- Princess of Earth -

1.

You could lose yourself in these woods.

These woods, in the heart of the kingdom of Mercia, where robbers run rampant and, at best, slit your throat and steal all your worldly goods. Nasty, brutish and short. You have to learn to fight to survive out here. Not even royal carriages will pass through unchecked. 

No one lives in the forest but the druids. They live off the land and for some reason, the bandits leave them alone. Everyone knows that they practice ancient arts of magick, some say they sacrifice, they burn sage and dance with the Devil on All Hallows Eve. Yet, they've never been caught by Uther and his henchmen; no one knows if they evade capture, if Uther just wants to let them be. Either way, magic is scarce outside these canopies of oak.

The druids steer clear of other folk, and few venture to visit them. Therefore you can imagine what a surprise it was for them to venture out of their camp one evening and to be greeted with a baby, swaddled in coarse cloth that appeared to be restraining the child. She was crying, wailing desperately; she was hungry and the druids knew that they had little choice but to take her in. They knew neither her name or from where she came, but they named her Kiara after her dark brown eyes and whisps of brown hair.

It was impossible for them to realise then that Kiara was to grow far more powerful than even the most learned druids, of even the whole coven combined.

None of them knew that, within their arms, rested the fate of the kingdom of Camelot.

A/N: trying something a little different with this story! I've been studying Celtic beliefs and the mythology of King Arthur and I'm so excited to see how this story develops. Updates will be few and far between but I'll do my best, since this story is something I've been excited to write about for a while now. This is going to be a prelude to the overrarching story that  and I have been working on for a long time :)