1 Chapter 1

On a beautiful cold morning where the outside was obscured from view because of the heavy fog and deep snow, the people of Xinjiang Empire were inside their caves warming themselves, pulling their heavy furs up their frames and not wanting to wake up. As so did the animals who went into deep hibernation so as to stay warm. My name is Princess Mingzhu, and I'm the first born of His Majesty, King Qiao and Queen Yanlin. Unlike others in our small empire who had brothers and sisters, I was all alone with no kins. 

And with being an only child, the burden of the crown fell onto me and I was meant to succeed my father once he dies. Every day the soldiers of Xinjiang would wake me up and train me the whole day. I never understood why a young girl like me needed trainings but his majesty insisted and I knew better than to defy my father. Our cave was huge compared to our subjects with varieties of flowers and food inside but there was really no different from how we lived with others. Our mainly activities as cave people involved hunting and gathering in our deep cold lands.

The lands of Xinjiang Empire were all covered in white deep snow, I remember asking his majesty why we lived in such cold places and his answer was the whole realm was cold and icy. "The whole realm?" I asked and he would nod, my father was a good and kind King. He treated everyone fairly and there were no classes amongst us, even though we were less than one hundred people in the whole of Xinjiang Empire. 

The men went hunting together while we stayed behind and prepare food and sew our fur fabrics to protect us from the freezing weather. When they came back with a bear or if they get lucky sometimes a huge elephant with enormous tasks, we would celebrate at night on fire gathering. Although, we usually don't fancy killing elephants because they are angry beasts and whenever they attempt to hunt one of them, two or more of our men met their ends during the seizing of it.

I remembered the last time we had elephant's meat, was five seasons ago and it had lasted us for over a moon while the bear may see us just through a day or three. After spending a quiet amount of time laying on my mat inside my cave with a warm fire beside me, I got up and looked around me. There was no one, this space was all meant for a princess, the heir to the throne. But I never felt like a princess most of times, my head was elsewhere.

I needed to find a place far, very far from home and see if it was as cold as my lands. I had this deep desire to flee and leave everything behind, that included my title and family. His majesty, my father always talked about how his father before him used to fight in wars outside of Xinjiang. He also travelled far into the ends of the realm with his accompanied soldiers to seek medicine for his wife, who was my grandmother Queen Chao-Xing as she suffered hair loss and couldn't speak. However, they said he was late and when he came back, my grandmother had already transitioned to the other world.

King Wanglei, His Majesty who was my grandfather, was one of the bravest men in all of Xinjiang. He once killed an elephant all by himself and he never sat on his throne and ruled rather he explored what was beyond the realm unlike my father who was scared and had no passion to explore. I may have never met my grandfather but I knew I carried his passion for exploring and also his bravery, ever since I was young I fought boys during trainings and I defeated them all. 

None ever matched my quickness and my skills in fighting which grew as I grew older. Master Hong was my trainer and he showed me all the proper ways to use a sword. He would often shout at me "Swing it like this, not like that" and he would challenge me into a fight which he used to win every time until there was this day I showed him my best after defeating him. And it was on harvesting celebrations, in front of His Majesty and the whole empire. 

My father was proud of me and so was my mother, but yet they still manage to remind me I'm still a princess and not a warrior. "What do princesses do?" I would ask Her Majesty, my mother and she would go on and on about all the chores a woman should do, I found them to be absurd and whenever I would say a topic about wanting to explore and find my inner voice, she would object it.

Our empire was falling, as his majesty never grew tired of telling me that and it was hanging on by a thread. I was the only one who was going to bring stability to it by uniting our lands with the other kingdom by marrying a prince of Minao Empire who was the heir to his father's throne. I had never met him, nor did I have desires to but those who travelled to Minao assured me he looked like a girl.

My first reaction when I was informed of his girlish face was a laugh, and I continued to laugh at him even though I never saw him, they also spoke about his dark black long hairs falling on his forehead. His soft voice and weak muscles which he hid them by wearing heavy fabrics, I heard he couldn't even swing a sword yet and the masters who were training him had given up on the hopes that the prince might one day be able to fight.

I kept wondering why would his majesty ever think about pairing me with such a disappointment of a person, I didn't need to marry to keep Xinjiang stable. Our people had their own lives and we were happy.

  "I shan't marry him, your majesty" I said this to my father respectfully bowing with my hands forward as he was sitting cross-legged inside his cave. His head was low, then he brought it up and looked at me.

  "Mingzhu?" He called me out.

  "Sire"

  "What are you?"

  "A princess of Xinjiang Empire, and heir to the throne"

He stood up and walked towards me, lifted my chin up so I can look at him. He was angry at me and I had never expected to piss him off like that. "Our empire is falling Mingzhu. Our people will dessert us and what kind of a Queen will you be if you rule an empty land?"

  "How will this union help us?"

  "Minao has the greatest army in all our lands. They have food, they have water and if we don't collaborate with them. They will invade us"

  "Are you scared sire?" I asked him knowing fully well he was scared. Sometimes I wished my father had inherited even the smallest bravery of my grandfather who was scared of nothing.

  "Mingzhu, you will speak to your sire with respect!"

I quickly bowed and kissed his feet as a sign of apology and he picked me up, touched my hair gently and placed a kiss on my forehead. "You will be fine…" He whispered to me and then went back to sit and continued with his prayers as soon as he shut his eyes. I walked out of the cave and from there we didn't have any conversation again, and it had been a moon ever since.

My strong desire for adventure and exploring what existed beyond our cold lands never seemed to go away anytime soon. "There must be a place which isn't covered in ice" I said to myself and woke up. I tied my hairs, took out my traditional Chinese colorful robe and put it on, followed by a heavy fur fabric to keep me warm and I barged outside. There were just few soldiers outside, counting to five who were sitting surrounding a huge fire roasting horse meat for the whole empire, like I said we weren't so many. Small air clouds escaped their mouths as they breath, that's how cold it was.

They curtsied to me when I approached them "Princess…" they said showing their respects and then continued with what they were doing. One of them handed me a log and I sat with them and that fire really warmed me up, it felt good to be warm.

  "This feels…" I said but couldn't continue to describe, and one of them finished my sentence.

  "Magical?" He asked and I nodded. His name was Lee, same age as I was and he was a great warrior. The others didn't seem like they were in the mood for chit chat, it was morning and their task was to provide people with food and they intended to do that without distractions. They kept peeling and cutting the meat, dipped it into water and then roast it once it was cleansed.