The Princess of Clarines (Akagami no Shirayukihime)

Chapter One: The Girl with the Red Hair

🌹

"Zen!! Where are you going?"

Four people were roaming through one of the many forests of Clarines Kingdom: two men and two women. The older man had teal hair and almond brown eyes, the older woman had long blonde hair and indigo eyes, while the other two in their group had matching blue eyes and silvery-white hair.

"Kiki, Mitsuhide, Zena!" the white-haired boy called back to his companions. "I'm going on ahead!"

"Careful, Bragger!!" the teal-haired man warned.

"Zen!! Wait!!" The white-haired girl, Zena, ran after Zen quickly and vaulted over a wall right after him.

Their movements to get over the wall were identical; their landings, however, were not.

CRASH!!!

Zen fell onto the ground hard, landing on his wrist and spraining it.

Zena landed much more gracefully, like the lady she was, only to promptly fall to her knees, laughing and holding her stomach.

"Owwwww......" Zen groaned, holding his wrist and slumping against the ground in pain. "Shut up."

"Zen!!! Zena!! Are you two okay?" The teal-haired man and the blonde woman came running up, having decided not to jump over the wall like the siblings and instead be safe and go around. "What's one plus one?!"

"Purple," Zen responded, sitting up and looking at the other man. "Wait. Who are you again?"

Shocked and not realizing at first that the younger boy was joking, he pouted at himself and yelled at him, "It's me! Mitsuhide!!"

Zena stopped laughing as the other woman asked "Oh, was that your name?" causing her to start laughing again.

"Not you too, Kiki!!" Mitsuhide admonished the blonde.

Zen joined his sister in laughing at their friend before he remembered the reason he'd fallen in the first place and looked over his shoulder at the hooded girl trying to crawl away.

"So," he started, making her stop. "Who are you really?"

His question drew the others' attention to the girl and Zena stood up to stand beside her brother.

"Just what are you doing in this deep part of the forest?" she asked, leaning forward to see the girls face more clearly.

Shocked at the sudden proximity, the hooded girl waved her hands and denied, "No! I uhm... I just left home. I just want to go through the path that not many people walked—"

She was cut off by Zen pointing his sword at her face and using it to flip her hood off of her head.

The four travelers stared in awe at the bright red hair and emerald eyes in front of them. Startled, the girl raised her hand up as if to attempt to try to hide her hair color, and gave a hesitant half-smile.

"Ah..." she murmured, making an 'oh crap' face.

"You have a strange hair color, huh?" Zen asked, earning himself a slap upside the head from his sister.