Not Your Average Fairytale

Cursed

Magic exists in everyone. Some have more than others, some are stronger than others. Each individual must learn to control their own magic in the way which suits them best. Some are given extraordinary power yet are denied ultimate control over it. Some cannot control it at all, and end up as weapons or are placed in magical detention. To control one’s magic, one must be in tune with their entire being, not just their body, but their spirit as well. Only then will one be on the road to learning to control and harness one’s magical capabilities. There are different types of magics that one can be born with, such as the power to take the form of another, control an element, or to heal, or to curse, or to kill.

Those that can change shape are known as magus, those that can control the elements are called ronda, those that heal are called ayura, those that curse are called magna, and those with the power over life and death are called sacre. Magus, somewhat common, can change form depending on their amount of control and ability. They can either take only one other form, a few forms, or any from they please. This change in form may also include the ability to communicate or control those of the new form’s kind. Ronda are the most commonly born yet sometimes difficult to control and may have trouble mastering their own abilities. Ayura are extremely gifted, and usually take their places as healers in hospitals, yet their abilities vary from being able to heal minor injuries, to life-threatening ones, to near-death wounds, and some even have the ability to heal the scars of the mind. Magna can curse those with, depending on the advancement, anything from minor illness to appearance changes to slow and gradual death. Magna are hard to control and often get consumed by the obsession of making the world better, and they end up twisting in their own ways. Sacre are extremely rare, few exist, with varying control over the laws that govern life and death. Some may be able to kill simply by touch, or bring life to those long dead with as much effort as it takes to blink an eye. Some become power-hungry and twisted, and connect souls to bodies in the simplest of ways to create massive undead armies. And then there are the very few with little to no magical abilities, such small amounts or nothing at all that they cannot register as anything but a shida, a creature without magic.

Every living creature has its own piece of magic, its own power with its own limitations, its own way of using it, and its own way of mastering it. This world bestows upon its inhabitants the abilities to create change, and change the world they have.

If by the dawn of your sixteenth birthday you have not changed your ways, your life will be altered dramatically. I shall curse you with the inability to control your own magic.

Kame awoke from his dream with a start. He peered over to the grandfather clock on the far wall as the pendulum swung back and forth with a ticking sound. He placed a hand to his hair, drenched with sweat, and sighed. “Half to three…” He whispered to himself, and swung his feet over the edge of his large bed. At the touch of his bare feet to the cold marble floor, the lights in his room dimly turned on, and were shining their brightest when he stood up fully.

The cold of the floor helped his body cool down as well as he shuffled his feet over to the large archway that opened to his personal bath. As he entered that room, the lights inside gradually brightened as well. He stalked over to his sink and placed his hands under the faucet. Automatically, the water turned on. He gathered his hands full of it and splashed it on his face, sighing, and looked up into the large mirror above the faucet. He saw his fair head of hair, sticking up in weird places at the moment from his sleep, drenched and therefore darkened with sweat. His hair was shoulder length, and normally such a shade of blonde that it sometimes seemed white. His eyes, showing hints of exhaustion, were a pale, icy blue. The water he had splashed across himself was dripping down the sides of his face and from the tip of his nose.

He sighed again and pondered his dream. It was one he had experienced many times before, beginning with his eighth birthday. That birthday, and many after that, were spent with his disappointment. He had only been given his own pony, a magic-enhancing sword, a theme park in his backyard that was later replaced with a giant swimming pool, and countless expensive pieces of clothing and jewelry. It was not enough, however, for the young prince of Serenia, and he desired more. Nothing would ever satisfy him, it seemed. Disappointed with his gifts, he had stormed off and happened upon a young servant boy who wore around his neck. Servants were, after all, lowly beings that none cared for, right? Yet here this child was, with such an expensive jeweled locket, embedded with rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, with random jewels of the same kind wound into the thin silver chain about ten links apart. The center of the locket was a large round onyx gem, with the word “Fenetre” carved artfully into it. The necklace was the kind that needed to be layered upon the neck or it would fall below the waistline, and far too expensive to be flaunted by a pitiful servant. He pulled aside the chef’s son, a small, easily intimidated, young seven year old, and demanded the necklace, even offering one he had received, made of white-gold and sapphires, in exchange. The boy, as Kame was not to be troubled with the being’s name, tried to refuse politely, saying it was his mother‘s keepsake, but Kame ordered him to give it up. The boy blatantly refused, with tears rushing to his eyes, and the prince, fed up, dove at him.

In response to the sound, Kame’s mother, queen of Serenia, hurried over to where the screams were coming from. She saw Kame and the servant boy wrestling and clawing at each other, each tugging at the necklace. The moment he saw his mother, Kame dropped his side of the necklace and ran into her arms, shrieking, “The servant boy stole my necklace! Its mine and he tried to take it!” He sobbed into her arms. The young boy lying on the ground looked up with tears, scratch marks, and dirt on his face, clutching desperately his mother’s memento and young Kame sneered in glee at his sorrow and pain. Who would believe a servant boy over the word of the prince? That night he had gone to bed not entirely satisfied, but in a generally better mood than normal, with the necklace in his possession, and experienced a dream he didn’t entirely understand. A man in elegant clothing appeared at his bedside and wrenched him from his bed, holding a knife to his neck. He could not remember the man’s face, or any other detail other than that he was the most beautiful, yet the scariest person, he had ever seen. He whispered, in a velvety but menacing tone.

“If by the dawn of your sixteenth birthday,” Kame whispered softly as he remembered. “You do not change your ways, your life will be altered dramatically. I shall curse you…” He paused at this. “With the inability to control your own magic…” Then Kame laughed to his reflection, listening to his own voice, a soft voice that seemed as though it could do no harm. It was only a dream, of course. But why did it reoccur almost constantly? The prince knew nothing like that could ever really happen.

Yet even as he walked across his bedroom, easily the size of the entire base of a noble’s manor, he remembered his upcoming birthday. The moment the sun rose, in mere hours, he would be sixteen. He had nothing to worry about, he reassured himself, and he buried himself within his draw curtain sized blankets.

