Chapter 2

Rudith, the capital of Levantine kingdom, was alight in joy today. The streets overcrowded with people, parades dancing and singing for everyone's enjoyment. Flowers adorned everywhere eyes could see. Children were laughing and running unknown to the reason behind the celebration. Their parents, who usually sent them off to work, were happily watching them play while chatting to themselves.

9-year-old Maria, who was running chores for the Leaflet inn, could overhear a man muttering in the shop she passed by, "I heard it's a girl."

"Tsk. What a shame. After years of devotion". Another was saying.

But Maria felt like she was walking on clouds. "A princess!" she exclaimed. Even a child like her knew about the royal family not having an heir after years of constant devotion to the god of Life, they finally had a child, and she was even a princess. Maria had forever dreamed that one day she'd be a princess herself and now a real one had been born. Ecstasy knew no bounds as Maria giggled and jumped only to bump into someone.

"Owww" involuntary tears filled Maria's eyes, her right shoulder burning with pain. She turned around in anger a scream leaving her lips only to catch the man running away with a purple robe on fluttering behind. "A royal", She gasped out forgetting all about her throbbing shoulders.

"Mama", she flew into her mother, who was bent over, and excitedly called out. "I saw the princess.", she exclaimed!

Gloria, chuckling, turned around, "Did my Maria really see the princess or were you just day dreaming again?"

"I'm not lying", puffed out Maria. "I bumped into a man and he had a baby dressed in purple", her nose turned up, she recalled.

This startled the ever-calm Gloria. Out of all the bad habits her daughter had picked up, lying was never one. She frowned and asked, "Where did you see him?"

"Right over by Uncle Garr's", she answered. "He was running towards the city gate.".

"I'll be right back", Gloria pulled off her apron in a hurry. She hurried out the inn's door and left leaving Maria bewildered. Until she saw the freshly baked bread. Nothing was better than her mother's bread. Not even the thoughts of a princess.

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While the capital was rejoicing the arrival of their country's only princess, the Palace itself was in a frantic uproar. All the staff were lined up inside the huge dining hall, the knights were busy turning the whole place inside out and upside down. Logs were being scoured through, all the gates tightly shut, all walls monitored and all rooms searched through and through until there was no place left unturned.

Levantine's first knight, the Queen's guard, and the captain of the King's hidden guards were all kneeling, their heads bowed, sweat trickling down their napes. Pin drop silence reigned the room, the pressure hanging over them seemingly out to get their necks. The past ten or so minutes had seemed like an eternity to all three individuals as they faced their Queen's wrath. Not that they had not before. As the closest people working with the Kingdom's rulers, they had constantly been put under their superior's anger and scrutiny. However, today seemed to be their ending, their deaths approaching closer with every moment since the princess had been declared lost from the castle.

Despair. Rage. Grief. Claudia could not see beyond these emotions, clouding and confusing her mind. What else could she really expect though? The past 10 months had been nothing sort of a dream - a glorious, blessed dream, with her being with a child, and finally holding her daughter in her hands. Years and years of hopeless air looming over their kingdom was replaced with joy. The King himself had cried at the sight of their child, their heir, their daughter.

And now, sitting before the kneeling, useless three she had raised the only thing that escaped her lips was a sigh. Rage and despair filled sigh; a sigh that signaled how meaningless this farce seemed to her. One sigh that gripped the hearts of every single person present in the hall.

"Find her", she gritted out. "I care not from where or how", her blood-shot eyes met the fear filled ones of her guards, "find her or lord have mercy, I will not spare a single life present here. "

"Now if you value your lives, you will put your soul into finding my daughter, your future ruler", she waved her hand in dismissal. Every person scrambled out of the room and into their roles as soon as the signal was passed. They were all in just as much despair upon the loss of the princess but where would they even begin to look?

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Gloria, flanked on all sides by knights and guards, was hurriedly being escorted towards the Chief Knight's office. Huffing and puffing, she was running out of breath from the long travel she had made from her inn to the palace. Boy was she glad that she had though? As soon she arrived, she could see that her daughter had really seen the princess. Upon further inquiry, she found out how the princess had the kidnapped, and had mustered enough courage to share her information to the gatekeepers, who were now leading her to the person in charge of finding the princess.

Marcus, the renowned first guard, frowned and then sighed in relief after hearing Gloria recount what her daughter had seen. He stood up and tilted a slight bow towards the woman who might just save the country from ruin. "Your contribution will be awarded once we have completed our mission", the guard waved his hands. "Escort madam to the palace to see the queen", he commanded, "a team of five will go fetch her daughter, and a team will go guard the city walls with me".

"Rudith", he called out, to which a knight who looked the very image of an angel walked towards his captain, "you will inform the two captains of this new information right away. Let them know of our plans and let them decide", he paused and added, "ask at least one of them to guard the borders to the Forest of Matilda".

Rudith kneeled, his hands against his chest, "Yes Captain", and hurried out of the cabin. He jumped straight onto his ride, a steed he'd won in last year's championship, galloping, hoping for a miracle that maybe, just maybe everything would go back to being okay again. That they'd find the missing princess, that the gloom would give way to a some joy.