The Rise of The Phoenix

Prologue: A new friend

“I’m bored, there’s never anything to do around here Gypsy!” I complained to my best friend. There was never anything to do around this dull castle. The only other kids who are ever around are my best friend Gypsy and that’s because her daddy is my daddy’s first commander, and Baron whose mother is our nanny when our parents are busy with their ‘grown-up responsibilities’, as they like to say. Gypsy just rolls her eyes, “you’re always bored Rae! Why can’t you just come play dolls with Baron and me?” Baron narrows his eyes and gets defensive, “it’s not a doll! It’s an action figure! And he’s gonna kick your princesses butt!”

“She’s not a princess, she’s a warrior just like my mum and no one kicks her butt!”

“Then why does she have a crown and pretty sparkly clothes?” Baron teased.

“Well, maybe she’s a warrior princess, okay!”

They always argue like this, it’s funny, but it always annoys me. “Gypsy, don’t worry about it; Baron is being a wimp because he knows your doll is better than his!”

“It’s an action figure!”

I just roll my eyes, “Guys, either way it’s boring, we’re 11, I think we’re getting too old for dolls… Race you to the secret hideout?”

They both just look at me and grin, then get up and start bolting for the tree line. Baron’s mum, Silvia, just calls out, “Don’t go too far and be back by dark.” Not even looking up from her book. Our secret hideout is a cubby house we built in the forest using fallen tree branches and an old canvas we found in one of the storage rooms in the castle. It’s not the prettiest cubby but it’s ours and we love it! I race behind them screaming, “no fair, you guys took a head start!”

We all run giggling towards our hideout when suddenly Gypsy and Baron stop, and I run straight into them and we all tumble to the ground. I push myself off my friends, groan and start pulling leaves out of my wild red hair. I look up and I can’t believe my eyes. There’s a boy poking around our hideout. No one is allowed to touch our hideout except us! The boy looks to be only a couple of years older than us, if that, and has jet black hair that goes just past his ears that he wears slicked back. He’s tall too, definitely at least a head taller than me. I get up and call out, “ Hey, what are you doing?”

The boy looks startled but quickly a look of confidence takes over his face, “just lookin’ around, what’s it to you?”

Excuse me? Who does he think he is talking to us like that? He clearly doesn't know who I am. My friends look up at me with just as much confusion as they pull themselves to their feet. I make my way over to where the strange boy is standing with my friends close behind me. I decide not to give away my identity as a princess just yet. After all, most people run away or get funny when I tell them I’m the princess. So, I straighten up and look him dead in the face, “We’re the owners of that cubby you’re poking at, now tell us who exactly you are and what you’re doing here?”

He raises an eyebrow and looks at me amused, “Not that it’s any of your business, but my name is Koa and like I said, I’m just lookin’ around… exploring I guess you could say.”

Gypsy was the first to take a liking to this Koa stranger and said, “Well, my name is Geraldine but you can call me Gypsy and this is Baron and Aurae-“

“Rae!” I cut her off, “You can call me Rae.” If Gypsy liked this guy then I guess we could be friends but there’s next to no chance he’ll be my friend if he finds out I’m the princess. For some reason no one likes me once they find out I’m the princess, I just don’t get it. I can feel everyone’s gaze on me. No doubt my friends are wondering why I cut Gypsy off like that and only told him my nickname, but I can explain it to them later. Koa just looked at me quizzically then said, “Right, okay… Well, I think I might…Uh… Keep exploring. See you three around.”

“Wait!” Gypsy shouted just as he turned and started walking away, “why don’t we all go exploring together? Rae was just telling us about how bored she was, this could be a fun way to make a new friend.”

Koa’s eyes widened slightly and he looked back at her surprised,” Woah, hold on a second, who said I’m lookin’ to make friends, I’m fine on my own thank you.”

Baron looked relieved for some strange reason, you think he’d be happy to finally have another guy join our group, but that’s when Gypsy retorts, “Well, I can understand that, but you are on our land, so the way I see it, you can either accept our friendship and we can have a fun afternoon or we can go get some grownups and cause you some trouble.”

He smirked and snickered to himself before shaking his head and saying, “fine, we can explore together then, but no grownups, okay? You sound so childish.”

I roll my eyes, that’s Gypsy. Definitely the most childish one of us, but she’s also the most kind and caring, so no one cares. I look this boy over once more, he was definitely handsome, maybe that’s why Gypsy was so eager to be his friend. I rolled my eyes at their conversation but accepted the decision. We have a new friend.

We spent the afternoon laughing and running and playing. It turned out Koa was only one year older than us, he had just turned twelve. After we had another race, a fair race, we found out I was still the fastest of us, even though Koa is older. He wasn’t happy that I was better at him than running or climbing, but decided we were good friends and said he’d keep coming to the cubby in the forest every so often so we could all hang out and play… and so we could have a rematch and he can try to beat me.