Erivale: The Lost Princess

Prologue - To Be or Not to Be (Bonus content)

I've moved my prologue to the end here as somewhat of bonus content. I am contemplating eliminating the prologue from my story and wanted to gauge the reactions of folks reading my story without it. I also didn't want to straight-up get rid of it so this is her new home.

I would greatly appreciate it for those of you who haven't read the prologue (i.e. those of you who may be reading after I moved it) to read through this and let me know if I should keep it as a prologue.

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The soft caress of a nighttime summer breeze lulled everyone to a pleasant sleep. The 3-month-old Crown Princess Amberleigh Eerika Helle Aumont had filled her small belly with the creamy milk of her nurse maid's breast and settled down for the night. Her plump pink lips still puckered in soft coos of sleepy dreams of even more milk and the gentle touch of her mother's hand.

Everyone was blissfully unaware when they slipped into the palace. There were two objectives of the night. The first began as they crept their way into the king and queen's royal chambers.

Once high moon struck, the guards would be shifting, allowing for the perfect opportunity to slip inside under cover of a glamour. Once inside, they had maybe a minute to inject the queen with the powerful magical substance that would render her infertile. The pinprick of a needle through the fabric, then skin awoke the queen with a start, and a hand covered her mouth, preventing her from screaming. She caught a glance of dark clothes and covered faces before her own eyes were covered. She tried to thrash around to desperately wake up the sleeping form of her husband next to her.

A small part of her wondered if he was even alive, and she felt the tears of fear, pain, and anguish rush through her body. Suddenly the hands holding her down were gone, and she ripped the pillow that had been used to keep her vision dark off her face.

A syringe with a faint glowing orange substance was sticking out of her stomach. At the sight, she let out the loudest scream of her life. King Heinrich, her husband, immediately jumped awake next to her; he knew something terrible had happened.

The pain struck the queen like an anvil. There was a burning in her lower abdomen worse than even birth contractions. She flung herself against the mattress oblivious to the guards rushing into their room, and her husband barking orders. The guards were to find and kill whoever had done this and to sound the alarm. Rebels were in the palace – no one was safe.

The queen arched her back as she screamed in pain. Her insides were on fire, and there was nothing she could do other than to lay there and let out her frustration and fear through shrieks of agony. Something was terribly wrong; she knew it right away. She was going to die, no person went through this much pain and survived. Something was dreadfully wrong with her abdomen, and if by a miracle she did survive, she knew that she would never be the same again.

Soon the alarms mixed with the queen's screams, and the intruders snuck through the palace grounds to the water surrounding it for their escape. A gentle bundle lay in their arms, it was the Crown Princess, and she was sucking happily on a pacifier. The intruders held onto her tight, knowing that she was their last hope, their savior and that losing her would ruin everything. This was the second objective of the night.

The boats were there just as planned, and they quickly boarded. The rudders sliced neatly across the glassy surface of the lake water before they made it to the channels that connected the lake to the river underneath the city of Himmelsk. The guards that they would have encountered along the path were all unconscious leftover from their way into the palace.

The channel fed into the main river, which they used to take them quickly away from the palace. After an hour or so, they left the boat to continue down the river and ran into the forest. They must act quick.

The knife they pulled out reflected the silvery moon back at them. The intruder holding Amberleigh set her on the grass, and the other intruder held onto her small head to keep her from moving too much. The second knelt down and held the edge of one pointed ear in their fingers. This was her only physical connection to this world and to her birthright. If the plan was to succeed, no one must know of her true identity. Taking a deep breath, the knife moved down quickly and cleanly sliced the tip of the ear off.

There was a pregnant pause as the intruders stared at Princess Amberleigh, whose mouth paused over the pacifier, and eyes went wide. A bated breath later, and she let out a shrill scream that sliced through the silent forest. The one holding her head quickly tried to stuff the pacifier in her mouth to silence her as they quickly moved onto the second ear. They were running out of time.

With both ears clipped, her head was wrapped in a cloth to staunch the bleeding. They didn't have much time to get to the meeting point. Running through the thick woods until they were out of breath, they finally recognized the monolith, a known magical fault line waypoint in the distance. With an extra burst of speed, they made it to the monolith to meet the grand sorcerer waiting for them. 

Zeke frowned at the group, "you're late."

Zeke said nothing else before placing his weary hands on the monolith and channeling all of his energy into forcing a rift in the realms and building a bridge to the human world. It was draining him, and he knew he wouldn't be able to hold it for long. "Go, go now!" he demanded of the elves holding onto the still crying princess."

This was a suicide mission for them all. The second the two intruders jumped through the rift, Zeke ripped his hands from the stone and felt his heart hammering slow and painfully hard in his chest. It felt as though a hand was squeezing at the muscle, making it constrict tighter and tighter until it eventually stopped. A soft thud of his body hitting the grass was heard by no one. The forest was silent once more. Every sorcerer knew the risk of using too much power – death. But using that much power was the risk he was willing to take for their cause.

Those who had jumped through the portal knew that they would never make it back to Erivale. There would be no portal to give them a quick route home. No, they were stuck in the human realm forever, and they had to drop off the princess as soon as possible so that she isn't tracked. The second they dropped her off, they would clip their ears as well and travel far from her.

A blaring siren rung in their ears, and they held their breaths in fear, thinking they had been caught. The siren sounded similar to that of the palace, but it was not. Instead, the sound seemed to be coming from a massive red, metal beast that was barreling down the street past them. Walking in the opposite direction from the sound, they found the source of the red metal beasts. Afraid of the sirens, they turned again down side streets farther and farther away from the sirens. The princess was still screaming from the pain of her ears, and they tried to keep her quiet and comfortable as they scouted front doors that appeared worthy enough of the Crown Princess.

"We don't have much time. We must pick one."

They chose the next house they saw and dropped her off on the front step. The two ran off into the night never to be seen again, and that is how Crown Princess Amberleigh became the Lost Princess.

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So, now that you have read it. Should I keep the prologue or not? If you feel comfortable answering please comment here:

Yes

No