Chapter 2

“Our ancestors founded the Hunters’ Contest as a symbol of unity throughout our Kingdom, to show that despite our differences, we must work together…”

Amara paced in her room, her voice trailing off as she examined the speech again in attempts to remember the next few words. She then looked at herself in the nearby mirror and ran her hand through her hair a few times. A sigh escaped her and she sat down in a nearby chair. I just want to get this over with, she thought; it was three more days until she made her speech.

Then a feeling crept over her, as if she were being watched. Amara slowly turned to look out the window, glancing at the Kingdom below; in the middle of the marketplace was a man with a black hood over most of his face, and sure enough, he seemed to be looking directly at Amara’s window.

She flinched at his gaze, pulling back from the window, and as she did she could see the hooded man draw the hood further over his face, turn, and then rapidly walk away.

“…and now, citizens of Agraud’s Kingdom, without further ado, the Hunters’ Contest shall begin!”

The crowd below roared with approval, and Amara stepped aside, her speech finally concluded. Relief washed over her; she wouldn’t have to do that for at least another year.

“You did great,” said Tyra, who was standing nearby.

“Thanks,” Amara smiled, and she could now hear Darren talking; he must’ve been getting the hunters out to the forest. “Do you think Kara will win?”

Tyra sighed. “To tell the truth, I think your sister rushed into this. The other hunters are a lot more experienced…”

Amara realized Tyra was right, but she still wanted Kara to win, despite the unlikeliness. “So…I guess now we wait for them to return,” she said. Spectators weren’t allowed in the forest, so all the citizens could do was anticipate the results.

Just then Amara’s mother came up to her, her father right nearby. A smile split across the queen’s face and she pulled Amara into a hug excitedly. “You did great!” she exclaimed. “I’m so proud of you!”

“Oh, well thank you!” Amara said with a slight laugh as her mother pulled back.

“You did very well,” said her father in agreement, giving a smile that formed wrinkles under his eyes. “It was not so bad, was it?”

“It’s over at any rate,” Amara giggled. “I’m just glad it is.”

“Well, you may be doing it next time,” her mother grinned. “The Kingdom loved you!”

“Of course they did,” scoffed her father. “I am going to go oversee the hunt. Farewell,” he nodded, turning to leave.

Amara’s mother turned to her with another brilliant smile. “I suppose you and I will head back to the palace then. Come on.”

         
Later, Amara sat in the gardens once more, among the chrysanthemums, talking to them. “So I’m worried Kara isn’t going to win, and I really want her to, but the other hunters are more experienced so it’s not very likely—”

“Princess Amara?” spoke up a voice. Amara turned to see a man standing there – a messenger, Ronald Hill. He immediately bowed upon her acknowledgement.
“What is it?” Amara asked. “Is everything okay? Wha—”
“Your sister’s shooting glove snapped,” Ronald said hurriedly, straightening himself. “You know her best, where might she keep spares?”
Amara immediately perked up. “Yes, I know where I can get them.”
“Well, Princess, if you would tell me the location and I can retrieve—”
“Don’t worry, I can get it,” insisted Amara, standing up and running back towards the palace.
She could hear Ronald call after her, but she ignored him; not only did she know where to get a spare glove, but this was also an excuse to go into the forest – which she had always wanted to explore on her own.

