The Beginning - Chapter One

Hi, my name is Emily, just a regular seventeen-year-old girl in high school in my last year of school. I should be happy to be in my last year of school, but it is just the beginning of becoming an adult with responsibilities that I dread. My parents have been prepping me for the day that I take their place on the throne. I want to be a regular teenager, not a fairy princess with a destiny that I do not want.

I have a twin sister named Hanna, she loves the politics and the royal lifestyle that I try to avoid. I have asked my parents several times to let her be the next heir to the throne, but they have disagreed. They tell me that it is the law that the first of twins be the heir. How I had wished that she would have pushed me out of the way to be first. For now, I have to accept my fate until I find a way to change the laws.  

These are my parents, Queen Sophie and King William. They have been ruling for fifteen years. My grandfather was the previous king, which made my dad the heir to the throne. He rules with a kind heart but has a sound judgment when it comes to his people. We have been at peace for over twenty years. 

Mark belongs to one of the royal bloodlines. We started dating at the end of my eleventh-grade year. We started off as best friends in school, then decided to date. It was a real pain at first with his popularity that most of the girls began to hate me out of jealousy. 

My sister started dating Mark, he is a few years older than my sister. Mark began dating Hanna when he was in his senior, and she was a freshman. My parents were hesitant in letting them date at first, but of course, they love each other and seemed relentless to stay away from each other. So, my parents let them be together. They have been dating for several years now, and well, they are just right for each other.

These are our guardians that were assigned to my sister and me when we turned sixteen. My sister's guardian, named Sandy, was the best choice for my sister. She refused to have a male guardian, so they gave her one of the highest-ranked female guardians from the royal guard. I have seen her in many practice fights, her skills in magic and fighting are impressive. I was assigned two guardians, none of my choosing. My parents picked them from the special guard unit. The special guard unit is made up of guardians that were selected from a young age, then trained to be the royal guardians when they achieved a certain skill level. One of my guardians are Chris, which is hot as fire, straight out of guardian school, is only a few years older than me. His skills as a fighter and his magic ability made him one of the top guardians at a young age. He was the first guardian assigned to me. My second guardian, name Dimitri, was appointed about a year later. Dimitri came from the academy, where he taught martial arts and classes to the new elite guards in training. He was the top elite guard of the royal family, but due to his skills and knowledge, they allowed him to train the new guards. He had the experience that no one else had when he had an encounter with a nightwalker while he was assigned to one of the royal families. My father was so impressed with his skills and knowledge he appointed him to his royal guards. 

When me and Hanna were little, we didn't need personal guards like we do now. We went to school together and were always playing together. We were royal but not that close to the throne at the time. My parents were not king and queen yet. My father’s parents were still alive and were the current rulers. 

As me and Hanna grew up, we began to developed magic of our own and could do extraordinary things. It was fun, and we got into a lot of trouble. 

One night I asked my mother to read me the story of our origin. My mother was hesitant at first, but she decided she would read it to us. "I'll be right back," she told me as I watched her leave my room. She quickly returned with an old leather-bound book that looked very old. She walked over, then sat down on the edge of my bed. She opened the book with care, then began to scan through the pages until she found what she was looking for. This would be a story that I would never forget. 

I was so excited to hear how we became who we were. I settled into bed as my mother started to read. "It started about a hundred years ago," she began.

