Chapter 1
Mundane
"The butterfly floats above the beautiful flower even before it has bloomed"
An elf readied himself to fire an arrow to kill a minotaur. The iron part of the arrow reflected the sun when the string from the bow was stretched. The travelling arrow can almost be heard when it rammed towards the creature's skin. The beast fell down upon contact with the pointed part, spreading blood on the ground. The elf went closer to it and flashed a smile with his bounty, standing proud of what he did.
Behind the elf was the training grounds where Xael Himura (the princess of the kingdom of Furia) and Hiro Takishima (her celestial knight) were training. Queen Serenity Himura stood on the side, giving out comments of how Xael should fight.
"Xael. Maintain your poise," she said.
On the Queen's left, stood Solaris (the royal advisor)—floating in mid air while Kichi Tanaka, (the wizard and also the adoptive brother of Xael) cheered from afar on the Queen's right side.
Solaris swayed her hands in mid air with utmost gentleness and reminded the Queen about how everything takes time but the queen just looked at her and then back at the training.
Hiro, being a skilled warrior, still wasn't fully tired. Xael, on the other hand, was starting to get frustrated and tired at the same time. Stamina has always been her enemy.
She shapeshifted into small critters to hopefully defeat Hiro but she could only transform as such because her power isn't fully developed. She often wonders why she couldn't unleash her full potential as if something is stopping her.
The queen knows about Xael's limited power but she still keeps on pressuring her. That's why Xael's dream is to defeat Hiro so that her mother could be proud of her.
"Pity. The daughter of the legendary queen is being defeated by a knight," Hiro snickered. It was a form of banter to provoke the girl.
That made Xael furious which made adrenaline kick inside her veins. She tranformed as a rat so she can get close to Hiro without getting stopped.
"Xael. A princess does not choose such a dirty creature."
She transformed into a squirrel midway to fulfill the Queen's wishes and transformed into human form when she was inches apart with Hiro and punched him when all that she got. He was caught off-guard for a moment so she successfully punched him.
"Peachy. Giving remarks when he himself can't defend from a proper assault," She teased. She had this sneaky grin on her mouth that mocked the boy. Pride was plastered in her face as the smug expression was still evident in her tone.
"Xael, punch harder," The queen threw another remark at her which made Hiro grin.
"Successfully punching me yet the queen is not impressed. How adorable." Hiro looked down on her since he was taller. She was shocked and she was sure she was insulted. Hiro grabbed her leg and took advantage of her vulnerability. She fell down immediately and was pinned to the ground.
"Let me go!" She screamed. She was squirming to get out of Hiro's grasp but he didn't let her go.
Solaris called the training off.
Xael looked at her mother. The queen showed no emotion but disappointment was still visible.
Hiro stood up and offered a hand for Xael. She stared at his hand for a full five seconds and stood up alone. She looked at her mother's back who was going back to the palace.
Xael walked away because she realized that she had disappointed her mother again.
-•-
"My queen, Xael has potential," Solaris suddenly spoke out of silence. She was walking with Kichi and the queen. They were going to the dining room to have lunch and talk about the coming event.
"Yeah. Mom," Kichi joined in. He calls the queen 'mom' since she practically adopted him when his father and mentor, Alexander, died. Alexander was a good man, until that incident happened.
The queen sighed. She turned to him and held Kichi's cheek.
"Kichi, darling, she's the next heir of the kingdom. I can't just let her be weak," Serenity said.
The queen was soft but Xael didn't know that. She was always caring for her. She wasn't even disappointed in her daughter. She's just disappointed in herself because she couldn't make Xael strong enough.
"But pressuring her isn't the right way," Solaris pointed out. Serenity turned to her but didn't respond. She was thinking of being more hard on her. I mean, she couldn't just let her feel loved without going through rough times.
Solaris laughed a little because she knew that Serenity is probably thinking about training her daughter more.
"Why are you laughing, Sol?" the queen raised her eyebrows.
"Nothing, Heika," she said and continued snickering.
Kichi pretended that he understood what they were discussing. He just nodded his head multiple times.
The queen turned her head, not looking at any of the two. She still did not respond. She thought that it was the only way for her to be strong.
"There are other ways, you know. You could always try to show appreciation," Solaris said in a matter-of-fact tone.
The queen didn't respond so Solaris did not bother to speak anymore. It was a long silent walk towards the castle dining room so Kichi got bored.
An idea came into Kichi's senses. He kept thinking about this spell from his father's spell book. It was about conjuring water and it was one of the basic spells in his father's spell book which means he can alter it more to make a new or much powerful spell. At this point, he wanted to challenge himself. He wanted to know if he can alter the spell from conjuring water to summoning snow.
He kept playing with his fingers making shapes and figures while remembering the name of the spell. He utteted a bunch of words that doesn't make sense that only resulted into increasing the power that made blue light flicker as water particles began forming on his hands. Now here's the tricky part, if he can't say the name of the spell, the particles won't freeze. It will stay as a water particle until he can't control the volume anymore.
"White...white...white..."
The summoned water with began to increase in volume. He was having difficulties in remembering the name since it was supposed to freeze up. It kept growing and growing until he couldn't control it anymore. Out of panic, he uttered the words "White Ocean"
He released the wave of water upon the two women in front of him (mostly Solaris). He realized that he made a mistake. There's only one word to describe this. Doom.
"I-im s-so s-sorry."
He trembled upon seeing bloodlust on the eyes of the two women.
"Heika," Solaris uttered in a low voice as she called the queen. She was dripping wet from the wave of water that rushed onto them. Kichi shuddered at the coldness of her voice.
