TO FEEL THE TROUBLE CALLING IN!

He had not seen his bride be for a whole day since he arrived here.

Lots of things had changed in the past few years.

He had grown too and although it would be not as older as the Princess but it was very evident that he had aged well into his puberty.

His mother had requested to see the Princess right away to conduct a few rituals that the people back in their land would do but the Vampire Pristine had denied any access to the Princess as per their rule of the land.

He did not know if Vampires had their share of such customs too.

After returning from their last visit, remembering how the Princess had mocked 'humans', his kind to be utterly lazy and a slacker, he had undergone rigorous training both intellectually and physically.

He had read and tried to remember every bit of history, especially mastering the Vampire version of it.

Going to the length of learning their code of conduct, and their origin history to the point of recollecting her family history.

It was weird and strange. Nothing like a human family. They both belonged to an entirely different race, yet their future was going to be aligned together.

He had taken his time learning about it all and it was in a way meant to be an effort to try and understand from where his bride was coming off.

He had not seen her since their last conversation in the gardens, where he was standing at the moment.

The curiosity in himself enlarged as he wondered how must she look then...or if the vampires remain the same?

He had read that only a few changed. Rest, most of the time, grow up with the same face and their ability maturing with time as they grow older.

He still had no inkling about what her ability was. The Royals of Saunders tended to keep that piece of information secret.

But he heard that it had something to do with fire and although the description given to him was not clear by his secret agent, he had stopped wondering about it a long time ago, deciding to ask and know straight from her instead.

'The Little Prince!'

That she kept calling him, and he hoped that she would change her perspective after seeing him this time around.

He had seen his parent's marriage and even though it was out of love in their case, when he was a sort of political arrangement, he hoped for it to be as peaceful and calm and comforting as the King and Queen of Mortals.

So the efforts were all for her, even when he had no interest in acquiring any of it.

Maybe knowing and learning about new things were fun but the physical part of the training for war, at his age, did not make him any fond of it.

He could not understand what made the men so interested in learning the art of war when it was reeked with violence.

The palatial boys back in his homeland made fun of him for not mastering it any sooner than being the crowned Prince of the land.

He was neither good at it nor put any effort to be better, the way he had done in polishing up his knowledge skill.

They laughed at him saying that it would be his wife, the vampire Princess who would be fighting the wars for him, and not him, the King someday.

And when for a while, at first, that piece of mockery picked him to no end, but later on, it made him come to terms with it.

There was no way he could ever come as close as to her in mastering the art of war.

She had skills and an ability that outlawed his existence.

Perhaps, he could become the philosophical King of their land, and she, the Queen, would ride to battle as much as she would like it.

He knew she was that kind, not a sitting and rolling one, but going out there, in the wild, and taking part in the combat, more so leading it.

All those thoughts that how it would be, he had for them, for their future, he could only wonder if she had too for once.

Or more like did he ever cross her mind even for once in the past years?

He would not be shocked if she had not. She had made her intention about the arrangement very clear that very day.

But he wanted to be the man and be there for the vampiress, who was going to be his wife in the near future.

He felt a pebble hitting him and he looked up, trying to see who could have been.

No way pebbles fell off from the skies of Saunders as a normal occurrence, right?

It was the place where the three species lived together, but the climate of it was no different than that of their lands, could be a bit harsher than middle earth, yet nothing out of the ordinary.

"Up here!"

He heard the voice and followed it. It was thstoriesreys up from the ground. The entire palace was a multi-stored building, with a mystique architectural style layering over it.

Although it was hard to see who it was he had heard the voice before as he could remember.

"Come up!"

His father had asked him to stay out of trouble. And the invitation to come up looked exactly alike.

But what else could he do? There was nothing to do till the wedding ceremony. And he could not see the Princess either.

"It's me, Lavanya!"

And that sure as hell did ring a bell. He knew her. She was the most friendly of them all to him on his last visit.

He turned around to go back inside and climb the stairs but she stopped him.

"Climb up through the tree and then jump up to the stack here."

She pointed to it in the palace and then spread out a rope from the window she was yelling from.

"Hold this rope and come up. There are guards outside my door and won't let you inside."

She explained to him why he needed to take up the risky journey to get to her chamber.

"But why?"

He had asked, not expecting the answer to it would sure make him remember the 'Trouble' that his father had asked to stay away from.

"Because I m under house arrest!"