At the age of 5 I learned that I had fire Mage abilities. However, in a kingdom that hates any and all mages, I would have to keep it a secret if I wanted to keep my life. In my position at the palace there would have been no way to hide my abilities, so I played the missing card. With the recent royal disappearances, it wasn't hard for Musicaria to believe. The only person I told was the one person closest to me, my brother Charles. I didn't tell him why I was leaving, only that I was doing so for a very important reason. I had sworn him to secrecy, although being only 5 the only form of promising we knew was a pinkie swear, but that was good enough. Obviously he had kept his word, otherwise we would still be hearing reports about me to this day.

As for what I did, well I went away. I wandered as far as my legs could take me, far away from the castle where nobody would recognize me. Most people who don't live near the royal city don't know what the royal family looks like, so it was an advantage to me. I would up on the porch of a small farm, and the family who lived there were gracious enough to take me in as their own along with their three other children. I was the only girl in the household besides the mother. I was the youngest child there, but it never really bothered me all that much.

As soon as I could register what had happened I started to farm work. It never really bothered me that much. It kept my mind off of my abilities that I would inevitably have to keep to myself. It was hardest on stressful days when I had a lot of work to finish. That was when my magic would go haywire. It was hard to keep it to myself for so long, let alone the whole time I was there.

About a week after I had been taken in by the Whyte family I started writing letters to my brother back home.  He got his mail delivered to him personally, so nobody else would have seen it.  Still, I was smart to put the address inside the letter so the mail carrier wouldn't know where it cane from.  This was before the royal guard started reading their mail to make sure nothing dangerous was written in it, like threats and such.  At that point we stopped writing letters to each other, but before that we made sure to write regularly.  That was the only way he would have know where I was all those years later, and more importantly, that it was me answering the door that day.

• • •

It was 8 years after I had let home.  Not exactly, it was more like 8 and a half, but none the less I was 13.  That day I had finished up all of my chores early so I had gone inside to relax.  I didn't have much to do, so I decided to read a book in the den.  That was when I heard a soft knock on the door.

*Knock, knock, knock*

I was the only person on the house at the time, so I walked over to the door to see who it could be.  Nobody ever stopped by our house, unless it was a mail carrier.  Even then, they didn't come but once a week and they had stopped by two days before.

I opened the door slowly to reveal a boy about my age.  He had light brown hair and blue eyes.  He stood up tall and proper, as if he wasn't allowed to show any emotion.  I knew exactly who it was.  Tears welled up in my eyes as did in his.  He came in for a hug and, much to the guards dismay, I did as well.  But hey, when you haven't seen your twin in over 8 years, you are bound to get emotional.  I could feel his tars hit my shoulder as he held me in the warm embrace.  Not that i wanted to let go.  We would have to make up for 8 years lost. 

"I missed you so much," he whispered in my ear.

"As did I," I replied, finally breaking away from his hold.  I finally got a better look at him.  He definitely had grown since I had last seen him.  We were still about the same height, but he was just slightly taller, about a half inch or so.  He was wearing a small crown that a prince would wear along with his official "fancy coat" as we used to call it.  Last I remembered, he hated to wear it because he could run fast if he was wearing it.  He looked relieved, as if he had spent a long time seaching for me.  Charles broke the silence first.

"So you have been here the whole time?" he asked. 

"Right, and you have been at the palace?" I asked next.

"Yeah, about that, there is a reason why I came for you today. I need your help," Charles said, looking down at his boots that were covered in thin layer of dirt.

"Okay, what do you need?" I asked.

He hesitated for moment before saying, "Alexandra, our parents are missing..."

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Yay, the first chapter's done! I have so much planned for this book, I am so excited!!! But anyways, how did you like this first chapter? Was it good? Too cliche?  Please let me know, I would love to improve this as much as I can!
Well anyways, until next time!!