*Chapter 1*

~Mateas~

(2 years ago)

》Oh I just can't wait... not to be king.《

Big day. No, the biggest day. Tomorrow. Oh no.

Ok, maybe not biggest day in the literal sense, because it was the Winter Solstice tomorrow, but I guess the point has come across.

I paced from one end of the room to the other. How was this supposed to go? It was supposed to be simple. Just a simple ceremony where I didn't have anything to do. I should just take the crown, and be king right? Right?

But it wasn't that easy. I saw how my father ruled. The people loved him, cherished him. To them, the coronation tomorrow would be dreaded. Everyone already thought I was a snotty brat of a prince. Maybe even just a random flirt. Or maybe even a unicorn. Who knows?

My teeth nibbled on my lips, and my hands ran through my spiked black hair. How could I be a king? I wasn't a gentle person, I wasn't a leader. I wasn't kind, I wasn't thoughtful. How would I know how to manage the people? The kingdom? The world? How?

I was about to yell when I heard footsteps. A sigh escaped from my lips. I recognized the sound. I knew exactly who it was. Raised with strict parents meant you could distinguish between everyone's footsteps. The last person I wanted to see while I was this frustrated. Rude, I know, but I didn't need the extra pressure.

"Son." I turned, and straightened my clothes. I wasn't even wearing the clothes I was supposed to be wearing. Dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a half unbuttoned shirt, I didn't think he would approve.

"Father." I bowed in respect, and he nodded. I saw my mother peeking out from the doorway, and she smiled. I smiled back at her. There was some magic in mothers. One smile, and all worries disappeared. One hug, and every problem was gone. What type of sorcery was this?

"You have a big day tomorrow." As if I didn't already know. I simply nodded, and looked at him in the eyes.

"Tomorrow you become a king. Tomorrow, this kingdom, is yours. Its not an easy task, you must do it with diligence and strength. This kingdom mustn't fall in enemy hands, and must always promote good. The people should be happy and proud of you. They should love you, as king. They should always sing your praises..." He went on and on, and slowly I faded from his speech. Each word made my heart sink a little deeper.

There was no way I could do this.

I was born to be a fighter. One of the people. Not the prince. I found happiness in arm wrestling with my friends, and arguing with the captain. I loved flying, in jets, which I couldn't when I was crowned king.

I couldn't do this. Please save me someone.

"And son, I know you will be the perfect king." My heart fell. It fell to the ground, and I couldn't pick it up. I couldn't be a king. I couldn't rule. And I was no where near perfect.

"We'll see you tomorrow Mateas," my mother came up to me, and pulled me down to kiss my forehead. "Have a good rest." I nodded, and faked a smile. Her small wrinkles showed as her lips curved upward, and they left.

I walked up to the door, and locked it. Okay. There was no way they would come in again.

Leaning against the windowsill, I began to think. What do I do? I was convinced that I couldn't be king. I looked back into my room.

Fuck it.

There was only one thing I could do.

Plan R. Run.

I looked up at the sky, and saw a falling star. I squeezed my eyes shut, and wished on it. Please, save me from this fate. Please give me a chance to be who I really am.

Rushing back in, I grabbed my bag. I didn't know if I would ever need it, but I had it ready just in case. It was time. I had to do this. If I didn't... I didn’t want to think about it.

Slipping on a jacket, I looked outside my window. The fall was around maybe 20 to 30 feet high. Not too high, but not an easy jump either.

The palace didn't have an easy structure to climb off of either. I bit my lip as I thought of different options. I punched the wall in frustration when it stuck my head.

My eyes skimmed over the sheets. They were long, and quite thick. I looked out the window, at the snow on the ground. Just like a big fluffy pillow right? A very cold fluffy pillow.

Time to run away.

I summoned a blade, using powers many didn't know I had, and cut the sheets into strips. I was quite a marvelous princess, using the bedsheets to make my escape. Tying knots between each strip, I made sure that they would hold. I didn't want to make my escape while screaming my way down.

The make shift rope was thrown of out the window. It almost touched the ground. Almost. Tying one end of it to the bed, I began my escape.

