Princess Cari Prelude Arc Part One

Cari's Hunt

It had been three months since Cari set off for the neighbouring isles, Queendom Isles. From the moment that she set foot on the first island which was the queendom known as Emerald that it was nothing like the Kingdom Isles. The whole place looked fancy with highly decorated houses and vividly beautiful gardens. The women wore fancy dresses that brushed through the gemstone walkways and the men wore highly flamboyant suits. This made it difficult for her to distinguish the difference between the classes.

Cari noticed that she stuck out like a saw thumb with her plain black leather shirt and trousers and robe. Even more with her cross-bow sat on her hip and all the things that she needed either in the leather rucksack on her back or on the other hip.

She had a lot of time to think about what she wanted to do for to earn her food on the table and she had decided that after meeting Kir, she had decided to become a bounty hunter, just to see if she liked it. She even found a bounty hunter on board her ship that she had spoken to and had learnt the ins and outs related to the job.

So she soon found the bounty hunter inn by the harbour named the Rose Inn. She could see that this too looked highly decorated with violet painted flat walls and fancy windows in the shape of a pointy nail with a silver outer edge and the windowsill was difficult to find under small black rose bushes, and even the door shared the same pattern which too was painted silver. With a section of the silver door frame at the top right come out where the signpost hung with the picture of a rose with lilac petals with a crimson stem.

She knew that she could just walk right in and, with her claim to the throne of Fireheart revoked, she knew that she did not have to inform the Queen Gloria. After all, from the moment that she spoke up she was not longer a princess and that meant that she was now part of the ordinary folk and so she would have no right to talk to her.

So she walked in. The place was dark but light enough to see everybody's faces. She liked that after all she felt oddly at home in this place. Almost like this was where she belonged. It even gave her a bizarre feeling of nostalgia.

She walked up to the bar tender who was finishing cleaning her iron goblet.

“Hello, my name is Cari and I wish to start hunting.” she said almost as if she had said it once before.

“Sure. Well you'll have to get five done and take your vows.” she said with a commoner's loud accent.

“O-okay. So which would you think would be good for me?” she asked.

She glanced as her for a moment and placed it with the others.

“Getting the Queen's crown from that crazed dragon. I don't know what's wrong with it but I can tell you he ain't like your mum.”

“W-what?”

“C'mon lass! I know who you are! We're bounty hunters, so don't insult us 'cause we won't you.” she said.

“So you know about the conspiracy too?”

“'Course we do. It ain't like it's in our business to know.” she said. “Now ether get somet to eat or get a room. We don't like to entertain idiots who lived up high.”

“Alright, then I will have the carvery, and prove that you're not going to insult me because I know a good cook when I see one.” she said pointing to the packed room.

She looked back and smirked. It was like she had passed some kind of test.

She looked over at the piece of paper with the crown on and spotted that it was worth three emerald coins which was handy for it would pay for quite a lot of things. She also knew that this would be the second dragon that she would face, but what the bar tender said had unnerved her a bit.

She booked a room and took the job. After her meal she walked into the room and slept like a log. She woke up while it was still dark but feeling refreshed and glad that she was on solid land. She then left some money for the bar tender. She set off down the pavement and up into the forest.

Finally something that isn't a headache to look at. She thought as she wondered among the trees.

She soon found the cave when the sun came up. She then took out some sandwiches and had them for breakfast. She then walked in and that was when she heard the most loudest and tortured roar that she had ever heard. She kept to the shadows knowing that the dragon would be dangerous and unpredictable.

She soon spotted him and she could tell what the bar tender had told her was true. She could also tell that there was not just something wrong with the dragon but that, for some reason this one seemed primal in some way. She could not make out what was going on until she spotted that there were only two legs.

Wyvern! Now it makes sense!

She remembered her father once making sure that she knew the difference, probably because he knew her mother was one and wanted her to be able to tell the difference. The biggest was that wyverns had only two legs and dragons had four and one was like a primal beast and the other was more like a wise teacher that you could carry a long and intellectual conversation with.

Now the hard part, killing that thing.

Along side teaching her the differences between the two her father had taught her the things that hey had in common. For one thing they both breathed fire and their size and facial features were the exact same. Not to mention they were like magpies when it came to anything that shone. This was why most people confused to two.

She looked around on the gold and silver and spotted the emerald crown, resting neatly on the a pile of gold coins that looked like a tower. Cari wondered how Queen Gloria allowed it to be taken to begin with. Should the crown as well as her have better guards?

