Heritage
Hunted

I woke up at dawn as usual and remembered that Aura still had one of my fans. I sat up from my bed and picked up my single fan, running a careful finger along the edge thoughtfully. I walked over to the windows and pulled the curtains open, sitting myself in the dawn’s light and meditating with my fan open and in front of me. I reflected on Zereria, on Cannabec, on the situation of either becoming Satan’s Soldier or Ethylias’s Hero. Paradox was right, I shouldn’t be scoffing at the opportunity to fight against Cannabec’s chosen Soldier and securing my place in Heaven. But I didn’t want to have that responsibility on my shoulders, I might have been killed and dragged down to Hell if Prebeta hadn’t saved me. What if I lost against Cannabec’s chosen one? A whole seventh of the planet will be shrouded and dominated in darkness! And because I failed to do a simple task. I felt the dawn’s power fading and opened my eyes to see the beautiful garden in the daylight. I felt myself smile as I saw Selina walk through the gardens with Bell and her kittens. It was just adorable, the way they followed her in a neat line. When they disappeared from my view, I took one of the kimonos that Paradox had for me in the wardrobe and headed downstairs.

“Oh, Your Highness!” I didn’t take any notice until two elf maids stopped me in the corridor. “We’re supposed to dress you!” one said nervously as she looked up at me “And we have your breakfast.”

“Well, I’m dressed now and I’m going to have breakfast downstairs,” I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh no, we couldn’t possibly allow that!” squeaked the other maid who held a tray of food for me.

“Why not? Is something going on downstairs?” I asked with a frown.

“Well it just wouldn’t be proper for Your Highness to eat with the soldiers and knights.” I raised an eyebrow and took a bunch of sky blue grapes from the tray. I popped one in my mouth and smiled in delight when I tasted how sweet yet salty it was. One of my favourite flavour combinations.

“I’ll just go for a walk then,” I said and brushed past the maids. They bustled after me so I ran off through the corridors to get rid of them. This started a bit of an uproar with the maids, all hurrying after me to try and get me to go back upstairs and have my breakfast in my room. I wasn’t that fit, but they didn’t seem to be very fast. I was getting a stitch on the third way down a staircase and was about to give up. Until I came across an open window down one of the corridors and took the opportunity to escape the persistent group of maids by jumping through and landing in some rather uncomfortable bushes. I shuffled through the branches and leaves until I stumbled out onto one of the garden paths. I examined my bunch of grapes, decided that they were still clean enough for me to eat and walked to the front gardens. I stared up at the large marble gates, wondering if there was any way to open them. As I remained standing there, tossing the grapes into my mouth one at a time, a hand slapped itself onto my shoulder.

“Good morning, Your Highness!” Chelsea greeted loudly “I see you’re a morning person, hm? Well so am I! I’m glad we have something in common.” She grinned and I managed to smile softly back.

“Um, would it be alright for me to go out and wander in the forest?” I asked.

“No it would certainly not!” Chelsea placed one hand on her hip and wagged a finger at me “Unless I come with you.” She had quite the juvenile mentality to match her childish face.

“Will you accompany me for a walk around the forest?” I asked.

“Sure thing!” Chelsea smiled and turned to the gates “Open up! This is Chelsea the Copper Combatant taking Princess Zelda for a walk around Washmerg Woods!” The gates creaked open and Chelsea eagerly rushed through. I trailed after her, admiring her speed until I found out that she actually had wheels attached to her copper boots. She skated down the pathway, spinning and jumping along like a little child. Suddenly, I felt like either her mother or her babysitter.

“So you’re a knight?” I said as she did a U-turn and skated back towards me.

“That’s right!” Chelsea grinned.

“How long have you been a knight for?”

“Hm…for about eleven years I suppose,” Chelsea shrugged and frowned “I’m the newest addition you see. Plus I was knighted early when I was fifteen after I proved my worth when my father died in the line of duty.”

“Fifteen? That would make you twenty-six now…” I said as I looked at her incredulously.

“Surprised?” she grinned again “No-one can really take me seriously since my aging stopped when I was twelve. It’s so annoying.”

“Does aging normally stop that early for elves?”

“Not really, it normally stops at about ages eighteen to twenty five,” Chelsea sighed “The youngest age ever recorded for an elf to stop aging is five years old. She may still be alive now I think.”

“Oh…that’s unfortunate,” I grimaced “Does that interfere with puberty at all?”

“No, it doesn’t,” Chelsea said with eyebrows raised thoughtfully “It doesn’t matter how old you look really. Even though with some couples it looks a bit odd, you are still able to develop mentally and be able to reproduce.”

“Hm, I suppose that didn’t work out for you.”

“Hey!” I giggled as Chelsea pouted and stomped her foot. “Are you saying I’m mentally immature?”