I played music in my head, pretending that I was the main character of a movie. I was escaping from dangerous monsters, who were out for my blood. For my beautiful face and amazing charms. For the marvelous strength and personality I had.

My hands slipped slightly, and it took every bit of me not to scream. I looked on both sides, but it looked like the servants were asleep. The lights in their rooms were off. I gave a breath of relief, and began my descent again.

Soon, I reached the end of the cloth. I looked down. Ok, I was wrong. It didn't almost reach the ground. Quite far from it. Even my 6 feet and 1 inches long body wasn't touching the tip of the snow.

Sighing, I looked up. And let go of the rope.

"COLD!" I whisper yelled, as I fell in the snow. It soaked all of my clothes, and I tried not to cry. Why, oh why, was I so bad at a run away plan? Why didn't I think of packing water proof clothes?

Putting a hand over my mouth, I sat upright. My bag was now completely covered in snow. I threw my arms up in frustration, and stood up, dusting off any of the extra frozen water.

I pulled my hood up, and began running again. Thankfully, I knew all the possible easy exit routes from the palace. They were taught to me from childhood, for an emergency. I used it to get out of the duties of being a prince.

My hands ran over the wall, and found the right brick. I pulled hard on it, and the gateway next to it opened. Taking a breath, I stepped in, wincing as I saw spiderwebs. How long has it been since I used this exit?

I took out my phone from my zipped pocket, which thankfully wasn't wet, and turned on the torch. I froze as if I had suddenly turned into ice.

Spiders. Too many of them. And they were huge.

I bit my lip, and turned around, walking out of the exit. There was no way I was going down a tunnel full of those disgusting creepy 8 eyed arachnids. I'd rather face a tiger. But I better not jinx it either.

Closing the gateway, I made my way around the palace again, trying to spot a specific tree. The oak. It's not that special of a tree, but we didn't have many of that type. And only one near this side of the palace.

I found it soon enough, and dug the snow around it. I cursed myself for forgetting gloves as well, since now my hands were close to getting frostbite. How could I be so stupid? Yet another reason why I shouldn't be king. If, at 21 years of age, I couldn't remember to wear gloves when it was snowing, there there was no way I could rule a kingdom.

Breathing warm breaths on my hands to warm them up, I squinted into the cleared area. My feet ran over the wood, before it finally tapped on metal.

I tugged on the handle, and opened the trap door. I looked around for the guards, but they were busy talking amongst themselves. Amazing. In both a sarcastic and a happy way.

My torch showed the long climb down, and I groaned. Ladders. One wrong step, and I'd be a pancake on the floor. Pulling the trap door over the exit, I began yet another descent. At least this was better then spiders. Anything was better than spiders.

Suspense music played in my head as my feet found the correct rung to step on. And there he goes! The fabulous Prince Mateas, escaping from yet another kidnap attempt. No one can stop him, for he is so courageous, and strong. He can fight a beast with one arm! And he is also so handsome. Of course he is.

I jumped down, and looked around the tunnel. No sign of any spiders. Thank goodness.

Whistling to myself as I walked, I wondered where I should go. There was no doubt that I would be found tomorrow morning, and a search would take place. I needed to be far enough that there was no possibility of being found in a day.

Which meant I had to go out of the capital. I had a spare key for an apartment out of the capital, which no one knew about. But the main question was how I would get there. This exit led to a small alley, which was in the middle of the markets. Assuming I wasn't recognized, it would still take at least a few hours to walk out of the city.

How was I supposed to do that? I played with the ring on my finger. When twisted in a special way, it became a sword. Which was awesome, I know, but completely irrelevant at the moment.

There was no way I could take a cab. People would recognize me. If I had someone else, it might be easier.

I looked down at my phone, and blinked. Reaching into my bag, I brought out a small sim card. I opened out the present one, and switched it with the new one. Now there was no possibility of me being found.

At least, not till I was ready. Not till I had the feeling that I could take up this big of a responsibility.

My feet tapped on the ground with the beat of the songs in my head. I spun in my place, and moved my head. I wondered if I could take up a job of being a DJ. Maybe one day, I could.

One day, I would be able to fulfill all the dreams I had.

Hopefully. Who knew what the future held in store for me? For anyone?

