United (Magics AU - Part 1)

Chapter 6 - Emily

As a fifteen year old princess, Emily normally would have been expected to be prim and proper, merciful but firm, stern yet kind, patient and loving. She was expected to obey her parents with utmost obedience, she was expected to know everything there was to know about royalty and her kingdom, and she was expected to be neat and reserved. As a princess, she was supposed to be a natural leader, someone who looked out for the well-being of others at all times. She was supposed to be the princess who was ready to become the next queen at any time, the one with responsibility. 

But even the king and queen, her own parents, knew that Emily wasn't anything a princess was supposed to be; and to her credit, they accepted her for the way she was, telling her that she would make a great queen by being just who she was. She was nothing like the princesses in the fairy tales - she was reckless, stubborn, quick-thinking, rash, adventurous, and somewhat of a horrible leader when she was under pressure. She was kind and caring, but she was also very daring and joking, always teasing her friends or even parents. She was always the one trying to keep everyone smiling, especially this month, since people had started going missing.

But now, Emily could hardly force a smile onto her own face. Ever since she learned of the sudden and mysterious deaths, the realization and terror had hit her like a smack in the face. She often found herself wondering if her family was next on the list of murders, and that terrified her. Whoever this murderer was, they were doing a very good job of scaring the whole kingdom - including the independent princess. 

Today, Emily had locked herself in one of the training rooms, where newly recruited guards would practice their battle skills and yet-to-be-recruited guards would train for the trials of being selected as a guard. There were many different kinds of guards - sentries, royal guards, palace guards, street guards, and Emily was friends with a lot of them. She spent lots of her time in the training rooms with them, sparring against her friends or training with them. Her parents didn't really like it when she came home grinning and covered in cuts and bruises, but most of the time they sighed and brushed it off, telling her to clean up and treat the small injuries. Despite the frequent bruises and scrapes, Emily enjoyed training with the guards.

But today she needed to be by herself. She had chosen one of the smaller combat rooms, closing and locking the door behind her after making sure no one had followed her. She needed to let off some steam - so here she was, throwing punches and kicks at the punching bag in front of her. Her long brown hair was in a bun atop her head, but several strands were falling out and getting in her face. As she kept her defense position up and continued to throw punches, she absently blew locks of hair out of her face without looking away from her target. 

Her undershirt was almost soaked through with sweat by the time she was finished, but Emily now felt satisfied. Her hands, which were wrapped in bandages to keep the knuckles from splitting with each harsh punch, were stinging and sore, but she was grinning freely again. Her feet and knees were bruised from slamming into the hard bag, but she never felt more thrilled than when she was in the training room. 

Blowing out a short sigh, Emily stood straight and grabbed the water bottle she'd taken down with her. After a few gulps, she began unwinding her hands and stuffing the material into the pockets of her work pants. She was nearly finished when a startled, rough yelp came from outside of the room, in the hallway just outside of her room.

Emily tipped her head, confused at first, but then she remembered the trap she'd set up in the hallway and a grin broke across her face. Someone had walked right into it, and she was pretty sure she knew who-

"Princess!!" came the gruff cry of annoyance, for he obviously knew who had put up the whole thing. 

Emily giggled, shoving the last of the bandages into her pocket and crossing the room toward the door. She unlocked it and swung the door open, leaning out and holding the door frame for balance. "Yes?" she said casually, drawing up her most innocent face.