Not Lost, Not Yet

Six

425 years ago...

Light burned strong through the cracks and underneath the old wooden door with rusty hinges that creaked loudly every time they were activated. The girl standing before the king's chambers knew that for a hundred years on this exact day, the king has been gone. One simple day, he disappeared. She was all very aware of this because she was his great-great-granddaughter, Sophie.

This was all too new for Sophie. The sneaking around, the betrayal, and everything else the kingdom's responsibilities had to be. Sophie was barely the young age of ten.

Golden hair like the king, and blue eyes like the princess, people told Sophie. If she wasn't a part of both of those groups of her family, then that made her an immediate outcast. Her having the darkest hair and the greenest eyes the kingdom had ever seen made it hard for Sophie to even leave her own house without someone calling her out on her different appearance. From the moment she grew hair on the very top of her head, her mother had been dying it every week. It was a painful process, but Sophie's mother thought it had to be done. She only ever wanted what was best for her daughter.

"Sophie?" a voice said from behind her. When she turned around to look, there was no one there. She shrugged. She must have heard something else, like a creak and a tremble of the old castle. Just to be sure, she lit her lantern bright and shined it all around the old room.

"Sophie!" it called again. Sophie's heart started to race, and her breaths became heavier and heavier.

"Hello?" she faintly whispered into the darkness.

"Sophie! You must leave. Horrible things are to happen. The king, he asked me to warn you. You must leave! I don't have enough strength to continue to talk to you, dear. Sophie!" the voice shrieked.

"What?" Sophie called out, but the voice was gone, and once again, Sophie was left in the shadows of the castle she thought was her home.

Regardless of what just happened, Sophie went back to standing at the king's chambers. She wanted to knock so badly, to see if somehow, by a miracle, her great-great-grandfather had been there all along.

Sophie wouldn't want to meet this man as much if she didn't need his blessing to take over the kingdom someday. Of course, she shouldn't need it, because it's been one hundred years since he was last seen, but the kingdom had so much faith in him that they never pronounced him legally deceased. They said without hope, what do these people have? They told Sophie and the rest of her family to keep quiet and act like he's just gone away for a while, and he'll be back soon. But it's been a hundred years. Any sane person would know that the king is never, ever coming back.

Yet, a tiny part of Sophie thought there could be a miracle. Maybe the king would return, maybe even as a ghost, to tell Sophie that she could be the queen. That she could save this kingdom from its demise.

Looking around the lobby room outside of the king's chambers, Sophie started noticing little things she had never noticed before.

Sophie walked over to the big, sturdy bookshelf that must have had a couple of hundred books on it. She brushed her hand gently along each dusty book, looking at the names of them. Most of them happened to be legends or myths, and even some fairytales. Sophie remembered the names from when her mother read some of these books to her.

Moving along to the desk in the corner of the room, she found candles and dying flowers everywhere. People must leave things for the king every once in a while. Sophie had never noticed that, but it would make sense. They're to the point of bribing their precious king to come back.

To the middle of the room, there was an old carpet desperately in need of dusting. Sophie didn't walk on it, in fear of getting her bare feet dirty. It had wonderful designs, though. Someone ought to clean it eventually.