Unknown 1: The Empress of The Mountains

Chapter 1: The Seed of Youth

Hertz ran across the damp and muddy rainforest, looking back nervously with the small blue seed safe in a brown pouch in his wet, rainy hands. He could see the big white castle of quartz staring at him through the horizon as the sun started to peer over the frosted, green hills. The Night Market's Gates opened up and he rushed through blue palace gates, zig-zagging through the halls. Until he finally reached the grand room and watched the people in it murmur, except for the tallest and most majestic one, the ruler of the Kingdom of Water. The Beauty of the nine moons, Queen Z E N D O L A. "Step forward, nephew." She smiled, her lips curling into a smirk. "Show my guests what i have sent you to retrieve or must i say take back...for us?" She said in a low voice reaching out a long pale arm, bejeweled with priceless rings and bracelets and a small sapphire diadem on her long and fine, blonde hair. "They spotted us! The Fire Queen! She saw me and chased me through the sand market for hours." Hertz muttered to the queen. "Well, why did you let them! Into the dungeon for a week!" The queen replied with sudden coldness and no remorse in her high and young voice, she smiled at the guests and took out a single seed with a baby blue glove. "This is what leads us to victory of Elixir, we take the Fire Kingdom first, then the Rest is ours in a matter of time! We shall then take the drought of youth and have an immortal life alongside the deer and folks of the sea!" She announced leading to a burst of loud magical applaud and some women taking out their soft silk handkerchieves to wipe out emotional tears.

Hertz sat on the cold, muddy floor of the dungeon and stared at the brick wall. He took a bowl of water from the trapdoor under him and lapped at it like a dog. It was his 4th time in the dungeon this month and a week was his longest time so far. Hertz was never a favorite of the royal family even if he was the queen's nephew, his mother (the supposedly heir to the throne) disappeared when he was young so his aunt claimed the throne with a big grin and a empty heart. The queen said she took Hertz in out of the goodness of her soul, but she just used him as her loyal pick-pocket. "Hey, Hertz! The Queen put you in again?" Hertz turned around and saw a strapping young girl with 2 curious brown eyes and long dark hair. "Yeah, I guess. I got the seed of youth for her at least, Aura!" Hertz smiled at Aura, he was always fond of her. She was the only friend he had, even if her mother said princesses like her should be reading a book or horse riding, not playing with lowly princes. But Aura didn't care they were best friends and nothing could ever change that. "What did she say about the fire kingdom?" Aura looked at Hertz with desperation, he knew that Aura's friend (a boy) lived there, Kai. "Umm, the fire kingdom is gonna be the first the queen will conquer but! I think I can convince her." Hertz whispered in her bejeweled ear. Aura smiled weakly at him, waved goodbye and left her smooth heir swishing behind.

Hertz got released a week after and returned to his bedroom in the royal towers and took a shower quickly (the queen didn't like smelly princes at her ball), he then put on his best outfit and felt overwhelmed as hundreds of of guests walked in the banquet hall, wearing shiny and expensive tuxedoes and gowns. Aura walked up to him in a fluffy, short, pink and white dress and giggled, "You look nice today! Kai can't come because his mom banned him from seeing me, since...you know." She smiled through her pain, they walked to their seats and saw the queen standing on the stage, smiling and grinning. "Attention, all guests! I have an announcement!" The queen shared to all the guests, who were all smiling with joy. "Aunt Z E N D O L A, really went all out for this ball didn't she?" Hertz smirked, staring at all the diamond chandeliers and gold silk chairs. "Yeah, she said she had an important person coming over from the Fire Kingdom..." Aura chirped. Hertz turned back at the entrance, almost knocking over his glass of 'royalty' water. A fire kingdom soldier walked onto the stage, dressed in a mask to cover his face ,so all you could see was his cream-white hair. "Here I have a guest from the fire kingdom, son of Queen Anna-Beth of the Fire Kingdom!" The queen boomed and then stared at Aura, whose face had turned pale. "He is a close friend of my daughter, Aura. May i present! Prince Kai!" The Fire soldier then removed his mask to reveal 2 blue eyes and a wide smirk.

