Blazer and the Rebels

Chapter 2: Finding The Prince

POV Lina

               ‘Todays the day’ I think as I am getting ready. I lower my shirt as I put my jacket on. I look around my room and begin to wonder what my mother meant. She would always tell me my father was a wicked prince but a wonderful man. What I was confused about was if he was such a great man, why did he leave her? Why did he want to meet his children? I must have been thinking longer than I thought because I heard someone yelling “LINA!”. I snapped out of it and looked around. I saw Carlos there with Jacob and Sully. “Sorry, was lost in thought” I say calmly.

            I grab my bag and say, “You lot ready?” They all nod and we begin to walk downstairs. As we reach the last set of stairs, people were there waiting for us. I walk down with my friends; they wait at the stairs as I walk up to Vince. I look at him and say, “Can you kneel please?” He looks confused but kneels either way. I smile saying, “Thank you. Vince, since both me and Carlos will not be here for a little while, and you worked with both my mother and her Beta for such a long time, I would like to ask you to watch over the kingdom in my absence.” He smiles. “I would be honored but if you don’t mind me asking, why did you do this here and not privately?” “That is a great question.” I turn to everyone and say, “You all must be wondering the same thing, and I am sorry if I caused you any concern. I choose to do this here and now not only for everyone to know who is in my place for the time of my absence but also because I believe my mother set me a high standard for a Queen. I did this here for all you to see, and also to say that I am still learning and growing into this position. Normally a leader does everything privately, but I don’t want to do it that way.”

I look around before continuing. “Doing this here is to not only show I trust you all to know what is going on but to ensure you all know that I will be looking to you for not only support but for advice. As I hope that one day you will be coming to me for advice or just to talk. I do not want to only be seen as your leader but as your friend. This kingdom and pack are not just a job to me, the people I see here aren’t my pack members. These people are my family and I swear by that. For those of you who happen to be expecting, know that this place will be safe and orderly to ensure the best possible place for your children to be. Thank you for listening. I would love to stay and talk more but we do need to get going. You may all return to what ever it was you were doing, and I wish you all the best until my return!”

            With that, Carlos leads Jacob and Sully to me, and we begin to leave. As we are leaving, people saying goodbye’s and see you soon’s. I turn to look at them one last time to wave before our journey begins. We exit and hear the gates close and lock behind us. We did not take any guards because this was something that we needed to do alone. We begin walking to the north because that is where my mum had said she met my dad. We walked until we found a nice shady field. There we stopped to rest and drink some water.

            We stayed there for about 2 hours before we continued. We did not stop again until it started to get dark. We found a small town and walked to one of the homes to ask if there was anywhere we could stay. We were far from home so I didn’t think the people here would know us, oh boy was I wrong! The woman opened the door and her face showed her confusion. She looks at me and says “Your highness, what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?! Is everything alright??” I smile and nod. “Yes miss, everything is alright. To be honest, I did not think anyone would know me here. I just wanted to ask if you knew anywhere for us to stay the night. We intend to head out again near dawn.”

            She then turns to face someone and motions for someone to join us. A few seconds later a man joins us and immediately gets ready to bow. But before he can I say “No no no, you don’t need to bow sir. I appreciate it but truly you do not need to. Oh, I am so sorry, I forgot to ask your names. I am Lina, this is Carlos, Jacob and Sully.” They all wave and smile. The woman and man smile and wave back.  The man looks at me and bows his head slightly in submission. “Hello, your highness, my name is William, and this is my wife Lizzian. Not to be rude but what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the kingdom?” “No worries, I would be asking the same things if I was in your position. Me and my friends are in search of my father, but right now since it is late we were stopping here to ask if you knew of anywhere we could spend the night.” I say calmly.

            They look at each other and Lizzian says, “You all are welcome to stay here. Most places are shut for the night. I believe we have enough room here for you to stay. But if you would rather stay somewhere else we can guide you there.” I link Carlos *Do you think we should? *, as she is speaking. *I think we should. They do not seem like bad people. *, he says back. After she had finished, I look at Jacob and Sully, they both nod, and I turn back to Lizzian and William. “I appreciate your offer and we would like to take you up on that if you don’t mind.” I say as politely as I can.

