Dainty to Devil

chapter one

Chapter 1

I sit quietly on top of a tree patiently waiting for the right moment. I line up my bow and arrow with the deer. It is calm and has no idea what's to come. I almost feel sorry, but I can't afford to feel sorry for my food. I release the arrow and it goes straight into the deer's skin, piercing its heart, like I intended.

"Mother, i'm home!" I set down the deer meat on the table in the kitchen. Walking towards the main room, I yell out, "Mother are you here?" I see her sitting on a worn down armchair, sewing a dress. She looks up at me and smiles warmly. Setting down her dress, she gets up and walks to the kitchen telling me to go take a shower.

I let my dark locks loose as water runs over me. Sighing, as I wash out the dirt from my skin. Hunting makes me grimy, but I love it. The water turns cold telling me to get out. Looking at myself in the mirror, I look innocent. I'm not.

"Armani, this is delicious!" I smile and say, "Thank you, but you did all the work mom." My mother and I are close to each other. We have to be because we don't have anyone else. My father passed away a few years ago and we don't live close enough to other people to make friends. This does make her very protective, but then again, I am too so I guess it runs in the family.

After dinner, I go out behind our home. We live in a cottage near the ocean. It's not big, but only 3 people lived there, now 2. I sit down on the cliffside looking at the stars. The sounds of ocean waves and a gentle breeze are all I can hear. It's beautiful here. I used to watch the stars with my father and he taught me the constellations. His favorite was the Orion constellation. My favorite star is Bellatrix because it means female warrior and my name means female warrior too. My father chose to name me that because he wanted me to be a fighter.

My mother calls me back inside and I take one last look at the night sky and then go inside.

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"Get up sweetheart." A light shines on my eyes and I groan. "I have big news for you!" I open one eye and see my mother standing next to my bed. "What is it mom?" She turns and walks towards the door while saying, "Get freshened up first."

After I get dressed, I walk to the kitchen and sit at the small table with some bread and strawberries. "Mom, what's the big news?" I was curious about it because my mother wasn't the type of person to exaggerate about things, so her saying it was big news was, well, big news.

"You're getting married!" What? Did she say I was getting married? I didn't even have a boyfriend and my mother had never talked about a man to me. She didn't care about that yet. "I don't understand. What do you mean?" She looked at me and said, "Before he died, your father made a deal with a man that when you turn of age, you will marry his son. Now you are 18 sweetheart, and have been for months and it's time." My father arranged my marriage! Why would he do that without telling me? I asked my mother that and she looked at me with a confused look on her face asking, "Why are you mad? I thought you would be happy that you finally get to get married and go live your life." I looked at her with shock and exclaimed, "I won't get to live my life! I don't want to leave you!" I turned around and ran out the door.

~~~~

I don't know where I am going, just that I don't want to be home. I don't even know who this guy is that I am supposed to marry. I still can't believe my father would do that. He was the one who wanted me to do what I wanted and now I find out that he arranged my marriage for me.

A distant crack made me stop in my tracks. I slowly turned towards the sound and grabbed for my bow and arrow. I realized that I had left it at the house in my hurry. The noises were getting closer. I started to climb up on a tree to see what it was.

There was a huge brown bear standing down where I was a minute ago. Brown bears can climb trees meaning I wasn't safe here. If only I hadn't run out in a hurry. I hoped that the bear wouldn't see me and would keep walking. I looked back down and saw the bear coming closer to the tree. Of course it wasn't going to walk away, why would it?

Thunk was the sound of an arrow hitting the bear. I looked to see where it came from and locked eyes with a man. His green eyes looked away from me and back to the bear. He walked towards the bear and took his arrow back out.

"Are you going to come down?" I was startled by his voice. He was looking at me waiting for my answer. "Well that depends on who you are." I didn't know him and doing what a stranger says is stupid. He smirked, "I'm the guy who just saved your life, milady." He held out his arm for me to grab onto, but I just jumped off. "Woah, you could have gotten hurt!" I raised my eyebrows, and uttered, "well then it's good I didn't."

I started to walk back towards my house when I realized he was following me. "Stop following me." He continued walking but now he was next to me. I decided to walk another direction, so he wouldn't follow me all the way home. "Do I get to know who you are?", I asked. He turned to look at me and replied, "only if you tell me who you are." I stopped and exclaimed, "well I guess we'll never know then."

"Prince Darius! Don't run off like that, your highness."

My eyes widened. Prince?