when a brilliant idea came to mind.

When She got to the doors of the castle she waited until the man caught up to her. When he did before he could say or do anything Selecta opened the doors and harshly pushed him out there. As soon as she did she heard one of the knights shout "Who's was that?" She then heard some movement and then she heard the other knight say "I don't see anyone over here Jeremy." "And I really hoped he would've gotten caught." She whispered to herself . "We should check around back then to see if someone went back there" a knight said. After she heard them start to move and knew they were gone she gently opened the castle doors and sneaked out.

The sky was darker then before and the snow was now becoming thicker as it fell. The snow blizzard was not a nice one and definitely wasn't helping Selecta one bit. She had thought that a blizzard wouldn't occur for another day or two since the snow was starting to melt and today wasn't as cold as most but that obviously did not stop it from seeping in.

Selecta ran into the forest towards the village as her heels crunched the snow in front of her. After what seemed like years she finally stopped running as she the cold had gotten to her. Her nose and ears were light pink and her eyes had light tears in them. Her fingertips as cold as the snow and her feet almost numb.

"Isn't this the way to the village?" She thought as she brushed off the snow on a  nearby log and sat down. "I must've made a wrong turn while running." She sighed, her voice trembling. She hugged herself trying to keep warm as she thought of a plan. As she thought the blizzard raged on getting colder and colder and showing no mercy whatsoever. She knew she couldn't go back to the castle and start over again since she might be caught and if she kept going deeper into the woods she might get lost and leave the land of the living. Even though Selecta tried her best to think of a plan she couldn't. All she could think about how cold she was and the darkness of the night starting to seep in. She squeezed her eyes shut to help her think but soon her body was trembling and her hair felt like it was freezing up.

"Are you going to just sit there until you die?" an unknown voice said to her she looked up to find the young man she had seen earlier. "What do you want?" She said in a low whisper "Why were you just sitting there like there isn't a blizzard going on as of now? Do you want to die or something? If so your father wouldn't be very pleased." He said ignoring her previous question while playing with his long brown hair. "Don't ignore my question like that you brick headed walrus" Selecta said as she got to her feet. "Thank you for the compliment!" He said with a sly grin planted on his face. Selecta raised an eyebrow at him "See you did it again!" She snapped at him with an angered expression "I only ignored you because I didn't feel like answering your boring question." He replied .Selecta just sighed and walked off. "I was just joking! don't leave me here in the snow to rot!" he whined as he ran after her like a puppy.

The snow crunched beneath their feet while they were walking through the snow until Selecta came to a stop, she whipped her head around and asked "Who are you? And why are why are you following me!" Her eyebrows were knitted and her face was light red. He chuckled and tapped his chin "Well let's see, My name is Saylum ad I'm only here for the fun of it really." He stated "Oh trust me I never thought someone as rude as yourself would like me or anyone for that matter." Selecta replied before she started to walk again, Saylum still following her.

"Y'know you're quite different from what I'd thought you'd be." Saylum said. "I thought you did your research on me was I mistaken?" She replied. "I think you might've heard the wrong thing there princess. I said to you what type of marriage candidate would that make me if I didn't know what you look like, I never said I knew everything about you. I not a creep y'know." He said making Selecta laugh. "The guy who says he's not a creep is currently following me, a young maiden, in a forest in the dark. Sounds perverted to me." She said back "Ah, I guess that does sound a bit perverted, but it's not like I could try anything. If I did my head would already be on the ground." Saylum said. "True, true. If I thought you had bad intentions from the start you would've never made it this far." She said before she saw a lights in the corner of her eye. She then started to walk in that direction, Saylum following behind her. Soon she stopped she had found the village she was looking for all along.