The moment the smallest ray of sunlight peaked over the mountains outside his windows, his eyes opened wide. A hand grabbed him roughly by his fair hair and dragged him, as he screamed and kicked, onto the marble floor. “Let go of me!” He shrieked. “Do you have any idea who you are dealing with!? I am the prince!”

He was thrown to the ground, and silenced as cold metal pressed against the skin of his neck. His eyes wide, he looked up at the creature before him. The man was wearing the same elegant clothes as the one in his dreams, a tight dressing gown with greens, reds, and black on it, and a dragon outlined in gold. He had slightly wavy dark hair tied low at the back of his head, with a few strands hanging at the sides of his face. His eyes were a piercing emerald with such dilated pupils even in the darkness of the room. His skin was pale and unscarred, his lips set in an amused smile. “I know,” spoke the velvet voice, with a slight accent signifying that the common tongue was not his native language. “Exactly who I’m dealing with. A young boy who has hurt, punished, and destroyed the lives of innocent people all of his life. A prince unworthy of his crown, a child I’ve warned time and time again to change…”

A slight breeze stirred the man’s strands of hair and Kame, in a panic, gathered the breeze into his hand and tossed it at the man, who merely knocked it out of the way with his arm. With the moment of distraction, Kame knocked the knife from his hand under the bed and struggled to his feet. The man grabbed him by the neck and threw him with such force to knock the wind out of him onto his back on the marble. “I need not a knife to threaten you, my lord. The things I do to uphold an image. Ah, yet I underestimated the prized prince’s ability to control the wind…”

Kame tried to gather breath but none would come. He tried to make the wind attack the man strangling him, but any effort he made was entirely futile. The man’s amused smile grew. “I see… when there is no wind in the prince’s body, he cannot control it.

“Eight years I gave you to change your ways… eight years you took for granted by hurting everyone else around you, never sparing a thought for anyone but yourself. Well, happy birthday young prince. I curse you with the inability to control your beloved wind. I grant you one year to commit three acts of pure selflessness. If you have not changed by then, your spirit and power will belong to me, and you will be dead. Run if you want, but I will know wherever you are. If your parents see you or you speak of this curse, I will know, and I will come to kill you.”

Sparks danced across the prince’s vision from the lack of air, and the man released his hold on his throat. Kame took the moment to gather the wind in his hand once more, but the wind did not come when he summoned it. He looked up to the man, but he had already gone.

The prince stood, and his hair seemed to fall further than it used to, to his mid-back, and he was a good deal shorter than normal. In fear, he rushed to his bathroom and peered into the closest of various mirrors. He gasped and his hands flew to his chest, where they found quite modest breasts in their grip. He was no longer the prince, but the princess… if that. He swore quite loudly in a voice not his own, a voice of higher tones. He was still wearing his princely pajamas, once quite snug, yet now baggy around him. His eyes and hair were the same color, but his eyelashes were longer and his face rounder.

His larger eyes were wide in shock, and he gripped the sides of the mirror as if willing it to crumble in his grip. He shrieked and tossed the large mirror to the floor, scattering shards of glass across the room. The sound of breaking glass echoed off of the walls and through the hallway, and Kame cursed once more at his appearance, reflected in many smaller mirrors now. Now the servants would come in response to the sound. They would not come swiftly, assuming it was another of their prince's temper tantrums, but they would come nonetheless.

Kame knew he, rather she had to leave there quickly, before anyone found her and mistook her for an intruder, so she gathered her personal collection of gold, which was a hefty amount as she was prince. She also grabbed all of her jewelry (which now seemed gaudy and too large), and the necklace she had stolen from the servant boy, and then she slipped on her, now too large, slippers to minimize the amount of sound made when sneaking into her parents’ wardrobe. The wardrobe was separate from their bedroom, so it wouldn’t be heavily guarded, if at all.

Kame managed to slip in and out while the guards were changing shifts. She grabbed a few of the more inexpensive dresses and coats, nothing too noticeable, from her mother‘s massive stock of dresses and gowns. Her feet were smaller than her mother’s, so she had to go to the servant’s quarters and try on a few of their shoes until she found a pair that fit. She hurried back to her room and stuffed everything into a plain tan bag she had taken from a servant a few years back, that hung to her side. As a second thought, she grabbed some of her pants from when she was a prince that had drawstrings at the waist area. She stared at the one simple dress she had taken from the wardrobe lying out on her bed, and then glanced at herself in another mirror across the room. Her hair was messy and flew in her face, and she wore a sad sort of grimace on her face. As much as she would like for her transformation to be fraud, it could not be, and this world was far too real to be a dream or an illusion, because if it were, she wouldn’t be able to question its reality.

All she knew was that if she was seen, she would be thrown into the dungeons, no matter how much she protested that she was the prince, or what she offered as proof. Almost any incident with her had been publicized, and others were far too common to just be about her. She looked fiercely at her own reflection, and turned away from it sharply. She wrenched her prince’s pajamas from her body, refusing to look at herself and avoiding her reflection in the mirror, and threw on the simple dress, a black tightly fitting garment that hung from her shoulders by two thin pieces of black cloth that crisscrossed at her back. The dress itself in the front went to the middle of her calf, and trailed behind her at her feet. Only when it felt as if that was as comfortable as it could get did she look up to peer at herself once again. She watched the young woman in the mirror crinkle her nose at the utter wrongness of that entire night. She knew it would take much getting used to wearing dresses, which simply felt too free to wear. Kame sank to her knees and started crying into them, hugging herself, a body that was not her own.

