Elves of Cawree

She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, she knew her father would be upset if she didn't return home soon. It felt as if she had been running for hours, but she had only been running for a few minutes. As she neared the beginning of the forest, she saw the bustling town. The girl pushed herself to run faster just so she would get home faster, her blonde hair blowing behind her as she ran. She stopped running as soon as she reached town, she smiled at the people that passed her by; she made sure to greet everyone in town.

"Evenin' Nimdes!" Someone said, Nimdes turned to where the voice came from and she smiled, it was her favorite townie. Nimdes bowed at the older woman that said hello to her.

"Evenin' Noreen, how are you?" Nimdes asked, Noreen smiled at her and sighed sarcastically before handing Nimdes a basket full of fresh baked goods.

"I'm doin' alright, just makin' sure that the old man gets fed ever' day." Nimdes nodded before thanking Noreen for the goods, she continued her venture home.

Nimdes found herself avoiding more conversation, with the fear that her father would banish her to the room for the rest of the night if she was any later than she already was. Nimdes made it home in record time, she nodded at the guards who nodded back at her in return. She wandered into the kitchen and placed the basket of baked goods on the large table before wandering back out the main hall. Nimdes found her favorite guard, she snuck up behind him.

"Elion, do you know where my father is?" Elion jumped, he turned around and looked at Nimdes, he crossed his arms and stared at him. Nimdes smiled softly at him, Elion chuckled and pointed to the stairs - meaning Gaerdes was in his study. Nimdes kissed Elion's cheek before running up the stairs to find her father.

Nimdes ran down the never ending hallway, she stopped suddenly in front of her father's study when she heard muffled voices coming from the inside of the study.

"Gaerdes, you know she is much to young to become queen.” Nimdes heard some man exclaim angrily but she couldn’t tell who it was quite yet.

“I know she is still young but give her time and she will mature and become a wonderful Queen.”

“I have no doubt of that sir but we have to think of our people and how they cannot wait for her to grow up. We need a new ruler now! We both know things can take a turn for the worse any day now.” Nimdes realized that her father was talking to Rhys and she felt very hurt by what he was saying since she understood perfectly well what they were talking about.

“Maybe you're right Rhys. I will think about a choice and get back to you. Whether it be a new king or that we are to wait three more years until Nimdes takes the crown.” Nimdes ran down the hall before realizing what was going on. For some reason, Rhys was pushing to have a new king crowned as soon as possible and it seemed like her father had agreed. She couldn’t believe it, her own father was turning on her. And all of those times that he said he believed in her and told her what a great queen she would be! Just like her mother, he told her, well, she would show him what kind of person she could be.

She ran to her room and slammed her door shut. She needed a couple minutes of privacy to gather her thoughts. But of course being a princess, she couldn’t even get that. Less then a minute later there was a soft knock on the door.

“Who is it?” Nimdes barked.

“Its just me, Elion. I heard you run up here and slam your door. I wanted to make sure everything was all right. Would you like to talk?”

“Oh, hi Elion. Yes I am fine, just some silly thing that I’m upset over, no need to worry.” As Elion turned and was about to walk out the door, Nimdes suddenly came up with a good idea.

“Hey Elion, actually there is something you can do for me. I have been hearing rumors of the King looking at prospects of naming a new king very soon instead of waiting for me to come of age and being rightfully crowned Queen. Is there any chance you could look into the rumors and find out if there is any truth to them?” Nimdes asked in a soft demanding tone, while twirling her hair around her finger. It was her first attempt at using her beauty to get a man do what she wanted and she thought it was going pretty nicely.

“I suppose I could ask around and see where people heard that horrible rumor. Don’t worry princess, I’m sure its not true.” With that Elion scampered off to do Nimes’ biding. This was going very well, Nimdes thought to herself. I’ll know who my father wants to crown in no time.

She knew it would take a couple days until Elion had gotten any solid information. Until then she would have to pretend nothing was wrong. It was going to be difficult but she thought she could handle it.

