Crystal age Eighteen....

The cry of war from Crystal makes Adrian jump aside as the girl attacks him blow after blow without stopping and he must say he very slightly do not get hit. Grabbing the back of her collar he picks up the girl and slams her on the ground and finishes her off with just one blow.

"Not enough" he shouts as he stares at her groaning and slamming her fist on the ground in annoyance.

"You have decades of experience on the war zone" she states, and he raises a brow before whistling one of his warriors.

"Alex, here joined us a year ago and has been training under me for just couple of months, try defeating him" he orders, and Crystal calls him all the bad names under her breath as she gets up.

"If you hit me you may be exiled" Crystal warns the guy and he eyes Adrian.

"And if she won, you shall never get any training to be a warrior" Adrian adds, and the boy looks alarmed not knowing what he should do.

"My threat should have higher post that his" she advices as she grabs the wooden sword ready for the fight.

"But my threat has greater meaning than yours" Adrian narrows his eyes at the girl before asking them to start the fight.

"Stop" someone shouts and Crystal visibly relaxes as he friend walks to where they were.

"The time for the exercise is over, she needs to be cleaned and ready for her classes" Marisa speaks and Crystal hurries to go stand beside her friend.

"Oh, I did not know, look at the time" she grins mouthing a thank you to Marisa who just stands unfazed.

"She still has half an hour for her classes to begin" Adrian stops the girl.

"Yes, but if you have forgotten I have been teaching her etiquettes of being a lady and she hardly looks like one...

All this dirt all over her and her dress torn and having holes, she looks nothing like the Queen we will be announcing in few months" she argues making Adrian keep quiet as he glares at Crystal who nods her head slowly as she stares at Adrian.

"Fine. 4 am sharp tomorrow" he barks making Crystal pull a face at him.

"Well, lets move, we will be going to the market today as a part of your training" Marisa speaks, and Adrian stops the girls.

"Market? You mean human market?" he demands, and Marissa nods her head.

"Yes. She is going to be the Queen of this land and the least she can do is check out for herself how the people are doing"

"She does not need to check on anything, we have our people doing it just fine"

"When I took this job, we agreed of one-part Adrian, that you shall do whatever you think is right, but you shall never come in between me and my ways of teaching...

And you being a man of your words I am sure you are not backing out now, now that you think the situation is not in your favor" she asks, and he narrows his eyes at her.

"I shall escort..."

"No, Antonio has already volunteered to guide us as he has some business in the city. Something about the cargo that he needs to get himself...

And if you or the guards are around us people may be suspicious or behave differently" she states and Adrian growls in anger as he steps towards the woman, but Crystal stands in between them.

"She is right, and I do want to see things that is behind these walls. Antonio will guard us just fine so relax" Crystal argues and Adrian glares at the girl.

"I am sending guards whether you like it or not, I am not sending you out alone without any protection" he argues back.

"You wound my heart by thinking I shall let any harm come to our Princess while she is in my care, friend" Antonio speaks as he walks to where they all were.

"Don't try to fool me with your acts, I can see right through it" he warns Antonio who grins as he slaps Adrian's back.

"You my friend are too stiff, relax a bit. She will be just fine and I will have guards who do not look as if they are out for blood but will take blood if need arises" he assures but Adrian does not believe it but keeps quiet as no matter what he knows Antonio would never let any harm come to Crystal.

*******

"Is this really true?" Crystal asks as she peeks out of the carriage as they drive away from the palace.

"I want you to watch the people carefully and yes try not to outstand and no one here knows how the queen looks but they do know what powers she holds...

Also, do not stand and hear on the gossips, I just want you to watch and see how people outside of the palace walls live" Marisa speaks, and Crystal nods her head with a bright smile.

"I cannot believe Ad actually let me out" she states.

"Oh, I am sure he is brooding on the fact himself, just make sure you do not make us regret this Princess" Antonio states and she nods her head before looking out of the window with a smile.

*******

"Fresh milk" a girl shouts as she stands on the table with two bottles on milk shouting and calling out for the passerby, but no one gives her a glance.

"Shoot, this is not going well. We need to sell these milks by dawn else how will be get money, Selby" the girl sighs as she gets down from the table and pats on her cow's head who moos.

"I agree, we need to show Con we can do better without him" she smiles before she once again starts to shout on about the fresh milk.

"Don't move, I will be back in just a minute" Antonio states as he walks away from the girls to meet a man.

"Why is everyone shouting?" Crystal asks wondering why they were all shouting.

"They are trying to catch the eyes and ears of the passerby so some of them will buy their goods"

"But can they not do it politely?" she questions looking around amused.

"This is them being polite, Pri...I mean Crystal. This is a small village that is closer to the coast and this is how they survive. They do not have anything big and sparkling to get anyone notice...

All of the things you see here is homemade"

"Why don't the palace buy things from them? I mean will it not be good for the village and the people"

"Yes, but the thing is they cannot afford to make things in large quantity and the numbers of the people that stay with us is more than the whole village put together...

Also, by now you must know the warriors have an insatiable hunger, they can eat a whole cow alone and still be hungry. And one more thing, the villagers are scared to sell anything to us or even send anything to the palace"

"What have we done to scare them?" Crystal asks as they walk around but close enough for Antonio to keep an eye on them.

"We can kill them with just a snap of our fingers Crystal and its better this way. Their fear will always keep them away from our kind" she smiles as she touches Crystal's shoulder who nods before she looks around the market and watches the things that are being sold before something catches her eyes.

"Is that a cow?" she giggles pointing at the cow and Marisa nods her head.

