Killing The Queen

Prologue

Long ago, there were two tribes, one that had been traveling an endless forest filled with creatures terrible beyond imagination. The other traveled an endless sea, never able to find land. When they both stumbled upon a beautiful valley, war broke out, Ellesmere; the tribe of the land, and Alynthi; tribe of the sea fought until both sides were to weak to go on. In the end, the land was split in two, divided by a shadowy forest in the middle.

One night deep in the golden meadow were twin princesses of Ellesmere, one with hair as white as snow and the other with hair as dark as midnight. They laughed at something only children could understand and continued deeper into the meadow oblivious to the fact that they were entering the endless forest. The trees grew thick, and the sky dark.

They giggled some more and started to run and hide from each other good naturedly. The little girls didn't give a second thought to their fine silk gowns as they rolled and played on the dirty forest ground. The girl with the snow white hair laid down in a mossy patch of ground giggling, as she hid from her twin sister and eventually fell asleep. The other dark haired girl looked all over unable to locate her sister. She started to stumble deeper into the Shadow forest on her chubby toddler legs beginning to get lost.

Later the girl with the white hair woke with a start. She began to cry, calling out her sister's name. The royal guard found her sitting on the same moss patch. She was crying, and quite scared. They all breathed sighs of relief knowing that they had found the princess they were sworn to protect.

They asked her where her sister, the princess Kayla, was.The little girl didn't respond, just sobbed into the captain of the guard's chest. The guards decided to bring the one princess back to the palace before they searched for the other princess, but when they got back to the same spot they found no trace of the other girl. They searched high and low but couldn't find the princess. The King and Queen finally gave up on the search after months and months of looking for their daughter. Their son and the light haired daughter eventually forgot all about their missing sibling but their parents never forgot, and they dubbed her "The Missing Princess of Ellesmere"

On the other side of the valley, in a small forest in Alynthi, lived another princess, Sloane Crown. Who had never been outside her tower, made of pale brick, and with a locked door she couldn't open. Pushed away, days going by, bored and alone. She hadn't yet learned to read, and spent her time playing with paper dolls, and straw princesses. She often reminded herself that she was a princess, and things would have to get better sometime. Maybe she'd be married to a prince... her mind took off, and she spent hours drawing out every detail of the "prince".

"Prince John," she told her servant, who came in once a week to deliver food and water. "What do you think of him?" Sloane held up a straw prince, with pretty blue button eyes. The servant nodded, she was mute, and Sloane just talked to her, she never expected a response. "I imagine that one day he'll come find me, and take me away. I'll never spend another day alone."

The servant smiled, and pity filled her eyes just looking at the child. Sloane was fairly pretty herself, with smooth chocolate skin, and perfect dark curls. Her lips red as blood, and her checks childish and chubby. Sloane Crown, "The hidden princess".