They called it the “Dark Forest” to keep people from going too far in; from what Amara had heard, there were several forests like this one throughout Acirewiel, and all of them were equally dangerous.
But luckily, the outskirts of the Dark Forest were completely safe. When he forest began to get darker that was a sign you were too far in – and Amara was positive she wouldn’t go that far. Kara was smart enough not to, so she’d be on the outskirts like everyone else should be.
Amara made her way past the gates (there weren’t any guards posted, so Amara assumed they were dealing with the contest, much to her relief), and headed down the dirt path that lead right to the forest, which was right by the wall that surrounded the Kingdom.
She had never been in the Dark Forest alone. The idea excited her. Her overprotective father would never let her leave the Kingdom on her own, but she’d be quick. She was only delivering Kara her glove, after all, which was currently being held in Amara’s left hand.
Then she was darting through the treeline, and she slowed down as she came into the forest. Worries began running through her head: what if the guards are here? What if Ronald tells my father? But she attempted to push them away; there wasn’t anything wrong with what she was doing.
Except for going out without guards, said a voice of doubt, which your father will not appreciate.
Despite all this, Amara kept going through the forest. It was quite silent – she suspected everyone was further in – so there was no clue as to where her sister was. Amara took in the scenery: the sunlight sparkled through the leaves of the trees, which had turned orange with the new season. She hated to see flowers dying during this time, but when Amara was younger her mother explained the circle of life, how the leaves would turn dull colors and the plants would give out due to the cold of the oncoming winter. It was for the best, her mother had said. But Amara still wasn’t sure why it was.
She then turned to some flowers nearby, who looked lively among the dead-looking trees. “Hi,” said Amara, and the flowers, all clumped together looked up upon hearing her voice. Amara lowered herself down in front of them, and was mindful to keep the dress form hitting the ground – she didn’t want dirt on it. “My sister, Kara recently came through here but I’m looking for her. Do you know where she went?”
Not too long after the question left her mouth, the flowers all turned to look into the distance – east, Amara realized. She beamed at them. “Thank you!” she said, before standing back up and heading in that direction.
Amara continued walking, and she could hear talking every now and then – must’ve been other hunters – but she avoided them in case they’d get suspicious about her being alone. Adrenaline was rushing through her and she couldn’t help but grin to herself. It was like she was on a quest, and she couldn’t be caught – which was kind of exciting, really.
But as she walked, she then heard a voice that was closer than the others she had heard previously – and it sounded like the person was singing. “…he was a shepherd but he could fight off lions…a warrior dressed in robes…”
It was a man’s voice, but it wasn’t very deep. Amara recognized the song he was singing: “The Mighty Shepherd”, which she had first heard at a young age. The song was about a lowly, humble shepherd who was a lot stronger and a lot more of a fighter than everyone thought. She quite liked the tale, and her mother sang it often; but not much anymore.
She then looked for the origin of the voice; and sure enough, nearby was someone in a dark cloak and a hood pulled over their face. Amara hid behind a tree, and she noticed a nearby branch lower down as if to fully hide her – like it knew what her intentions were.
He was walking along by himself, and he crouched down to pick berries off of a bush. “…he took on the beasts of the land, with nothing but his shepherd’s crane…oh, the mighty shepherd…”
She peeked her head around the tree in attempts to get a good look at him. He raised his head slightly, and Amara’s heart hammered against her chest as she realized who he was.
It’s the man I saw out my window!  she thought to herself in realization. What was he doing out here? Who was he? She decided to keep spying, and possibly find these things out herself.
The man stood up and glanced at her, then did a double-take. Amara realized she had been spotted, and found herself just staring back at him. He grew wide-eyed before saying, “oh, hold—wait, wait!”
Amara was about to ask what was wrong when he produced a red gem from the pocket of his cloak and then threw it at her. Amara didn’t even have time to react before it landed on her hip and latched on, and then the man said something in another language: “edestus maak!”

Confusion filled Amara right before a wave of pain came over, and suddenly Amara couldn’t move or yell out. Black dots lined her vision and she fell over, before being completely knocked out.

Chapter 1

“Augh, Tyra, I can’t do this!”

The attendant gave a warm smile at Amara, sitting down next to her at the desk in her room. “You’ll do great.”

“No I won’t,” Amara insisted, shaking her head and running a hand through her long, wavy red hair. “I thought this would be so exciting, but…I’m nervous. What if I mess up in front of the whole Kingdom? Kara should do this, she’s—”

“Relax,” insisted Tyra, calming the girl; being Amara’s attendant since she was born, Tyra had plenty of practice with it. “You’ve got this. You’re good at speaking.”

“Not in front of everyone who lives here!” Amara protested.

“How do you know? You haven’t tried it yet,” Tyra said, glancing out the window that oversaw the Kingdom and the forests beyond. “And besides, your father has purchased a very nice dress and jewelry for the occasion.”

Amara perked up slightly. “What do they look like?”

“The dress is a pretty emerald green. Like your eyes,” Tyra replied, turning to look at Amara, who smiled at the compliment. “And a beautiful pearl necklace. You’ll look great, and everyone will love you.”

Amara frowned. “Why isn’t Kara doing the speech anyway? She’s much better at them…”

“You haven’t made a speech before. Besides, your sister has done the speech every year since turning sixteen. Your parents wanted you to have a try, plus Kara is participating in the event this year,” explained Tyra. She then gestured to the papers that had been set at the table. “I suggest you read over those, so you’ll be prepared as best you can. You have a week, Princess Amara.”

Amara nodded. “I know. Thank you, Tyra. You can go if you wish, I’ll practice the speech and we can review it together this afternoon.”

