Heritage
Hunted

I woke up at dawn as usual andremembered that Aura still had one of my fans. I sat up from my bed and picked up my single fan, running a carefulfinger along the edge thoughtfully. Iwalked over to the windows and pulled the curtains open, sitting myself in thedawn’s light and meditating with my fan open and in front of me. I reflected on Zereria, on Cannabec, on thesituation of either becoming Satan’s Soldier or Ethylias’s Hero. Paradox was right, I shouldn’t be scoffing atthe opportunity to fight against Cannabec’s chosen Soldier and securing myplace in Heaven. But I didn’t want tohave that responsibility on my shoulders, I might have been killed and draggeddown to Hell if Prebeta hadn’t saved me. What if I lost against Cannabec’s chosen one? A whole seventh of the planet will beshrouded and dominated in darkness! Andbecause I failed to do a simple task. Ifelt the dawn’s power fading and opened my eyes to see the beautiful garden inthe daylight. I felt myself smile as Isaw Selina walk through the gardens with Bell and her kittens. It was just adorable, the way they followedher in a neat line. When theydisappeared from my view, I took one of the kimonos that Paradox had for me inthe wardrobe and headed downstairs.

“Oh, Your Highness!” I didn’t take any notice until two elf maidsstopped me in the corridor. “We’resupposed to dress you!” one said nervously as she looked up at me “And we haveyour breakfast.”

“Well, I’m dressed now and I’m going tohave breakfast downstairs,” I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh no, we couldn’t possibly allowthat!” squeaked the other maid who held a tray of food for me.

“Why not? Is something going on downstairs?” I askedwith a frown.

“Well it just wouldn’t be proper forYour Highness to eat with the soldiers and knights.” I raised an eyebrow and took a bunch of skyblue grapes from the tray. I popped onein my mouth and smiled in delight when I tasted how sweet yet salty it was. One of my favourite flavour combinations.

“I’ll just go for a walk then,” I saidand brushed past the maids. They bustledafter me so I ran off through the corridors to get rid of them. This started a bit of an uproar with themaids, all hurrying after me to try and get me to go back upstairs and have mybreakfast in my room. I wasn’t that fit,but they didn’t seem to be very fast. Iwas getting a stitch on the third way down a staircase and was about to giveup. Until I came across an open windowdown one of the corridors and took the opportunity to escape the persistentgroup of maids by jumping through and landing in some rather uncomfortablebushes. I shuffled through the branchesand leaves until I stumbled out onto one of the garden paths. I examined my bunch of grapes, decided thatthey were still clean enough for me to eat and walked to the frontgardens. I stared up at the large marblegates, wondering if there was any way to open them. As I remained standing there, tossing thegrapes into my mouth one at a time, a hand slapped itself onto my shoulder.

“Good morning, Your Highness!” Chelseagreeted loudly “I see you’re a morning person, hm? Well so am I! I’m glad we have something in common.” She grinned and I managed to smile softly back.

“Um, would it be alright for me to goout and wander in the forest?” I asked.

“No it would certainly not!” Chelseaplaced one hand on her hip and wagged a finger at me “Unless I come withyou.” She had quite the juvenilementality to match her childish face.

“Will you accompany me for a walk aroundthe forest?” I asked.

“Sure thing!” Chelsea smiled and turnedto the gates “Open up! This is Chelseathe Copper Combatant taking Princess Zelda for a walk around Washmerg Woods!” The gates creaked open and Chelsea eagerlyrushed through. I trailed after her,admiring her speed until I found out that she actually had wheels attached toher copper boots. She skated down thepathway, spinning and jumping along like a little child. Suddenly, I felt like either her mother orher babysitter.

“So you’re a knight?” I said as she dida U-turn and skated back towards me.

“That’s right!” Chelsea grinned.

“How long have you been a knight for?”

