-Daughter Of The Iron Rose-

-The Demon Princess-

The wind was blowing softly from the south, warming up the brisk winter air that warned of coming snow. Birds chirped in the trees, singing their songs as they danced in the sun beams. A stag grazed on grass in a small meadow. His muscles ripples under his skin as he moved to another patch of greenery. I drew an arrow from my quiver and lined it up on my bow. Taking A deep breath i took my shot.

The arrow flew from the string and rushed forward to meet it's Mark; piercing the deer in it's head. The stag fell to the ground moments later.

My hunt had been good. I had already killed two squirrels, a rabbit, and three brown birds and now i had a large stag. I whistled for my horse, Saphira, who came trotting up through the trees, my kill hanging from my saddle bag.  She stopped suddenly as her ears twitched. I heard a twig break to my right and quickly drew another arrow and shot it into the forest.

"Hey! Careful where you shoot your arrows Princess. You could have killed me," came Aragorn voice.

I laughed. "Now, now Lord Aragorn, had I wanted you dead then dead you'd be."

He rolled his eyes but i saw the smile he tried to hide.

"I must admit. When you told me you could hunt I didn't believe you but now i feel as though you have bested me. I feel like i need to do manly things now."

"I'm sorry," i laughed. "Perhaps you can best me with the sword."

He shook his head as he hooked my stag to our cart that was already full of yesterday's hunt. First thing tomorrow we were going to sell it at the market in Snowcrest.

"We should be able to get plenty of gold with all this, plus the herbs I've gathered will bring in gold as well. Whatever we have left over we can use for ourselves."

"Good idea princess."

I threw my leg over my horse and followed Aragorn back to our camp. The sun had already began to set and my stomach growled with hunger. By the time we made it back to camp I was starving.

We had a few carrots and two potatoes left over from the Eastern Kingdom so I began chopping them up as Aragorn skinned one of the rabbits from yesterday. It wasn't long until the air smelled of food and it made my stomach growl louder.

"So Aragorn, will you tell me about yourself," I asked.

We May have been traveling together but we didn't talk much about ourselves and i had to admit I was curious to know more about my companion.

His eyes grew dark and his body tensed. "I'd rather not Lily. I'm not proud of my past. I have done unforgivable things that I have lived to regret."

"Aragorn if we're going to travel together then i deserve to know more about you. You know everything about me but i know nothing of you."

He stood up abruptly and stalked away into the woods, his fist clenched at his side. I quickly chased after him.

"What are you hiding Aragorn? Tell me," i demanded.

All of a sudden he turned and pinned me to a tree, my hands above my head. "Drop it princess. I left it behind me."

As quickly as he had pinned me he let me go. I was shaking with rage as i watched him walked away. Just as i was about to pursue him the sharp edge of a blade was placed against my neck.

"Well well Well. What do we have here boys?"

A man walked into my line of sight and smiled a pointy grin. His long black hair danced in the wind but it was his eyes that left me speechless. They we're like mine silver like my hair.

"If it isn't the famous silver lily. Oh how i have longed to meet you princess," he all but purred.

"Who are you," i demanded.

"Oh how rude of me," he said as he bowed. "My name is Zander Blackburn, a demon of Fire."

I had heard the stories of demon who used magic to enter our realm but I had always believes them to be just that; stories.

"What do you want with me?"

He smiled and cupped my chin in his hand. "Haven't you ever wondered why your mother fell I'll or why you look the way you do?"

I gulped. "My mother cought a bad chill and as for my looks I had just assumed it was a birth defect."

His laughter bellowed in the night as he shook his head. "No Princess. Your hair and eyes are silver because you are a demon. Well half demon that is. You see you dear mother fell in love with the demon king Ruanes Vile and had you. The first royal half demon offspring. However your mother's body was not fit to carry you and the demon blood in you poisoned her. Slowly throughout the years it took it's toll on her until finally it took her life. So in a way princess, it was you that caused your mother's death."

My knees felt weak and my head began to spin as everything strange in my life began to make sense. My strange ability to learn things and my strange looks all finally made sense to me. The sword left my neck and i fell forward into the dirt as i wrapped my arms around me. I looked up as he continued to speak. 

"Now Princess, you see the king wants you back and he sent me to do just that. So if you do t mind I'll be delivering you to your father now."

Just as he reached my aragorn came rushing through the trees his sword drawn.

"Leave her alone!"

Zander turned with his hands on his hips. "Oh my. Can it be? Oh Yes it is! I thought you died a long time ago Zayden."

I looked up at them as the name rang in my ears. "Aragorn. Why did he call you Zayden?"

His jaw clenched as he turned away. "Lily I-"

"You didn't tell her? Well you see princess your friend aragorn is really Zayden BlackBlood. The human who was raised by demons. The man who slathered villages and brought kingdoms to their knees. But no worries none of that will matter after I kill him."

Zander lunged at Aragorn and grabbed him by his neck, pinning him to the ground. "Such a pity you didn't get to tell her how you feel," he whispered in his ear.

I ran forward to stop him but someone grabbed me. I began to struggle as i Desperately tried to save my friend. Suddenly pain exploded in my skull as the hilt of a sword came down on my head. Darkness swam at the edge of my vision as i crumbled to the ground. The last thing i saw before the shadows took me was Sander cutting open Aragorn's neck.