cottonmistt
Becoming Queen was not on Liora's schedule.
Actually, neither was grief, betrayal, forests, insects, mud, or getting chased across the surface by armored soldiers while barefoot.
But unfortunately, life has been making terrible decisions for her lately.
After the sudden death of her father, the King of Atlantis, Liora expects at least a little time to fall apart in peace. Instead, the court tries to crown her almost immediately, her mother starts acting like emotions are optional, and everyone suddenly expects her to sit still and behave like a future ruler.
Absolutely not.
So she does the only reasonable thing: she runs.
Now Liora is stuck on the surface, which is already awful for several reasons. The land is uneven, the air feels wrong, the forest is disgusting, and somehow her dramatic escape drops her straight into the orbit of a dangerous stranger who seems way too entertained by her problems.
Liora is spoiled, powerful, grieving, and has zero interest in acting normal.
The surface is chaos.
And the man she meets might be even worse.
Running away was supposed to solve things.
Instead, it may have started a much bigger disaster.