“Hm…for about eleven years I suppose,” Chelseashrugged and frowned “I’m the newest addition you see. Plus I was knighted early when I was fifteenafter I proved my worth when my father died in the line of duty.”

“Fifteen? That would make you twenty-six now…” I saidas I looked at her incredulously.

“Surprised?” she grinned again “No-onecan really take me seriously since my aging stopped when I was twelve. It’s so annoying.”

“Does aging normally stop that early forelves?”

“Not really, it normally stops at aboutages eighteen to twenty five,” Chelsea sighed “The youngest age ever recordedfor an elf to stop aging is five years old. She may still be alive now I think.”

“Oh…that’s unfortunate,” I grimaced“Does that interfere with puberty at all?”

“No, it doesn’t,” Chelsea said witheyebrows raised thoughtfully “It doesn’t matter how old you look really. Even though with some couples it looks a bitodd, you are still able to develop mentally and be able to reproduce.”

“Hm, I suppose that didn’t work out foryou.”

“Hey!” I giggled as Chelsea pouted and stomped her foot. “Are you saying I’m mentally immature?”

“Your aging may have stopped at twelve,but you still act like you’re six,” I smiled “At least, as far as I’ve seen.”

“What’s the matter about being a littlebit carefree?” Chelsea whined and folded her arms “It’s nice to revert to thehappy childhood times once in a while.” My smile faltered and it slowly turned into a grimace.

“Yeah, if you had a happy childhood,” Imuttered.

“Why, what went wrong with yours?”Chelsea asked curiously. I looked up ather and nibbled on another grape.

“Twelve families suffered because of meand most of the children in the orphanage rarely paid attention to me,” Ireplied “Then Zack came along to adopt me and suddenly I was in this massivemansion, learning how to be a housewife for a human.”

“Oh no he didn’t!” Chelsea gasped “Humanhousewives are practically slaves and are forever bound to the house!”

“What’s it like to be an elf housewifethen?” I asked.

“Well, normally they would run abusiness of sorts or be a teacher to get a sense of achievement,” Chelseahummed “My mother runs an armoury at the moment. Every housewife is different though, but mostfemale elves tend to want to work and achieve their potential. Don’t you?” I thought about that. If I was ahousewife, what would I want to do as work? I knew I would hate having to be bound to a house with a husband to keepme company but if I had an elf husband, what would I do? I certainly loved making perfumes, maybe Icould run a perfume shop?

“I like making perfume.”

“Oh, you know how to make perfume?”Chelsea exclaimed “Can you teach me? Ilove smelling perfume! No-one in myfamily really is into that stuff and I never had the time to go and learn.”

“Maybe later today?” I proposed andChelsea’s eyes gleamed.

“That would be brilliant!” shesaid. I smiled then paused, looking upat the sky.

“I wouldn’t mind travelling either,” Isaid as Chelsea stopped next to me “I love animals, I want to go and see themall with my own eyes.”

“Travelling?” Chelsea blinked “Wow,that’s a first. I haven’t met any elveswho’ve wanted to travel before. They allnormally want to stay in their own kingdoms.”

“That would get boring,” I said “I wantto go out and see Croft’s Ravens. I wantto see Careem wolves and Narwhines and meet all kinds of supernaturals fromhybrids to werewolves! I want to seeEthylias. And as an elf, I have all thetime to see it.” Chelsea didn’t sayanything after I practically declared my love for Ethylias. And yet, I didn’t wish to become a Hero toprotect it. I was willing to givesomeone else that burden.

“Um, Your Highness, you might want toget ready to run. Like right now.” That was when I heard guns and raised voicesin the distance. As Chelsea begantelling me to run back to the palace while drawing her sword out, I stoodthere, paralysed. Immediately, images ofParadox killing those men flickered in my mind and I grimaced, knowing Chelseawould probably go charging off to do that too. But when two figures came stumbling out of the shrubbery, my eyeswidened.

