Hey guys! I missed posting last Saturday, and I'm sorry about that. This week's post is a little different than usual, because it's the first fiction piece I've posted! I'm so excited to share this story with you. Stay tuned for part 2 and enjoy!
~
“You will marry the Prince of Noxus.”
Princess Isla’s breath caught in her throat like a trapped butterfly as her father declared her fate. It might as well have been engraved in stone. She could protest, but it wouldn’t accomplish a thing. Nobody argued with the King. Not even his own daughter. Not even when he was being unjust.
Etiquette called for a curtsy, a word of agreement to her father, anything. But Isla couldn’t speak, couldn’t even think. She turned and started to bolt from the room. The King seized her arm. His cold blue eyes captured her blazing brown ones. “You will learn to love him,” he said, so gently that he almost sounded kind. Almost.
How foolish she had been, to believe she would stay happy in the beautiful woodland kingdom forever, surrounded by the familiar faces of kind servants. How naive of her to not foresee inevitable change. “Nothing good lasts forever”, her mother, the Queen, had whispered in some of her last moments, before her life flickered away. How very truthful her words had been.
The King released his daughter, and she fled from the throne room, her gown twirling around her as she ran from his presence. “Where are you going?” Liana, her lady in waiting, called after her. Isla hardly heard her.
The guards stared at the princess as she practically crashed through the castle gates, concern and curiosity tainting their hardened expressions. Isla didn’t look back. She was escaping to the forest, of course. The cove of trees and woodland creatures had been her solace ever since she was only a little girl.
Isla blinked and suddenly remembered a day, probably ten years ago, when her governess had punished her for dancing around the castle barefoot, her hair askew. She had run that day, too, scared of who might pursue her and not knowing where she would go. She had found herself in the forest, surrounded by lush, dark green trees and friendly squirrels which came close to her if she held very still.
She wasn’t much different from that little girl, not much different at all. Her thick, wavy hair still refused to be tamed, and she was still afraid, now more than ever. And she was still running, her lungs burning, her hair cascading down her back, and her emerald gown rustling against her legs, brushing the tops of her dirty, bare feet.
Yes, Isla was running, but she was still trapped, trapped like a bird in a cage. Her fate might as well have been shackles round her ankles. The golden circlet she wore in place of a crown seemed to grow heavier and heavier on her head, until it might have well weighed a thousand pounds.
The Princess set her gaze on the forest, and kept running, her feet pounding the cold, hard ground in rhythm with the thumping of her quivering heart. The sun was setting quickly, the last of its light setting Isla’s auburn hair ablaze and misting her brown eyes with gold flecks.
Finally she reached the trees. Her eyes closed and she took in breath after breath of the cool, fresh, forest air. Scents reminding her of cinnamon and blossoms and oak trees and mud laced through the breeze. Her eyes fluttered open and she took in the way dying sunlight danced on the blossoms in the trees, the way shadows painted the undergrowth darkly, the way the leaves blanketed everything in sage. It was the hour when the light died and the shadows awoke. Isla was not afraid.
Fatigued from her hasty journey to her only place of refuge, Isla sank to the ground against a familiar old tree, its loyal trunk curving against her back. She pressed a hand to the cold, hard ground. Beneath the forest floor she could hear the whisper of a thousand roots, telling the story of time. The forest was like a book, and Isla couldn’t stop reading.
How many other creatures had found refuge in this forest stronghold? The squeak of squirrels nestling down for the evening rang through the treetops. Isla heard birds calling to one another, soon to be coddled deep within their nests.
If there was a nest big enough for Isla, she would have curled up in it at that very moment, for sleep threatened to overtake her just then. She shut her eyes and focused on breathing, on the way her surroundings smelled and sounded and felt. Before she knew it, she was asleep.
~
To be continued in part 2