“Your aging may have stopped at twelve, but you still act like you’re six,” I smiled “At least, as far as I’ve seen.”

“What’s the matter about being a little bit carefree?” Chelsea whined and folded her arms “It’s nice to revert to the happy childhood times once in a while.” My smile faltered and it slowly turned into a grimace.

“Yeah, if you had a happy childhood,” I muttered.

“Why, what went wrong with yours?” Chelsea asked curiously. I looked up at her and nibbled on another grape.

“Twelve families suffered because of me and most of the children in the orphanage rarely paid attention to me,” I replied “Then Zack came along to adopt me and suddenly I was in this massive mansion, learning how to be a housewife for a human.”

“Oh no he didn’t!” Chelsea gasped “Human housewives are practically slaves and are forever bound to the house!”

“What’s it like to be an elf housewife then?” I asked.

“Well, normally they would run a business of sorts or be a teacher to get a sense of achievement,” Chelsea hummed “My mother runs an armoury at the moment. Every housewife is different though, but most female elves tend to want to work and achieve their potential. Don’t you?” I thought about that. If I was a housewife, what would I want to do as work? I knew I would hate having to be bound to a house with a husband to keep me company but if I had an elf husband, what would I do? I certainly loved making perfumes, maybe I could run a perfume shop?

“I like making perfume.”

“Oh, you know how to make perfume?” Chelsea exclaimed “Can you teach me? I love smelling perfume! No-one in my family really is into that stuff and I never had the time to go and learn.”

“Maybe later today?” I proposed and Chelsea’s eyes gleamed.

“That would be brilliant!” she said. I smiled then paused, looking up at the sky.

“I wouldn’t mind travelling either,” I said as Chelsea stopped next to me “I love animals, I want to go and see them all with my own eyes.”

“Travelling?” Chelsea blinked “Wow, that’s a first. I haven’t met any elves who’ve wanted to travel before. They all normally want to stay in their own kingdoms.”

“That would get boring,” I said “I want to go out and see Croft’s Ravens. I want to see Careem wolves and Narwhines and meet all kinds of supernaturals from hybrids to werewolves! I want to see Ethylias. And as an elf, I have all the time to see it.” Chelsea didn’t say anything after I practically declared my love for Ethylias. And yet, I didn’t wish to become a Hero to protect it. I was willing to give someone else that burden.

“Um, Your Highness, you might want to get ready to run. Like right now.” That was when I heard guns and raised voices in the distance. As Chelsea began telling me to run back to the palace while drawing her sword out, I stood there, paralysed. Immediately, images of Paradox killing those men flickered in my mind and I grimaced, knowing Chelsea would probably go charging off to do that too. But when two figures came stumbling out of the shrubbery, my eyes widened.

“Vincent! Dune!” Vincent lifted his eyes and ducked as Chelsea swung her sword at him.

“Now listen to me, you!” she said with a low growl “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll-ah!”

“What are you doing here?!” I exclaimed after shoving Chelsea to the side.

“They came after me,” Vincent breathed “Because I’m an elf, they thought I would know where you had gone. Dune helped me escape and we ran here because a ghost named Zereria told us to…” Mother? I glanced at Dune who looked comatose and practically hanging off Vincent.

“What happened to Dune?” I asked fearfully as Chelsea got up, grumbling and dusting herself off.

“They’ve got silver bullets in their guns specially for him, they managed to catch him by the calf and we had to let it bleed for the silver to get out. But he’s been terribly weak ever since we did that.”

“So do you know these two, Your Highness?” Chelsea said as I helped carry Dune for Vincent.

“Chelsea, could you please hold them off while we go back to the palace?” I begged and Chelsea saluted.

“Yeah, no problem, ma’am,” she winked and charged off through the pushes with a childish war cry.

“Is it really safe for her to fight them?” Vincent raised an eyebrow as we began heaving Dune down the path.

“She’s twenty-six, she stopped aging when she was twelve, she was knighted when she was fifteen, I think she can handle it,” I replied and grunted “How is Dune so skinny but so heavy?”

“Maybe you’re just not that strong,” Vincent commented.

“Shut up, you’re struggling too,” I glared at him.

“I’ve been carrying him like this for a good few hours,” Vincent retaliated “I’m shattered.” I scowled as we continued down the path, reaching the gates after what seemed to be hours.

“This is Zelda! Open the gates, I have an injured vampire and a fugitive elf!”

“That identification is invalid!” I glared at the elves on the top of the gates.

“You saw me leave with Chelsea!”

“Full identification is required.” I rolled my eyes and sulked.

“Princess Zelda with an injured vampire and fugitive elf,” I said loud enough for them to hear and the gates creaked open.

