The Midnight Princess

Chapter One

"Great! Just great!" I grumbled angrily to myself, kicking the stone wall in front of me. I hissed from the pain and crossed my arms. "Now how am I supposed to get in?"

The kingdom of Wisteria was a rich and prosperous place for the townspeople to live in, ruled by King William. My mother owns a flower shop in the middle of town, and I must say, we do get a lot of business. Flowers tend to mean a lot to someone.

Although this was the case, my younger cousin, Calantha, wanted to give my mother her favorite flowers for her birthday in two days. But Mother's favorite is an extremely rare kind:

The Middlemist Red.

A beautiful flower with gorgeous pink petals. It looks similar to a rose, but even more colorful and alive. To have something like that sell in the shop, we would probably be hauling in bags of money in the house.

The Middlemist Red is indeed a beautiful flower. But guess what?

We don't sell it in the shop.

Mother has heard of rumors about the palace garden has all the different kinds of flowers in existence, from lilies to orchids to tsubakis.

Calantha constantly hangs around the shop during store hours, and she overheard a customer telling Mother that information. Thus, yesterday night, she begged and pleaded for me to go sneak into the royal palace to bring home some Middlemist Reds.

Then here I am, completely regretting my decision to follow through with this plan. I ran my fingers through my hair, the color of burnt sugar. My blue eyes scanned the area for an entrance.

I had already gotten into trouble with the guards at the front of the wall, and I certainly do not want to be arrested today. I saw a brick toward the middle of the wall I could grab onto and hoist myself over to the top.

Taking a deep breath in, I scaled the wall. Peeking over to make sure there were no guards watching, I pulled myself up. To no avail, I felt myself fall forward, heading straight for the ground.

"OW!" I yelped as I made contact with the dirt. Pain coursed through my body as I stood up and dusted myself off. Then, realizing I was out in the open, scurried to a nearby tree. My heart was practically beating out of my chest. I tried to calm down by taking rhythmic breaths, looking around to spot any guards who might have caught me.

Thank the heavens I chose a spot where there aren't any guards stationed around. It was a blind spot with trees scattered, perfect for me to slip into the castle to find the gardens.

I took off from where I was hiding, sticking close to the castle walls. The best way was to scale the entire perimeter. The gardens have to be somewhere around behind the castle.

The only sound was the thumps as my feet touched the ground. I brushed away some hair that fell to my face, cursing internally for accepting Calantha's wish.

"You had the opportunity to say no to her," I hissed to myself. "But did you? No you didn't! Ughh, Yuki, you are so stupid!"

Next thing I know, I almost step into some flowerbed, nearly crushing the poor plants. I looked up to see a paradise filled with every single type of flower that existed. My jaw went slack as I scanned the area, taking in every single sight.

"The rumors are true..."

I took the chance to walk through the stone path and examine all the flowers. The palace had the rarest kinds I've read about in books. Father's favorite kind, the Lisianthus, was even there. They were large gentian-like, bell-shaped flowers with pale purple petal-like lobes. They come in various colors including white and various shades of pink and purple.