𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕯𝖊𝖆𝖉 𝕻𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖈𝖊

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕿𝖜𝖔

~The Gifted~

Nixina Riverblade

I hung the last of Princess Aravina's dresses in the closet and turned to leave the room.

A rush of cool air made me turn around. The window was open. Seconds later Yuroki tumbled in. I rolled my eyes. "Her Royal Highness isn't here right now." I said, crossing my arms. He flashed me that stupid smirk and walked over to me. "C'mon Nix. You don't have to refer to Ara as "Her Royal Highness". The Queen's not in here, is she?"

I sighed. "It's disrespectful to refer to Her Royal Highness by her name." He rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah. Where is she? When will she be back?" I frowned in thought. "Princess Aravina is with her mother; Her Majesty, Queen Talis. They're attending a Royal meeting at the moment. I don't know when they'll be back."

With a groan he flopped over onto the princess' bed. I exhaled slowly. I had just replaced those sheets. "Oh well." He muttered, putting his hands behind his head. "Guess I'll just hang with you until she comes back." "Great." I muttered. He sat up and looked at me with that stupid grin.

(A few weeks earlier)

I smiled at the older lady as she handed me the dress Princess Aravina had been wanting for weeks.

"Thank you, ma'am." She smiled back sweetly. "Of course, see you in a few weeks Nixina."

With a sigh I turned back to my escort. "Was this really necessary?" One of the soldiers nodded stiffly. "Her Majesty insisted." I sighed again. "Right, of course." She wouldn't want anything happening to her precious dresses.

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I continued to the next shop. It wasn't like I hated working for the Queen. She paid my mother and I well. And she always made sure we had enough. I just didn't agree with some of her......motives.

I hated the way she treated men. Like they were worse than the dirt we walked on.

The writing's in the library said that women had been mistreated by men for thousands of years. I, however, refused to believe that women were mistreated for thousands of years and didn't stand up for themselves.

If women really were as strong and powerful as those books said, why hadn't we stopped the mistreatment sooner?

I'd heard rumors, rumors that the books in the libraries had been changed two centuries ago. I didn't know if I believed that either though.

"Hey! You get back here!"

I looked up and saw a boy, about my age, running away from an older gentleman. The boy dashed around a corner while the man slumped against a building, exhausted. I frowned.

"Here." I said. Handing the bags to the soldiers who looked confused. "I'll only be a moment."

I peeked around the corner the boy had run down and saw him crouching in the back of the alleyway. I took a deep breath and slowly began creeping up on him. I moved as soundlessly as I could.

I gasped in surprise and pain when my back hit the cold hard ground. "Careful, love." He whispered. I shuddered. "Let me go." I demanded. "Nah. I don't think so." He pulled out a dagger and pressed the tip of the blade against my neck. "Now, who are you? And why were you following me?"

I rolled my eyes and scratched his face as hard as I could. He cried out in pain and dropped the dagger, moving his hands to his face instead.

I snatched the dagger off the ground and pushed him onto his back, pressing the tip of the blade against his neck. "I wasn't following you, sweetheart." I saw his cheeks redden slightly. "I just saw what you did to that poor old man and thought I should convince you to give, whatever it is you took, back."