The Four Kingdoms of the Four Seasons

Chapter 1 - Childhood - Part 1

–Author's note—

Hey there my lovely reader!

THANK YOU FOR GIVING A CHANCE TO THIS STORY!

This is the first story I ever published on Wattpad!

I started to write novels, short stories, one shots from a young age. I love to read any kind of genres. The books I have read inspired me to write. First it was for my own entertainment. Then I started to share my writings with my friends and family. They encouraged me to share these stories with the world. For many years I didn't do it, I can't really explain why. Was I scared of discriminative criticism? Or it was because of something else?

Anyway, it's all in the past. I'm now more confident of myself, of my writings. Here I am ready to share my stories with the world.

Whenever I'm writing, I listen to music. One of the composers I listen to is Adrian  von Zielger. His music have been inspiring my stories for years. When I translated this story to English, I was listening to this beautiful piece.

Check out his other works as well, it is great for creative writing or just for studying.

I don't own the videoclip. Credit for Adrian von Ziegler.

—End of Author's note—

"Every birth story is a unique and wonderful tail." – unknown writer of The Four Kingdoms of the Four Seasons

ARYA'S PoV

           I'm Arya Al Golbahar, first and sole princess of the Spring Kingdom. I'm also known by the title of the True Love princess, because I was born after my mother long passed her fertility age. It wasn't a miracle. Only is rare, but possible between fae mates with true love in their hearts to have a child even after the female passed her fertility age. I'm the youngest child of Queen Aurora and King Sorin. Sole sister of Prince Caim and Prince Caspian. I was born as a fae royalty. However, my brothers were born as seelie royalties like my mother, Queen Aurora and my father, King Sorrin. Faes with magic are called seelies, faes with magic and born in royal families are called seelie royalties.

           My brothers were already way after their coming of age ceremonies, when I was born on a solar eclipse. Yeah, 22.000 years for Caspian and 26.000 years for Caim as age difference between myself and my brothers could have been pretty rough. But it wasn't the case. When I was 4 years old, they changed their appearances to 6 years old human children. I could say they had with me their second childhood. Yeah, they taught me the same pranks as they did when they were newborn seelies. We even invented new ones. I was a lively kid, okay in the point of view of the servants we were the devil's offsprings. Now that I'm thinking back it's hilarious that my two seelie adult brothers were stealing food with me from the kitchen and pranked the servants while running in their 6 years old kid selves. Well, yes, I have awesome brothers.

           When I was 6 years old my parents started to cut down on my free time with my brothers. My parents told me it's time to teach me the manners of a fae princess. I started to learn weaving, dancing, how to run a household, etiquette. How to put it.... To simply put it into words, I hated these lessons. On the other hand, I found fascinating learning about languages, science, history, politics and literature.

           One instance of my free time, I secretly saw my brothers fencing. I was mesmerized, the swords were singing whenever they collided. My siblings were dancing a deadly but a beautiful waltz. My heart started to beat faster and faster to the rhythm of the steel clanging together. At that instance I knew that I wanted to learn the art of war. It enchanted me.

           I knew it will not be easy to convince my father about it. It wasn't about gender inequality, so in simple words, the problem wasn't that I was born a girl. Our Kingdom had great female warriors, generals, warladies. Then, what was the problem? The problem was that I was born a fae royalty. Fae princesses and Seelie princesses are the most valuable treasures to Kingdoms. Our destiny is to be wed to another Kingdom of the Four Season in order to secure that tiny seelie magic in the fae royal houses. So, we cannot get hurt, because the world's faith is upon us. Well yes, I'm talking about arranged marriages. Even if we are living in a society where our mates are somewhere out in the wild. Cruel, doesn't it? The sole "happy thing" in this is that if we find our mate, we can leave the arranged marriage. The sole criteria is that we give birth at least to one seelie. Why seelies are so important? The seelies are the first magicals to be born to this world. That's why the seelies are the most connected out of the magicals to this world. They nourish the earth, the sky, the water, the fire and vice versa. Other magicals can also nourish the world, but way more lesser than just one seelie. Without any seelies this world is slowly going to die. And in the last millenniums there are less and less seelies born.

           Obviously, 6 years old newborn fae did not know about this. The sole thing I knew at that age is I can't get hurt or daddy would we be furious with me. Then, what was my solution? Obviously, I didn't tell him or anybody else. I started to learn sword fighting in secret. My perfect plan was to go out pretending playing in the garden, which was near the training fields, this way I could easily observe the novices learning sword craft. Then I stole a wooden practice sword from one of the children of fae nobility. Previously, I discovered while I was playing hide and seek with my brothers, an old abandoned training chamber in the South Tower. So, I went there every afternoon to practice the moves I previously observed on the training fields. I also found in the chamber a lot of different weapons such as daggers, war hammers, axes, bladed darts, crossbows, spears, flails, bows and arrows etc... And my new best friends, training dummies and targets. Okay I know a 6 years old girl is fascinated by weapons and war, it could be a great starting on how to raise a psychopath. Anyway, I was sane at that age and I'm still hundred percent sane now. So alongside practicing my swordsmanship, I started to get to know closer a bow and some arrows.

           Slowly, I realized the observation wasn't enough, something was missing from my moves, but I couldn't put my finger on it. This was the first time I was grateful for my parents for cutting my free time and sending me to learn. I started to search books about sword fighting and archery techniques. Once Caim almost discovered me reading one of these books. At first, I was scared my brothers would discover my secret, but fortunately Caim as crown prince and Caspian as future captain of the Royal Guards and High General of the Spring Army , didn't have a lot of time to spare me. I was happy because this way I had more time to practice sword fighting and archery, but at the same time I was sad because we didn't pull that many pranks on the servants anymore. My mother and my governess Lady Arundra Al Cassel were really happy with my behavior as fae princess and my progression in the art of knowledge. Thus, they became less wary of me and stopped sending servants to watch me during my free time. Out of range of watchful eyes, I was truly free to do whatever I wanted in my free time, and what I truly wanted to do was to learn about the art of war.

           After my seventh birthday, the day which I feared became a reality. I was discovered practicing my swordsmanship...

–Author' note—

What will happen next? Who discovered Arya's secret? Is this the end of her warrior dreams?
You will see it in the next chapter!

Thank you for reading the first chapter! Please share with me your opinions in the comment section or send a message to me! I would be more than glad to hear your thoughts!

If you have any questions about the story, feel free to ask them! I will gladly answer it, in the comment section or in the Author's note.

ENGLISH ISN'T MY FIRST LANGUAGE! I try my best by re-reading several times all of my chapters to eliminate any grammatical mistakes. Feel free to notify me if you spot any huge mistakes!

I hope to see you in the next chapter!

—End of Author's note—