Chapter 2

Eva Lemuria-5 Years old

“Hehehe” I quickly cover my mouth so I'm not discovered. My name is Eva Lemuria and I'm now five years old. I’m the princess of the Lemuria Kingdom. Right now I'm hiding in a bush waiting for my chance to slip past the guards. I have always been in the castle and I really want to see outside, but mama won't let me. So I stole some plain clothes from a maid and then snuck away before anyone came to wake me up this morning.

My opportunity finally arrives when there a gap between the soldiers so I run as quickly as I can to the wall and then I climb the stairs. I reach the top and quickly make my way to the edge of the wall. I take the rope I had slung over my shoulder and tie it to the brazier. I then quickly wrap my hands in cloth and climb over the edge. I have to slowly make my way down but not too slowly or I'll be caught.

“Someone come quickly the princess is trying to leave again!” A random guard who spotted me called out.

I look down and measure the distance to the ground. It might hurt, but I'll make it, so I let go and drop down onto the ground. I was right and it did hurt. I begin running towards the city while rubbing my butt. As soon as I enter the streets I make my way to where I hear the most noise and it works as I find the market. If it's here it will take the soldiers awhile to find me no matter how many they send out. My only complaint is that it's too loud.

As I make my way through the market I notice all kinds of goods and people I've never seen before. I'm very excited to be able to see all these new things. As I'm walking around admiring some strange weapons with a single edge I notice some people are giving me weird looks. I can't blame them because I've always gotten those looks because of my hair and eyes. Having either black eyes or black hair is already uncommon, but having both seems to be unheard of. My dad also seems to be very worried about it. Sometimes I'll notice him just staring at my hair or eyes with a concerned face. I know he means well but he's never explained in detail why he’s so worried. I know he loves me either way, but I've never felt something wrong with it and mama will always tell me my hair and eyes are beautiful and unique if I ever bring up questions or if I compliment mamas blonde hair.

As I'm looking through the weapons I notice one weapon. It's a Black dagger that I'm immediately drawn to. It's not because it's small or sharp. It also looks very unique but what draws me to it is its blackness. It's like my hair and eyes because it seems like such a pure black that it even rejects the light around it. I can't help but keep looking at it till finally, I start to reach for it. My hand is stopped when another hand is placed in front of mine. I look up and see a young man looking at me with a weird look.

“Little girl you shouldn't randomly touch weapons like that.” Young man, “If you like the dagger you can come back and see if your parents will buy it for you, but for now I can't let a little girl play with something so dangerous.” He then looks away from and looks at his surrounding “In fact where are your parents? You can't be wandering around on your own, could you? It dangerous out here without anyone to protect a young girl….”

Before I could hear any more of his lecture I take off running. I know he meant well, but if he kept going on he could have drawn attention to me or worse taken me to try to find my parents. I haven't seen any of them yet, but I know there are guards probably looking all over the city for me. So I decided the best option would be to go and find something else to do somewhere before I am eventually caught. I wander around the streets looking through the windows of the shops. There's a lot of neat things but nothing as unique or foreign as the things I found in the market. It's probably because those are all traveling merchants that set up stands to buy and sell.

I end up thinking back to that dagger I saw at the one stand. I can't help but think about it because I feel it would fit perfectly in my hands. I'm not sure where this feeling is coming from but I should do my best to forget about it because I know that by tomorrow that merchant and dagger will probably be gone. That's what I at least hear from all the maids' conversations I've listened to in the past at least.

My thoughts are interrupted when I see a beggar walking in the streets. I know she is a beggar because of her very ragged clothes and the little cup she's holding in front of her. This is not what draws my attention to her, but it's the torn cat ears on top of her head. They are brown like her hair and they also seem to match her legs. I notice that from her ankles down her legs change from human to something similar to what a cat has paws and all. They don't have any shoes, but instead, there are bandages wrapped around trying to cover up as much as possible. She also has lifeless eyes and from what I can tell not much money in her cup.