Going about her day to day routine was easier to maintain then she thought. Over the next couple days she acted as though nothing had changed. She woke up, did her studying and completed her school lessons. Then she would do some hand to hand training in the afternoon and then help her father work out his schedule and other things in the evening. Exactly two days after she overheard the conversation with Rhys, she had an unexpected conversation with her father.

“Nimdes, I have a special request for tomorrow. We have a visitor coming to the Palace so I need you to put it into my schedule. He will be arriving before supper tomorrow and I need to make sure I have the time to introduce you to him and show him around.

“Of course father, how does 3:00pm sound? It will give you plenty of time before supper and you don’t have anything else at that time.”

“Perfect! I will see you then. It is getting late. We both have busy days tomorrow, we should both get some sleep.”

“Yes father, goodnight.” As Nimdes left her fathers office, she began to think the last hour over in her head. Who could be coming to visit? No family, they all live here and don’t require being scheduled in. It must be someone from a different village. She was thinking of all of this on her way to her room, when another thought occurred to her. She had yet to hear from Elion. Oh well, it would have to wait until tomorrow, she had to go to bed if she had hope of getting any sleep.

The following day was busy as promised. She didn’t have any chance of getting a minute to her self until just before three. Even then she could only take a minute to freshen herself up to meet the mysterious visitor. This was when she had a sudden horrifying thought. What if her father was trying to find her a husband. She had heard of arranged marriages for royalty but it wasn’t as common anymore. She hoped to god that wasn’t the case as she made her way back downstairs. Nimdes was already coming up with plans to stop the arrangement when she very nearly ran into Elion.

“Princess! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“Well Elion, I’ve been following my schedule all day. I was hoping to talk to you soon but now is not a good time. Did you get the information I was hoping you would find?

“Yes, I did, that’s why we need to talk now.” They were almost to the front entrance where they were going to be meeting the visitor.

“I don’t have time right now, later tonight before I go to bed.”

“But…”

“No buts! I don’t have time.”

“Princess!” Just then the front door opened and in walked a young man with a guard whom was carrying his suit cases. Her father came down the stairs at the same time.

"Nimdes, this is Neden." Gaerdes said, the tall young elf smiled at the princess - Nimdes froze. Why was her father introducing her to this foreign elf? Nimdes stared at Neden with a confused expression, Gaerdes furrowed his brow in confusion before he spoke up. "Neden will be shadowing me for a little while, he's going to become king one day and he needs to learn how to properly run a city before being crowned." Gaerdes smiles gently at his daughter, Nimdes felt anger start running through her. The princess scoffed before taking off running, Elion quickly took off after her when he realized where she was going.

Nimdes started running towards the woods, her dress getting caught on various shrubs as she ran past them. Elion realized that he wasn't going to be able to catch up to her, he stopped running and watched her as she faded into the woods. Nimdes looked behind her, and when she realized that no one was chasing her, she slowed down. Nimdes found a small opening and she sat down in the middle of the opening. The young elf heard footsteps approach her, she flinched.

"It's okay, princess. It's just me." The voice said, Nimdes sat up and saw Rhys standing there. Rhys had a smug smile on his face. Rhys put his hand out, Nimdes took a hold of his hand and Rhys pulled her up. The young elf eyed the elder suspiciously. "Elion told me you'd be here, and since I'm a feelia, I know these parts quite well."

Right. Rhys was a feelian elf. Elven gardeners, Nimdes sighed and started walking away from Rhys before he called out her name. Nimdes turned around to face her father's assistant. Nimdes crossed her arms and stared at him with a raised brow.

"Before you go, I want to speak to you...as you know, Neden is here to shadow your father. You also know that your father is choosing someone that's not you to become the ruler of Cawree within the next year or so. I just want you to know that even though you're the rightful heir to the throne, you were never even brought up and he never even thought about making you queen. Neden is to be crowned king of Cawree. You are to stop Neden from getting that crown, you are to forcefully take the crown from your father and become queen. Kill Neden."

With the final word, Nimdes felt everything go black and her body hit the cold ground.