Luna's Quest(Under Editing)

Chapter 2

My father yells at me for a good ten minutes. He goes on about how I shouldn't wander off and how dangerous it is out in the woods for a princess to be alone. When he finally calms down he let me speak.

"I just wanted to clear my head and get some fresh air."

He sighs. "Why would you need to clear your head?" I didn't want to tell him the real reason for me wandering from the castle. I feel too embarrassed to explain to him and everyone else in the room.

"I needed time to think about how we could bring our kingdom peace." He'll never believe that. It even sounds fake to me. My father looks at me with some confusion, but luckily my mother speaks first.

"Well, I think that is wonderful for you to be thinking about your future as queen." I give my mother a grateful look. My father seems to let the matter go.

"Well now we can talk about a peace treaty for our kingdoms," King Aidan says way too happy.

"Yes we can," I say with the same enthusiasm.

"I believe that my people feel threatened by Starlings," King Aidan say. Starlings are what the people of the Twilight Kingdom are called.

"Why would Solarians feel threatened by us?" my mother asks with a laugh.

"My people don't understand Starlings and you know not understanding something causes fear for some people," Prince Ian replies. This is the first time he has said something. You could tell he is nervous, but he still has a sense of confidence like he was trying to impress someone. It looks like he impressed my parents.

There are many tales of the great Solarian Prince Ian. He has been told to fight the fiercest of beasts and win the hearts of all women. The tales say he hadn't settled down because he hasn't found the right one. Ian interrupted my thoughts,"I believe we must combine our kingdoms to learn more about each other."He's got this persuasive tone that makes me believe him and without thinking I have myself saying,"Prince Ian is right." Everyone looks at me. Normally I don't like the attention, but if I want to be queen I have to get used to it. "We have to ensure that the people's fear doesn't turn into violence."

"I'm afraid to tell you this Princess Luna, but my people's paranoia has already turned to violence," Ian says apologetically. The way he looks at me with those piercing blue eyes like it is all his fault his people turned violent. I find it kind of cute that he genuinely cares for his kingdom.

"How would you suppose we fix this then?" my mother nervously asks.

King Aidan gazes at his son before saying, "my people want us to go to war against you, but I would like to offer an exchange."

"Exchange of what?" my father asks almost daring Aidan to ask for an impossible thing.

"Your daughter's hand in marriage," Ian says stepping towards my parents.

"Excuse me," I say.

"I think this may not be such a bad--" my mother starts. I storm out of the room before she finishes the sentence. How dare that boy ask my hand in marriage?

I hear footsteps behind me trying to keep up. "Princess Luna, I know your a little angry, but you must finish this conversation for our people." I stop abruptly in my tracks and turn so fast to face Hannah, she runs into me.

"I will not marry that self-important, insufferable, and incompetent prince."

Hannah's face was turning the color of a cherry."I'm sorry your majesty. I misspoke."

"Leave me." Then Hannah bows her head and walks away humbly.

I need to calm down again. The only person who can calm me down I can't even talk to because he wouldn't want to see me, but I find myself walking in his direction.

I walk the halls until I come upon the guards resting room. It isn't much with few tables and couches with some food for them. The walls are gray stone so it gives a depressing feel to it.
All the guards stare at me as I walk pass them. Some bow and others avoid eye contact with me. I ignore them and walk to the very back table in one of the corners of the room. A tall and almost bald dark skinned man with black and gold armor on sits at the table with papers in his hands. They must be complaints from the citizens.
I cough to get his attention. He looks up and his gold eyes shine with concern. "Yes, Princess Luna," he says formally.

"I would like to have a talk with you, lieutenant." He nods and trails behind me as I walk into the hallway. As soon as we are out of earshot and sight, I hug him tightly.

"Oh Charles," I start crying. His armor is so cold and rough, but I don't care. I feel is arms wrap around my waist and head. He starts to rub my head softly.

"What happened?" he asks gently. I feel like such a baby in his arms, but to him, I might be considering I'm almost eighteen and he's twenty-one.

"It doesn't matter because you're going to be leaving soon, so you can't do anything about it."

He sighs. "You know I want to stay. As the first lieutenant to General Moon, I have to go to the front with the troops." What King Aidan didn't talk about to my father is the fact that his army was starting to attack our kingdom already. I hesitantly detached myself from him. I look up at his eyes and I could tell he meant what he said about not wanting to leave me.

"Maybe I can talk to my father and--" I start until he cuts me off with a stern look.

"Enough about me," Charles says as he grabs my shoulders,"what happened to you?" I tell him everything and when I get to the end he curses. I laugh because it was good to see someone on my side.

"I just came to you to calm down and guess I should be heading back to tell Ian yes."

"What?" Charles says. "You're actually going through with it?" His anger surprises me. Normally he talks to me formally or calmly, never angrily. I don't know what to say."I remember when you talked about how you wanted to marry someone who loved you as equally as you love them," he continues with a slight tone of sadness.

"You mean someone like you," I reply with the same tone of sadness. I know he has feelings for me, and I don't know how I feel about him. I don't have siblings, so Charles always seemed like a brother to me until I turned sixteen. That was when my father started looking for suitors for me. You had noblemen sons,   guards, and even farmers' sons. Most suitors just wanted to marry me to have the title of King when I become queen at twenty. The other suitors actually claimed to have true feelings for me. To get away from all the chaos, I always went to watch Charles while he trained in combat. We would always go sit under the tree that stood in the palace garden when he finished training. One of those times we sat under the tree Charles had shared his thoughts and feelings on me marrying some stranger and eventually, he told me how he had fallen love with me and wanted to marry me. I had stopped talking to him for a while because it seemed all men only wanted my hand or to be rich. When I didn't choose a suitor, Charles and I left the memory behind us unless it came up like now.

"Yes, someone like me," Charles says. "I would treat you right and I am not after the treasure because I-I-I," he stutters and then stops.

He takes a deep breath and continues. "I love you and I know that sounds crazy because of our age difference, yet-"

"I love you too, Charles," I said to cut him off, "but not in that way".
His face fell and I felt guilty. Why do I feel guilty when I am just sitting things straight between us?

"I should go talk to my father--I mean General Moon about the plans for the front," he says not looking at me. He turns around and walks down the hallway towards his father's office. I looked at him until he disappears around the corner. I just hope I didn't lose my best friend.