“Princess Zelda?” Vincent said in a surprised tone “The same Princess Zelda that disappeared thirteen years ago?”

“Just think of me as the Zelda that saved you in Aurallion, no royalty involved,” I said as we dragged Dune through to the gardens. Aura was outside and learning how to wield a sword with Gardenia and he immediately sprinted over towards us when he caught sight of Dune.

“What happened?” he asked as elf servants came to take Dune off us and carry him inside.

“They were targeted because I escaped from Zack,” I replied “Dune got hit by a silver bullet. This is Vincent, we saved him from the police before we met you.”

“Oh, hi, I’m Aura,” Aura waved shyly at the taller elf.

“So this is the famous Aura who Zelda is hopelessly in love with?” Vincent cocked his head to the side and we both blushed.

“Dune has a very overactive imagination, please ignore anything he told you about us,” I said quickly.

“Zelda, where have you been?!” Paradox’s voice boomed from the palace doors, making Aura, Vincent and I flinch. I turned to the doors as Paradox, Brenda and Selina came out, Paradox in his armour.

“I wanted to go for a walk,” I muttered and froze up when Paradox came up to Vincent.

“Vincent, son of Sir Grimscraw and Lady Peridota?” he addressed.

“Ah, yes,” Vincent nodded, intimidated by Paradox’s size.

“You were to complete your knight training until Brodka attacked your family under King Serprenis?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Vincent nodded as he suddenly bowed his head.

“Your father was a good elf, Brenda and Selina will assist in your final stages of training starting tomorrow,” Paradox nodded before turning to me “And don’t you ever leave the palace without my permission again!”

“And why should I have your permission to leave the palace?” I asked, feeling rather annoyed “I had Chelsea with me, it was fine!”

“Clearly it wasn’t,” Brenda remarked snidely.

“We’d better get going, Chelsea might need help, Your Highness,” Selina hastily said as Paradox gazed at me, probably having the urge to raise his voice at me again. He glanced at both of this knights before nodding to Gardenia who ordered for the gates to be opened to let them through. As soon as they were closed, I lost my temper.

“Who does he think he is?!” I bellowed, making both Vincent and Aura along with the other servants jump “I’m not his bloody wife! How dare he orders me to ask him for permission!”

“He’s next in line to the throne of the Eastern Kingdom,” a stern voice came from behind me. I whirled around and met with Pearl’s fierce glare. “And you are his future wife, you may be a princess but you are still below him.”

“I am not marrying him,” I said venomously “If he wants a wife, it won’t be me.” I stormed past her, intending to find Dune and to oversee the elves tending his wound.

I refused to leave Dune’s side after the medical elves bandaged his wound after determining that all the silver was out. They left, telling me to call them if anything happened that would risk his health. If he were to wake, I would have to release one of the rabbits in the cage for him to drink because it wouldn’t be proper for me to offer him my blood. I simply nodded and enjoyed the silence, listening to Dune’s faint breathing. It was my fault that he was like that. If I hadn’t insisted that he took Vincent in, he wouldn’t be here, at risk of having silver poisoning or dying from lack of blood.

“Dune, I’m so sorry,” I whispered as tears brimmed my eyes.

“Is he alright?” Vincent came into the room with a fresh kimono on and sat on the other side of Dune’s bed.

“He will be if he wakes up,” I replied and let the tears flow.

“He will wake up, please don’t cry, Your Highness…”

“Don’t call me that!” I barked at him “I’m not a princess! Not now, not ever!”

“I must, I’ll begin my training tomorrow and I need to start addressing everyone properly…”

“It starts tomorrow! Tomorrow! Just call me Zelda! None of this ‘Your Highness’ stuff now!” Vincent shifted and nodded hesitantly. He glanced down at Dune and sighed softly.

“It’s been so long, I might have to restart the whole training process,” he grumbled.

“How long is the training?” I asked.

“Standard knight training normally takes three to four years,” Vincent replied as he glanced at his right hand and gripped it “Normally a blink of an eye compared to the average elf lifespan.” I fiddled with my kimono as the door slid open again and Aura sat next to me.

“He looks so dead, it’s strange,” he muttered.

“He’s a vampire, it’s what you should expect,” Vincent muttered. Aura nodded then handed my remaining fan to me. I took it and clenched it in my hands.

“That ghost you saw,” I said “Vincent, that was my mother.”

“I figured as much,” Vincent nodded “She looked a lot like you.” I nodded with a wistful smile.

“I never realised that she was my mother until Paradox told me,” I said.

“Do you not like the Prince?” Vincent frowned.

“You saw how he was back there,” I scowled “I wouldn’t want to marry someone who has that kind of temperament.”

“Zelda, he was worried,” Aura soothed “We were all worried.”

