Estrin sat on the battlements looking out over the land her father ruled. She hated being a princess, all the lady like things she had to do, never having any fun, never meeting anyone interesting. The ladies and dames of the castle insisted on spending hours at a time with her, teaching her how to be a good queen, and supportive wife when she married. It was never 'if', it was always when. Thats what anoyed Estrin the most. They all talked like they could run her life better if she wasn't in it. But Estrin didn't say anything, she used to complain to her father, but he laughed it off, putting it all down to childish behaviour that she would soon grow out of.

Estrin's mother had been ill for the last few weeks, and it had gotten so bad that eventually Adorian, the King, had called for a powerful wizzard from some foreign place to come and heal her magically. This was who she was waiting for on the battlements. She loved her mother dearly, and didn't want her to die. She was expecting some grand entrance, like him coming on flying horses or something, to make a real immpression and to get all the ladies to go ooh! and Ahh! and spend most of his stay at the castle trying to woo and seduce him. Estrin, being only 11 wasn't old enough to do those things, and frankly she didn't want to. Instead of the grand entrance, all she got was an old man riding a worn down horse, not even with clean robes on. It was highly dissapointing, but a wizzard was a wizzard none the less.

She noticed he wasn't alone either. With him was a young man, possibly an apprentice or something. He was what really caught her eye. He seemed beyond real, and for a minute or two after she first saw him, Estrin thought her hormones had kicked in early and she was falling in love. The feeling passed, leaving her in wonderment at it. The boy still seemed more stare worthy than the old man he was with, but somehow it had faded as he got closer. If he had been alone she could easily have mistaken him for a stable boy. He had long for a boy length dark brown hair, though it went no where near his shoulders. They were travelling at a steady pace, giving her more time to oggle the odd pair.

By the time they reached the gates, Estrin had departed from the battlements, from which her feet had dangled for close to two hours. She rushed to her room to get changed into something that was a lot more dignified, knowing her father would want to introduce her, as he had done with every high status person that came to visit. Estrin had sacked her maid when she was seven, not liking to depend on others to do trivial things like getting dressed. It had taken her a little while to do it properly to start with, but after four years she had grown quite good at it. Well, she thought she had, and at least she had some independance, and self reliant character componants, unlike the rest of the court.

'Blue or green' Estrin thought to herself. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, which colour suits me best of all?" She asked it, half joking. It gave the same answer it always did, complete and utter nothingness. In the end she went with the blue, it seemed less pompus than the emerald green. Estrin changed quickly, and then headed down to the main hall. three quarters of the way down, she met a servant was running the other way to tell her that her father wanted her in the main hall. Estrin didn't hurry up, there was very little joy she could get out of life, but arriving in her own time after her father had summoned her was one of them. She slowed down slightly, then stopped, asking the servant whether he thought the dress went with her shoes.

The servant looked at her in horror, not wanting to push the king's patience, which even at the best of times was very thin. She roled her eyes, "Relax, we'll be in plenty of time, now do the shoes go with the dress?" She wasn't budging. The servant nodded hurredly, hoping this would move her on a bit faster. "Now are you saying that because you just want to get a move on, or do you really think they go well?"

"Please your highness, please go to the great hall." The servant pleaded.

"Fine!" She moved on at a slow walk.

"If you don't mind, could we please hurry your highness?" The servant begged nervously.

"Do you want me to arrive out of breath? I thought not, besides He doesn't usually torture servants while we have guests," The servant looked at her sidewards, pretending he wasn't, "Ofcourse, he has been known to wait untill they leave and then had the servant flogged." That got the dessired effect. The servant ran for it, to explain her actions to the King. Finally she was alone. Estrin turned about ninty degrees and then walked straight through the wall. On the other side she quietly emerged in the corridor outside the hall, where she nodded to the guards, who must have thought she had come down the stairs or something. They opened the big wooded doors.

