Loosing all hope
1132 Words
Keila read through the letter at least four times and she still couldn't fully understand what it was about. Her head seemed to deny the possibility of this happening.
Dear King Rolo,
It is my pleasure to wish your daughter, princess Keila, happy eighteenth birthday.
It seems your daughter has grown in a young and beautiful lady and is fit to find a husband. I am more than happy to welcome her to my house as a bride to be for my son and heir prince Kronos. I am sure you will be overjoyed to send your daughter to her future husband, that is if you wish to maintain the peace between our kingdoms.
I will be expecting my future daughter-in-law in the next six days, if not I will be forced to think you don't want our peace to continue and will act accordingly.
Think wisely,
The dragon king
Keila couldn't move, she just stared at the page, crying. Raul saw her face strained with tears and made his way to her, he took the letter from her and she didn't even blink.
He read through it and Mira stood behind him, reading over his shoulder, which was quite challenging because of his height.
When Mira finished reading she snapped her head to the princess with a shocked expression on her face. Raul was angry, more than angry, he was furious. How could they take away his Keila, she couldn't be given to that cruel caveman.
At that moment, the king made his way to the room, he had a meeting with the council members. They had to discuss their options regarding the dragon king but it seemed he had no choice.
When Raul saw the king he lost it. He strode towards the king shouting. "You can't be serious, she can't be given to the monsters who call themselves royalty! They'll hurt her, break her and treat her like a prisoner. And her future husband? Please, he's not more than a rich brat!"
"Quiet boy, I may treat you like a son but I am still your king!" Rolo said in a low threatening voice.
This made Raul shut up but it also snapped the princess out of her thoughts.
"But father, you can't mean this!" She tried to protest but her father scolded her with his deadly glare. "He's a monster" she whispered more to herself. Hearing her broken voice her father's glare softened and he took her face in his hands softly. " I know my dear daughter, but we have no choice. You will marry the prince and save our people. I am really sorry the thing we have to give them is you, but if we don't give the Dragon king what he wants we are as good as dead."
She saw the regret in her father's eyes and understood that there really was no hope.
She looked down and begun to silently cry. Raul came to her and hugged her for dear life. She clung to his shirt while crying her eyes out.
Mira was silently petting her back and the king was just staring at his daughter. He couldn't do anything to save her. If he didn't send her the dragon king would attack and destroy them.
The Eastern empire, which was the official name of the Dragon land, as most people called it, was the strongest kingdom on the continent.
The Shifter kingdom was second, but there was a really big difference between the two kingdoms. The Dragon land was wide and was mostly inhabited by humans apart from the few elf, shifter or org villages and some goblins on the borders which were too far from the capital for the Dragon King to care.
Most of those creatures had their own kingdoms but they somehow mingled through the continent. He himself had numerous creatures on his land beside the shifters. There was a lot of elves and witches on his land, as their kingdoms were allies and shared borders.
Orgs didn't really care about borders, they were more barbarian but didn't make trouble so most rulers let them be and goblins were more like cavemen. You couldn't really banish them unless you slaughtered them. And humans lived on the whole continent, they had their own kingdom far in the north but they were peaceful and good for trade so they weren't really discriminated. They shared a border with the dragon land so that was probably why so many humans lived in Dragon land.
However, Dragon land didn't like other people or creatures on their territory. They usually kept for themselves but if they felt threatened by someone they were cruel and ruthless.
They always got what they wanted. So if the Dragon king wanted his daughter for his son to marry, there was nothing he could do and it broke his heart.
But he had to think about a whole kingdom, not just one girl even if it was his own daughter.
If he didn't send her to her husband to be, they would destroy the whole kingdom. There was no way he could beat their biggest weapon, Dragons.
No one knew how they got them or how many they had but every time they fought, they had a dragon in the army. They would destroy his army and probably kill all of his people and burn their land.
They had done it before. There was land on the other side of the elf realm. It used to be the land of orgs. No one really knew why but the Dragon king attacked them and burned all their land.
Most of the orgs were killed and those who survived started to roam the continent. All that was left was a No man's land between the Dragon land, the human kingdom and the Elf realm.
He prayed that the Dragon King would be kind to his daughter or at least wouldn't hurt her but he was afraid of the prince. He was even more ruthless than his father and was his best warrior.
Keila knew the rumours far too well and was afraid of the prince. She didn't want to marry him. Who would? He was cruel and everyone feared him.
She silently cried until her father couldn't watch anymore and broke the silence.
"I am really sorry, but you have to leave in two days. The journey takes almost two days and you must not be late. You can do whatever you want for the next two days but you are leaving the next morning. Oh, and don't leave the castle." With that, her father left.
She ran away, her friends were calling after her but she just ran to her chambers and spend the rest of her birthday crying.
- Writer
