The Young Princess

Chapter 8

It's becoming daylight and I have been laying down in the shade of a very large tree, trying to regain my strength.

Who could I be able to use magic? Why is this happening to me? Was I cursed when I was a baby? Or was I born with this talent and never knew it?

Those, and many more, were the questions that flowed through my mind as I laid there. After awhile, I could faintly hear horses coming towards me and I knew I had to start running again

Maybe I can go home? I thought to myself. I knew where we were and it wasn't far from my cottage. But then I realized that the people chasing me might see my foot-prints or will see a trail left behind by my dress and follow me there. So, with that, I decided not to go home, but to just keep running.

After a while, I started to see lights up ahead. I thought it was a village or a cottage out in the woods by a village like mine was, but when I got there, it was something much much different. I gasped as I slowly started walking though the place I was in. I looked around, I was in a cemetery. I wondered if my parents were here, but then I thought, "Well no, they would be buried in the castle."
But as I turned the corner, there was a cottage sized stone building. I read the reading and it said:

Here lies the beloved King Jakob and Queen Natalia, Rest In Peace our kind and loving rulers

I started to cry as I read this. "How could my parents not be buried in the castle!? That is so disrespectful of them!" I thought to myself. I fell down on my knees and started to sob. How could someone be so cruel and not bury the king and queen in their home, where every other dead ruler is buried!? I cried so hard that I didn't even hear the horses coming up behind me.

"So, you found them huh?"  said a mans voice. I jumped when I heard him first speak, then I started crying again.

"Come on, up you go!" the man said, trying to lift me up.

"No! NO!" I screamed, squirming away from his grasp.

"Come on! You have a meeting with Zanthis! He won't be happy if you're not there!" said the man though clenched teeth.

"NO!! Stop it! Let me go! I order you to let me go!" I screamed, hoping that my order would work, I am the princess after all.

"Stop squirming princess! Or else you're going to get hurt!" yelled the man. I finally had enough with this and screamed at the top of my lungs. I could feel the mans hands let go of me as he went to cover his ears. Once I realized that he was taken off guard, I ran, ran, ran, ran. Again. I didn't hear anything for a long time so I when I came upon a huge tree that was hollow inside, I stepped in, hoping there was nothing in it. To my luck, there wasn't, so, I started to rip certain parts of my dress so that I would be able to run better in it. I took off my hoop as well which made life even more easier and I kept ripping.

After ripping about a quarter of my dress to pieces, I left all the scraps inside the tree and started to run again. It was so much easier and I could tell I was faster to, even though I was fast to begin with. I looked behind me for a brief second and saw I tiny speck of light in the far off distance. I smiled to myself and turned around. As I turned around I was tripped, but I didn't know who or what tripped me.

"Ah ha! I caught you!" said someone who I recognized as Xavier. I sat straight up in fear, "Oh no," I thought "What am I going to do?"

"P-Please d-don't h-hurt m-me," I stuttered in fear.

"Why would I hurt you?" asked Xavier, crouching down, looking a little worried.

"B-Because y-your f-father w-wants to m-meet w-with m-me a-about s-something, a-and I,I kn-know th-that c-can't be g-good." I stuttered, now starting to cry. Xavier pulled me into a hug,

"I promise I wouldn't hurt you, or let my father hurt you. I just want to know about the carriage and what happened, then I will leave you alone."  he said, letting me out of his hug.

"I,I don't r-really know exactl-ly what ha-happened but I do kn-know that it w-was me." I said, trying my best not to cry even more than I was.

"What do you mean it was you?" asked Xavier, cocking his head slightly to the side.

"I mean that it was magic, and I did the magic." I said, looking at him. His face went to confused to shocked right as I said magic.

"Y-You mean that y-you did m-magic!? That's incredible! How do you do it? Magic I mean." said Xavier, scooting a little closer to me.

"I don't know, I didn't even know that I could use magic until I was getting ready to meet you and Zanthis." I said. He looked at me with a mixture of confusion and shock.

"So, you don't know anything about your magical abilities?" he asked.

"No." I said blankly.

"Oh," he said, seeming a little disappointed.

"Hey, how did you know I was here?" I asked him. He was taken back by me asking him a question this time but then he smiled and said

"I heard you scream, it was very loud, and I so I followed it, but at a distance and saw you running in a certain direction. Then I went, following that direction until I came out and tripped you." I nodded and then I heard horses, again.

"Great, Zanthis' guards or something, trying to take me away to meet him" I said, standing up. Xavier quickly stood up after me and helped me get the rest of the way up.

"Shall we go then?" he asked with a smile.

"Sure, but where?" I asked.

"To the city of course! We still need to go to the restaurant." He said with a smirk. He climbed up on his horse and then helped me up on behind him.

"But my dress," I said "It's all torn up."

"Don't worry, we'll get you a new and better one." he said, and with that, we rode off.