Tyra bowed her head in response before leaving Amara to glance over the speech that had been written out for her. In one week would be the annual Hunters’ Contest that was very popular in Agraud’s Kingdom. It was always a special event, but this year Amara had to make the opening speech. She got nervous just thinking about it.

She looked down at the papers. Sure, Amara was able to read from them for the speech, but according to Tyra she had to look at the audience as much as possible, so a little bit of memorization couldn’t hurt.

Amara examined the opening sentence. “Citizens of Agraud, we welcome you to the 21^st annual Hunters’ Contest.” She tried to imagine herself standing in front of the Kingdom, saying the words, but the nerves churned in her stomach as she pictured the scene happening. She’d been in front of the Kingdom numerous times, so she never quite imagined having the fear of public speaking; but apparently, she had it.

I’ll study this in the gardens, she thought. Thinking of the gardens immediately made her feel better; it was her favorite place to be, surrounded by the plants and beautiful flowers. She went there often; in fact many of the servants knew this as the place to find Amara.

She gathered up the papers and left the room, heading down the hallway to go to the gardens, which were right outside the palace. She made her way past guards and attendants alike – all who acknowledged her in a bow, curtsey or a “good morning princess” as she walked – and headed through the doors that’d take her to the garden outside.

The gardens had made a wonderful transition from the summer flowers to the autumn ones. Amara stepped out into the gardens, an arch of leaves and roses being the first thing to greet her. She then took the path, with flowers on either side of her and trees that were bountiful with apples. The morning sun sparkled through the leaves and flowers all around her, creating a very pretty scene.

 She sat down by the flowers, looking at them. Some were a pretty purple, while others were brilliant shades of orange and red. Being in the gardens, Amara could slowly feel her nerves calming. Perhaps since she had been here since she was little was why it calmed her down. It was an incredibly familiar place.

She examined the plants nearby after reading the fourth line. “Hello,” she found herself saying, and the flowers faced Amara upon hearing her voice. A smile split across her face. The plants always listened, and she found herself telling them of her situation. “The Hunting Contest is coming up. It’s one of my favorite events in the Kingdom…but I have to make the speech. How do I do that?”

Several of the flowers tilted their petals as if thinking, while a few others seemed to shrug in response. They were somewhat capable of communicating, Amara had learned. But mainly through gestures.

Maybe some flowers in far-off Kingdoms could talk. Amara longed to visit the other Kingdoms – maybe attending a meeting with her father could grant her the opportunity – but in all her life, the furthest she’d been was into the forest nearby, and even then she had to be escorted by guards so she couldn’t fully enjoy the experience.

Just then footsteps reached her ears and Amara lifted her head up slightly to see who it was: she immediately recognized the man as Spencer Lamb, one of the gardeners. He had dark skin and eyes, and was pretty much the tallest person Amara had ever met. In fact, the top of her head just barely reached his shoulder; her height being about 5’1” didn’t help.

“Oh, hello Amara—er, um, I mean, Princess Amara,” stammered Spencer.

Amara gave him a small smile. “It’s okay Spencer. You can just call me Amara.” She talked to him enough to consider him one of her friends, so she didn’t feel the title was a necessity.

“I would…rather not. Don’t want a man overhearing me not acknowledging you as a princess and jailing me up or something,” said Spencer, giving a light but nervous chuckle. “I should not really be here anyways. You know how the council and your family feel about people being alone with you.”

“You’re fine. I can just say you were here to make sure no assassins got to me,” said Amara with a slight giggle.

Spencer smiled in return. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“Oh, I have to memorize a speech. For the Hunters’ Contest,” Amara said, giving a slight nod.

Spencer’s eyes grew wide. “Really? They’re letting you do that?” Amara nodded and he smiled. “Well, Princess Kara did make her speech at sixteen. I suppose it’s your turn now.”

“Yeah, but I’m nervous. What if I mess up?” Amara fretted.

He walked closer to her and knelt down, right next to her on the ground. “Princess Amara, if there’s one thing you’re good at, it’s talking,” he said somewhat teasingly. “You’ll do great.”

“Not in front of a whole Kingdom,” retorted Amara. “There’ll be so many…”

“Well on the bright side, Agraud is the smallest Kingdom. If you lived in Saluth, Foreviel or anywhere else…that’d be a different story. Plus, everyone in this Kingdom loves you. They won’t hold anything against you if you mess up.” Spencer then gave a slight grimace. “They can’t anyway, I mean, that’s probably against some law…”

Amara gave a slight laugh. “Well…thanks, Spencer.”