“Vincent! Dune!” Vincent lifted his eyes and ducked as Chelsea swung her sword at him.

“Now listen to me, you!” she said with alow growl “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll-ah!”

“What are you doing here?!” I exclaimedafter shoving Chelsea to the side.

“They came after me,” Vincent breathed“Because I’m an elf, they thought I would know where you had gone. Dune helped me escape and we ran here becausea ghost named Zereria told us to…” Mother? I glanced at Dune wholooked comatose and practically hanging off Vincent.

“What happened to Dune?” I askedfearfully as Chelsea got up, grumbling and dusting herself off.

“They’ve got silver bullets in theirguns specially for him, they managed to catch him by the calf and we had to letit bleed for the silver to get out. Buthe’s been terribly weak ever since we did that.”

“So do you know these two, YourHighness?” Chelsea said as I helped carry Dune for Vincent.

“Chelsea, could you please hold them offwhile we go back to the palace?” I begged and Chelsea saluted.

“Yeah, no problem, ma’am,” she winkedand charged off through the pushes with a childish war cry.

“Is it really safe for her to fightthem?” Vincent raised an eyebrow as we began heaving Dune down the path.

“She’s twenty-six, she stopped agingwhen she was twelve, she was knighted when she was fifteen, I think she canhandle it,” I replied and grunted “How is Dune so skinny but so heavy?”

“Maybe you’re just not that strong,”Vincent commented.

“Shut up, you’re struggling too,” Iglared at him.

“I’ve been carrying him like this for agood few hours,” Vincent retaliated “I’m shattered.” I scowled as we continued down the path,reaching the gates after what seemed to be hours.

“This is Zelda! Open the gates, I have an injured vampire anda fugitive elf!”

“That identification is invalid!” I glared at the elves on the top of thegates.

“You saw me leave with Chelsea!”

“Full identification is required.” I rolled my eyes and sulked.

“Princess Zelda with an injured vampireand fugitive elf,” I said loud enough for them to hear and the gates creakedopen.

“Princess Zelda?” Vincent said in asurprised tone “The same Princess Zelda that disappeared thirteen years ago?”

“Just think of me as the Zelda thatsaved you in Aurallion, no royalty involved,” I said as we dragged Dune throughto the gardens. Aura was outside andlearning how to wield a sword with Gardenia and he immediately sprinted overtowards us when he caught sight of Dune.

“What happened?” he asked as elf servantscame to take Dune off us and carry him inside.

“They were targeted because I escapedfrom Zack,” I replied “Dune got hit by a silver bullet. This is Vincent, we saved him from the policebefore we met you.”

“Oh, hi, I’m Aura,” Aura waved shyly atthe taller elf.

“So this is the famous Aura who Zelda ishopelessly in love with?” Vincent cocked his head to the side and we bothblushed.

“Dune has a very overactive imagination,please ignore anything he told you about us,” I said quickly.

“Zelda, where have you been?!” Paradox’svoice boomed from the palace doors, making Aura, Vincent and I flinch. I turned to the doors as Paradox, Brenda andSelina came out, Paradox in his armour.

“I wanted to go for a walk,” I mutteredand froze up when Paradox came up to Vincent.

“Vincent, son of Sir Grimscraw and LadyPeridota?” he addressed.

“Ah, yes,” Vincent nodded, intimidatedby Paradox’s size.

“You were to complete your knighttraining until Brodka attacked your family under King Serprenis?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Vincent nodded ashe suddenly bowed his head.

“Your father was a good elf, Brenda andSelina will assist in your final stages of training starting tomorrow,” Paradoxnodded before turning to me “And don’t you everleave the palace without my permission again!”

“And why should I have your permissionto leave the palace?” I asked, feeling rather annoyed “I had Chelsea with me,it was fine!”

“Clearly it wasn’t,” Brenda remarkedsnidely.