At the sound of footsteps, however, she stood straight up and ran to her wide balcony windows, without bothering to wipe the tears from her face, and threw the glass doors open. The sun was more than peeking over the mountains now, and the castle was beginning to stir. Kame closed the windows behind her as quietly as possible, and ran along the wall to the edge of the balcony, where her familiar escape route down the ivy was. She would have no trouble running away from her castle - it had been done quite a few times before then. She was halfway down the ivy when she heard a tear, and saw that her foot had gotten caught on the back of the dress. They were not exactly the best climbing clothes, after all. She huffed in exasperation and hurried on down the wall. There was a small path beaten down by her own footsteps between the wall and a large line of rose bushes that led to the outer stone wall, which had small footholds beaten into it by her when she was younger by her wind. How she missed it already… it had taken her life to learn to control it, and all of that time was spent wasted. Had she known the dream would be real, she wouldn’t have even bothered to learn, so she would not have known what she was missing. It was like a second part of her that was wrenched away. She could not feel the wind pulsing through his veins, a sort of feeling that there was always something inside of her waiting to be released by her, and now that the feeling was gone, she felt lost. The loss of the ability to use her wind and the fact that her entire body was different was more than enough to make anyone uncomfortable.

She shook her head to free herself from those thoughts distracting her from making her escape. The footholds had been made when she was young, so they were spaced apart enough to still be a comfortable stretch. Had they been made at the size she was when she was prince, she might not have been able to scale the wall as easily as she was. A further tear signaled the loss of half of the back of her dress, but at this point she cared not. She reached the top and lowered herself onto the tree branch that extended close to the wall. Kame was more than glad she had taken a servant’s boots rather than heels at this point. They were a bit worn, but comfortably broken in so they didn’t bother her feet. The distance down the tree seemed slightly greater, but it did not stop her from lowering herself to the ground and running down the dirt road that led to the city of Despara.

Despara was the capital of the country of Serenia, a considerably modestly sized country nestled comfortably in mountain ranges. The only open side was to the east, that led to the country’s greatest ally and probably the world’s greatest power, the seaside country of Eriza. This country was large and full of bustling port cities that opened into the ocean of Damne. Kame struggled to remember what she was supposed to have learned about the geography of the world, but at the time she thought it would not matter, as she would never leave her own country anyway, right? Across the ocean, she believed, was the war city of Janne, a large fortress that had control over all of the cities, towns, and farmlands on the entire continent. She remembered that her teacher had droned on and on about how impressive and impenetrable the fortified city was, and how she had spaced out after a while, and further after that yelled at the timid old man and had him fired and thrown out.

Kame reached the bottom of the massive hill and entered her home city of Despara. Seeing the general public, she realized she was still considerably dressed up in comparison. Despite her mussed hair, torn dress, and servant boots, she received stares from people whom were obviously less fortunate. She began to feel uneasy, and would rather not be robbed, and wondered how such a rich city would have such poor peasants. Those she passed were in worn, greying clothes, and shoes that appeared as though they hadn’t been replaced in a number of years. She had only come here during the night, and had not realized how poor the people even of her capital were.

The peasants of Despara were running around at such an early time - Kame would have been asleep for many hours after dawn broke in the castle, and she watched the hustle and bustle or her home city with curiosity. Life in the castle was much different from life outside of it. She saw children running around delivering packages and messages for their parents, who were working hard to keep the city going. There were carts roaming along the dirt streets, drawn by their native creatures, the riyu. They were large catlike creatures, generally standing one head taller than Kame when she was a prince, and about two and a half now that she was a woman. They were not equivalent in bulk to their cousins, the mountain lions, as they were generally thinner and had acquired more muscle and therefore manpower. Their ears were long and thin, much like their tails, which were like whips until they ended with a soft tuft of fur at the tip. They were also genius at keeping upright on the jagged, steep, and treacherous mountain paths, which is why they were prized as this country's equivalent to horses. Years of being bred and trained by humans brought them a lot of physical variety. Their natural color was a muddy brown, but the numbers bred in captivity had brought out rare, hidden traits that became more common in the captive bred numbers over the years. Underneath the muddy brown of their ancestors was an almost invisible pattern that was brought out as their colors lightened, a sort of spotty pattern. Their value was placed on the combination of their outside looks and their strength. They were useful in that they could navigate the mountain ranges and they were strong enough to pull things three times their weight off wheels, and things five times their weight on wheels. In the country of Serenia, they were far more useful than horses.

Countless riyu trotted down the dirt streets with their heavy carts, the peasants clearing the roads whenever one came. Kame watched the muscle-lined creatures with wonder, and happened to glimpse a small boy as he fell into the street. There was a rumble as a pair of riyu were roped together, pulling a cart behind them as they ran down the road. The people cleared the street, but the boy lay in the dirt clutching his foot. One chance to…! Kame thought quickly, and rushed into the street. The driver did not appear to be paying attention. The woman bent over and scooped the child into her arms. The riyu were almost on top of them, the boy screamed when he saw them. Kame threw herself and the child to the side, and they rolled in the dirt as the cart passed them. She sat up and looked at the boy, who appeared to have a minor twist of the ankle, and saw tears streaking through the dirt on his face.

“Dusut!” She heard a woman cry out loud, and a plump peasant woman scooped the crying boy into her arms. Kame stood and brushed as much dirt off of herself as she could, and peered up into the woman’s eyes. She looked as if she has had it rough her entire life, but her aged eyes were filled with gratitude as she thanked Kame in earnest for her son’s life. Kame merely nodded and wondered if that was one selfless act down.

It means nothing if you do something nice to benefit yourself, a voice echoed through her mind as the woman carried her child away.

Fuck you, and get out of my head, you worthless prick, Kame thought, and imagined a gate closing on the man who had cursed her and, as a safety measure, locked the gate to keep him out. The last she heard was light, sickeningly amused laughter. How was she expected to cast aside any thoughts or hopes of changing back when helping people? She just didn’t understand.

She heard the sound of metal footsteps hitting dirt and saw a group of the royal guard from the castle as they stood in the middle of the road. Carts were forced to stop, and people froze. Kame found herself inching slowly to an open alleyway as one of the guard began to shout to a suddenly quite street. “Prince Kame is missing, and several articles of the Queen’s clothing have been stolen from the royal wardrobe!” He shouted.

Someone, hidden by the crowd of people, shouted loudly, “Isn’t it obvious? Your beloved royal brat has just run away again!” A woman’s voice, also hidden, agreed with, “He’ll be back soon, he can’t make it in the real world!”