            They nod and motion us in. They then guide us to our room and say to sleep well. Carlos thank them again and say they may go back to sleep and that we intend to leave at dawn the next day. They nod and close the door wishing us a good night. We then lay down and try to sleep. Jacob being who he is fell asleep easily and Sully being smaller than us and trying to keep up with us all day was very tired, so she was out fast as well. But me being a night owl and someone who loves the night sky, I could not sleep. Carlos stayed up with me until we both fell asleep. We were both on high alert, so we were waking up every hour.

            The next morning when we get up, Lizzian told us that William had to leave to tend to the chickens, but he wishes us the best. She gave us some bread, fruit, and some water before we left. We thanked her and told her to tell William thank you for us. Then we begin to head out the village with people stopping us every once in a while to say ‘hello’. As we exit the village someone stops us and says “Hello, my name is Oscar. I am a friend of William and he told me about your search for your father. I wanted to offer some help. I can’t accompany you, but I wanted to give you this map. It shows where all the kingdoms and villages are.” He hands me the map and I say, “Thank your sir. I really appreciate this. And for your generosity, I want you to have this.” I then give him a small pouch of coins. “Use this however you need. And I hope to see you all again one day.”

            He says thank you and we head on our way. We walk for 4 hours following the map until we find a waterfall by a small cave. We decide to stay there since Sully was very tired. I gave her and Jacob my supplies and took only a few things with us: each of our swords, a dagger each, two canasters of water, and some fruit. Jacob and Sully stayed at the cave and me and Carlos headed out to find my father’s castle. We kept going for 2 hours before we found it. We were closer to it that we thought. We walked up to the gate and were stopped by the guards. “What are you kids doing here?! No village people allowed!” said the first guard. I looked at Carlos confused. Did we look like the people in the village? Wearing the Shadow Kingdom symbol?

I looked over us and then back to the guards and ask “Do the village people here wear their kingdom’ symbol? Because in my kingdom, they don’t.” They look back over us and the other guard speaks up and says “My apologizes your highness. My partner here is new to this. I am the chief; my name is Jack and this is Simon. May I ask why you have traveled here? Without any guards even?” he says with a bow and the end. I bow back lightly and say, “It is alright sir, mistakes happen. I am here in search of a man named James Nolan. Do you happen to know him?”

He looks at me blankly and says, “You don’t know him? He is the prince of this kingdom. Why are you looking for him miss?” After saying this he stiffens, and I think that I am proud of this man. I smile at him while saying, “Before I answer, I wanted to say I am impressed with your concern for your Prince. You stiffened protectively and I wanted to say I was impressed. But I am here because, well, he is my father. You may not believe it, but he is. We do not need to stay here but I just wanted to talk to him for a few minutes if you can make that possible. And so, you know we do not want to cause any harm,” I turn to Carlos and nod. We step back a bit and sit calmly on the ground. “we will stay right here until your return. We do not want to harm anyone, just would like to talk that’s all.”

Jack bows lightly and gets ready to enter the grounds but then turns around and asks, “What is your name miss? And his as well.” I nod and say, “My name is Lina, Lina Blaze,” he stiffens at my las name, “and this is Carlos DeVil. I know, are parents are not the kindest of people, but we are not them. I can ensure you that we don’t want to harm anyone here.” I say calmly and reassuringly. Jack nods and looks towards Simon. He nods to Simon and then enters the grounds.

We were sitting there for what felt like hours, but it was about an hour until Jack returned. He looked scared but I did not say anything. “The King and Prince are waiting for you two in the throne room. I will be guiding you there. Follow me please.” he says as he opens the gates and motions us inside. Upon entering the grounds, I took note of everything I could without Jack noticing. When we reached the castle, Jack turned to us and said, “Please be careful, the floors were just cleaned and are not fully dry yet.” Then he continues walking us in. Few doors and halls later, we reach the throne room. He stands at the door and motions for us to stay.

We take a step back as Jack goes inside. I could hear some loud voices and me being a child I was a bit nervous. Carlos could sense it and he stood close to me but when Jack came out he stepped a bit behind me. “You may come in now.” Says Jack. I look at Carlos before walking in with him close behind. As I walk in my head is held high and my face shows no emotion. Shoulders back, straight back, and hands at my sides, I walk close to the two men at the throne. I stop about ten feet back as would my people approaching me at my throne. I look at the two men and I could instantly feel their power and tell who the king was.

