Heart Of Darkness - Shadows Rising

Prologue

I smiled up at the sky, taking in the early morning air and admiring the colours mixing in the sunrise. The sound of birdsong reached my ears; it was a fairly relaxing sound.

"Hi Lumi."

I snapped out of my daydream and looked down at the brunette who'd stopped in the streets by the castle balcony and grinned back.

"Hey Alessa," I replied, smiling as always.

Alessa had always been my best friend. She was a short girl with brown hair that didn't even reach her shoulders and blue eyes. Oddly enough, we both seemed to prefer each other's appearances; she'd always wished she had my green eyes over her blue ones and I'd always thought brown hair looked cooler than blonde. Of course, my favourite bit about her was that she was the only one that didn't refer to me as 'Princess'. I even like the way she shortened my name. Personally, I'd always though Lumiérisa had been a bit of a mouthful, let alone 'Princess Lumiérisa'.

"Princess Lumiérisa-" There it was again "-Are you awake?"

"Yes," I called back, looking down at Alessa, who simply grinned back and waved before carrying on down the street.

"Your father was looking for you," the voice came again, this time I recognised it as Mirlva, one of the castle servants. I turned around and made for the door, only to trip over the rug by the balcony and faceplant my bed. I immediately pushed myself back up and carried on, thankful that I hadn't fallen on the wooden floor. I opened the door and immediately made a beeline for the throne room, pulling Mirlva into a hug as I ran past before charging down the hallway. Of course, I was hoping that it'd be about my sword training; I'd always had a thing for sharp objects, especially with the rising crime rates in the more run-down areas of the kingdom. Thankfully, the guards were pretty good at what they did.

As I rounded the corner, I came skidding to a halt to avoid colliding with a knight named Sir Theretus. Upon seeing who I'd nearly collided with, I admittedly nearly fainted; this guy was my hero. While I managed to remain conscious, my legs kinda gave up trying to support me and I just collapsed to the floor.

"Are you alright, m'lady?" He asked, gazing into my eyes from behind his helmet.

I nodded as he helped me to my feet, though my legs were still comparable to jelly so he ended up catching me before I fell a second time. He removed his helmet and I jumped. It's pretty difficult to remember that the best knight in all of Vrelon is a vampire when he's so far from the usual rabbles that hide in caves. If it wasn't for the terrifying yellow eyes and animalistic fangs underneath his helmet, you'd never have known he was a nightwalker. He let go of me and I wobbled slightly.

"You should be more careful, Princess," he told me sternly, "If you don't slow down, you're going to hurt yourself at this rate."

I nodded, slightly nervous to be in the presence of the finest swordsman ever.

"Anyway," he carried on, making me want to listen to every word he said, "Your father was planning on training you in the use of a ranged weapon. He'll give you a choice of three of them: A bow, a crossbow, or a rifle."

I gasped at the sound of the last option. A rifle? Firearms were rare and difficult to use in a real fight, but they were capable of penetrating pretty much anything. Of course, they were simply an experiment, but they've proved to be effective when used correctly.

"Princess?"

"Y-yeah? I'm listening." Admittedly, I sounded like an absolute idiot when I said that.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." Nope.

"Very well, as I was saying, you'll also be taught some new sword techniques by me tomorrow."

I swear my heart stopped then, how in the name of every god and goddess to ever exist could I possibly hope to keep up with him. In order to hide this, I decided an excited smile would be the best option. Of course, it probably would've been a better option to simply express my excitement verbally since it was there, just competing with the doubts that rose from exactly who I was training with.

After what seemed like ages of uneasy silence following our brief discussion, I ended up with my parents in the practice room. The several soldiers in the room bowed down as I entered, making the whole thing unnecessarily awkward. My father dismissed them and smiled at me.

"You're early, Lumi," he told me, "But that's no surprise, I'll assume Sir Theretus has explained to you what's so special about today."

I nodded excitedly. "Today I'll be training with ranged weapons, and then tomorrow he'll be training me to use a sword even better; I can't wait."

"Eager as always." My mother smiled. "In that case, I suppose you better go ahead and pick a weapon."

I didn't need telling twice and I immediately rushed to where the three weapons sat. Despite my initial excitement about the possibility of using a firearm, I decided to settle with a bow, liking how it's both simple and effective. I managed to avoid saying that out loud with the knowledge that my parents would have a comment on me being simple. Both of my parents nodded in approval of my choice as I picked up the longbow in front of me. It felt light enough, but was definitely heavier than I imagined it would be.

I focused on the quiver next, it contained five arrows but was clearly capable of holding many more. I immediately picked it up and slung it over my shoulder before adjusting the leather strap so that it sat comfortably on my back. Once my first arrow was in place, I lifted the bow and aimed at the closest target; it was oddly amusing to be shooting at sacks of flour with buckets sat on top. I pulled the bowstring back and let go, watching the arrow fly through the air until it hit the target. It wasn't too bad for my first shot, but there was definitely room for improvement. I fired at the next target with a little less accuracy, probably just because it was further away. Unfortunately, this was proven to be correct when I tried to fire at the last, and furthest, target; all three of my arrows missed and one even embedded itself into the wall.

Needless to say, I hadn't done much better throughout the rest of the morning either. After both the archery training and eating, I'd decided to go and see Alessa. As it happened, I was not expecting what came next...

When I got to her house, her parents seemed to be relieved to see me. They immediately took me to her room where she was sat in the centre in floods of tears. Alessa? Crying? That was not a common thing.

"What happened?" I asked her once her parents had left her. Honestly, why was I so direct?

She looked at me before rushing over and hugging me. "M-my uncle's..."

She trailed off, but I'd heard enough. Her uncle worked as a guard in a small village. It was pretty obvious that something had attacked him. Perhaps a wild animal, not that I needed to know; all I needed to know was that she was ok. I had to try and cheer her up so I hugged her back.

"Shh... Don't cry," I told her, "It's not what he would want. He would've given his life to keep everyone safe and he'd want you to be proud of him."

She nodded slightly, so I must've done something right.

"You know, why don't we go for a walk?"

She nodded again, fresh air always seemed to calm her down.

"Th-thanks Lumi." She smiled through the tears. "Thanks for being here."

I nodded, but I knew she definitely wouldn't be letting go of this. Mind you, I didn't want her to, I just wanted to keep her positive.

"Thank you, Lumiérisa," her mother whispered as we passed them, to which I simply smiled as we left.
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A/N: I don't really have any witty remarks here, so I'll just let anyone who reads this know that a cover is on the way.