Keegan walked through the palace halls, adorned in clunky, loud, and heavy armor. For many years she’s been a guard, but before that she was a criminal, an assassin at that. She was finally arrested and meant to be executed for his crimes, but the king spared her life, now Keegan repays the king’s kindness with her servitude. Turning a corner, she opens a door, and enters the throne room, immediately kneeling at the king’s feet. 

"Arise," boomed the king’s voice, and Keegan slowly arose meeting the eyes of the king.

Keegan’s orange-brown eyes stared at the king waiting for his next order.

"I have a task for you, which may prove to be a bit difficult.” 

Keegan raised an eyebrow not sure if King Arum was insulting her capabilities.

"I don’t doubt you can handle the task, the problem is, my daughter. She is needed at another kingdom for an arranged marriage, and something tells me she will stray from her destination. Watch over her on this journey." 

Keegan nodded, she knew of the excursions the princess often took, and how she defied her father at every chance she got. She bowed to the king and went to the princess’ chambers, upon entering she noticed she wasn’t in sight. Seeing a maid in the room she calls out to her. 

"Excuse me, where is the princess?" she asked.

"Somewhere in the forest I presume."

She nodded and ran off to search for her. Keegan had expected to encounter obstacles with this assignment, but not quite so soon. Stepping outside she runs down to the royal forests one of the two forests within the kingdom, the other being enchanted. The royal forest is under the king’s jurisdiction, while the enchanted forest houses a variety of magical creatures, mainly troublesome ones.

"Princess Adri?" she called, but no reply.

This forest wasn’t necessarily small, nor was it large, but since barely anyone enters, and only few woodland creatures thrive here, it brought Keegan to the dreaded realization she was in the enchanted forest.

Unknown to Keegan, Adri had wandered outside the gates of Arum kingdom and found an old woman sitting in a clearing. Adri approached her with caution suspecting a trap. Carefully, she unsheathed a small knife hidden in her sleeve.

"What ails you?" she asked approaching her.

"It is my ankle, I can barely bring myself to stand, let alone walk." She responded.

"Is that so, well I'll see what I can do." Adri told her.

When Adri was around three feet away from the old woman, three men appeared out of thin air, surrounding Adri. Immediately, she knew they weren’t human.

"Vampires." I snarled unsheathing my knives, and stepping back from the woman.

"You know our kind human, well you will have to die."

The three of them rushed Adri, without a clue as to what fate awaited them. Adri threw knives at them with great accuracy instantly killing the two men, and injuring a third. The two men screamed in agony as they burned to ashes, the woman and the man stared at Adri in shock, glaring hatefully at the knives in her hands.

“How do you know?” The woman snarled, cautiously circling me.

Adri ignored her question, quickly sending two more knives their way, and stared triumphantly down at them as they burned away.

"Curse you, human, you will pay for this." The woman said as she faded into nothing.

Adri continued to head towards her original destination as she had planned. The knives I used to kill them were made of a special metal that burned vampires to their very core, ranuel. Keegan had reached the gates in time to see Adri walking away from the clearing. She had no clue that this princess, fought off vampires and won. While Keegan had been a guard in the castle for years, she did not know anything about Adri, except that she is troublesome. Adri learned more than enough survival skills from her mother, once the proud leader of a clan of warriors, until she fell in love with Adri’s father. With great reluctance, she handed over her leadership to her brother.

“Princess Adri.” Keegan said with relief. She runs down to catch up to her, but slows down when the scent of burned flesh hits her nose.

Catching up to the Princess, she calls out to her again, only for the princess to take off running. Keegan quickly gives chase, tired of searching for the brat, something she’d never say to the king or princess’ face. Occasionally calling out to her, Keegan chases her down, weighed down by her burden, the armor. Keegan had to think of a way to stop the princess, that wouldn’t cause her harm, but thought of none, and tackled the princess, protecting the princess from the fall, by making sure her armor hit the ground.

Breathing heavily, Adri scrambles away from Keegan, anger clear in her eyes.

“If my father sent you, then he’ll be disappointed to hear how you tackled his daughter.”

“My lady, it is you who ran, I only gave chase, the consequence you will receive for being in this forest, will have higher importance than you getting a bit of dirt on your clothes.”

“Who are you anyway, wait you’re that criminal my father took in.” Adri said looking Keegan up and down with disgust.

“My past is my past, what I do from here on out is what is important. And the King asked me to protect you, so we are returning to the kingdom now.”

‘“I don’t need protecting.”

 “All princesses need protecting.” Keegan said in response.

Adri glared at Keegan, “I am not one of those hope filled princesses, searching for a prince to save them. I am my own savior, and you will return to my father and refuse this job at once.”

Keegan was tired of arguing with the princess, so she quickly grabbed the princess and carried her under her arm like a sack of flour. Adri fought against her frantically, but Keegan pushed on, the armor protected her from the blows Adri made against her, except when it was her face. They made it back to the palace with many confused and amused stares along the way. Entering the throne room, Keegan saw a look of relief, and minor anxiety at the sight of Adri under my arm, flailing around.

“I take it, this was her reaction to you.” King Arum stated.

“Yes, your majesty, and for her to come back to the kingdom, I had to carry her like this.”

“I am amazed that she didn’t cause you any harm.” The king said in both shock and relief. “Well Adri, have you calmed down yet?”

Adri pushed herself from Keegan, glaring at both her and her father.

“I am not amused. Why hire me a bodyguard now?”

“You have gotten more reckless in recent years, and your adventures past the kingdom’s gates are worrisome. The creatures there, can harm you in unspeakable ways. Other than the dangers of that forest, there is also the arranged marriage to discuss.”

Adri’s eyes grew wide at the mention of marriage, let alone an arranged one, she had no intention of following through with the outrageous idea of marrying a stranger.

“There is no backing out of this, and at the very least meet the man, he’s prince of our neighboring kingdom, Randor.”

Adri froze, then she unfroze and gave her father a hateful glare, but sadness was in her gaze.

“If mother knew.” Adri said, unable to finish the sentence.

“Yes, I know, but this will bring peace to our kingdom, if we risk this merging of our kingdoms we will have to continue the war.”

“Then by all means continue the war, and destroy that wretched kingdom.” Adri said, then stormed out of the room.

Keegan didn’t know the reason for Adri’s outburst, but understood this arranged marriage was going to be a longshot, and Adri was going to be a thorn in her side.