“We’d better get going, Chelsea mightneed help, Your Highness,” Selina hastily said as Paradox gazed at me, probablyhaving the urge to raise his voice at me again. He glanced at both of this knights before nodding to Gardenia whoordered for the gates to be opened to let them through. As soon as they were closed, I lost my temper.

“Who does he think he is?!” I bellowed,making both Vincent and Aura along with the other servants jump “I’m not hisbloody wife! How dare he orders me toask him for permission!”

“He’s next in line to the throne of theEastern Kingdom,” a stern voice came from behind me. I whirled around and met with Pearl’s fierceglare. “And you are his future wife, youmay be a princess but you are still below him.”

“I am not marrying him,” I saidvenomously “If he wants a wife, it won’t be me.” I stormed past her, intending to replace Duneand to oversee the elves tending his wound.

I refused to leave Dune’s side after themedical elves bandaged his wound after determining that all the silver wasout. They left, telling me to call themif anything happened that would risk his health. If he were to wake, I would have to releaseone of the rabbits in the cage for him to drink because it wouldn’t be properfor me to offer him my blood. I simplynodded and enjoyed the silence, listening to Dune’s faint breathing. It was my fault that he was like that. If I hadn’t insisted that he took Vincent in,he wouldn’t be here, at risk of having silver poisoning or dying from lack ofblood.

“Dune, I’m so sorry,” I whispered astears brimmed my eyes.

“Is he alright?” Vincent came into the room with a freshkimono on and sat on the other side of Dune’s bed.

“He will be if he wakes up,” I repliedand let the tears flow.

“He will wake up, please don’t cry, YourHighness…”

“Don’t call me that!” I barked at him“I’m not a princess! Not now, not ever!”

“I must, I’ll begin my training tomorrowand I need to start addressing everyone properly…”

“It starts tomorrow! Tomorrow! Just call me Zelda! None of this‘Your Highness’ stuff now!” Vincentshifted and nodded hesitantly. Heglanced down at Dune and sighed softly.

“It’s been so long, I might have torestart the whole training process,” he grumbled.

“How long is the training?” I asked.

“Standard knight training normally takesthree to four years,” Vincent replied as he glanced at his right hand andgripped it “Normally a blink of an eye compared to the average elf lifespan.” I fiddled with my kimono as the door slidopen again and Aura sat next to me.

“He looks so dead, it’s strange,” hemuttered.

“He’s a vampire, it’s what you shouldexpect,” Vincent muttered. Aura noddedthen handed my remaining fan to me. Itook it and clenched it in my hands.

“That ghost you saw,” I said “Vincent,that was my mother.”

“I figured as much,” Vincent nodded “Shelooked a lot like you.” I nodded with awistful smile.

“I never realised that she was my motheruntil Paradox told me,” I said.

“Do you not like the Prince?” Vincentfrowned.

“You saw how he was back there,” Iscowled “I wouldn’t want to marry someone who has that kind of temperament.”

“Zelda, he was worried,” Aura soothed“We were all worried.”

“You didn’t seem worried, you weretraining with your sister,” I raised an eyebrow.

“I was probably less worried than thePrince but only because I know you can take care of yourself.” I smiled warmly and hugged him.

“See this, Vincent?” I addressed theother elf “This is the kind of husband I want.”

“I…I…ah…” I grinned when I heard Aura stumble over hiswords. “I still insist that Paradoxwould be a better husband.”

“If I married him, I’d have to be hisqueen,” I said and withdrew from my hug “And if I’m his queen, I wouldn’t beable to travel. I want to see Ethyliasand I won’t be able to if I’m bound to this palace.”

“From what I’ve just seen, I don’t thinkyou’re the kind of person to let a marriage get in the way of your dreams,”Vincent commented and I smiled sheepishly.

“Blood,” Dune rasped, startling us“Blood, need blood, now!”