Estrin walked in regally. Although only 11, she held herself high and walked over to her father and curtsied mildly, then took her seat, which was on a lower level, and vaced at a slight angle to the throne. It took about two minutes for the servant to come bursting in from the servants entrance. It took him another couple of seconds to come to a hault and take account of the situation. Estrin waved to him mildly. His face went instantly pearl white, wondering how she had done it. Just then the wizzard entered the hall. It had taken a minute or two for the guards on the drawbridge to accept that he was a wizzard, and then a minute or two ontop of that to actually lower the bridge. Given that he had been about ten minutes away when Estrin had left the battlements, she had made good time to get to her throne before he had arrived.

"Nathanial! welcome!" The king got off his throne and warmly embraced the wizzard, as if they were brothers.

"Adorian, I came as soon as I heard about the queen, may I go and see her?" Estrin stared at him dumbstruck. She had never met anyone that was on first name terms with the King, everyone had to address him as 'your majesty', even the queen, though not when it was just the family in the room. The stable boy apprentice had followed his master in, being very quiet, and barely noticable. He glanced at her from where he stood, nearly inconspicuous. The wizzard and the King were already leaving the chamber. Estrin got up and followed them. The apprentice was a little behind her, not sure if he should follow or not, but feeling uncomfortable being left alone in the hall.

She slowed her stride slightly, so that when they had ascended about 20 steps up to the royal bedchamber hes was right behind, and a bit to the side of her. "What is your name?" She asked, carrying on up the stairs. Even without looking she could tell that she had made him blush. "Well?" she pressed.

"Cal, your majesty." He added, trying to show the correct level of respect, but messing it up completely.

"I'm a highness, not a majesty, I'm not a queen yet." Estrin informed him, in her least superior voice. He began apologising profusely. "Oh, stop it! it's an easy mistake to make!" She chidded, not having the time of day for grovlers. She would have thought that he would have been made of stronger stuff, being a wizzards apprentice, 'or is he?'. Estrin asked herself. "So, are you the wizzards apprentice?" She asked him directly.

"n-n-not yet, your maj...highness." She looked at him quizically, knowing this would make him explain further. "Master Nathanial is taking me to a village where there will be other possible apprentices, and he will choose the strongest, to be his apprentice, your highness."

"Well, we wish you the best." She said airly, stepping up speed a bit.

"We?" He asked before he could stop himself, and forgetting to add her title to the end of it.

"The 'royal we', meaning 'I'." She explained patiently. Despite acting superior to him, she knew he liked her, it was like a sixth sense. It wasn't 'like' like, but it was like. Up ahead, the wizzard and the King were deep in conversation as they climbed the last few steps, went through the guarded door way and then closed it behind them, locking the children out. Estrin stopped short once this had happened. Being onle a step behind her, Cal couldn't help nearly bumping into her, and fell backwards as he tried to avoid it. Estrin turned quickly and grabbed his hand. It was the reflexes of a good knight they she had shown, and it had been insticnt rather than anything else.

She dropped him as soon as she realised what she had done, then grabbed up the ends of her dress and belted it down the stairs. Cal scrambled up and chased after her, but she had dissappeared. He returned to the hall, and then to the stable to check on the horses, completely confused by the princess' actions. Although untrained in the magical arts, he had felt something there when she had reacted the way she did. Something that should have been beyond most people. He couldn't put his finger on it. The horses were eating some hay. He notticed one of the stable boys struggling with a bale of hay nearly his own size and rushed over.

He had grown up on a farm, and had only left it a week previously at the wizzards request to his parents, though he had never felt any magical ability within himself. The stable boy thanked him for the help. Not knowing what else to do, Cal started doing some of the other things that needed to be done daily to a stable, although he was used to one filled with fewer horses, and possibly one or two cows. "You know, you don't have to do that." Informed the stable boy he had helped.

"I know, but I'd rather do something useful than do nothing at all." Cal informed him.

"Farris." The boy said holding his hand out.

