The Lost Princess (Fairytale Retellings Book 1)

Chapter 1

Slowly waking, the first thing the woman feels is the cold wetness from her dress. Shivering, her eyelids flutter open and she sees light. Her vision is blurry before clearing. She gives a strangled gasp, and tries to sit up. Vision swimming as she sits there, she feels sick.

Closing her eyes, she leans her head forward and takes deep breaths. The nausea subsides and she opens her eyes. Looking around, she sees trees all around her. Pine needles, twigs, and branches litter the forest floor. Bushes and shrubs surround her. Birds chirp in the branches above her, and she can hear squirrels race from one tree to the next, knocking down more pine needles.

Wiping off the dirt from the side of her face, she looks down at herself and her eyes widen when she sees the green dress that she is wearing. Torn and dirty, she cringes at how the beautiful designs on the dress have been smeared with mud, torn in several places, and even covered in some blood. The underdress is also torn and covered in dirt. Her dress is missing some of the layering it had. The sleeves of her dress are torn also, with one of the sleeves hanging in strips.

A sharp pain stabs her in the arm, and she inhales sharply, turning to her arm to see a strip of fabric tied around a bloody cut. Her cheek stings as well.

Her light, auburn hair hangs down her back and over her shoulders, bedraggled and knotted, with dirt and pine needles in it. Her pale ivory skin is covered in streaks of dirt and blood, with several small cuts on her arms and face. Heart pounding, she tries to think back to how she got her.

However, her memory is a blank. Nothing but darkness. Shaking, she tries to remember her family. She has one. She knows she does. But she can't remember who they are.

Closing her eyes, she tries her hardest to think back. Still nothing. Opening her eyes, panic wells up inside of her. Tears sting her eyes. Blinking them back furiously, she shivers and wraps her arms around herself. Taking deep, shuddering breaths, she tries to calm herself.

"Alright, no reason to panic," she mutters to herself. "Just need to stay calm."

Deciding she can't stay there, she slowly gets to her feet, her legs protesting. Groaning slightly, she stretches for a couple minutes before looking around her. Everything looked the same to her.

Swallowing hard, she picks a direction and begins to walk. As she walks, she lets her thoughts drift.

She begins by establishing that she has no idea how she got to that place or where she came from. However, she must have been running from someone. Which is why she looks like she's been running through the forest for several days. Maybe she can discover what happened in a nearby village. They might know of an attack. And if she's wearing a dress, and a really nice one at that, she must be of some kind of nobility. Perhaps news of a noble being attacked or perhaps a noble born's daughter going missing? News like that would be hard to miss.

As the plan forms in her mind, she begins to relax a little. She has no doubts that soon she'll have her answers.

She frowns though. Even if she figures it out, she still has no way of getting home. As she continues walking, she tries to conjure up faces, names, places, anything that might trigger memories to come flooding back to her.

Feeling her head, she winces when she feels a large bump in the back. No doubt that's the culprit. She must have hit her head at some point during her escape. Now she wishes she had examined the area she woke up in a little more.

Sighing, her stomach growls. Placing a hand over it, she pats the sides of her dress and feels pockets. Grinning, she sticks her hands into the pockets and comes up with some dried fruit, and meat. Taking some of the dried fruit, she eats a little. Her throat burns and she swallows. She hopes to find a village here soon.