Woodbridge Recollection : The Hidden Kingdom

Chapter 11: Another's life.

  I was stiff and sore by the time I stepped through the door of my bedroom. I kicked off my boots and kicked them irritably across the room. When I noticed a jewellery box on my dresser, I immediately thought about what I was told in that meeting this morning.

Wearing the ring exposes it.

I looked down at the ring. Like always, the gold shined and the orange gem sparkled in the light. I pulled it off and put it inside the jewellery box. For the first time since I could remember, did my finger feel empty without it.

I sighed and let go of the oddity of it. It was just a ring, and apparently didn't mean anything anymore. It didn't even belong to my "lost parents" as I used to believe.

I moved to my book shelf and observed the shelf that contained that collection of journals. It was defiantly time to dive in now. There were seven journals, each numbered and placed it the correct sequence.

I slipped the first one out and opened it to a random entry. The entries were short and simple, detailed most about school and mood swings.

I sat down on the bed and read several entries, skipping past a few. The quickest thing to make out is that I was thirteen when I was writing this and it was boring.

After thirty minutes, I closed the journal and put it back into the shelf. I needed to skip ahead if I was going to figure things out.

I took out the third journal, skipping past the second one. Somehow, I just had the feeling that it would be just as boring as the first. So I started at the beginning of the third journal.

As I had hoped for, the subjects of my mind had gone to more interesting topics. From what I could make out, I was sixteen and things were becoming rough and drastic with the changes of puberty. The year was 2008.

I lay down on the bed and read through the entries. So far, there was nothing on this damn Eustace character other than a mention of him and some kind of problem that he had in a gym class at some point. At this point in the entries, I was becoming rather interested. It expressed light facts about school, the system of training to be a warrior, but not enough to make proper sense. However, it was fairly detailed about one other thing in particular; Mathew.

His personality was rather detailed and it sort of astounded me that I could express such details about him so deeply; almost intimately. It turns out that Mathew was expressed as a kind and noble kid. He treated me well and I spoke highly of him.

There was a rub, though. Despite how much I expressed a love over this kid, there were several issues. Issues that I never saw coming.

November 19th, 2008.

The issues are arising again. I thought I was able to see past them, but the more time passes and we get older, the more I find myself realising that the issues are probably here for a reason.

God, but its killing me...I went with Mathew to his home, and like always, I get searched and prodded by his father's security warriors. I'm getting rather irritated by the searches by now. They know me, the king knows me. What did they need to keep searching me for?

There was a small handful of moments when Mathew and I were in the ballroom, messing around and dancing the waltz; like the old times. He left to fetch us something to snack on and his father showed up. He spoke to me about the importance of fully accepting the match make. In that moment, I realized one thing; that the king seemed to be thrilled about the match making and that he favours me like a daughter.

Then he had to say the one thing that made it all too real.

"You'll make a splendid princess, Zelena. But the duty is a lot more outlined than baring the title. There are people who might want to hurt you and becoming a warrior in the order may not be suitable. The titles clash."