“Vincent, get one of those rabbits,” Isaid and pointed to the cage. Vincentnodded as he hurried over to the small cage in the corner and plucked out oneof the brown rabbits inside. He handedit over to the gasping vampire who immediately snatched it and sunk its fangsinto the neck. The rabbit struggled inhis grip before falling limp, making Aura whimper and bury his face into mylap. Dune gasped after drinking therabbit dry and I felt my stomach churn when I smelt the blood off him. He sniffed, pulled the rabbit away and gasped.

“I killed a poor baby rabbit!” he criedand glanced at us “You made me kill a rabbit! A rabbit! Why?”

“Better it than us,” Vincent grunted.

“Sorry, Dune, I’ll get different animalsif you don’t want to drink from rabbits,” I offered “How about squirrels?”

“No, not squirrels, they’re cuter andtinier than rabbits,” Dune pouted.

“Exactly what did you feed on?” Vincentasked with a raised eyebrow.

“I preyed on the maids and convincedthem to not tell anyone using my allure ability,” Dune replied.

“You’re going to have to feed onanimals, I’m afraid, Dune,” I sighed as I petted Aura’s head in my lap,stroking his soft golden hair “Your allure ability won’t work on elves and elfblood might be a bit rich for you.”

“Huh…alright, I’ll feed on animals solong as I watch and make sure I don’t kill them,” Dune pushed the dead rabbitaway. As Vincent picked it up and threwit out of the window where it fell into the river with a splash, Dune noted howAura had tucked his head into my lap. “Aw, so is it official?” he cooed.

“What? Oh, no,” I blushed and smiled sheepishly “He was just a bit squeamish.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Aura,” Duneapologised and winced “Ow, my leg…”

“You idiot, why did you help me?”Vincent muttered as he admired the view outside.

“Because I promised Zelda here that I’dlove and cherish you until death do us part!” Dune grinned.

“I asked you to take care of him, not tomarry him,” I muttered as Vincent rolled his eyes. Aura turned his head to look at Dune andsmile shyly.

“I’m glad you’re OK,” he said.

“Aw, honey,” Dune pressed a hand to hisheart “I’m glad you’re alright too. Isyour group of Nekaroses around?”

“Yes but Selina is taking care of themwhile Gardenia is training me to be a knight,” Aura sighed.

“You?” I glanced down at Aura “Aknight? Aura, do you want to be aknight?”

“Well, not really…” Aura muttered “ButGardenia told me that Nova and I were going to be knights…”

“Aura, if you don’t want to be a knightthen you can tell her.”

“But she’d be so happy with me,” Aurasat up and stared at me.

“Will you be happy with it?” I askedwith a sceptical eyebrow.

“Well no…”

“Listen here now,” I said and placed ahand on Aura’s shoulder “You can only be a knight if you’re happy to become aknight. You shouldn’t become a knightjust because someone else expects you to.” Aura grimaced and fiddled with the sleeve of his kimono. I turned my head sharply to Dune who cooed atus.

“You two act like the most adorablecouple I’ve ever seen,” he said then gripped onto Vincent “Why can’t we be likethat?”

“We’re not in a relationship,” Vincentmuttered as he struggled to get Dune’s hand off his wrist.

“You’re so mean, Vinnie!” Dune whined.

“Don’t call me that,” Vincent muttered.

“Yes, it wouldn’t do to be named ‘SirVinnie’,” I smirked.

“Sir Vinnie?” Dune repeated and staredat Vincent “Are you training to be a knight too?”

“Yes, I was going to for my family and Iintend to complete it under Prince Paradox,” Vincent nodded.

“Wow, that would be so cool!” Dunesquealed and hugged Vincent tightly “I’ll be going out with a knight!”

“We’re not going out!” Aura and I giggled and I lowered my hand tosqueeze Aura’s.

“Come on, let’s go replace the Nekarosesnow we know Dune’s alright,” I smiled at him. Aura blushed, nodded and let me lead him through the palace to replace theNekaroses to play with them.

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