Rose's Thorns: The Wolf's Prophecy

2

Fear and chaos had gripped the land of Tobias years before, and the effects of the confusion still affected the kingdoms which resided there. When Rose was barely 3 weeks old, a terrible man known as Rovax had created a sickness that had no known cure. Rose did not quite know exactly what had happened, or why the man had done such a nasty thing, but the sickness passed throughout the kingdoms of Tobias. Rose had heard rumors that the man who was well known in his home of Latches Hold Kingdom, was a great warlord and a duke of sorts. He was a powerful man, and creating the sickness was his way to gain more followers and weaken his enemies. A short time after the sickness began to ease, Rovax seemed to fall away from his evil and controlling ways. Thirteen years passed of no further activity or news of the man, for he seemed at peace with the amount of property, people, and coin he owned. It was not until 6 months prior to the present, soon after Rose's mother gave birth to the youngest girl of the royal family, Willow, that news Rovax's greater strength spread like a black fire throughout Tobias. Another sickness of the same sort as the first took hold of the land, and along with thousands of people, the sickness took the queen of Meadow. The sickness took away Rose's mother.

Like the first time, the ailment came and went, and those who were not touring the dead were rebuilding the kingdoms. Everyone had tried to forget the first time Rovax had cast turmoil across Tobias, but they could never forget the second time for as long as they lived.

Rose sat in her seat in the royal dining hall as her older sister reported her proficiency to the king. "Honest father," her sister said with her eyes shining, "I don't see any real reason for why she must be supervised any longer, she has nearly surpassed all of our most trained guards. After all..." she trailed off as her father's gaze slid easily towards Rose.

"So" his deep voice bounced around Rose's head like a bird in a cage. "Don't you think you're moving too fast? You just might be learning from foreigners next." He smiled and Rose could feel her cheeks heating up as she came to the conclusion that she was receiving praise from her father, so as to hide her embarrassment, she quickly began to look busy with her plate, though she was really listening to the conversation. Her father must have responded to Josephine because she was passionately speaking all about how quickly Rose had called the seedlings from deep in the ground to grow into the beautiful mature forest.

Rose had heard this before, but the recounting of her superior skills was not always in awe but in fear. Rose's entire family had gifts that had been passed down from generations of meadow rulers and lords, so that even the commoners of the meadow kingdom knew how to produce plant life, but never had anyone come even close to how powerful Rose seemed to be. Not even King Aris himself.