“You dare insult the Prince, your future King!?” One guard shouted, unable to keep his composure.

“He’ll lead the country to ruin!” Another hidden woman shouted, and Kame was about to scream about insolence back, but realized it would only bring attention to herself, and the Queen’s dress she was wearing. Anger in every feature, she entered the opening of the alley.

Any anger or fear disappeared at the sight before her. She saw one of the most beautiful riyu she had ever seen, almost entirely white save for large blotches of red and green, and the spotted golden pattern. Its tail was white and ended with a red patch of fluff at the tip. The creature looked up at her with deep cerulean eyes with speckles of red in the irises, and called out weakly with a high-pitched yowl. The creature was lying on its side against the wall, and it was very sick from what Kame could see. She ran over and knelt by its side, and placed a hand gently on its side, offering the other to its nose. It sniffed her weakly, and began to lick her palm slowly.

A man emerged from a door in the alleyway with a rope in his hand, and looked at Kame. “You! Get away from my riyu! I need him for this cart. Shoo!” He said, and pushed he rout of the way. Kame was unused to such treatment, but stood anyway.

“You can’t be serious?” she said, and the man snorted at her, and kicked the creature in the ribs. The riyu let out a pained yowl and jumped to its feet, nearly falling over again from the effort.

“Stop it!” Kame said, and ran to the creature’s side. “Can’t you see how exhausted he is? Let him rest, at least!”

“Who the hell are you telling me what to do!?” The man said, and rose his hand to hit Kame, as if she was just another lowly peasant. The riyu knocked the man over before his hand could connect with Kame, however, and while the man was down, bowed its head and knelt on the ground in front of Kame, an obvious gesture of respect and an apparent offer for her to quickly get on his back. She hopped on, and tossed a bag of three hundred silver coins at the man’s feet, more than enough to pay for the creature, as they ran off into the streets.

And right in front of them was an oncoming cart manned by three riyu. The man driving screamed at the sight of them, but the riyu Kame was on did not stop. Just as it was about to collide with the cart, the creature used the great muscles in his back legs to launch them over the cart and bound down the road behind it. People rushed to get out of their way, and they passed several royal guards, one of which recognized the dress Kame was wearing and alerted the other guards, of which whom attempted to give chase but could not keep up with the riyu’s speed. The creature reached the eastern end of the city and bounded with great leaps into the untamed mountain wilderness beyond it. The guards were left at the edge of the city, knowing that it was all lost now.

After a long time running, Kame was unsure of how to stop the great creature, but it was obvious from its shaking body that it would kill itself at this rate. Worried, the young woman bent down to its ear and patted it gently on the neck. “Please stop… you can rest now, please rest…”

The riyu slowed its steps and walked them on to a mountain stream, and it knelt by the side of the stream, greedily downing the rushing water. Kame hopped off of the creature, glad to be free of the strain on her muscles, and sat down next to the creature with a sorrowful sigh. The riyu seemed to drink forever, as if it had not had water for days, which Kame did not doubt. Sighing again, the fair haired woman lifted the bag from over her shoulder and placed it on the ground, regretting the rush she was in to leave Despara because of the lack of food. She was utterly exhausted, but with the time to recap what had happened, exhaustion turned to rage. Kame shrieked, and picked up a large fallen tree branch, slamming it again and again against the side of a nearby tree. Every hit sent a reverberation through her body, sent pain up her arms, but she did not care. She screamed over and over with each strike, only relenting when the shock of the effort made her lose all strength in her arms. She stood in a slouch, breathing heavily with wide eyes, disheveled hair in her face. As her breathing slowed, she slowly fell to her knees, slumping over and releasing the branch.

She brought her knees to her chest… no, not her knees and not her chest. This woman was not Kame… yet here she was. Had she really been such a bad person as the prince? She did not really deserve this, did she? She slowly began to shake, and she hugged her knees tightly, as if cutting off their circulation would stop her from crying.

The riyu rubbed his wet nose on her bare arm, and lay down close to her in such a fashion that her back was to his side, and he wrapped around her so that his face and front paws were to one side and his back legs and tail to the other in a sort of riyu-cocoon. He rubbed his head gently on her arm until she stopped crying and had fallen asleep. Then the riyu too, fell to his long needed rest.

Kame awoke with a start to find herself alone, with her head resting on the tan bag. She crossed her arms and dropped them as quickly as they had risen, blocked by two foreign growths on her chest. She groaned and rolled onto her side, glancing around in confusion. The riyu was nowhere in sight. She sighed and thought that it would be better for him, even though she would miss him, to be away from people. He probably did not trust them…

Then she saw the dead rabbit at her feet and nearly screamed, had it not been for the padded footsteps she heard coming her way. The riyu emerged from the brush holding what looked like a bloodied horse hanging from its jaws. Upon further inspection, Kame saw that it was a dead buck, but neither concept helped her stomach any after seeing it. The riyu set the deer on the ground a small distance from the rabbit, which Kame supposed he had caught for her. The creature laid down with his tail lazily drifting, staring up at her with his brilliant blue eyes expectant. Kame was unsure, but she reached out to the dead rabbit on the ground, and placed her hand hesitantly on it. At this, the riyu purred and began to tear into his own meal.

She remembered that she had received lessons on surviving in wild in the very rare possibility she were to be kidnapped and escape, or to get lost somewhere. She had been trained to kill an animal with her wind, and taught how to properly skin and cook it, but the training did not make the job she had at hand any more pleasant. This was a servant’s job, skinning and cooking. But the emptiness of Kame’s stomach forced her to walk the line of trees and find fallen dry branches and throw them down in the center of the clearing, where flames would be unable to spread through the rest of the forest. She looked up to the sky - it was dark now, and if anyone was looking for the thief of the royal wardrobe, the dark sky would hide the smoke from a fire. Kame’s problem, however, was lighting a fire. Her instructors had attempted to teach her, but she never tried and therefore never succeeded in lighting a fire. She never thought she would need to know. She had been too strong to be kidnapped, and she was not stupid enough to get herself lost, she always thought. For now, she regretted not learning to light a fire. She scraped rocks together for what seemed like an eternity before throwing them into the trees and flopping onto the ground in defeat.