"Yes. And I think it's her milk that girl is trying to sell"

"Cow's milk, ugh I hate it" Crystal shivers as she turns around as Antonio waves his hands for them to follow.

"Come on, let's get going" Marisa states as she walks away but Crystal stops as something alluring touches her senses and she turns around to find the thing.

*******

"Fresh milk, miss. Will you buy one? I promise you will not find one in the whole village" the girl grabs Crystal's hand as she tries to sell the bottle but Crystal frowns as her eyes lands on the cow.

"This is Shelby, it's her milk but I promise she is very healthy" the girl keeps talking but someone coming off the cow interests Crystal and without thinking she tries to touch the cow but the cow huffs and moves back as without her even knowing Crystal's eyes were glowing and it terrifies the cow.

"Uh miss" the girl tries to stop Crystal but just as Crystal goes to grab something from the cow it moves away and starts to run in different direction.

"Shelby, no" the girl cries as the bottle drops from her hand while she tries to catch the cow's rope.

"Connor" the girls screams at the top of her lungs when the cow runs off.

Crystal stands still as someone moves past her and each part of her body shivers as the air touches her arm.

Her eyes stays focused on the man who runs behind the cow before he jumps and grabs the rope to take a hold but the cow was too terrified to make sense and drags the man along with it. Connor groans as he tries to grab anything to hold onto and in doing so he ends up pulling each and every table where the men were selling their goods.

Finally, he gets hold of a pole and grabs the rope tight enough to pull the cow back a bit who moos but stop looking around it and Connor smiles as he ties the rope around the pole before walking towards the cow.

Touching its back it runs his hand and tries to calm the animal while with every shift and movement of the man's muscles Crystal's world stops for her.

*******

"Oh thank god, are you okay, brother?" the girl sighs in relief as she rush towards her brother and cow.

But before the man could speak the villagers gathers around him and starts to shout and scream pointing at the chaos he created while trying to taming the cow and Connor rubs the back of his head as his eyes lies on the destruction before he hurries to apologize to all of them and pick up the things trying to mend as much as he can.

"Your apologies will not correct this, look what you have done" a man shouts as he grabs the broken pot and shoves in close to the man's face.

"My brother said he was sorry, Shelby was terrified" the girl shouts as she stands in front of her brother.

"Well then you should have left your idiot cow back at the house" the man shouts and before the girls who jump Connor grabs her back.

"I will help you this week to make the pots" Connor states and the man glares at him before he curses Connor and moves away while the girl curses at the man back.

"Des" Connor scolds his sister as he covers her mouth before he grabs the cow's rope and walks towards their stall.

"You should have knocked him down big brother, he insulted Shelby" the girl speaks but the man just sighs as he binds the cow close to their stall and puts his sister down.

"And I told you to watch out for Shelby while I was gone for few minutes" Connor states as he checks on his stall and counts the bottles.

"We did not sell even one?" he mutters to himself.

"We would if that girl...hey you...Con, that's her she scared Shelby" Des cries as she points at Crystal who was still standing staring at Connor speechless.

"Who?" Connor asks as he turns to look at Crystal who drops down staring at the ground trying to control the shift she feels.

"Are you okay?" Connor asks worried before glancing at his sister who shrugs her shoulders as she walks towards her brother and holds his hand.

"Shelby did not attack anyone" the girls informs her brother.

"Are you okay, Miss?" he asks again and Crystal takes a deep breath before she gets up and hands the bottle the girl dropped.

"She dropped it" she smiles as she puts the bottle out and the girl rush to grab it.

"I thought I broke it" she frowns before smiling as it was not.

"Thank god, do you know how much these bottle even costs?" she smiles wipping the dirt and Crystal smiles at Connor who stares at her for a while before he gathers his things.

"It's getting late, we should go back home. Next time, we are not bringing Shelby along, maybe putting her in one of the stables will do" he talks with his sister.

"Uh..I" Crystal tries to talk but does not know what she should say.

"You are still here, do you need anything?" the girl asks and Crystal panics not knowing what to say before she points at the bottle of milk.

"So you really wanted to buy it?" the girl asks hopeful and Crystal nods her head.

"Yes"

"Oh great, ten coins for a bottle" the girl hands Crystal the bottle and puts her hand out for the payment but Crystal blinks before she shakes the girl's hand.

"Not handshake the coins" the girls frowns and Crystal frowns as well as she has no coins.

"But I don't have any" she speaks making the girl's frown deepen.

"Then how will you buy the milk?" she asks Crystal who eyes Connor who was busy wrapping the things.

"Give that back" the girl takes the bottle back in anger as she mutters something under her breath.

"She says she has no coins and still wants the bottle, she must be a beggar" the girl informs her brother who glances her way before helping his sister to sit on the cow.

"Let's go" Connor states as he tugs his cow who walks with the girl on top of it and Crystal's soul cries to shout at them to stop but she stands quiet and still.

*******

Closing her eyes Crystal curses as she kicks a stone closer to her foot not knowing why she did not stop them and just as she comes to her senses it's fades as the familiar scent surrounds her and her head snaps as the man stands in front of her with a bottle of milk for her to take.

"Don't scare innocent cows again" he states as she grabs the bottle and their finger touches for just a moment before the touch is gone and the burnt is all she feels where they touched.

She watches as he walks away and a smile spreads on her face as everything she knew until that moment seems meaningless because nothing made sense until she laid her eyes on her mate.

"Crystal" Marissa calls for her just in time.

"Connor" she whispers wanting to taste the phrase of his name and it sounds perfect.