Spencer then stood up. “Sure, any time. I got to tend to the flowers now, however. Not doing my job is also probably against some law…”

“You’re overthinking it Amara. It’s honestly not that big a deal.”

Amara had gone to see Kara at lunchtime. She had brought bread and pottage for the both of them, knowing Kara was busy down at the archery range. She was taking a break from her lessons – their father was training her to rule the Kingdom as Queen – and during Kara’s breaks, Amara knew that her sister practiced the bow-and-arrow out in the yard by the palace, not too far from the gardens.

“I’m still nervous,” insisted Amara, watching as Kara put an arrow into the nock of the bow and pulled back to aim at the target. “I mean, it’s the whole Kingdom.”

“Oh, please. If they say anything bad about you the council would have their heads,” muttered Kara, releasing the arrow, which missed the target. Amara heard her sister curse under her breath as she went to retrieve it.

Nearby, Amara could hear the clashing of swords and yelling of the soldiers, who were practicing their fighting. She looked over to see them all sparring, with the Captain Darren Fletcher observing them nearby, talking to a messenger that was standing next to him, a paper in their hand. Darren had one hand on the sword on his belt – Amara knew he often did this out of habit – and with the other hand he tried to get his messy brown hair out of his face.

No one from the army was currently using the archery range, so Kara had seized the opportunity to use it. A few weeks ago Kara had announced to the family that she was going to participate in the Hunters’ Contest; so not only would Kara be the first Queen to be the main ruler of the Kingdom, she was also the first woman to enter the Hunters’ Contest. Amara was very proud of her sister, especially knowing that she couldn’t be brave enough to try and do those things herself.

As she watched her sister practice, Amara noticed Kara seemed to be working herself too hard; although Kara insisted the words of the citizens complaining about a woman being in the contest didn’t bother her, Amara knew her older sibling well enough to see when she was stressed. Every sentence and remark seemed to gnaw at Kara, which she channeled into an ambition to do better and to prove the people wrong. If Kara would relax, she’d probably do better at this, thought Amara.

She decided to tell her sister so. “Maybe you should calm down a bit. You seem…stressed.”

As Kara came back with the arrow, she laughed at Amara’s words. “Me? Stressed? I don’t get stressed. How do I seem stressed?”

“You’re not relaxing when you shoot. You’re doing it too quickly,” said Amara.

“Yeah? And you’re some kind of archery expert?” muttered Kara, putting the arrow in the nock again.

“She’s not,” said a new voice, “but Princess Amara is right.”

Both girls looked up to see Darren had come over. “Shouldn’t you be watching the soldiers?” asked Kara, looking at the target rather than Darren.

He gave a slight chuckle, glancing over his shoulder at the soldiers behind him. “They get boring after a while. A lot of the new recruits need more work to do.” He looked back to Kara, who was still refusing to look back at him. “When shooting, you have to relax and take your time. You seem tense, and I’ve been watching; you shoot too fast.”

Finally Kara looked at him, but only threw him a glare. “I didn’t exactly invite you over here to criticize me, Darren.”

“No, but I wanted to help you. I am hoping you win the contest, after all,” he said with a smile. Amara took a bite of bread as she watched the conversation continue. Darren walked up to Kara, pairing up his arms with hers in attempts to show her how to line the arrow up with the target. “Try to—”

Kara shrugged him off. “I don’t need help. And I especially don’t need everyone watching me.”

“Amara’s been here,” Darren pointed out.

“She’s my sister. I barely know you.”

“And to think we were friends. Fine, I’ll leave you alone. Shoot well.” Darren then nodded and left to go back to the soldiers.

After a few seconds of silence, Amara spoke up. “You acted like you hated him.”

Kara sighed. “I don’t hate him, Amara. I just don’t want people touching me.”

“Oh.” Amara then took another bite of bread. “I think he’s cute.”

“Fine, he kind of is. I still can’t have people interrupting my archery practice though. Except you. You’re fine.”

“Oh. Well thank you,” said Amara. She then glanced at Kara’s lunch. “You’ve barely touched your food.”

“I’m busy, Amara, although the meal is much appreciated.” She then released the arrow, which flew right at the target onto one of the outer rims painted on it.

“Do you have…any advice about the speech?” Amara asked, recalling one of the reasons she had come out to visit her sister in the first place.

“Memorize the lines and don’t mess up. It’s all on you,” Kara said, pulling the arrow out of the target. 

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Author's Note:
So that's chapter one (finally)! Soon I should have a characters page up. It'll only have the main characters though (because there's a lot of minors). 
Any favorite characters so far?