By this time, the riyu had finished his meal and stalked over to her, nearly silent in all of his size. He nudged her with his head, and she looked up from her mini-temper tantrum at him. After quite a few hours rest and a nice fresh meal, the creature looked far more healthy and therefore, even more stunning than he had when she first saw him. She sat up and scratched the area between his large cerulean eyes. “And what should I call you if you stick around?” Kame asked, and the creature purred gently under her touch. His eyes, which were easily the size of Kame’s hands, peered up at her face, their brilliant cerulean, with golden splatters, trained on her as he purred. “Well, my rabbit is going to go bad if I can’t get this fire started,” She said to herself, looking at the pile of dead branches.

The riyu followed her gaze and huffed, spitting a tiny ball of fire at the pile. The wood took the flames and started to blaze. Kame blinked in surprise, and looked up at the creature as he returned his attention to rubbing his head up and down her arm, sounding his deep-throated purr. She stood and scratched the creature behind his whip-like ears. “Thanks!” she said, and started skinning the rabbit. The excess parts were thrown to the riyu, who gladly accepted them with his snout, and at last, there was rabbit meat cooking propped on sticks over the fire. The smell filled the clearing and reminded Kame that she hadn’t eaten since the night before.

As soon as the meat looked dark enough to be edible, she tore into her own meal, grateful of the riyu’s thoughts for her. She was taught that all creatures are smarter than they look, and that all beings possessed some degree of magical capabilities, and it appeared that her new companion had some control over fire.

As she ate, she tried to come up with a name for him, and as she thought of people or things familiar to her, she was reminded of the young servant boy she had stolen from. The boy had been thrown out of the castle after being severely beaten, and had not been seen since, however it was rumored that he had returned to his hometown of Zekke, capital city of the country of Eriza. She removed the necklace she had taken from him and handled the locket, admiring its beauty.

“Fenetre,” she said at last, and the riyu purred. “I shall call you Fenetre.” She said, and placed the necklace around the creature’s neck, wrapping it around twice so that it was not tight but not loose enough to fall off or get snagged. The creature nuzzled her side with his face. “Take care of it,“ At this he bent his head down and flicked it back up, in a sort of riyu-nod. “We should get moving at daylight…” Kame whispered to him as he stretched out and lay down beside her, and they both peered up at the stars and the moons slightly obscured by the smoke from their fire.

The larger of the two moons that lay behind the smaller was one that appeared as a teal-green and was named Mirde, and the smaller, closer one was a bright blue, named Serenis, the moon that Kame’s kingdom had been named after. The breeze was chilly now, and the thin material of Kame’s dress was merely not enough to keep her warm. She leaned against the riyu beside her and was instantly warmed.

“One more night of rest…?” She whispered.

Fenetre purred deeply in response.

Kame awoke, half-expecting to be wrapped up in the heavy, warm blankets of his bed in the castle, hoping that the previous day was just a nightmare. But he awoke, and he was a she, and the concept made her want to cry again. The warmth she had felt was a combination of the large cat-like creature she was laying on, and the sunlight streaming through the trees. Sighing sadly, she stood and walked over to the river, kneeling down beside it. She splashed a handful of the clear water on her face, and though she was not particularly dirty, felt quite grimy. She was used to soaking in a large pool of steaming water for an hour each morning, and she had not done so for the past two days. She still had her gold, however, and would be able to pay for a bath once she arrived in a town or a city. Her hair was untidy, and she had no idea how to keep hair of such massive length in order, so she merely tied it low in back with another strip torn off of the dress she was wearing. As an afterthought, since it appeared the dress would not survive much longer as a dress, she reached into her bag and pulled on a pair of bright blue pants that had a black outline of a serpent-like dragon winding around her left leg. The pants had ended mid-calf on her as the prince, so now they were at her ankles, and they were very baggy. She had to pull the black drawstring quite a bit further than normal just to keep them from falling down. The dress’s bottom rim was quite ragged by now and uneven, and its longest part reached mid-thigh.

Peering into her reflection, she appeared as though she was somewhat civil, and turned after she was satisfied enough with her womanly appearance. The fire had gone out sometime that morning, after the sun had already begun to rise. The sun was fully in the sky now, and it was time for her to move on to the next town. She had to get out of Serenia to avoid the officials and her parents, and if she remembered her geography correctly, it took about thirteen hours riyuback to reach Shuuhen, and another twenty-two hours from there to reach Uildi, the city on the border of Serenia and Eriza. Fenetre rose and stalked over to the stream to take a long drink, as if he was preparing himself for the journey ahead. Kame again regretted being unprepared. In Shuuhen, she would have to buy proper riyu-riding gear and a flask or two for water, and maybe a blanket and some other foods that were not easily perishable. She sighed heavily, and knelt down beside the river, following Fenetre’s example and cupping water in her hands to drink it. It was beneath her to drink such impure of a water source, but she supposed that she had no choice in the matter.

When they both finished, Fenetre stalked to the tree line and knelt, waiting patiently for his new companion. Something caught Kame’s eye, and she reached up high to try to reach the apples, but she was too short. Had she still been prince, she would have gotten them fine. She was about to climb the tree when she was launched a short distance into the air. She shrieked, but landed safely on Fenetre’s back. The apples were practically in her face now, and she grabbed a few, stuffing them into the bag, but biting into one. She pat Fenetre on the neck, and then he was off, sprinting expertly and effortlessly through the trees, as if he had lived in the forest for his entire life.

It was afternoon when they reached the small town of Shuuhen. It was mostly middle-class and lower-class people, with a few nobles’ mansions on high hills. Shuuhen was known for its marketplace, however, because it was nestled between the royal city and the border city. It was quite often the drop-off or pick-up stop for those delivering goods between the two cities, which made it a perfect place to build a modestly sized bazaar.