She must be one of the beings I've heard the maids talk about in hushed voices. A mana mutant. I'm not sure on the details of how they come to be. All I know is that they were once human but because of high exposure to mana, they began to gain characteristics of animals or even the monsters that plague the world. I feel pity for her but for now, I know there's nothing I can do for her. I don't even have money I can offer her. I don't think I'd be able to even get close to her without drawing attention either. Everyone around her is giving her dirty looks filled with disgust and fear. I'm not sure why there is fear but I do know the disgust is because people hate the unknown and different. I've seen a few of these looks directed at myself.

All of a sudden I notice she's walked into a busy street filled with carts and horses. It seems to be slow right now, but it's still dangerous. Especially for someone with such lifeless eyes that don't seem to pay attention to her surroundings at all. I watch her while I slowly make my way past the same street. She almost makes it all the way pass when out of a nearby alleyway, a horse comes storming out. It has pieces of a harness attached to it so it must have broken free from a carriage. The problem is that the horse as if in a mad dash right for the girl.

I feel my heart almost stop and before I know it my body has moved towards the girl. I feel the world slow around me as I feel my heart beat like crazy. I don’t know what came over me as I keep running towards her. I'm not sure if it's because I pity her for being a beggar or if it's because I feel the same as her for being different and experiencing those looks of disgust or the rare pity. I feel my heart beating faster and faster as I reach her. My hands push against her as she looks behind her to see me. I feel like I've succeeded till I look to my side and see the horse with mad eyes about to stomp on me and that's when it happens.

I feel an incredible pain in my heart as if it's about to burst. It's as if an unnoticeable energy that has always been in my body is now rushing towards my heart and it's about to burst. It's so painful I can't bear it anymore and I feel my body stopping and then I fall unconscious.

Shadow Guard

It seems as though the princess has extended her playground outside the castle walls. She's always loved to hide somewhere in the castle and its always taken us at most two hours to find her, but now its been three hours and I'm sure the king will be very displeased. The princess is one of the few who knows of our existence as shadow guards and that is only because it would always require us to find her. I can't help but worry she may have gotten the idea to sneak out as she did from our existence. I just hope the King doesn't take our infiltration techniques into consideration when he hears how she snuck out.

I have all the shadow guards currently in the city looking for her at the moment. I just personally found a merchant who stopped a 5-6-year-old girl from touching a black dagger that has an eerie and malicious feeling to it. The part that caught my attention is the little girl had black hair and black eyes. It has to be the princess so I bought the dagger, to give it to the king, and then I rush towards the direction the princess went. I keep running until I found a crowd looking towards a commotion.

What I see makes my heart drop. I see the princess pushing a mana mutant out of the way of a rampaging horse. She succeeds in saving the mana mutant, but the horse is about to crush her and I know the little princess will not survive that. I must try to save her.

As I take my first step I notice the princess close her eyes while clutching her chest and I know at that moment what is about to happen. I know it's dangerous but I keep rushing to stop the horse. It was an unnecessary move and also a mistake. In an instant, the princess has a forced awakening. Flames burst out around the princess and lightning burst towards the sky. The destruction of these two elements cause is already bad, but the bigger problem is that both the flames and lightning are a pitch black color. Both of these elements would normally light up where ever they go, but not these. The princess' elements seem to eat away at the light that they touch replacing it with darkness and destruction. The horse is instantly incinerated and even though I was still on the other side of the street I feel my outstretched arm being burned away by the black flames. A bolt of the black lightning then strikes the right side of my chest. I feel my body momentarily stop from the shock and incredible pain. The bolt just skimmed across my chest before striking the ground behind me creating a small crater.

The chaos soon comes to an end as quickly as it began. All the destruction seems to draw back to the princess as if imploding and then dissipates. I feel shocked for a second before I rush forward and find the unconscious princess lying on the ground with only a few remnants of clothes on her that doesn't cover anything important on her. A once over look tells me that she has no external injuries so I take what's left of my cloak and completely wrap up the princess so nothing can be seen.

Once she's secured I look up and see the mana mutant looking into the crater with lifeless eyes, but there seems to be some curiosity and shock on her face. I can't help but look at her in anger and a little disgust because this is her fault. I look over my shoulder to see other shadow guards arriving I point at the mana mutant and signal to bring her. They grab her and we all move towards the castle. I have to get the princess to the healer and then I must inform the king of what has happened.