SECOND- False Starts

"

Lan Gao Wang was leading the small entourage on his black stallion, dashing in his shiny armor and scarlet under-robe. A crowd had gathered to watch their arrival, with the majority of them being - not surprisingly - young women and girls. Some girls were giggling or even screaming excitingly, some were trying shamelessly to get his attention, while others stole shy glances of admiration on him, with their cheeks reddening under their black lashes. Even amongst the men, there was barely anyone who didn't look at the returning triumphant Prince with either admiration or jealousy... or a little bit of both.

However, there was someone, a young woman to be exact, who stared at the handsome prince with a look of detachment. There was also a hint of boredom in her eyes, boredom that finally converted to annoyance as she turned to her subordinate behind her.

"Are you sure that he'll come?"

The girl was standing on a roof above the entourage, inspecting the 'show' and its spectators meticulously. The burly man sitting cross-legged behind her was not only her subordinate, but also her only friend. "I'm certain," he answered calmly. "He's here," he continued after a short pause, pointing with his head to someone at the crowd. The girl's fingers felt itchy right above her sword's hilt as she looked towards the crowd below her with excitement. As soon as she located her target, she moved towards a rope joining the roof she was on to the roof of the building at the opposite side of the street. As she was about to touch it, a gentle hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Not so fast, Mistress. Look where you're heading!" The protagonist finally spotted three archers hidden on the...

"

WAIT!!!

"WAIT! The protagonist??? What do you mean the protagonist? I thought the protagonist was supposed to be a girl scholar that dressed as a boy to fool some prince with whom she was in love with... Or the protagonist was that Prince, who by the way was supposed to be smart and cunning and caring and..."

The nagging of my proofreader #2 continued endlessly as she rebelled about the contents of my novel's second chapter. I was about to claim that I never said anything definite about the book's main characters, when my proofreader #1 decided to join in her nagging.

"The lead is a chick fighter? What the heck is this, another feminist propaganda? To hell with your strong independent women bulls!"

That infuriating guy is my best friend, a funny, burly, chummy, arrogant, larger-than-life man who exists only to annoy me.

"Well, the target audience is females after all! And what's so wrong with some girl power spreading, heroic woman act wish fulfilment fantasy? Should only men be the ones deserving their ridiculous dreams?..."

Alright, alright. I'll not bother you anymore with me and my friend's bantering. Suffice it to say, that after pages and pages of writing and deleting, arguing and explaining, I still hadn't settled on who my main character was.

But there's a possibility that maybe, just maybe, I knew who my main character was. That maybe, my protagonist was... me.

Maybe the protagonist was myself! Yours truly, the very own awesome author of this novel, also being the protagonist of it! And I don't mean that in a self-gratification kind of way, neither am I making such a claim lightly. No, my dear non-existent fan, I have proof! Here are some hints...

1. I'm also expressive of my emotions, such as annoyance or excitement, like the girl on the roof in the story. That is relatively evident by my tiring inner monologue in this and the previous chapter.

2. I've already stated that I don't go out much, so as a consequence I must not have many friends. The girl had that only friend, who, by the way, was also her subordinate.

3. Both that guy and my proofreader #1 are described as 'burly'. I also kind of treat him as a subordinate, as is evident by the way I try to patronize him while talking to him.

4. The Prince was supposed to also have some secret identity, so why not appearing arrogant and aloof in public while in reality he's anything but? And we all know that girls in novels eventually fall in love with the arrogant handsome guy that they appear to be indifferent to at first!

There my dear readers! What do you think? There will be more clues later on, but for that, I'll probably need to continue the story...