Fenetre padded through the crowded dirt streets with Kame atop, peering around at all of the goods being sold. She received stares simply because she towered over the heads of most others, and many admired what might be fancy dress and an expensive, beautiful, healthy riyu. Kame sighed and ran a hand through her hair, cringing when she had to pull her fingers through much more hair than she was used to. She then groaned at how grimy her too-long hair felt.

First, she wanted a nice, long bath, but some of the things on display caught her eye, and she was struck with an idea. She halted Fenetre in the middle of the street and he followed her onto the side of the street, where he sat beside a stand displaying knives and swords that Kame was investigating. After all, she was a woman now, a woman with no magic, and would need some form of self-defense.

She spotted a silver dagger, thin with a double-sided silver blade. The handle was also silver carved in the shape of a serpent wrapped around it, embedded with small sapphires as scales, and with rubies as eyes. The blade itself was about the length of Kame’s forearm, and it came with a displayed sheath that was another silver snake, with a few sapphires placed in random areas as different scales, as the majority on the hilt were simply silver. Also displayed was a thin black leather belt that would hold it. The set itself was five gold pieces. Equivalent to two hundred fifty silver pieces, it was a hefty price for a commoner. It was a small price for Kame, and it would mean a great deal if someone tried to rob her.

She handed him the money and strapped the belt around her waist that very second, pulling the dress out from under it to flow over it, and positioned the handle of the knife somewhere to her side between two large tears in the dress, where she could easily access it. Her tan bag was hanging to the other side, her left side, of the knife. Kame was left-handed, and had needed special training in combat because of it, and would need her knife on the right so she could reach over and brandish the blade with her left hand.

Satisfied, she forgot to thank the man for the business and walked on down the street, her right hand on Fenetre’s side as they stalked slowly down the main road, looking from booth to booth. Displayed was anything from weapons to cutlery, books to magic scrolls that Kame noted would be entirely useless to her now, meat to fruit, clothing to armor, and everything in between.

Kame saw a large stand that led into a building selling riding-related equipment. The young woman’s thigh muscles were exuberant at the idea of not having to ride Fenetre bareback anymore, and she entered the large doorway meant for horses or riyu or whatever creature one rode. Inside she saw the large lizard-like creatures that people from Gazzet or Vidoolu rode. They were bulky and scaly, and looked dangerously spiky, and were called squal. Generally they were green with splashes of white, pinks, reds, blues, and browns, with ruby or gold eyes. However, they had the ability to camouflage or even simply become invisible. Most had this power, but very few could change the rider as well as themselves. They were useful in navigating the hot desert sands or the humid rainforest floors, useful to both Gazzets and Vidoolans alike. The best squal came from Vidoolu, however, which led Gazzet to raid them and take their best squal hatchlings. This squal belonged to a dark man wrapped in tan robes that wound around him in an upward fashion to end below his eyes. He was obviously a foreigner from Gazzet.

Also in the stables was a keish, an amphibian sort of creature with webbed feet and a tail lined with fins. Its ears were also fins, and it had both gills and lungs. It was native to the coastline of Omei. They were usually mostly blue but could have bits of silver, white, black, and green in them. They usually had large brown or gold eyes, and they were useful on both land and water, but were slightly clumsier on land. They were used to ferry people or pull small cargo boats across the waters of Omei. This particular keish belonged to a noble of Shuuhen, who needed it as much as a painting of himself - which was not at all. It was a trophy animal then, torn from its original habitat.

Fenetre was immediately fitted for riyu saddles, bits, and protective padding. He did not like one second of it, and when Kame saw the final product, she did not like it either. Weighed down with all sorts of equipment meant for the rider’s comfort, Fenetre looked absolutely miserable, and even Kame could see that none of it belonged on him. Her thigh muscles groaned in agony from her decision, but Fenetre was just not meant to be tied down with such ugly things, but she knew that her discomfort could be fixed by continuous riding of Fenetre, but that his would be a constant letdown, and that eventually he would dread her riding of him. The two left the riding shop completely empty-handed, other than meat-flavored treats made for riyu, much to Fenetre’s relief.

Kame and the riyu walked down the streets, the shida’s hand on the riyu’s side. After paying for a pair of two sapphire-lined canteens, the woman finally looked for a bath house, and, with great relief, found one in the higher class marketplace with a stable section, and gratefully strode inside the large building. The main hall was the size of his castle’s smallest dining room, and the floor was white and blue marble, the walls white. There were various doorways at the far side, each closed by a simple draw curtain with steam escaping from underneath.

“Can I help you, madam?” spoke the foreman when Kame reached the counter. She looked around behind her for the body of a woman, but then realized sheepishly that he was addressing her.

“A bath… please,” she added to the sentence awkwardly. “Is it possible to have a private bath?” She asked, remembering that most bath houses were open to the public and usually had more than one person per bath. At the man’s look, she added. “You may charge more.”

At that, the foreman’s face brightened up considerably. ”I can give you a half hour of privacy for a small fee on top of the general price. How does… forty silver pieces sound?”

The man was clearly asking for too much, but she was too tired to refuse, and simply handed the money over. The man grinned widely, bowing low, and led her through one of the curtains. Beyond the curtain was a hallway with three more doorways, the source of the steam, and he led her to the farthest bath. He left her at the curtain, which she opened and then shut tightly behind her. She ripped off her clothing and tossed it onto a bench, grabbed a towel from a rack, and stepped into the bath. The water was glorious against her grimy-feeling skin, and she rubbed a concoction provided by the bath house into her hair, rinsing it in the warm water. She dragged herself through the water to the shallow edge of the pool and sat down, her arms over the rim of the bath. This bath was sized enough to fit ten people comfortably, but her bath at home was still larger than this one. She sighed in comfort, for the first time since her change she felt quite content, and found herself dozing off.

At the sound of voices, she was jerked into awareness, and she saw another woman walk through the curtains and smile sweetly at her. The woman picked up a towel and placed it on the side of the pool, and began to take off her clothes. Kame felt all of the blood in her body rush quickly to her face, and she quickly looked away. She heard the other woman step into the water, and very intently stared at the ceiling. The small waves signaled that the other woman had come quite near to her, and suddenly her face was in Kame’s line of view.

