The Princess Who Returned

Prologue

The subjects of Yale had always been fascinated by the forest that separated them from the rest of the world. They were fascinated and curiosity plagued them but they never dared enter it. The stories of old had too much of a hold over them. Disregarding the stories frankly they had no need to so no one ever entered. Their kingdom had everything after all.

All this however, changed when the seventieth King Robert ascended the throne. He was a revolutionary and wished to expand the kingdom, if not that he at least hoped to establish contact with other kingdoms and countries their ancestors had spoken of and come from. The elders of the village hated his idea and called him foolish but the youth were supportive of his mission. They were tired of never knowing what the forest held and what existed beyond but rules were stricter before King Robert but now that they were being allowed to, they thought they would be fools to miss the opportunity.

Since this was a monarchy and something Robert greatly desired, he ignored everyone that went against his mission and instead set up booths inviting anyone who wanted to explore the forbidden area to join. While he had refused to stop his mission the king was not foolish and knew the risks so to avoid any problems for the kingdom in case, he and his party did not make it back he did the following: he ensured that the people who had volunteered were not part of his army or cabinet, he appointed his brother as his stand in and gave his brother's daughter full right to rule when she came of age in case he never returned.

His niece was called Lillian and she was nineteen when these events happened. Everything that happened after from the appointment of her father as the substitute king to the disappearance of her uncle and his party except for her then best friend (Now king and lover) who had by some miracle survived and managed to deliver the news of the exact nature of the horrors the king and his party experienced happened in the space of an year.

The retelling of the events scarred Lillian because of how atrociously horrifying they were and how she lost her second most favourite person in the world, her uncle Robert. This manifested in the increased protectiveness with which she started treating her loved ones and has remained since.

Regardless, one year after these events she married her best friend and they had a child Lily. This story is about that child and her adventure in the same forest that ended her uncle.