Feel the Sun

1. Life As It Was

Author's Note:
Thank you so much for opening this story I've created. Thank you for giving it a chance! Though I've been a writer since I was little this is my first real story that I've decided to share with the world. At some point I am planning on publishing it on amazon so the version on wattpad will be a temporarily unedited version and may contain a couple of spelling errors here and there. I hope you enjoy x

Fire was a form of ultimate destruction. It was malicious and destroyed everything in it's path. It had to be one of the most dangerous and unforgiving phenomenons known to man. But to me fire wasn't just red flames and black smoke.

Fire was a sense. An emotion. Like anger and pain - a bursting heat that made your throat swell and your heart race. Or passion and determination. The fuel in your soul that made your feet move even when they hurt and you didn't think you could walk anymore. Fire was also a light source, whether it be a torch or the burning sun that I felt gently graze over my skin as I lie in the palace's flourishing garden.

I would like to think that fire was what love felt like. But what would I know? I was nothing but a sheltered royal who spent her days trapped behind castle walls, roaming through ancient corridors built by my ancestors and standing on the mezzanine connected to my luxurious bedroom, wondering what life could possibly be like if I wasn't born the princess of Baradae. 

When I was little I used to dream of adventuring beyond this prison I grew up in. But now that I was in my early twenties I yearned for it like I yearned for nothing else. All those years spent wishing were wasted but what was I supposed to do? I was the only heir to the throne, the only child of Baradae's King and Queen so the rules enforced on me weren't out of parental love and protection. I had future duties I never asked for and never wanted.

The fire in me was desire. And as I grew older it became more restless.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

I was snapped out of my own head when I heard a soft voice a few feet away from me - there, on the other side of the garden, was Lyle. His usual friendly smile accompanied by his slick brown hair and electrifying blue eyes.

"How did you know where to find me?" I lifted myself in a sitting position, running my fingers through my caramel colored hair to fix what the grass had ruffled.  

"Really, Amara?" He smirked. "You're always here. You like to be where the flowers are..."

He didn't hesitate to sit beside me on the lawn near the flower patches. Lyle was definitely observant - over the years it was one of the most prominent things I had learned about him. He paid attention to detail and always picked up on the little things.

"Daydreaming again?" He asked after a few moments of silence.

"What else is there to do, really? I've read most of the books in the library that interest me and my dance instructor doesn't know what else to teach me anymore because I learned more than she knows..."

"Don't you have princess duties to tend to?"

I laughed once without humor. "And spend time with those people that call themselves my parents? No thank you."

"The Queen greeted me at the palace doors and she seemed as friendly as ever." He knew there was no use in convincing me though. I already knew what the Queen was like behind closed doors - I got the brunt of her anger and had never received an ounce of love from that woman since I was thirteen.

That was when I begin to shift from her "daughter" into her "heir." Now all that she wanted to do was control me and train me. She didn't care what I wanted. And as for the King....? My father had been emotionally distant for as long as I could remember. If he wasn't barking out orders he was minding his own business and acting as though he didn't have a daughter.