The Forgotten One

Clarabel’s POV: 'My name is Clarabel, I am 16 years old and the crown princess of one of the 11 kingdoms of Laynoron. The kingdom that I come from is called Rudesent, it is a kingdom that was built upon land that is rich with nature and minerals. My parents decided to send me to a party that is located in the castle that joins all of the kingdoms, I only have to stay there for a week and then I can return home. This party is thrown once every 20 years and it is said that every crowned prince or princess should attend this gathering. I am quite excited because it is said that the old gods used to live in this castle ruling over the land. My lady-in-waiting, Marie, has told me that we are approaching the castle.'     I put away my diary and looked up. “Ms. Clarabel, it is time to go, we will have the other servants unload the carriage.” Marie bowed her head while speaking to show respect. “Marie, how many times do I have to tell you, just call me Clara, Ms. Clarabel is such a mouthful.” I smiled at her as I stepped out of the carriage. “At least once more Ms. Clarabel, I say it as a sign of respect.” I smiled at her, the evening sun shown on my hair making the already vibrant golden color shine even brighter. “Shall we head up to the castle.” Marie asked. “Yes, we shall.” I said turning to face the castle, it was beautiful. The evening sun made the walls shine with a golden color that matched my hair, the spires were tall and showed power. As we ascended the stairs, I couldn’t help but get more excited every step that we took. We reached the top of the stairs and walked towards the grand entrance. The king and queen of the Floresensia greeted us as we approached the main doors. “Greetings,” The Queen spoke up first. “You must be Ms. Clarabel from the Rudesent kingdom.”  “I am your grace.” I curtsied and slightly bowed my head. “We are very happy to have you here, you can call me Jasmine.” The queen said with a kind smile, she had black hair and adorned herself with a ruby red dress and hair piece, signaling that their kingdom was built upon mineral rich land. “I am King Rupert, my wife and I are the hosts of this party, so you can ask us any questions you have,” The king stepped up and spoke. He was adorned in a royal blue signaling that not only their kingdom was mineral rich but that they also had a strong trade relationship with other lands across seas. “Curtson will show you to your room.” A small servant boy popped up behind them and bowed his head to me. “Hello Ms. Clarabel. I am Curtson, please follow me.” He led the way into the castle, the floors were made from a solid white quartz that sparkled wherever light hit it. We were led up a grand staircase to the fifth level and down a hallway. We stopped at the fourth door. “This is your room Ms. I hope you enjoy your stay.” He bowed and walked away. I opened the door and stepped in, Marie behind me. We were greeted by an extravagant room, the beautiful quartz floors greeted us with white walls that had pictures on them. There was a bed that had a silky grey cover on it, and across the room from it was a huge crystal clear window that had an incredible view. “Marie this is beautiful!” I said admiring the beauty of this room. “Yes it is. By the way Ms. You have a dress fitting in about half an hour, it is on the second floor, please don’t be late. I must attend my duties now.”  “Thank you Marie.”     I walked down the stairs to the second floor and turned left. Down the hallway there was the door to the fitting room. I knocked and stepped in. A servant girl with brown hair approached me. “Greetings Ms. I shall be your tailor today. Please follow me.” I nodded my head and smiled at her, we walked deeper into the room, I saw three more crowned princesses getting fitted.  I stood still as the girl took some measurements and wrote them down. “Can I ask what your colors are Ms?” The girl asked. “Yes, my colors are red for minerals and lace for nature.” The girl walked into a different section of the room along with the other girls who took care of the princesses. “The girls are going to take a while to make the dresses.” I thought silently, I looked around hoping to find something to do. “Hey princess,” A voice sounded from where the other princesses were, and I looked over. “Come chat with me, the dress making process will take a while.” I saw that a chestnut haired girl was waving me over. “Hello.” I said as I walked over to her. “Hi, I’m Marionette.” She smiled sweetly and shook my hand. “Like the doll?” I asked. “Yeah.” Marionette let out a small chuckle. “But you're dressed in silver for strength and fighting, not green for entertainment.”  “Yeah, I am very misnamed, I come from the Silong Hill kingdom, we were made around some of the strongest people in the land. How about you?” As she was talking the other princesses started to walk over to us. “I’m Clarabel from the Rudesent kingdom, but please just call me Clara.” I turned to the other princesses. “How about you?”  “I’m Silvia from the Harencia kingdom.” The girl who spoke first had raven black hair and was adorned in a golden dress signaling that her kingdom grew on desert land that must have been surrounded by an oasis. “I’m Flora from the Listonish kingdom.” The girl that spoke had blond hair that was almost white and she wore a blue dress with a silver sash. “It's very nice to meet all of you. I hope we can become good friends.” I was answered with choraced ‘yeses’. We found a sitting area that had chairs matching our colors, the weird thing was that there were five chairs and the fifth one was black, ignoring it we sat down in the designated colors and started to talk. “Do any of you know why this party happens only once in twenty years?” Flora asked the question that everyone had at least thought of at least once. “No,” Marionette said. “All I learned was that this castle was where the old gods are said to live.” “Most of the information that you just said was accurate. It's just, the old gods don’t live here now, they live in the spirit realm.” An unfamiliar voice echoed throughout the room and the lights seemed to dim a bit. All of us bolted up and looked around the room. “Hello?” Marionette was the first to say anything. “The first rule of combat that people are taught in your kingdom, always check your back.” The voice was female, but it was coated in mystery and darkness. All of us whirled around. There in the fifth chair sat a person dressed in black and their face was shadowed with a hood matching their outfit. “Who the hell are you.” Marionette grabbed a dagger hidden in her dress and pointed it at the mysterious person. The person shook their head, “It's not good to jump to conclusions and pull knives out on people.” Marionette lowered her dagger and apologized. “Terribly sorry Ms. I do hope you can forgive my actions.” “It’s perfectly fine, it happens a lot. You can all sit down. I want to learn more about how this generation's crowned royalty is doing.” She gestured for us to sit down and we followed. “Excuse me Ms. but what should we call you.” Silvia asked after we sat down. “I am nothing, but please, call me Erveen.” Around an hour later the servants walked in, “Princesses we have your dresses.” We each stood and walked over. “Thank you for taking the time to make them so nicely.” I said as I took mine from the brown haired girl. “Of course princess.” “Yes, Clara is correct, and thank you for sending someone in to talk with us.” Flora mentioned Erveen. “Princess, I’m terribly sorry, but what are you talking about? It was only the four of you in here.” Silvia smiled and tilted her head confused. ”What are you talking about, Erveen is right...” She turned to gesture to the black chair, but there were only our chairs sitting there, no black chair or even Erveen. “I’m sorry we were fooling with you.” Marionette quickly came to the rescue. “Oh, well you certainly messed with our minds princesses.” After we tried on the dresses we all walked out of the room. “Hey, do you want to change and go out to the courtyard? I hear that some of the crowned princes are fencing there. We all agreed and hurried to our rooms to change.      I stepped into the courtyard wearing a red shirt and brown pants. “Clara! Over here!” Marionette called me over and I saw that the other girls were there as well. We found the place where the crowned princes were fencing and walked over there. “Hey, Clara have you fenced before?” Marionette asked with a sparkle in her eye. “Yes I have. Would you like to take me on?”     Marionette squealed with delight and bolted over to where the swords were. “Ha, the princesses are going to try and fight.” One of the crowned princes spoke up but we ignored him. Marionette grabbed two swords and tossed one at me. I caught it with ease, all the training that my father gave to me started coming back. We were evenly matched for about five minutes, then my endurance started to lower. In a couple more minutes Marionette won, both of us were out of breath and smiling. “Damn, I have never fought someone as good as you before Clara.” Marionette complimented me. “Thanks, same here.” I responded and we shook hands. “Ha, you call that a fight? I bet I can beat two people at the same time.  