"Please excuse me for I need to change," she said and bowed. She glanced at Kichi with hooded eyes as he quivered in fear. He immediately bowed and asked for an apology to Solaris but she already walked away. The queen was about to scold Kichi when a servant came.
"Heika. The king is requesting for your presence"
Serenity paused and nodded. She dismissed the servant and told Kichi to practice somewhere else then walked away to go to the King.
Kichi sighed in relief as he was left unharmed by the trouble he just did.
-•-
Meanwhile, Xael was reading a book in the castle's library. She was so hung up with the story that she finished reading it within an hour.
She wanted to borrow the book but she wanted the complete series. Unfortunately, the second book was on the top shelf. Who reads a book with a cliffhanger?
Xael walked up to where the book was and looked up. It was so high up since the palace library was 30 feet tall. She went to grab a ladder to reach the book and wondered why it was so high up.
She climbed up even though she was afraid of heights but for her, nothing can stop her from reading a book. Nothing. Even her own fears.
Xael was on the 7th step when the image of Hiro's face when she was pinned to the ground crept into her mind. She was busy thinking about him that she didn't notice the faulty ladder step and slipped.
She was ready to fall when she was caught by someone. She opened her eyes and saw the man that she was thinking about a while ago. It was none other than Hiro in the flesh. Well, he showed up out of nowhere.
She was embarrassed because his face was so close. Her heart was beating so fast that she was afraid that he might feel it. Out of her defense mechanism, she punched him which made Hiro stumble back and hit the shelves.
The books almost fell over them but another certain someone appeared and levitated the books. It was her cheeky brother, Kichi. He thought that "something" had happened so he smiled smugly.
"Am I interrupting something?" he mischievously smiled and gave out a smug face
"No!" they both shouted. Talk about being defensive.
"Really?" he said as his smile grew bigger and bigger.
"Yes. I was just here to pick up a book for myself and this happened," Hiro explained.
"Im not gonna listen to excuses," Kichi said and pushed his tongue out to blow a raspberry and turned to Xael instead.
"By the way, Lady Solaris wants to see you, sis. She's by the garden."
Xael was blushing for an unknown reason and just looked at the ground then rushed out of the library.
The two boys were left and Kichi began asking questions.
"Did you kiss her?"
"No," Hiro uttered with coldness and just picked up the books that fell. Kichi, on the other hand, refrained from laughing. He can't erase the scene about what he saw so he just helped Hiro pick up the books.
"So..." Kichi trailed off.
Hiro didn't even glance at him. He just continued picking up the books.
"...How did it feel?" Kichi asked while jumping up and down with sparkling eyes.
Hiro was silent. Well, his mind wasn't. Several things are flying in his mind right now.
He stood up and picked up two books. One on each hand. On the right, he held the book he was looking for. On the left, a random book. He looked at it and read the title: "Mudpies for Pigs".Perfect. He went towards Kichi and hit him with the book on the head.
"Owwww!"
He was teary-eyed for a second. He thought why he was always the one getting beaten up.
Hiro tossed the book on Kichi's stomach and went to the door carrying the other book
"Use your levitation powers," He exited with that as his last words.
"Huh? Levitation Powers?"
Breyan scratched his head 'cause he was confused but forgot that he had a bump in the head.
"Owwwww, stupid hand"
-•-
"What was I thinking?"
Hiro face-palmed himself using his right hand. The book was on his right hand so he had hit his face with the book.
He kept thinking about what happened earlier and about it being another embarrassment that he had done infront of her.
Hiro sighed and scratched his head. He shook his head and proceeded to walk towards his room
-•-
Solaris was by the flowers when Xael arrived. The princess quietly went to her side as they both observed the butterflies inhabiting the garden.
"It's a good day, isn't it?"
Solaris broke the silence but Xael stayed quiet. She was too preoccupied by the things that happened today that she almost didn't hear what Solaris said.
Solaris noticed how Xael was staring into space so she placed her hand on Xael's shoulder to pull her back to reality.
"Follow me, child."
They went to the Queen's tent on the training grounds and both entered it. Upon entering, Solaris uttererd, "You see child, you are like a flower during spring. The massive heat of summer, the raging wind of autumn and the cold atmosphere of winter will never stop the flower from growing. You are like the flower and your mother's words are the heat, wind and coldness. These things will help the flower grow. Do you understand me child?"
Xael blinked several times to try and comprehend the subtext.
"Sort of?" she said in a not so sure tone.
"The butterfly floats above the beautiful flower even before it has bloomed" Solaris said with her eyes closed while summoning flower petals. Xael didn't respond because she felt awkwarded for some reason.
"You know...you are so much like your mom. Few words but great minds."
Xael bit her lip and hesitated to reply. Solaris hummed a melody to ease the silence.
"Do you see this bird?" A baby bird laid on her right hand and it was close to dying.
"I found her almost dying by the garden. Its mother was trying to teach it from flying when the mother was shot by the hunter."
"What?! My lady, please let me take care of her."
"No child, she wont learn how to fly if you take care of her. I will heal her for now. Take her to a high tree and that way she'll learn how to fly"
"But... that's cruel."
Solaris was about to speak when a servant came in and informed her that the king and queen would like to talk to her.
"My lady, the king and queen would like to speak with you about an event that is going to take place the day after tomorrow"
"Tell them I'm coming to the palace after dawn," she said and turned back to the princess, "Xael you see..."
"My lady, they said it's urgent" the servant said and left.
Solaris sighed and held Xael's cheek.
"Sometimes you need to do bad to do good," she said and left the training ground. Xael stood alone in the tent until a hand grasped her shoulder and covered her mouth.