Chapter I

Zora lay in her bed watching the sun rise out of her bedroom window. She was waiting for just the right moment for the sun to burst out from behind the mountains that surrounded her kingdom. And finally the sun peaked out and shed light on the castle and kingdom. She leaped out of bed and looked at the tall mirror that was across from her bed. It was a very detailed mirror, it stood on clawed gold feet and it shimmered in the morning light. She walked over to it and stood there.

Zora was tall and slim. She had long black hair that went down to her waist. She had emerald colored eyes. She was a beautiful young woman. Well, she should be, she was a princess after all. Zora put her hair into braids, then tied those up into a bun, then walked over to a dress now showered in sunlight. It was red and cream colored with white laces in the front and on the sleeves. The sleeves draped over her hands. The bottom of the dress had lace that lined the dress. Zora wasn’t a fan of it, but she would wear it when she would go down into the Great Hall where she would eat with her family.

She slipped on her dress then turned to look out the window. The kingdom was filled with the sound of horses, people cheerily talking, bakers and sellers yelling, and the sound of animals. This made Zora long to go and walk in the streets and practice her bow and arrow and sword fighting. That made her feel even more excited. Zora picked up her sword in it’s leather sheath along with her quiver full of arrows. She put the sword and quiver down and remembered where she had to be so she rushed off.

Zora ran down the stairs and into the kitchen where she smelt sausage and ham. She stopped and grabbed a piece of ham then walked out into the Great Hall. Her family was sitting on a bench along a table that stretched to the other side of the room. She had ten brothers and one little sister who was just a baby. Her mother looked at her as she entered. Her mother was not as tall as Zora, but was equally as strong. She wore a long purple dress and a white hennin on her head that almost reached down to her waist. She had a thin face with high cheekbones and dark brown hair. Her mother turned to face her father who was tall and muscled. He had blonde hair with speckles of grey.

The boys were playing with the dogs and yelling at them. Zora had one older brother and nine younger ones who liked to mess with Zora and Eleanor (Zora's younger and only sister). The older boy, Baxter, was a wise and great young man. Alastair, Rayland, Caldwell, and Brinley loved to make the younger boys, Lyric, Pyro, James, Bradley, and Clayton go buy them tools and food so they don’t have to.

“Zora come sit with us,” father said patting the bench next to him.

“Good morning Zora. You're up bright and early,” Mother said.

“Oh, yes I was excited for today,” Zora replied.

In reality Zora wasn’t excited at all. Today was the day she needed to meet a prince from the kingdom of Giresheer. She had to be married to someone before her sixteenth birthday or on her birthday. She hadn’t liked any of the princes she had met. Zora wanted to marry for love and not because of this silly law.

Zora ate her food then went back up to her room. She changed into a leather tunic and dark green undershirt and put on black riding pants. She strapped her sword to her waist and put her bow and arrows on her back, then grabbed her leather notebook and walked out of her room. She walked down the stairs undoing her hair as she walked. Soon she was out in the courtyard heading to the stables where she saw her horse, Silverwind. He naheed at her and pushed at the stable door. Zora was very happy to be free for a couple hours before that prince came.

“Hello your highness.” Someone said.

“Oh, hello Kingsley.” She said turning and seeing the stable caretaker.

“Are you off for a ride? I thought you were going to meet a young prince.” He said jokingly.

“Yes I am, but I need a ride to remove all my anger caused by this prince,” she joked back. He smiled and said no more.

She hopped on to Silverwind back and clicked her tongue. Silverwind started at a steady trot. Silverwind was a beautiful stallion. He is grey and has light spots. They walked out of the gates and into the bustling city. She was careful not to step on any one or bump into other horses. She rode down the main road to a path which lead out of the city and into the mountains and to another path that went east thath lead to the kingdom of Gilesheer. ‘Soon that path will have the prince on it, ugh I don’t care about things like set-up-marriage. At least i get to choose which prince I marry I guess,’ She grudgingly thought as she went down the path leading to the mountains.

She was now far down the path when she stopped. This was her favorite spot. It had a river that wound through the valley. Trees were scattered around the sloping land and the mountains with their hats of snow. She sat down under a large oak tree and set her notebook on her lap and opened it. On the inside of the book lay a pencil. She picked up the pencil and turned a few pages full of drawings of the landscape and her castle. Then she started to sketch the land and the river which was a challenge, but the mountains with their snow cap were easy and the trees were perhaps easier than anything else.

The sun was in the middle of the sky and Zora decided to go back to the castle. She hopped onto Silverwind and carefully set her book on her lap. Once again, she clicked her tongue and they went at a steady trot, but she wanted to to feel a rush so she gripped her book and then flicked the reins they started to gain speed. They were galloping through the city and turning down the roads. Zora slackened her grip on the notebook and it fell out of her lap. Zora made a desperate grab and caught it by the tips of her fingers. She let out a breath of relief and this time stuck it firmly under her legs.

She waved at the guards to open up yhe gates and a second later the gates creaked open as the metal strained against the chains. Zora walked in and got off Silverwind and walked him back to the stables. She said hi to the stable caretaker then walked back to the castle. I don’t like being a princess. I want to be a warrior, I want to be strong like the men and fight in the wars. She thought longingly as she passed her father walking the other way. He was laughing his big booming laugh. She walked a little farther then turned down the walkway that was above the Great Hall so she could see over a banister and watch the servants clean and put out the food.

Zora walked into her room. She wasn’t very happy. The prince would arrive soon and she didn’t really like to get into this long flowy dress and put her hair up just to make a good impression as her mom said. So she opened up her closet to find a dress that looked nice. She soon found a dress that she liked. It was blue and had light blue trim and she thought it would look nice with her leather belt and a gold necklace. Zora took off her sword and quiver from her back and slipped the dress on. It definitely felt less tight than her tunic and riding pants. She found her belt and slipped the necklace on. She left her hair down, but put on a headband that went across her forehead.

Zora heard horns, which meant that the prince was here. She let out a breath and left the room. Zora got down to the Great hall and sure enough, there he was. He looked like he was spoiled, but he had brown hair and a gold crown sitting on his head. She walked toward him then he turned to look at her. He had a long red cape and purple under shirt and a leather tunic and had cream colored leggings.

“Oh, Zora, come meet prince Audric IV. He is a gentleman.” Father said.

“Prince Audric.” Zora said, bowing.

“Oh, stop it you don’t have to do that.” Audric said, but he looked like he wanted her to keep doing it. Later they sat down and had a conversation that ended with an awkward goodbye. Zora left the Great Hall and went into the courtyard and she saw a man in a black hood running from the chicken coop. “Hey, who are you and what are you doing?” He didn’t answer her then he ran into the bushes. Zora followed him stumbling a few times because of her dress, but when she got to the bushes he was nowhere to be seen. She walked over to the chicken coop to see if he did anything, but when she started counting the chickens not a single one was missing or hurt. She went into the large coop and looked in the nesting boxes and saw something odd. An egg that was the size of a emu egg! It was speckled with emerald green specks. Zora picked it up and it was hot!

Later, she was in her room and the egg was on her dresser looking like a normal egg. Zora got off her bed and picked up the egg and turned it in her hands. It got searing hot and burned her hands. She hastily put it back onto the dresser. She looked down at her hands and saw that her hands bore no mark of being burned, they didn’t even look red. Zora sat back down on her bed and rubbed her hands together to see if they hurt, but nothing happened so she ended up falling asleep thinking about her hands and the egg.