This story begins long ago when I was merely a princess not yet fit to be a queen. Protected by our castle walls I rarely ever left them the only time I did I was surrounded by guards. Being the only heir to the throne it was expected. They wanted me safe and sound, away from any danger I could possibly run into in life. It was nice, lonely, but nice. I had my books to confide in. thousands of them lined the walls of the castle library. That's where I spent most of my days. Sitting, reading, learning as much about the world as I could from inside the castle walls. But one day I was tired of it. I was so tired of being in the castle I wanted to go and see the places I read of all the places I imagined. I was 14 at the time, around that time I was finally learning all that there was to become a ruler, all that I needed to do to be a lady. It didn't fit me. Although I succeeded in my classes and was smart and I could do it, I longed to leave the castle. I longed for an adventure to call my own. As I sat there one day with my tutor in the library looking out the large window. Looking towards what seemed like an endless forest beyond the city limits. I always used to ask my guards to take me there. They always used to tell me I was too young or too little, that something like that was too much for a princess. It made me want to go there even more.
Now as I sat here my tutor was talking about how I would need to marry a king for me to be a successful ruler. I ignored him. He knows this topic gets me mad. He knows I refuse any and all arranged marriages. He knows I will not marry into power. I will rule my father's kingdom on my own. He continues to ramble on about this so I stand up and I walk away. He says my name and something else but I's getting too far away to hear. I walk the halls of the castle. I know every inch of the castle like the back of my hand at this point. I know all the secret places to hide and all the hidden passages. Wanting to look over the forest again, I walked towards my favorite spot in the whole castle. It was my favorite over even the library. I even often brought my books and stories there to read them. I climbed the spiral staircase and as I got higher I could hear it start to rain. It wasn't a hard rain, just the sort of rain you could fall asleep to. The calm rain that even though it rains the sky doesn't darken too much you can still see the sun peak over the clouds and the heavenly sun rays beam forward. The perfect kind of rain. I got to the top of the tower and I sat on the window sill. It was perfect. So pretty and majestic looking seeing the forest as I looked over it. Seeing the birds fly out of the trees and onto others or over the city or even towards the parts of the forest I may never see.
"One day," I said to myself as I looked at the forest. "One day ill see the other side."
Turns out that day wouldn't be too long from the day I promised myself that. It was getting to befall when this plan came to be. I was sitting there at our dinner table with my parents and some of the higher staff of the kingdom such as nobles and our highest commander of the army. We sat and ate. I was silent most of the dinner, my father talked with the commander of the army about new troops and guards amongst the castle and the Commander started talking about his newest recruit to the royal guard. My father took an interest in this topic and asked to hear more from the recruit and I became curious as well.
"Well he is a nice young man barely over 17 but he insisted on joining the Guard. And I told him if he could prove himself worthy of it id let him and he well he proved himself that's for sure." The commander said to my father. "Well why don't we meet this boy? '' insisted my father. The commander looked to one of the guards at the doorway and nodded to him as a sign to go get the boy I assume. The guard left and moments later returned with a good-looking man of about 6 feet or so, much taller than me being as I was only a bit over 5 feet. He had the most captivating eyes, a deep dark brown color. Completely different from my own being as mine were grey with a touch of blue to them. He looked at me and smiled a little then dropped his smile to look professional. I smiled to myself. I felt butterflies in my stomach and I blushed a bit and looked down. My father looked upon the boy and saw that he indeed looked fit to be a guard being his size and looked strong too. He smiled and laughed and patted the commander on the back as a congratulation. The boy stayed for the rest of the dinner talking with the other men at the table, even talking to my mother. I felt too shy to talk to him although he did compliment my dress and I did thank him for that. After he started to talk to people I never wanted to hear the end of his voice. It was quite deep but it had a nice warmth to it and kindness to it. I really want to learn more about him...
