Born a Warrior

Chapter Four

The rain was pouring as Elvira followed Terrowin through the forest. Elvira's cloak flowing behind her as her horse galloped through and over trees and branches. She watched as Terrowin gracefully jumped over or went over any obstacle in his way. Even her horse was beginning to struggle with the terrain.

She began to realize how she has never been this deep in the forest, she's never even left the realm. Now she's going to the Eastern realm, where all of the banished criminals, traitors and clans go. Her heart raced faster with every moment as she thought about what was to come. For all she knew, the witches could kill her in an instant. One wrong move and everything will go to hell. There was no way to tell how long the two were racing through the woods, but as Elvira wiped the rain from her eyes, she could see a break in the woods. Lit torches revealed two crowds of people. One crowd were half human half wolf, they all seemed fairly terrified, the other a mix of hideous and beautiful women. Everyone was arguing and fighting, until they saw Terrowin arrive with the princess behind her.

A woman with hair, silver as the moon and the most beautiful and perfect features walked toward the wolf king, "Look who finally came back," She looked past him and saw Elvira getting off of her horse, "And with a friend. Who I must say looks quite dressed up."

Elvira moved next to Terrowin and removed her hood, "I was having a delightful evening until he came to my kingdom with word of an invader. I believe he was talking about you."

"And who might you be, child?" The witch taunted.

"Princess Elvira, next in line for the throne of Adeir," Elvira took a step closer to the witch, "Now who might you be?"

The witch scoffed at her question, "I am Alizon, leader of the Coven of the Siren Wives," Alizon began to circle around Elvira, "Now, I'm guessing you're here to try to negotiate something with me."

"Indeed I am. It's just I need to know what we are negotiating."

Alizon stopped circling Elvira and let her deep purple cloak fall behind her. Elvira took in her features. The strong jaw and sharp cheekbones. The light skin, plump red lips and violet eyes that shone bright. How her long silver hair fell in perfect waves at her sides and her beautiful figure that would make any man fall for her. Even her voice was strong, smooth and alluring.

"I came here for one thing and one thing only," She paused, "war."

Elvira took a sharp breath at the word she was hoping wouldn't come up, "Why do you want war, especially against the werefolk?"

"Don't you read up on your history, girl? These werefolk tried to make us extinct years ago, along with every other realm on this continent. My coven and I have been discussing for years what to do and when to do it. We decided, since I hear there are tensions between kingdoms in the Northern realm, that we should declare war."

"Nothing good comes from war. You of all people should know that." Elvira spat back.

"There you are wrong," Elvira curled her lips, "Power goes to the victor. Isn't that how your poor old daddy gained control?"

"My father made peace between kingdoms, that is why he is the leader of the realm." At this point, Elvira was a foot away from the witch that stood before her.

"Don't get any closer dear. Remember, I have magic." Alizon whispered.

Elvira took the threat and stepped back. Her heart pounded in her chest as the witch queen stared into her eyes. Terrowin stood on the sidelines, for once, not knowing what to do. His fate was in the hands of a princess he had attacked just the other day. He stared at her arm and remembered the wound he left on her. His eyes went to her cheek, where light scratches from his claws had grazed.

Alizon tilted her head back and let the rain hit her face. She smiled an evil smile towards the sky, "Face it, princess. War is upon us, and a man in your castle is behind it. He is one hell of a king too," Elvira thought of her father, "Oh, but don't worry it's not your father. It's one of the others."

"How did you know that the kings are in my kingdom?"

"I'm a mystical creature, I can see and do a lot of things," She paused once more, "We will be back again, but we will not be on either of your sides."

The witches began to disappear one by one until only Alizon left, "Next time we won't be so friendly," She waved her hand and one of the wolf-folk in the crowd fell to his knees as if being choked. He gagged and gasped for air, and once the witch was gone, he could breathe once again.

Fright was in everyone's eyes, including Elvira's. She didn't know what to do, or what to say to Terrowin. So all she did was give a nod to Terrowin, get on her horse and go back to her kingdom.

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"They want to declare war. There is no way out of it," The princess looked toward her father and continued, "The feud between the wolf kingdom and witch clan has gotten worse and it has co-."

"What if we try to ally with the witch clan?" King Alistair interrupted.

King Daemon looked at Alistair as if he was a madman, "If we ally with the Witches we will be agreeing to suicide."

"The witches intend on killing all of us for what the realms did to them all those years ago. They would betray us in a matter of seconds and wipe us all out."

"Well, princess, allying with the witches means gaining power. Gaining power means more protection from enemy kingdoms such as the Otusun Kingdom or the entire southern empire. We could be in complete control."

"But we would also be facing many losses," Elvira added, raising her voice, "If you look through history, anyone who has ever allied with the witch clan has faced loss of land, food, and the majority of the population. Why do you think they were banished from entering the Southern, Northern and Western realms? They take what they want until there is nothing left."

Alistair got up from his seat and walked right in front of Elvira. Elvira stood, clenched her jaw and raised her head higher. Some of the other kings and princes in the room stood from their seats and the men guarding the doors began to move closer to the two.

"Listen your highness, you're young, you haven't lived long enough to understand this type of situation."

"And yet all the young princes here are. Isn't Prince Lewis only 14?" The young prince nodded, "And not to mention your son is only a month older than me and yet he is allowed to have input on this sort of situation," King Alistair looked down at Elvira, lips beginning to curl and fists clenching, "Now, your majesty, I don't think this is an age situation, I think it is simply because I am a lady determining war and military. If you have been paying attention to the events of the past few days, you might have noticed that my fathers men and I stopped the wolf attack, and that I helped stop a possible attack that could've taken out the whole population of wolf-folk," pure anger shone in Alistair's face and Daemon looked at his daughter with pride, "Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go train outside for a while."

Elvira began to leave the room as Prince Edmund asked, "Isn't it raining?"

The princess turned to him, "Well, I guess it's the perfect day for training." And with that, she left the room.