Pick the two strongest people in your group and let me fight them.” An overconfident golden haired prince stepped out of the little crowd of princes and servants that gathered to watch. “Deal, but it will only be you and me.” A familiar voice echoed throughout the courtyard. Erveen stood in the middle of the empty battle space leaning on a black sword that had purple gems inlaid in its handle. Her cloak fluttered around her in the wind, causing her to seem even more intimidating. “When did you get here?!” The golden haired prince demanded. “What are you talking about? I am everywhere.” Erveen spoke calmly and with confidence. “Nothing is everywhere.” The prince said, getting even more confused. “Exactly. Let’s get to the fight.” Erveen picked up her sword and walked forward. As she did that the prince seemed to notice something. “How dare you!” He picked up his sword and walked out to meet her on the field. “No one is supposed to wear the color black, no one but the old gods. I will beat you within an inch of your life for disgracing them!” You could see Erveen grinning in the shadow of her cloak. “Let us start.” As Erveen spoke a cold wind blew across the land and everything was silent. They walked towards each other and were signaled to start fighting. The prince took the first swing Erveen easily dodged it without trying much. Three minutes into the fight the prince finally grazed Erveen but he didn’t scratch her, he cut her cloak causing it to fall to the ground. Multiple gasps were heard around the group. Erveen didn’t look normal... Her hair reached her lower back and was blacker than a raven with royal purple streaks in it, her skin was astonishingly pale, she wore a loose long-sleeved black shirt that was tucked into her black buckle pants. Erveen also wore a pair of knee high boots that resembled combat boots but they were high heels, the weirdest thing was that she wore a black blindfold. Erveen tilted her head and sighed, “I guess I actually have to try now.” That was when everyone realized that this whole time, it was only the prince that was trying to attack. A cheshire smile came upon Erveen’s face, she took a step forward and started to attack. Almost immediately she overpowered him, “What the f**k, where did you hide all of this strength?!” The prince was out of breath and panting. “This is barely anything, you’re lucky I’m going easy on you.” She calmly responded while fighting and he fell to the ground in defeat. “You win, I give up,”he dropped his sword and bowed his head. “Who are you anyways?” Erveen smiled. “I am nothing.” She reached out her hand offering to help him up. He took her hand and stood up. “Thank you for the fight, it's a different experience to suffer defeat. I am prince Alexander from the Florint kingdom.” As he introduced himself the other crowned princes ran over to him, the crowd started to disperse. I looked around for Erveen, but once again she was gone. “Well, that was quite entertaining.” Flora was the first in our group to speak up. “Yes that was. Let’s go introduce ourselves.” Silvia started to lead our group. “Hey, you girls must be some of the crowned princesses, right?” One of the princes with brown hair spoke up from the group. “Yes, we are. I’m princess Marionette from the Silong Hill kingdom, this is Clarabel from the Rudesent kingdom, Silvia from the Hacercia kingdom and Flora from the Listornish kingdom.” Marionette introduced us all. The brown haired prince spoke up first. “I’m Leon from the Varan kingdom. This is Theron from the Crainsh kingdom, and you already met Alex.” Leon said gesturing at Alexander. “Hey Alex, you okay?” Theron noticed Alexander deep in thought. “The colors that the weird girl was wearing were black. Right?” I looked at him, “Yeah, she dressed in black.” “I didn’t realize this before, but black isn’t the color of the old gods, purple is.”  “That’s right!” Marionette exclaimed. “Does anyone know what black is for?” When Marionette asked this, everyone just looked at each other in confusion. “Princes and princesses, it is almost time for supper.” Curtson the servant boy called our attention to what time it was. “Thank you Curtson, we will start getting prepared.” I answered him smiling, he bowed and walked off. “Shall we go back to our rooms and dress appropriately for supper?” Flora suggested. We all agreed, and started to head back towards our rooms. Unknown POV:      A person watched from the shadows of the castle unnoticed .“An interesting group that is. They are like the others but… Something’s different.... I like them.” Clarabel”s POV:     We all got ready for supper and joined each other at the great hall, as we all sat down  queen Jasmine stood up and raised her hands to address everyone. “Crowned princes and princesses, let me be the first to congratulate you for being one of the generations invited to this party. I do hope you will all enjoy yourselves and let the old gods guide you.” We all politely applauded her and enjoyed the food the servants brought out for us.”Hello, you must be Clarabel from the Rudesent kingdom.” I turned and looked to my right and saw an unfamiliar prince sitting there. He had black hair and wore a golden suit.  “Yes, that is correct, may I ask who you are?” I said smiling. “Of course, I am Harper from the Hacercia kingdom.” “Hacercia, are you related to Silvia?” The prince grinned. “Yes we are twins.” We had a cheerful conversation for the rest of supper and then we all had to say good night and return to our rooms.      