“Are you all right?” she asked in a sweet voice. “Your face is flushed.”

Kame was momentarily speechless and it took a few attempts to speak. “I, uh… I… The, um, the heat, uh… of the bath… I have to go!” she said, and stood at once, quite blindly jumping out of the pool, pulling on her clothes, grabbing her bag, and running out of the room.

“Did you enjoy your bath?” The foreman asked, but she was already out of the main hall and in the stables before she realized he had been speaking to her.

A man wrapped in tan cloth with dark skin was in front of Fenetre’s stable, a man that Kame recognized as the Gazzet foreigner that she had seen in the riding shop. He reached a hand out to the riyu - her riyu, and placed a hand on his neck. He found his fingers on the necklace around the creature’s neck. “Ah…” he said, and spoke something in his native tongue. Fenetre let out a deep throated growl and snapped so quickly at the man’s hand around the necklace that the woman thought the Gazzet man would surely be fingerless. He merely turned his attention to her, and stalked slowly in her direction. She found her fingers on the handle of the sapphire serpent at her side. Loud scratches and bangs were heard from Fenetre’s stall, and the man glanced over his shoulder, if in worry, Kame was unsure. He turned back to her and stood before her, towering four heads higher. “The men of Gazzet,” he said in the common tongue, with a heavy accent. “Can see things for what they are worth.”

Fenetre broke the door to his stall and strode to Kame’s side, growling loudly. The man stepped back and bowed slightly to the creature. “We will meet again when you are not so… immersed in company. Good evening, young Prince,” he said to Kame, and disappeared before she could ask how he knew who she was.

Kame immediately felt frightened. She was sure that meeting her when she was ‘not so immersed in company’ meant ‘without protection’. Fenetre’s spine was rigid when he bent down to allow her on his back, and they were both quite tense when they left the stables. Fenetre decided for the both of them to get moving to the next city, despite the falling sun, and he took off into the woods.

Neither of them had slept the night before, and when they reached Uildi, they stopped only for bodily refreshment. They were both uneasy, and Fenetre would not stop until he felt they were safe, and it was only a mere two hour ride from Uildi to the capital city of Eriza. Uildi was quite literally on the border, half Serenian and half Erizan. It was a two hour ride, and it would seem as though it would be quite easy to occupy Zekke, capital of Eriza, but the city was a fortress of magic, with some of the most gifted in shield magic blocking the passage of people who meant the city harm or meant to take it over. Eight entire armies would not be able to break through the shields they had set up. Not only were they protected with the shield, there were also large stone walls preventing physical penetration, and soldiers atop and below them, ronda, sacre, and magna soldiers.

The castle of Zekke was at the far east side of the city, and had its own set of walls, shields, and soldiers. It was run by the King Shonine and his wife the Queen Aeryin. The rulers of Zekke had to be the most powerful people in the country, and Shonine was one of the strongest ronda of lightning in the world, Aeryin an extremely gifted magus. Their son Aleis had yet to announce his magical abilities, but he was expected to have great powers because of the powers of his parents. Shonine and Aeryin were very public, and very generous with their wealth and helped out their people quite often, so the entire country was well off. Their son, however, was extremely antisocial, and the people inwardly dreaded his ascension to the throne, because they feared his antisocialism would lead to imperialism and the uneven distribution of the country‘s wealth. The bloodline of Shonine and his fathers well into the past had always been generous and took good care of their country, but Aleis could put an end to that, and the country could fall to ruin. He had always been ill as a child and therefore may not have been exposed to the lessons of kindness and love that his grandparents had taught his father to give.

Kame was able to pass through the shields with ease, with only the eyes of a soldier on her. The shields had detected something strange, not anything menacing, but still something quite odd. The young woman wearing torn royalty clothes bareback astride an amazing riyu was eye-catching in itself, but there was something else hidden deep. However, it was clear that the young woman was here for reasons of her own, with no underlying thoughts about harming the city, so they let her pass.

The Serenian really did stand out here. The people here were tanner than the people of her country, but nowhere near as dark as those of Gazzet, Vidoolu, or Omei, and they all had the tari, creatures similar to horses in size, but they had short tails and large, thick horns like ram horns, or thin pointed with random jutting parts, like a stag‘s horns. They were quite plainly colored in comparison to riyu, mostly black, white, and brown, but their horns were the parts of them that drew the attention. They could be any color, striped, spotted, camouflage-patterned, anything. It made breeding them and buying them exciting, because no two tari had the same horns.

Both Kame and Fenetre relaxed at this point. The guards surely would not let anyone in with malicious intentions, even if they were not aimed at the welfare of the city, in… right? Kame sighed and dismounted her companion, and walked down the streets with her hand on his side again, realizing her exhaustion only after she felt safe. She found a decent inn for the price they were asking with a nice big stall in the stables for Fenetre, with a room for one the size of a servant’s quarters in her castle. Her castle, if she was able to lift her curse. It might never be her castle again, and she did not understand how she would be able to commit three selfless acts without thinking of breaking her curse. It was an impossible task appointed by a sadistic madman, and Kame did not even understand why she deserved this curse anyway. She had been royalty, born with everything, with only a few things she ever wanted, and she thought she had been quite decent to her servants. How would the man know how she treated people, anyway? He was not from the mainland, since he had an accent, but was not dark enough to have come from Gazzet, Vidoolu, or Omei. They were the only countries on the mainland that spoke different languages from Serenia, Eriza, the northern countries, and the countries occupied by Janne. And he could not have come from the southern brigand territory - he was far too civilized and magically gifted for that.

