Witchcraft

1.

The glitz and the glamour of my life danced off the page in the pure and innocent way, as though my ways of life were filled with adventure and love, when in reality it was filled with busy classes that taught me the way of my life and how I would turn out. "You must a strong, independent lady to rule this kingdom aside your future husband," my dad would always tell me. The thing about that is, I don't want to have to rule with a husband. My father, King Blanchard, ruled for four years without a wife. Yet, they expect me to be helpless because of my gender, which I believe is extremely bogus.

The books that I read are filled with strong females that can make their way through anything, maybe finding a husband along the way if they want. But in my reality, I'm expected to be weak and frail, even though my father fluently speaks three languages and I speak eight, and the fact that I take many more classes than he did while training. Nobody believes that a woman could rule the kingdom, but after seeing how when my dad married my mom, and things in the kingdom completely turned around, I believe that a woman can do whatever she pleases without question because of her gender.

The door to my room opened with a large shriek. In walked Sir Grendwitch, my fathers most trusted guard and best friend. "Princess Rowan, Queen Topanga would like to see you now," he said in a proper, straight voice. "Oh come on, Larry, we all know you can call her by her preferred name. Just call her Tippy," I laugh, as he joins in. The soft grumble of his laughter has been with me since the day I was born, and I hope I never lose that. He accompanies me as we walk in silence down to the second quarter of the castle was, where my mother sat and worked in her office on how to maintain things that she says are not for my own knowledge until I am crowned queen, of which is three years away.

Her office doors are covered in patterns of angels and clouds and Greek gods, perfectly out into place. It took a large push of the door to get in, seeing that they were at least twenty feet tall. There opened up a bright room with a large chandelier, cases of books all over, and papers filed in order. There in the middle of all of it, was my mother staring out a large open window that looks over the large hills that come before our Wall of Etta that guars the kingdom from the outside world of danger without order of laws. Nobody really knows what is actually beyond that wall.

I walk up to my mother and look out the window with her. "Hello mother," I whisper. She puts an arm on my back, as if trying to comfort me. "Oh Rowan," her voice travels off, as if running away to the heavy clouds that hung over the castle. I look at her concerned, and notice that she looks a bit stressed. Crazed, even. She turns to me and puts an arm on my shoulder. "It's your father and I. Theres something coming, and we need someone to stop it." I stare at her. "Well, surely the greatest minds that live in the village would know what to do," I say unsurely. She shakes her head, "No. Nobody can know. Not even our greatest scientists. This is something thats out of this kingdom, out of the villages, out of the town. This is bigger than us, my Rowan."

Bigger than us? We're the only ones.

At least that's what I thought.