Kidnapped by a Prince

Chapter 1

Xander's POV

"Son, you must go for your quest begins today," my dad has been preparing me for this "quest" all year. "What do you need to remember?" He drills.

"Remember their names, keep them interested, and be kind, but never forget you are the prince," I recite the long ago memorized lines without a seconds hesitation. Like I said, all year.

"Good, now go and bring back a beauty," my dad gives me a wink before I am escorted out of his royal slumber chamber aka his bedroom.

My father insisted that I take several of the guards with me to help protect me from the mobs that will be begging me to choose them. Although I doubt that'll happen, I agreed to avoid further bickering. All my stuff has been packed by the maids, so all I have to do is saddle up and we can go.

I hop onto my strong, chestnut stead and we begin to ride to the first village. By the time we reached the shining city the sun had set and we were all growing a bit tired. Thank goodness father had convinced me to bring guards because contrary to my earlier belief, their were mobs of people attempting to claw their ways to the front to try and grab me. Unfortunately for them, those that reached too far out of the crowd had their hands sliced by one of the many sword wielding Knights.

Thankfully the screams of agony were masked by the roar of the still cheering crowd. You see unlike the rulers before us, my family had a very strong relationship with the people. Not only do we allow non-royalty to marry into the ruling family, but we also hold monthly meetings with the leaders of each village to determine where help is needed and how we can improve the quality of life for all of our loyal subjects.

We finally manage to make it to the tent that was setup for the meetings between myself and my many potential queens. I sit and wait for the first girl to enter. Honestly I'm a bit nervous because although I have obviously spoken to many important leaders of other great nations, I've never really had a casual conversation with anybody my age, let alone a girl.

The first girl walks in and she is absolutely stunning. Long toned legs to accompany her curvy hourglass figure, a perfect, glowing complexion, dazzling blue eyes paired with meticulously styled golden hair and the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. Honestly having to speak with this Greek goddess did not help my nerves.

"Hello your majesty," she practically whispered. She seemed a bit timid, unsure of whether or not she was allowed to address me.

"Please call me Xander," I reply suprisingly calm.

"Of course your maj-- umm Xander," she gives me a nervous smile and I laugh at cute little expressions. This seems to relax her a bit.

"Okay so tell me a little about yourself," I start.

"Umm well, umm, what do you want to know?" She asks twiddling with her fingers.

"Anything, what you like to do, your favorite color, whatever you feel defines you," I answer.

"What do you like to do?" She asks. I guess she wants an example?

"Well I like to ride through the woods on my horse. It really helps me clear my head," I say the first thing that comes to mind.

"Really?" The girl asked excitedly.

"Yup," I answer with a smile. Now we were getting somewhere.

"I do too!" She practically squealed.

"Great, tell me more about yourself," I try to bring the conversation back to her.

"Like what?" She asks looking genuinely confused. She is pretty but she's also a bit dense.

"Your favorite food," I tried to think of an easy one since she wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.

"Hmm," she took a second to think before replying "what food do you like?"

I laugh a bit and she does to. Then I place my hands in my lap, the blond follows suit. "This isn't really about me. What foods do you like?" I ask once more.

"Whatever you like," she says with a grin.

Seeing that this wasn't going to go anywhere I called for the next girl to come in. Much like the first, she tried to say everything I said. Honestly these girls had no personalities of their own and it was getting frustrating. After we finally got through all the girls, we were offered a place to rest and a meal.

The place had a homey feel quite different than that of the palace. I definitely have to see what we can do to make the castle, or at least my room, feel more like this. After the generous, warm meal we went up to the rooms they had made up for us and slept. I could only hope that tomorrow would be less disappointing.

The days that followed were all the same, each village failing to produce a girl with any brains of her own. I guess that was the way they were raised. Always agree with royalty and act just like them and they will definitely marry you. I must say although none were particularly interesting, there were many gorgeous girls of different races and backgrounds scattered throughout the kingdom. I suppose if I can't find any personality I will have a lot of options.

As the villages became limited, I began to loose all hope that is find a girl got to be my wife. That is until we reached a tiny out of the way town on the edge of the vast kingdom.

I rode in and same as usual was quickly mobbed by the crowds. I almost rolled my eyes in annoyance, except than I saw her. A beautiful girl, my age, seeming totally oblivious to the fact that there was royalty in her midst. This made me smile. I immediately called her out.

"Excuse me miss," I saw her slight frame stop and straighten before she turned giving me an obviously fake smile and exaggerated curtsy.

"Oh why your majesty!" She exclaimed feigning surprise. "My goly I didn't even see your royalness there! As you can see I'm quite a little lady so I couldn't see over this incredibly tall and gorgeous crowd, but I should have known it was something special if it could bring together a fine village like this!" Her performance was impressive, but a little over the top with the fake sunshine country girl accent and her giant sweeping gestures.

I stifled a laugh as I watched the rest of crowd nod, clearly convinced by this girls little act. She was interesting. I liked her. "What's your name?" I asked her over the now quiet crowd.

She turns and walks off. Right when I loose hope that she will answer she calls over her shoulder.

"Melody."