Chapter 10: Our First Adventure
I woke up feeling more tired than when I had gone to bed. Dark circles lay below my eyes and my limbs felt numb from weakness. My handmaids, Lydia, Yasmine and Kayla walked into the room to help me prepare for the day.
"You're up early your majesty." Lydia cheerful commented as she walked in. It must have been quite a shock since I was never awake by this hour. Sometimes they even had to literally pull me out of bed. "What time is it?" I said getting up from the bed. "Thirty minutes past five your majesty." Kayla answered.
"You're right. It is early."
"Perhaps you should go back to sleep your majesty, you look and sound weary." Yasmine said with her usual timid and recluse yet caring voice. I smiled "Thank you for your concern but I'm sure I'll be fine after I have my bathe."
They followed me to the bathroom and helped me wash my body. They waited for me to put on my dress and they applied my makeup which perfectly covered my dark circles. "We'll go and ask the kitchen to prepare your food your majesty." They simultaneously said once they were done putting on my make up. "Ok, I'll be waiting."
Lydia and Kayla left the room but Yasmine stayed behind. "Your majesty?"
"Yes Yasmine?"
"I'm really worried about you. Are you sure you're alright?"
I looked at her contemplating if I should tell her about my odd dream. Lydia is the closest to me among my three handmaids but she is also shy and can get frightened by the littlest of things. It would be best not to worry her.
"Thank you for your concern Lydia but I'm fine really." I said smiling warmly. "You are excused."
I walked to my garden not being able to resist the urge and longing to feel my bare feet on the grass, the sun on my skin, the wind in my hair and the scent of flowers in the air. I sat on the white swing which was at the center of the garden. My dream wasn't overly dramatic or clear but it was painfully worrying. What if my dream was a warning? What if Zeke had only been shot because he was with me?
It makes sense right? If you wanted a rob or possibly kidnap the princess of a country, you'd kill her escort first right? Make sure there's no witnesses. Zeke was a lost boy scared to let his inner child out to play. He truly didn't deserve to die because of me. If my dream truly was a vision of the future, I had to do everything in my power to save my friend's life.
I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to harsh clinking of swords. I was standing on an empty street surrounded by rundown buildings. "Surrender now Shadow King and maybe the King will be lenient when enforcing your punishment." a masked knight said. I tried to focus on the insignia on his armor but I couldn't tell which kingdom it belonged to.
However, the knight was obviously high rank- I could tell from the amount of badges he wore on his armor.
"I have no plans of surrendering what is rightfully mine. If you do survive this fight however, you can deliver my message to your beloved King." The opposing knight replied knocking the sword out of the high rank knight's hand. The opposing knight was dressed in a fully black armor which had no insignia on it. His face was shapeless and dark blending perfectly into the night sky.
The black knight threw the high rank knight against the well and stepped on his hand filling the air with the sound of breaking bones. He guided the knight to look at him "Tell your King his time is running out. Contrary to your foolish beliefs I'm not playing around and I do not have any patience whatsoever to keep playing a fools game.
That hypocrite scum will get what's coming for him and don't worry I won't be lenient." He let go of the the knight's head causing it to hit the wall and walked away.
"Talk all you want, you and I both know you're nothing but a persistent vermin with a twisted idea that you're important. I can't wait to see the day my lord decides to wipe such an arrogant fly off our lands. That will be..." The thigh rank knight groaned in pain as the black knight suddenly appeared before him, standing on his chest. "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. To think I was going to let you live. That insult just cost you some ribs... and sadly your life."
He trust his sword deep into the man's head. "Don't worry I'll make sure my message gets to the king and because you're just the messenger I'll also make sure his death is much more painful than yours."
He pulled his sword out of the dead knight's body and smiled as he watched the blood drip unto the corpse.
Then as if he noticed me watching, he turned and stared directly at me. His eyes were glowing silver and his expression changed to displeasure. "What are you doing here." My heart raced as he started walking towards me. 'Ahhhhh' I screamed. Suddenly the Earth started shaking but that was just Kayla waking me up "My lady are you alright? My lady wake up." "Huh? I'm fine, what's wrong? Are we under attack?"
"Huh? Oh my, nothing like that my lady. You just fell asleep and we've been trying to wake you up for the past seven minutes. You must have been very tired, you were sleeping for three hours; it's now eight thirty. Your family is waiting for you at the dinning room." "Oh. Please tell my family I'll be with them shortly."
"Yes my lady."
"We'll tell them right away."
Kayla and Yasmine said and left.
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I walked into the dinning room to join my family for breakfast. "Good morning father, good morning mother."
"I believe we have gone over this before Alyssa. You're supposed to refer to me as 'your majesty' when we're in the presence of others." My father reprehended. I sat down on my designated seat between my mother and brother "I'm sorry your majesty, I forgot. To be honest, I do not see the point of all the formalities. You're my dad. It was hard for me to start calling you father and now I have to call you 'your majesty'. It just isn't right."
My mother laughed "You have a very funny way of making a point but be rest assured formalities do have a use. It shows that you are aware of the person's nobility and regality and that you acknowledge them as your superiors."
The maids walked in and served the food. Usually, I would be happy at the sight of food ecstatic even but everything left me disgusted. The aroma from the food made me nauseous, every time I looked at my wine glass I saw blood, lots and lots of it and, whenever I touched my fork or knife I imagined the black knight stabbing the other knight's head.
How cruel can a person be to stab another in the head. Saying I didn't have an appetite would be nothing short of an understatement.
"So I forgot to tell you, I'm uh I'm going out with a friend today. Nothing serious, I'm just going to Lendin." "Absolutely not." my father replied. "Darling don't be rash. Let's at least hear her out first." my mother said. "Thank you mo... your majesty. Zeke and I met last night. He's an ambassador of the royal family of Aragorn and he's looking for his family. I volunteered to help him look and I'll be leaving as soon as I'm done with breakfast."
"Ah yes, the days of foolish young love. Tell me sis, are you planning to run away with this stranger from Aragorn? Are you the princess or the knight in shinning armor or both really?"
"Stop it Luke, this is serious."
"But I am being serious. What in your right mind made you think it was okay to wander off to a far city with a man you just met yesterday? Are you sure you weren't drugged?"
"I haven't wandered off, I'm here aren't I? Zeke is from Aragorn, an ambassador of the royal family even, he wouldn't dare try anything stupid. Surely he would have been thought better than that and if you're so worried about my safety you can just send a couple of guards to come with me.
Besides last I checked it wasn't you I asked for permission nor was it you I was talking to. I appreciate your concern Luke but I can handle being away from the palace for a few hours."
"Quiet down now, that's enough bickering between you two. Your majesty what do you think? I believe we should let her go, it'll be a fun experience for her and she's right I'm confident nothing bad will happen to her." My mother said. My father cleared his throat, his eyes drifting at each of us.
"Very well then, I'll agree with your mother. You can go and you'll take two guards with as escorts. You should be back by sundown, if not your new friend's face will be on a missing person's report." he said. "Missing person's report?" I muttered in a moment of confusion. 'Oh' I finally understood.
"Well then I'll be back by sundown. I'm done eating. May I be excused your majesty?" I said. My father eyed me suspiciously "Yes you may but do not leave the palace without me being aware." "Thank you." I said and left to my room.