"Cal." Cal replied, taking the hand and giving it a shake.

"So, what's your wizzard friend here for?" Farris asked.

"The queen isn't too well." Cal informed Farris, grabbing a pale to fill with water. He picked up anotherone and carried both outside, looking for the fountain to fill them from. It was the other side of the courtyard. He carried the buckets over and then turned the tap several times to get the water flowing. Once both were full he staggered back, carrying with his legs, like he had been taught, rather than with his back. He put them down back at the entrance to the stable. Cal stood panting for a second. Farris was shifting some of the horse muck onto a cart which would be taken from the castle once it was full.

"You ever met the princess?" Cal asked Farris. The stable boy looked over at him.

"Probably. Most of the people in the palace need help getting onto a horse, how old is she?"

"At a guess, I'd say between ten and twelve."

"Sort of short...long black hair, green eyes?"

"Not unless she's changed a lot." Cal informed him, and then gave a description of the princess.

"Sorry, never seen her then." Farris told him, returning to his work.

Up in her chamber that was in the west wing of the castle Estrin looked out over the courtyard. Although she had been honing her skills from the book she had taken from the royal library which talked about the ways of the ninja, she had never expected any ov it to sink in, apart from the walking through walls. She had never expected to hone the control of body talked about on page 78. She had felt Cal bump into the back of her, then he fell backwards, and she was turning, her hand outstretched to grab his.

Estrin took out the book. 'Page 78, page 78' she kept think to herself as she flicked through the pages untill she reached it. The writing was very small. Not small enough to be unreadable, but she did have to squint to do it. "A true ninja has the control over his or her own body in such a way that they can catch an arrow out of thin air, even if it is shot at them from behind." She read aloud. Admitedly, a person was bigger than an arrow, but it was the same pricible. She then turned to page 159, one of the last pages. 'Ninja Magic' It read at the top. She began to read down it slowly. Admitedly, she had missed whole sections out in the book, but they probably didn't matter.

After reading the first ninja magic, Estrin thought for a second and then tried it. The magic would allow her to create a shadow of herself, which would think and act like her, but would follow her orders. It was just what she needed to escape from the castle. Estrin stood infront of the mirror. She stared deep into the reflection of her eyes, like it had told her to, then she tried to take a step backwards, whilst staying completely still. It resulted in her tripping over. She stood up and dusted herself down. Here reflection did exactly the same. It hadn't worked, but then neither had the walking through walls the first time. Estrin stood infront of the mirror again. "Please work!" She muttered to herself. She repeated what she had done last time, checking the book carefully again. She kept thinking the words that were written on the page, like it said to, she looked into the reflection of her own eyes, and tried to seperated her body again. This time she managed to remain upright, though for a brief second she thought she had seen a dark shadow behind her reflection in the mirror. She mentally slapped herself. 'Even if there had been a shadow, it would only be just that, a shadow' she thought to herself, willing the belief into existance. She was already feeling drained from her two previous attempts, which had both taken a lot from what could only be described as her soul.

'Right, this will be the last time today, and if it works, the shadow can stay here, and I can leave the castle and learn about the real world' She told herself in her head, reminding herself of her goals. She tried again. Up to the point where she was supposed to take a step back everything was going as it should. She she took her step back and the image in the mirror changed. It became a swirling vortex of dark power, and then a dark shadow erupted out of it. It wasn't human, it wasn't even close. But Estrin didn't have time to analyse it. Consciousness slipped away from her as a large amount of energy was exacted from the aura to give the shadow monster complete form.

Estrin woke up several hours later, noticing it was completely dark outside. She knew then that she had meddled with powers beyond her grasp. She was still in her chamber, and the monster that had been a shadow had gone. The book lay open at her feet, where it had fallen. Estrin sat up and looked at the mirror. It had returned to being just that, a simple mirror, except there was something missing. Estrin screamed as she realised what it was, she was missing her own reflection.