"The queen and king had a little baby girl that was born with a rare disease that no one knew of. Many of the royal doctors could not find a way to cure the baby. Out of desperation, the queen sought out a wizard that was known to deal with magic. So frail, the little baby laid, never crying or moving. The queen sent for the wizard to come to the castle to see if he could help. When the wizard arrived, he looked over the baby with care. "I can heal the baby, but I have a request in return," he told the queen. "I will do anything if you can save my daughter," she told him. "Your daughter must marry one of the decedents when she becomes of age," he said as he waited for their reply. The queen was taken off guard with the wizard's request. "If you save my daughter, she will be betrothed to one of your decedents," she replied. The queen picked up her tiny baby, gave her a kiss, then handed her to the wizard. She watched the wizard place her daughter in her cradle, then he took out a pouch from his bag. Reaching into the pouch, he started to sprinkle silver dust over her little body while he spoke words that made no sense to any of them. Once he was done, he reached down and laid his hands on the baby's chest. What happened next was amazing. A light radiated from his hand and moved into her body. The baby then let out a little cry—the queen scooping her daughter up into her arms as she wept with joy. The wizard turned to her, "she will need to be protected, she cannot be seen by mortals, for they will take her. They do not know that she is special, blessed with the gift of light," he told her. "We will keep her safe," she replied to the wizard that left as fast as he came. The queen cried as she watched her daughter that was now full of life. A few days passed when the queen noticed that her daughter had a slight glow to her. As the days passed, the baby had what looked like wings that fluttered, though they were not physical.  Beautiful wings radiated from her back. As she grew up, she developed extraordinary powers. She could float a few feet off the ground, as well as mysterious powers that had many mesmerized. They protected her from the world, hiding her existence from the outside court. When she turned into an adult, she fell in love with a mortal. The wizard was furious when he found out about the princess's love for a mortal. He tried to push for the princess to marry his son, but the son would not break up the couple. So, the wizard gave up and allowed the princess to marry the mortal that she fell in love with. Later the princess and her husband would have kids that were half like her and half like their father. It is said that the guardians are the descendants of the princess. Guardians are almost the same as us, but they are not as delicate as we are. They have many of our magical powers but can not fly or have our wings, they don't have the gift of light. There is an evil that exists that would do us harm, so we must be protected all the time," her mother told them. "Who would want to harm us, mom," I asked with curiosity. "Are you sure you want to hear about them, I don't want to scare you," she said. "I want to know," I replied with confidence. 

"They are called Night Walkers, mystical creatures that are very similar to us. They got their name from their inability to walk in the daylight. Their skin and eyes are so sensitive that the sun could kill them. They are considered the undead, walking the earth with pure evil flowing through their veins. They don't care about anyone, only their desire to devour their prey. You can spot them by their pale skin that has a slight glow, and their eyes are red, and can even glow in certain lighting. They have pointy teeth that they use to bite their victims, to make it easier to drink their blood. Sometimes they turn people to make them Night Walkers, this is achieved by draining their blood, then making the victim drink their blood. They are immortal, never aging. Some people that know about them have asked to be turned so they can become immortal," she told me. 

I was scared, hiding my fear as my mother continued with her story. "The guardians had to protect us against the nightwalkers because they were obsessed with our blood. Many have said that our blood was magical, giving them super strength. Our blood causes them to go into a frenzy, draining all of our blood. There are stories told that if one of us was turned, that we would lose our wings, and our magic that makes us special would disappear. Our teeth would become pointy, our skin would change, and our eyes would become red. We would become the undead walking in the darkness of the night, in search of our next prey," she explained. 

"I personally had never seen one, but many say that in battles years ago, they were super strong, fast, and deadly. Many that encountered them never got the chance to tell about it. There were a few that managed to survive, to help teach the others how to defend themselves from the nightwalkers. I laid there, trying to imagine it all. I was so glad that we had guardians to protect us from those monsters that my mother had just told me about. I tried to think of what it would be like to see one of them in person only to shudder at the thought of it. I could only hope that I would never have to see them. "Mom, do you think that they could ever hurt us?" I asked with curiosity. "Of course not, we have the best guardians, and they will protect us from them," she told me. I knew this would be a story that would be passed down through the family, it was a story that would be said for years to come. 

Without any further questions, my mother tucked my sister in and me and left us to sleep. I tried to stay awake as long as I could, I was afraid that I would see them in my dreams. I must have drifted off to sleep a short time after mom had left. This was the first memory that I had of this story, and I knew that I would visit this story many times in the future.