The Eleven:The Guardian

Prolouge

"You're all letting a 19 year old run this town? No wonder it's such a disaster." He scoffed and held his arms out as he turned slowly. "Then I guess it won't be a problem for us to take this town back." His smile grew and he laughed as the crowd murmured.

As the crowd shifted they began to part, allowing a girl to walk through. She looked just like every other person in the town, but there was something about her that made everyone step out of the way.

"Are you the child leader? You look almost as pathe-" The mans words were cut off as a knife just barely nicked the side of his face. He took a step back in shock and he slipped on the stones which were wet from the small children playing in the fountain earlier that day.

The girl walked until she was standing next to the fountain in front of the man who was now cowering. She knelt down so that she was on his level, her knife held loosely in her hand as she twirled it.

"Don't ever insult my town, and don't ever insult me. If you want to live through this, take my message to your king. "This is my town. These are my people. And if you ever, and I mean ever, touch anyone or anything here, I will destroy your kingdom, and I will break your crown. And when you've lost everything, I will remind you that it's your fault that you hurt my town in the first place."" She paused, her words floating in the thick air of the silence.The people of the town seemed unfazed, but the man on the stones looked pale, as if he was about to pass out. "And once you've given him my message, make sure you never return to this town." She stood and turned away from the man, directing her words at her people now.

"He has until midnight to get out. After then, if you see this man, I don't care what you do. Kill him for all I care. He is an enemy to Alvaria, and we shall treat him as such." The crowd stood silently, and the only movements being made were small nods of agreement.

She started to walk away when she turned around and stopped. The man had clambered to his feet and was standing there, trembling, his still-pale face filled with fear. She watched him for a moment and then looked down at her knife.

"You're not worth anything-not to me at least. If you can someday prove to an Alvarian that you are a good man, then you can return. But if you do anything this stupid ever again..." She looked up and the man visibly shuddered at her gaze. "Let's just say, you had better hope it's not me that finds you first." She turned and walked away, then crowd once again started moving, this time to clear out of the center of the town and return to their daily lives.

No one was quite sure when the man left the town, but everyone was certain that he was given when the guard appeared the next day, formally withdrawing the declaration of war that his king had sent two days prior. It seemed that the king was wise enough to listen when a young woman was able to make his most trusted guard tremble at her name.

It seemed as though the king had spread the word to the other nearby kingdoms, as all of their inhabitants had all started tiptoeing around anything that could possibly offend anyone when visiting Alvaria.