Kame found that she could not sleep, despite her exhaustion, with all of these thoughts, and she decided on walking down the streets to window shop to take her mind off of the strange man. She grabbed a small bag of money in case she found something she might need, and left her large tan bag in the stall with Fenetre, since she knew it was safest there with him, judging by how he had protected the necklace he wore. He seemed to understand when she placed the bag inside, and picked it up with his great jaws, bringing it to the far wall and laying with his back to it. He really was a wonderful creature, and she truly appreciated his dedication to her. She promised to bring him back some form of tasty treat, and she set out. Window shopping helped her to make a mental note of what they could need, and she realized that she had to be careful with her money from here on, because it would not last forever, like the funds she had when she was prince. She had plenty to survive on for the year she had if she was only careful with it. She bought a large bag of raw meat, protected by the salesman’s weak shield to keep it from dripping blood or from getting dirty if dropped, and she was walking down the streets when she heard trumpeting faintly behind her, and the people in the streets began rushing around, to make a large part in the road for whatever was coming. Kame was pushed so roughly that she was thrown into an empty, dirty alleyway, wondering how on earth she had been able to hold onto her riyu’s future treat.

The crowd was quite loud with cheering, and the shida decided it might be better for her to stay in the alleyway until the crowd dissipated before she returned to the inn. She turned to face the crowd, and started to see important-looking officials atop tari over the heads of the many people in the crowds. Suddenly in her view came three figures before her, all wrapped in tan cloth from nose-tip to toes. They had appeared as if in the breeze, and she realized that they might have been able to enter by hiding in the breeze, three extremely powerful ronda of wind. She recognized the one Gazzet man from her stay in Shuuhen, and she shrieked when they came at her.

One grabbed her arm in a grip that she knew would bruise, and the other appeared behind her and put his hand on her mouth to muffle her screams, and she managed to push the other away with the other arm and reach for her knife, which she used to slash the man holding her other arm, and she slipped out of the grip of the third man behind her. One man slipped on the bag of raw meat abandoned in the fray, and was down when he hit his head on the wall. The sound of his head cracking on the wall distracted Kame temporarily, but it was all the other two needed, and the first man she had seen threw a wind spell at her that knocked her into the wall. The knife flew from her hand from the force, and she crumpled in a heap on the ground. Her vision was blurred, and for a moment she could not breathe, and her head was spinning. Vaguely she looked up into the face of a Gazzet man, and heard, as he held lifted her slightly off the ground by her neck, him whisper something about kidnapping the prince of Serenia, and she knew that it was over. Her parents would never recognize her as the prince, and even if they did, the man that cursed her would kill her when they found out. Nobody could hear them over the cheering… the Gazzet men had her, she could hardly move, oh, what would they do to her when they saw how useless she was? Would they torture her before they killed her?

She attempted to open her eyes, her vision was still slightly blurred, and she saw a flash of ashen black before she hit the ground again, and heard grunting and groaning, metal clashing, and finally, the sound of a short heavy wind. Her vision clearing, she sat up groggily, and put her hand to her head, which was covered with a red sticky liquid when she brought it back to her sight.

A silent hand was offered to her, which she took after seeing that it was tanned, but not as much as the hand of a Gazzet. She stumbled from disorientation onto her savior, who caught her and pulled her close in one arm, and placed another on the back of her head, which tingled gently, and then there was no pain, and she could see and stand again. She peered around apprehensively, but the three Gazzet men were gone, and she was alone with this man. An ayura had taken down two skilled ronda? Kame backed up slightly to see this ayura.

He was tall, about two heads taller than her, with shoulder length jagged-looking unkempt ashen black hair. His skin was thrice tanner than her own, but the most stunning parts to him were his eyes, bright ruby red set in dark skin to accent their color. His face was set in a frown, not the usual warm smile of your average knight in shining armor (Kame, however, was not exactly an average damsel in distress either), but his features seemed as though they had been in a grimace for years. He brought another tan hand to her quickly bruising arm and brushed his long, slender fingers to it, and Kame felt the tingling again, and her arm felt better.

The shida opened her mouth to thank him, but suddenly he was kissing her. She felt her face flush and her eyes grow wide, and she was momentarily stunned. He did not, however, pull her closer and make the kiss more passionate, and simply let her go with a slightly different grimace in his face. “You’re not the one either,” he said in a deep, smooth voice. “I had a feeling, but I was wrong again.” He laughed wryly at a joke she didn’t understand, and Kame thought for a moment she saw hope dying in his eyes and heard it in his laugh, in the mannerism of already lost hope rekindled and put out once more.

“Prince Aleis!” Someone shouted, and the man turned in response to, apparently, his name, nodding to what may have been a bodyguard, before turning ruby irises back to her. “Have you not a place to stay?” He asked quietly. “…the castle needs a few servants. Go into the kitchen through the back garden and tell the cook that I recommended you.”

Kame could feel a protest about becoming a servant rise up in her throat, but she swallowed it and merely nodded, adding a meek “Thank you” before the prince turned and stalked back through the alleyway toward the halted parade, and, after mounting his tari, shot one sidelong glance back at her standing alone in the alleyway, before they set off down the road once more.

Then she realized the most important part of their encounter, and brought a hand to her lips, the blood rising to her face for the second time. He had taken her first kiss... the Serenian prince's first kiss had been from a man!

Hieica: Well... what do you think? I'm not sure how it turned out, it was just something I worked on while on vacation, rather than working on things I promised my koibito / Again. I realize some people may find this situation slightly humorous. My damsel in distress is not exactly a damsel, and my knight in shining armor is a miserable jerk-face. I love it. I had fun creating this world too O.o I think I had to type in all of the geography and creatures, and types of magical people before I forgot what all of it was. The funny thing is, I named everything in here so far, town and city names, people names, Fenetre, and all the classifications of the creatures simply from jrock songs I was listening to when typing it. Basically I made it all up as I went along.

I know its not the greatest, but I had a lot of spare time away from modern technology, and I needed a release. So I decided to make one of the most awkward stories in my life. Yeeyz. Oh, and I proofread it, but I'm not sure if I got all of the errors / I like having a main character that deserves his curse and doesn't understand that he does. Oh yes, its quite dramatic. Feel free to critique and whatnot. If anyone reads it. This is the end of the first chapter! And yes, there will be more. Just don't expect another 11k words tomorrow, okay? Bed now, good night.