"Aura, are you okay?" Hertz asked, worriedly as all the color from Aura's face had drained. "He lied to me...He said he couldn't meet me anymore until my birthday." Aura whispered, her smile was full of pain. Kai was Aura's best friend, i couldn't imagine the pain i would feel if Aura lied to me. Then, an alluring young girl walked in and stood next to Kai, smiling. "And his new girlfriend....Ariana!" The queen said in a teasing tone. Kai wrapped his arm around Ariana's waist but he didn't look happy, he looked empty. As if the soul had been sucked out of him the moment Aura stopped smiling. "Your Majesty, I would like to request a private meeting with Princess Aura and Prince Hertz." Ariana purred, caressing her long auburn hair. The queen smiled and nodded. " If the prince and princess agree of course! My daughter would sure be happy to talk with you! Now let me get to the important announcement...The will Lady Demeter left to Prince Hertz was found yesterday and let us allow the priest to read it aloud." The queen had a sting of coldness in her voice, Hertz was left confused. His mother had never told him about a will, even 10 years ago.

"In honor of my beloved Hertz, I leave him my riches, my mansion in Beverly Ocean and.." The priest stopped cold. "I give him my throne, Hertz is now the heir to the throne of Water, after my sister's reign." The queen didn't smile, she looked angry. "What!? Thats impossible the LeaderBoard would chan-" The leaderboard was a sacred wall that listed all the heirs in order. The LeaderBoard started shifting, At 3rd was Montreal, a distant cousin of Aura. At 2nd was Aura, of course and 1st was Prince Hertz. "Congrats! Anyways, we should be heading back to our room. See you tomorrow!" Ariana chirped, smiling widely. "Wow...I'm gonna be a King one day, I'm not useless!" Hertz whispered to Aura. She chuckled at his joke, Everyone started to applaud and cheered at Hertz's direction. The ball then continued with more speeches from the queen and then the feast with delicious plates of culinary food.

The breeze was cool and whooshing across her face, The morning dew of leaves dropped onto her hands. Her hair danced alongside the flying birds and flitting butterflies, Hertz walked up next to Aura, "This is my favorite spot to think. The sky is just different in the morning, don't you think?" Aura breathed, and stuck out her hand. A butterfly landed on her hand. "It's amazing, it makes your eyes sparkle." Hertz blurted and then slowly looked into her eyes, his eyes meeting with hers. "T-t-thanks..We better get going, Ariana wants to meet us." Aura affirmed, they walked through the hallways - which were decorated with monuments of past queens and kings - until they reached the guest towers, which were around 4 flights of stairs down. "We really need to get an elevator." Aura sighed, as they both gasped for breath all the way to Kai's room. They rang the doorbell and Ariana smiled at them happily and chirped, "Hi! We've been expecting you, we need to talk!" The moment she closed the door behind them, she stopped smiling.

"I'm not Kai's girlfriend." She said, in such a serious voice it made Hertz's spine tingle. "I'm Montreal's youngest daughter, Paris. You never met me before because we've been planning this for a long time." Paris/Ariana chirped, stepping back and revealing Kai."I'm really sorry, Aura. You know I would never lie to you." Kai breathed and stepped closer to Aura. She gave him a weak smile and stood next to Hertz. "We can't let the queen take over the kingdoms. The youth potion would disrupt the balance, then...She'll be back again." Paris shivered, Aura tapped her back to comfort her. "Who is she?" Hertz asked, he had heard of many dark sorceress but not one that disrupts balance. "The empress of the mountains. She comes out when the balance is disrupted and she plans to destroy the world until she finds her lost son. It's been going on for thousands of years. The ancient times were filled with wars and murders caused by the empress, King Arthur's son nearly died because of it. Thats why Camelot was erased from the kingdom list, they don't want to be know anymore..." Kai explained, Hertz had heard of Camelot and its glory but he didn't know that King Arthur had a son. "The mountain's oldest cave is when the empress lives, there has been rumors that the cave has been cracking. We need the old tools to seal them..They are the Water Diadem, the Fire Staff, Excalibur and The Ancient Tree's root. But they haven't been seen for years, except the diadem. The Water queen wears it to protect her kingdom from the empress...One of the only good things about her." Kai grumbled then he saw the look on Aura's face. "No offense , Aura. She's a great queen!" Kai stuttered. "So, we're going on an adventure then!" Hertz remarked. Suddenly, the ground grumbled and started to shake, the lamps fell and shattered and everyone fell to the ground. It stopped. Everyone was silent.
"The empress is getting impatient and angry, we need to go now!" Paris yelled and grabbed 4 bags filled with items to survive - food, water, blanket and lanterns. "Wait, where are we going exactly?" Aura questioned as they ran down the hallways and stairs together. "What do you think?" Kai smiled, Paris and him exchanged looks. "We're going to visit the Sand Market in the Fire Kingdom." Kai paused then grinned. "And steal the Fire Staff from my mother."