My mind went to the war, which took place ages ago. I was just 16. The enemies were trying to take over the capital, but they failed due to my father. He was the one who taught me how to summon blades. But we could only summon one at a time, more than that took too much energy.

There were monsters all over the place. Black, faceless monsters. I witnessed one of their attacks. It grabbed a human, and sucked on the air. I didn't understand what was happening until the person fell dead. It was eating their soul.

We won the war, but lost many lives. We didn't even see it coming. Father still feared that there may be another attack, and I did too. Hopefully, we wouldn't need to deal with something like that again.

I reached the end of the tunnel in a while, and I climbed up the other ladder. At least this one wasn't as long as the other one. But it was quite rusty. My hands were reddish-brown when I finished climbing.

On reaching the landing, I tried to tug on the door, but it wouldn't budge. We really needed to start de-rusting these doors. I didn't want to end up as a skeleton in a corner. I pulled harder, and it swung open.

A blast of cold air hit me, and it took a lot of effort to get myself out. The gateway closed on it's own, and I was outside. There was no way of opening it again, there was no handles, or any possible way to just push it open.

And as I remembered, this exit led to an alley. A very dim lit one I must add.

I looked ahead, following the path of dim light to the marketplace. I was about to exit the place, when I heard footsteps. I pulled my hood above my head to hide my face as I turned back, watching a girl run into the alley. I was about to dismiss it, when I saw three men run in behind her.

My teeth bit on my lip as I debated on whether to help or just leave the place. I turned back. If I was going to be king one day, I had to help the subjects. Even if it wasn't tomorrow, it was still my duty as a prince. As a human.

I ran in, summoning a blade as I did. I pressed my back against the wall, taking a peek at the situation.

The girl had short hair, the tips a very deep purple. It covered one of her eyes, sweeping across the right side of her face. The one eye that was shown, was a sight I hadn't seen before.

Her eye color was a deep purple. It looked like fire, moving high and burning against a black night. She looked angry, but her eyes were sad. Like she was trying not to cry.

I ran out, and struck one in the back. I didn't injure him deeply, just enough to make him out of commission for a long while. I pulled it out, and aimed for the other two.

The girl looked unimpressed, and struck her hand out. A blast of ice shot out, covering the two completely. She stood straight, before falling to her knees.

"Hey! Are you alright?" I ran up to her, and placed my hands on her shoulders. Her clothing was ripped, and not covering enough of her tan skin to make her warm enough.

"I'm fine. Leave me alone." Her voice was cold, distant. Like she was ready to kill someone. Was she an assassin? I didn't recognize her as a citizen of this place. Not that I knew each one individually, but her clothing was very different from the ones people generally wore.

"Let's get you somewhere else." I lifted her up, and she tried to push me away. I tossed her over my shoulder, and walked. She was too weak to fight back, and after a while, she stopped moving.

I set her down, and she scowled at me.

"Come on, don't be like that. Please?" It was clear that she didn't know I was the prince. And it was just as well, I didn't want to go home at all.

"A favor for a favor? Just get us a cab, and after that we leave. No talking to each other anymore after that." She rubbed at her arms, and sighed. It was obvious she was cold, and needed somewhere to stay. No one would recognize her, it would be easy for her to get a cab and get us out of the city by midnight.

"Fine." She stated, and walked right into the marketplace. I followed her, trying to cover my face well enough.

As she walked, I observed that she tried to avoid people as much as she could. She kept a huge distance, and wrapped her arms around herself. People stared, but she kept her purple eyes trained forward.

It wasn't long before we got out of the place, and she called a cab. The driver gave me an odd look, probably because I looked like a barbarian, but shrugged and let us in.

I sighed in relief as we sat in, and I looked over at her.

"I didn't catch your name." She looked at me, and shook her head.

"I never gave it to you." I nodded at that, and looked carefully at the driver. I leaned over to her, and whispered my name in her ear.

"My name's Mateas. I'm the Prince here." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and then shrugged.

"What's your name?" I tried to ask in the softest voice possible, and she looked directly into my eyes. There was something... off about her. She wasn't normal. She wasn't like any of us. She wasn't human.

When she said her name... my skin froze over.

"Lyna."