“You didn’t seem worried, you were training with your sister,” I raised an eyebrow.

“I was probably less worried than the Prince but only because I know you can take care of yourself.” I smiled warmly and hugged him.

“See this, Vincent?” I addressed the other elf “This is the kind of husband I want.”

“I…I…ah…” I grinned when I heard Aura stumble over his words. “I still insist that Paradox would be a better husband.”

“If I married him, I’d have to be his queen,” I said and withdrew from my hug “And if I’m his queen, I wouldn’t be able to travel. I want to see Ethylias and I won’t be able to if I’m bound to this palace.”

“From what I’ve just seen, I don’t think you’re the kind of person to let a marriage get in the way of your dreams,” Vincent commented and I smiled sheepishly.

“Blood,” Dune rasped, startling us “Blood, need blood, now!”

“Vincent, get one of those rabbits,” I said and pointed to the cage. Vincent nodded as he hurried over to the small cage in the corner and plucked out one of the brown rabbits inside. He handed it over to the gasping vampire who immediately snatched it and sunk its fangs into the neck. The rabbit struggled in his grip before falling limp, making Aura whimper and bury his face into my lap. Dune gasped after drinking the rabbit dry and I felt my stomach churn when I smelt the blood off him. He sniffed, pulled the rabbit away and gasped.

“I killed a poor baby rabbit!” he cried and glanced at us “You made me kill a rabbit! A rabbit! Why?”

“Better it than us,” Vincent grunted.

“Sorry, Dune, I’ll get different animals if you don’t want to drink from rabbits,” I offered “How about squirrels?”

“No, not squirrels, they’re cuter and tinier than rabbits,” Dune pouted.

“Exactly what did you feed on?” Vincent asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I preyed on the maids and convinced them to not tell anyone using my allure ability,” Dune replied.

“You’re going to have to feed on animals, I’m afraid, Dune,” I sighed as I petted Aura’s head in my lap, stroking his soft golden hair “Your allure ability won’t work on elves and elf blood might be a bit rich for you.”

“Huh…alright, I’ll feed on animals so long as I watch and make sure I don’t kill them,” Dune pushed the dead rabbit away. As Vincent picked it up and threw it out of the window where it fell into the river with a splash, Dune noted how Aura had tucked his head into my lap. “Aw, so is it official?” he cooed.

“What? Oh, no,” I blushed and smiled sheepishly “He was just a bit squeamish.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Aura,” Dune apologised and winced “Ow, my leg…”

“You idiot, why did you help me?” Vincent muttered as he admired the view outside.

“Because I promised Zelda here that I’d love and cherish you until death do us part!” Dune grinned.

“I asked you to take care of him, not to marry him,” I muttered as Vincent rolled his eyes. Aura turned his head to look at Dune and smile shyly.

“I’m glad you’re OK,” he said.

“Aw, honey,” Dune pressed a hand to his heart “I’m glad you’re alright too. Is your group of Nekaroses around?”

“Yes but Selina is taking care of them while Gardenia is training me to be a knight,” Aura sighed.

“You?” I glanced down at Aura “A knight? Aura, do you want to be a knight?”

“Well, not really…” Aura muttered “But Gardenia told me that Nova and I were going to be knights…”

“Aura, if you don’t want to be a knight then you can tell her.”

“But she’d be so happy with me,” Aura sat up and stared at me.

“Will you be happy with it?” I asked with a sceptical eyebrow.

“Well no…”

“Listen here now,” I said and placed a hand on Aura’s shoulder “You can only be a knight if you’re happy to become a knight. You shouldn’t become a knight just because someone else expects you to.” Aura grimaced and fiddled with the sleeve of his kimono. I turned my head sharply to Dune who cooed at us.

“You two act like the most adorable couple I’ve ever seen,” he said then gripped onto Vincent “Why can’t we be like that?”

“We’re not in a relationship,” Vincent muttered as he struggled to get Dune’s hand off his wrist.

“You’re so mean, Vinnie!” Dune whined.

“Don’t call me that,” Vincent muttered.

“Yes, it wouldn’t do to be named ‘Sir Vinnie’,” I smirked.

“Sir Vinnie?” Dune repeated and stared at Vincent “Are you training to be a knight too?”

“Yes, I was going to for my family and I intend to complete it under Prince Paradox,” Vincent nodded.

“Wow, that would be so cool!” Dune squealed and hugged Vincent tightly “I’ll be going out with a knight!”

“We’re not going out!” Aura and I giggled and I lowered my hand to squeeze Aura’s.

“Come on, let’s go find the Nekaroses now we know Dune’s alright,” I smiled at him. Aura blushed, nodded and let me lead him through the palace to find the Nekaroses to play with them.

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