She knew that she did not have the time to think abut such questions right now. She had to get her head into the fight that was about to happen and get it over and done with. After all the sooner the wyvern was taken care of the sooner she can get that grown back to Queen Gloria and the sooner she can get on the next quest to become one step closer to becoming a fully fledged bounty hunter.

So she took out her cross-bow and fired at the belly. This, her father told her was their weakness, just like on dragons. The wyvern looked down to see the the arrow in it's gut ad let out a deafening roar that was louder than thunder. He then looked to see where the arrow came from and quickly spotted her.

She let another arrow and he spread his wings and the gold beneath his wings flew as he flapped the air underneath his wings propelling him into to the air. He flapped and flapped until he was high in the air.

She shot another arrow into his gut. He leaned his head back and spat out a fireball from his mouth. She, anticipating this dived away. She ran and ran as he flew fireball after fireball at her. She ran in unpredictable zigzags to make it let easy for the wyvern to predict her next move. She soon came to where she needed to and dived behind a rock.

She turned back and fired another arrow this time at the first arrow digging it deeper into his gut and then covered her ears as it let out another roar. She could feel her ears staring to hurt as it roared again. She knew that this was the moment that she ad to use but she also was afraid that if she removed her wrists she her hearing would go completely.

Then the roaring stopped. She looked back only for her face to be met with the wyvern's. She jumped back for a moment as the shock whipped into her mind. Then he opened his mouth and she saw he flames build up in the back of his throat and she fired right into the open mouth.

The wood caught alight and flew deeper and deeper into his gut. The smoke rose into the air lungs in the wyvern's chest, causing it to cough. She used this to get up on the head and she ran down the horny spine. She then came to the wings and spotted the other arrow and fired getting that further into the gut. This caused the wyvern to let out another roar and she risked her hearing to slide underneath him and to his stomach and took hold of the broken ends and pushed them in further and further until the corner that she had to make was berried deep beneath the flesh.

She then straitened out the makeshift handles that she had made and dug them deeper and deeper until they pierced the stomach and the fire inside flew out so fast that she had to quickly pull away and she ran and ran as the wyvern burnt and she was about to reach out and collect the crown when she heard a cold chuckle that sounded like ice.

She looked back to see that there was a man next to the ashes of the wyvern. He was tall and unhealthily thin, but handsome too. He has ash black lips and a green and red eye that were both narrow. His cheek bones were high and his eyebrows were black and thin just like his hair which came down to his upper calves. He was also clocked in darkness.

“Well, well, well, that was a display!” he said with a malicious dignity that it unnerved her.

“Who are you?” she asked raising her cross-bow.

“None of your business and if I were you I would keep it that way. After all that was a nice display however dragons and wyverns are a lot more easier to kill than I am.” he said.

“What are you doing here then?”

“Seeing if you were a threat.” he admitted as he left clearly coming to the conclusion that she was not.

She lowered the cross-bow and clipped it to her him and took the crown. She then set off to Queen Gloria's castle. She could see the emerald and ruby decorated castle. She soon came to the twin emerald doors and they opened. To her surprise she was greeted by Queen Gloria herself. She gave her the crown and she gave her the emerald coins.

She bowed low and she then walked away. She knew that this would be how she should act from now on. If it was a year ago she would have welcomed a conversation, but she was no longer in that position any more nor should she act like it.

That was when she spotted a bright light and she ran to the light almost as if something was drawing her to that point. She knew that she should be going to replace her lost arrows abut, whatever it was that was drawing her to that point was difficult to resist. She soon found a naked teenager that looked identical to her in every way, apart form the fact that there was an x scar on her stomach, where her curse mark was in the exact shape, however her scar looked like a belly button than a regular scar.

She heard footsteps coming and knew that she had to act quickly to preserve as much dignity as this older clone of herself had. So she took two leaves and struck then over her and then a green cloud fell from them along with a green light. Then the leaves and cloud disappeared and she was soon clothed with a green shirt and trousers.

She opened her eyes revealing they were a deep shade of crimson.

“Where am I?” she asked her voice slightly broken suggesting that she was fourteen or fifteen.

“Emerald of the Queendom Isles. Who are you?” she asked.

“Scar. What about you three?”

“'Three'?” she asked as she turned back to see Ryo Kizeru! That was when she spotted the small baby in his arms.

Her eyes demanded to know what was going on.