The Lost Princess

Chapter 1

"Hey. Hey. Hey miss. Are you ok?" Asked a childlike voice as Chloe slowly regained consciousness and opened her eyes. She lifted her head off the hard cobblestone ground with a throbbing headache before looking over at where the voice she heard came from. There stood a young boy, around the age of 6 or 8 in a brown ragged clothes, covered in mud.
"Huh? Where am I?" She asked as she slowly sat up on the ground. But, before the boy could answer a crowd had begun to surround her pushing the boy back into the sea of people. She curled up into a ball as the crowd gossiped about her odd looking clothes and weird thing on her face. Just as she was about to cry, the voices were silenced by the neigh of a horse as the crowd parted to allow it to walk up to her. Looking up through the tears in her eyes, she could see a man on top of the horse before he jumped down. He had short blonde hair, bright blue eyes, a clean shaved face and wore iron plated armour. She looked back down at the crowd as they dispersed at the request of the man before he gave her his hand.

"Are you ok? You seemed like you were in distress." He asked in a kind, soft voice as she took his hand and got up onto her feet.

"Yeah. I was just a bit scared." She stuttered. She had long, grey hair tied up into a pair of ponytails. She was wearing a navy blue hoodie black leggings, a pair of sneakers and large round glasses.

"That seems like a normal reaction to waking up in the middle of the street in an unfamiliar town." He said chuckling to himself as he towered over her small petit body. She blushed and giggled a little before noticing that he was taking a closer look at her which made her blush even more.

"What are you staring at me for?" She asked as she took a step back. He looked back up at her face with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Sorry. It's just you look strikingly similar to a girl her majesty is looking for." He said as he turned back to his horse and opened up a rucksack that was attached to the side of the saddle of the horse. He pulled out a photo of a baby girl with white hair being held between a queen and king at they sat on their throne. He then pulled out a drawing of a girl with looked almost identical to herself. Her eyes widen as she looked at the photo and the drawing. That was her. But it couldn't be. She had never been here before in her life. But, what else could explain the similarities.

"The queen and king lost their one year old daughter around 18 years ago. According to one of the maids, she had left the princess alone in a room for less than 5 seconds and then she was gone. They have been searching for their daughter ever since and the drawing is from the royal court's artist who was commissioned to make a drawing of the baby girl if she was still alive today. That's why I must ask for your age, miss." He explained with a stern, yet reassuring face.

"19 years old." She slowly said as she finally connected the dots. She knew there was something not right with her parents being not similar to her and this seemed to explain why. As she finished uttering those earth shattering words, the man got onto one knee and bowed before her.

"Princess, may I escort you back to the castle and your family?" He asked as Chloe looked rather shocked and nervous at the guy. She had never dreamed of ever holding any form of power, yet here she was, a princess with a knight that was nearly double her size bowing before her.

"Yes. I suppose I should go back. But, do you mind skipping the formalities as it's a bit jarring." She said before he got back up off her knee.

"Certainly..." He paused for a moment, seemingly unsure what to say next.

"Oh, Chloe. My name is Chloe." She quickly said looking rather sheepishly as she forgot to introduce herself.

"Princess Chloe. I am Zak. I am one of the knights of the kingdom. Please follow me to your carriage." He held down his hand once again as he directed her to a carriage that was hooked to two horses. She carefully climbed the stairs into the luxury carriage with plush seating and big windows either side. She sat down as Zak got up into the driver's seat and got the horses to start walking.

"It's going to be a rather long journey. I hope you are prepared." He said as they trundled down the dirt and stone road towards the capital.