It was around 12:00 O’Clock at night but I still was not tired at all. Sighing I rolled over in bed, and suddenly heard knocking at my window. My head snapped in that direction and I saw Marionette hanging from a rope, shocked I rushed over and opened the window for her. “Hey, Clara, none of us could sleep and we assumed you might have the same problem.” Marionette explained as she gestured towards the ground and I saw all the princes and princesses I met today there. “So I came here to ask if you wanted to walk in the forest with us?” I smiled and agreed to come. “Leave the rope there and I’ll climb out the window. I’ll be there in a couple minutes.” I ran to get changed into a long-sleeved shirt and pants, on my way back to the window I quickly grabbed a bag just in case we needed it.      Quickly climbing out the window I met up with everyone on the ground and we started to walk toward the forest, the moonlight lighting our way. We were walking for about 10 minutes chatting quietly, we didn’ t notice that it was getting dark and the moon had gone behind the clouds. “Um, guys. I can’t see in this lighting.” Flora was the first to speak up about what all of us had noticed. “Same here.” Alex agreed with Flora. “I was expecting this.” I reached for my bag that I grabbed before and reached into it pulling something out. “What did you bring with you?” Silvia asked me. I smiled and held out my hands opening them, multiple lights glowed from what I was holding in my hand. “My kingdom was built around minerals, including gems. We learned how to perfect the gems so they could glow, I made sure that all of the crowned princes and princesses would get one with their main color. So please, grab your color and we will most likely be able to see where we are going.” “Thank you so much Clara! This is beautiful!” Marionette Jumped up and down when she got her gem. “Be Careful Marionette! It is still dark and you can hurt yourself from doing that.” Flora said while admiring her stone.      Suddenly an ear piercing sound echoed throughout the forest, it sounded like a person screaming. Everyone tensed up and didn’t move. “Was that a f*****g person screaming?” Alex asked. “No, that was a fox. They sound like people screaming don’t they?” We all breathed a sigh of relief and agreed that foxes sounded like humans screaming. Soon we all were feeling a little tired and started to head back to the palace. As we walked back a mist started to fill the forest making it harder to see in front of us, suddenly Silvia tripped and let out a small scream as she fell down a hill. We quickly ran after her, as we all slid down the hill and caught up to Silvia a bang echoed throughout the entire forest silencing everything including the small breezing that had been blowing the mist into the forest soon bangs were echoing around us and starting to get closer. “Silvia are you okay?” Harper whispered. Shaking, she nodded not daring to make a sound. “You weren't supposed to scream…” Erveen’s voice suddenly reached everyone’s ears and we turned to look behind us. She stood there looking slightly panicked, “Erveen thank god you’re here! What’s happening!” Marionette quickly ran over to her. “...You weren’t, supposed, to scream.” The bangs started to sound extremely loud and everyone flinched. Erveen turned towards us and spoke up, “I’m sorry in advance.” She held out her hands and a black mist started to swirl around them and she snapped.          I don’t know what happened or where I am but it's dark… I can’t breathe or tell if I’m floating, falling, rising or standing. I can see nothing, hear nothing and feel nothing. I am more scared than I have ever been in my life and I can’t tell if time is moving forward, backward or if it’s frozen. I think I’ve been here for years, but I really can’t tell. I want to cry but I can't. I want to scream but I can’t, I want to make some sort of noise, but. I. Can’t. Help…     Suddenly light fills my eyes and oxygen reaches my lungs, tears fall from my eyes and I feel the cold marble floor under my hands. The sound of the other princes and princesses sobbing reached my ear and I felt happy for that. “Once again I’m sorry, but it was the only way that you could make it out of there alive.” Erveen was the only one standing. “W-what was that?” Theron asked after he was able to stop crying. “You have just experienced what millions consider the most terrifying thing one can ever experience. You have just experienced Nothing.” “How long were we in nothing? It felt like years…” I asked Erveen what all of us wanted to know. “It took only a second to transport you from the forest to Clarabel’s room. Sorry to say this but I was expecting at least three of you not to make it through this. I guess this generation is blessed. Look, you can go into the forest in the day and be perfectly fine doing anything, but when you go in at night let me make this clear. Do. Not. Scream!” All of us sat there shaken up about what had just happened. “Clara? Do you mind if we all sleep here for today?” Leon asked, not wanting to walk anywhere without people. “No I don’t mind at all, anyone can stay here tonight if they want.” “Thank you.”