The man on the throne was older and wiser and the man next to him has power but had a very high ego. The man on the throne spoke first saying, “Hello, honey, I am-“ he was cut off by Carlos’ low growl. The man then says, “Young man, that is no way to act towards a king.” Carlos, being who he is, says, “And that is no way to act towards a Queen or a Prince.” He says with a light smirk. I speak up saying. “Do not mind him, he has always been very protective of me. Honey was a name my mother would call me before her passing. Sensitive subject sire.” I say calmly. The man then says, “Understandable miss. I am King Rosthern and this is my son and Prince James. May I ask who you are and what you are here to talk to us about? And where are you from since you two wear such high-ranking clothes.” I look at the Prince and Jacob’s smile and my own eyes.

I look back at the king and say, “I, sire, and Lina Blaze, New founded Queen of the Shadow Kingdom. This is Carlos DeVil. The Prince of the Shadow Kingdom as my Beta. We are here searching for my father. My mother had told me his name, what he looked like and had given me the necklace he had given her.” The Prince stiffens and then looks at his father and then back to me, “Dear, who was the man your mother had told you to find? Why come here?” I look at the king realizing that he did not know his son had an affair. I step closer until I am in front of the Prince. I pull the necklace out from under my jacket and say, “I don’t know, why don’t you tell the king for yourself, father.” Both the king and prince gasped. The king shouts, “Where did you get the necklace?!” I look at him calmly and say, “My mother gave it to me the day before she was killed. She told me my father gave it to her and that she wanted me to find him. She wanted me to give it back to him if I ever found him.” I then take it off and hand it to the king. “I believe this was your wife’s necklace sire. I am sorry I couldn’t get it back to you in time to give it to her.” With that I walk back to Carlos.

James says, “Lilabeth is dead?” He looked at me with a white face. I had not turned to face him, but instead looked up and Carlos. He hugged me and then I turned to face the him. I had tears threatening to flow, but I spoke calmly “Yes, she died the day after my third birthday. She was r***d in front of the kingdom and then torn apart. My brother and I were forced to watch.” And with that I stopped talking. The king turns to his son and says, “You knew the Shadow Queen? And had a child with her?!” The prince then looks to him and says, “Yes, I knew her but when I met her, she never mentioned her title, or that she wasn’t human. When she told me, I ending things but then she told me she was pregnant, and I just left. Not looking back.” He then turns to me saying, “How do I know what you are saying is true? How do I know she is dead or that you are truly her child? Let alone my child?”

I walk closer and lift my shirt just below my bust. “I have the same birth tattoo as her. I wear the kingdom symbol, I was crowned Queen 3 weeks ago, and I had the necklace. And if you do not believe that she is dead, I can take you to her grave. And as for me being your child, look at me, my eyes resemble yours, my accent is the same, and I have your mother’s middle name! I have a twin brother whose name starts with a ‘J’ to match yours. My name starts with an ‘L’ to match my mother’s. So, yes, what I say is true.”

I look at him calmly. He looks white in the face. The king looks shocked and mad. Carlos then says, “Do you really not see that she is your child? She is your eldest heir Prince James. She had to take up her titles are the age of 3! You think she is born of two leaders? Try again sir.” With that he grabs my hand and stand with me. I can barely breathe, looking at the man who is meant to be my father and seeing my own eyes looking back is scaring me. I am afraid he will not believe me or that he will tell us to leave. I am shaking on the inside but on the outside I look emotionless. My father looks to the king and asks, “Can they stay? I messed up by leaving Lilabeth and I don’t want to lose them too.”

I stand there shocked at what I just heard. The king then says, “Yes you may stay. That is, if you want to.” I lower my head and take a deep breath. Then look at them and say, “I can’t remain here. I am sorry but I have my own kingdom but also a pack to lead. I would like to, but I can’t. Also, my brother and sister are out there right now, and I can’t leave them for much longer.” I breathe again and say, “I can’t stay. I’m sorry.”