Prince Chase quickly came into the privy room of the Maids of Honor. He looked around and, finding what he was looking for, walked over to Lady Hunter’s bed. He gently placed a small buckskin package at the foot of the bed with a hand-carved hunting horn and slipped back into the shadows. The time has finally come, he thought, let the Prophecy be fulfilled.
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Hunter groggily sat up and yawned. Sunlight was pouring in through the open window, illuminating everything within its reach. Feeling something heavy on top of her feet, Hunter looked at the foot of her four-poster bed and saw a small package wrapped in buckskin and tied with rope and a hunting horn with sapphires embedded on the outside. She smirked to herself and picked up the book. On the front was a piece of parchment with a freshly-written note, which said:
Happy Birthday, Hunter
~~~~~~~~
She quickly untied the package to find a small book. Evidently old, the book was covered with soft leather and another piece of parchment attached by red wax. This note was not so inviting:
BEWARE!
This little book holds secrets from the past
That, if opened, will be unleashed at last..
Take heed, dear reader, and please refrain
From reading this book or in the Garden darkness will eternally reign.
Sounds like my kind of book, thought Hunter. She carefully opened up the cover, ignoring the very urgent warning.
Immediately, Hunter’s heart skipped a beat, as if someone had stopped and restarted time. Hunter gasped, dropping the book on her bed. She looked around, hoping she hadn’t awakened any of the other Maids of Honor. Thankfully she didn’t-except for Lillian.
Lillian stirred and turned her head towards Hunter. “What happened?” she asked sleepily.
“Nothing, Lillian. Rest some more,” was Hunter’s reply, still a little shaky.
Lillian moaned a little and turned on her side. She was soon sleeping soundly again.
Hunter slipped a sigh and picked the book up again. She opened it, waiting for another heart-skipping moment, but none came. Instead, big black letters in beautiful handwriting spelled out on the front page, “The Prophecy of the Hunter”. Okay, this is just weird, she thought.
But that was just the beginning.
Hunter got up and got dressed. She silently washed her face and hands in the water basin and carefully took off her night gown. She pulled out of the closet her green muslin hunting dress and put it on over a corset and two petticoats. Hunter had secretly sewn into one of her petticoats a pocket (which she shouldn’t have done) and in that pocket she put the small book, a few shillings, and the horn. She then braided her long brown hair and slipped her mother’s sapphire ring on her left thumb. Hunter had been orphaned five years ago, when she was ten, and her uncle sent her to the Buckingham Palace of Queen Victoria to be a Maid of Honor.
Hunter glanced out the window and saw clouds now lingering with the sunshine. She scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion, but did not pay too much attention to it.
Once outside, Hunter went to the stable to get Belle and her archery equipment.
“I’m taking Belle for a ride, Michael,” Hunter said, strapping her bow and container of arrows to her back.
“Looks like a storm’s brewing,” Michael said, nodding towards the clouds.
“Perhaps,” Hunter said, “but that never stops me from a good ride. Good day, Michael!”
“Good day to you, miss,” said Michael with a slight bow of his head.
Hunter mounted the salt-and-pepper mare Belle and they started to trot along the dusty path out of the stables. Hunter began to hear voices; not loud voices, just whispers; cries for help. They seemed to be tugging at Hunter, calling her; lulling her.
Nervous, Hunter got Belle up to a fast trot, and finally a run. The voices followed her, crying and screaming in the wind. Hunter guided Belle into the forest, desperately trying to eradicate the voices. As suddenly as they had come, they were gone.
Hunter looked around her, her heart pounding. They were deep in the woods now, far away from the castle. Surrounding them was bushes of undergrowth and thistles, and right in front of her was an archway, about eight feet in height and three feet in width. Ivy and vines intertwined with each other creating a doorway. On the other side was a simple garden, oddly placed in the heart of a forest. Hunter dismounted Belle and prepared an arrow in her bow for safety.
“Stop!” said a female voice. Hunter stopped and raised her bow.
“Who’s there?” asked Hunter.
“It is rather I should be asking you, traveler,” came the reply. “State your name and business here.”
“Hunter, Maid of Honor to Queen
A rustle of bushes made Hunter look to the right, and gasp as a girl jumped out of them. The girl bowed and laid her sword down in front of Hunter.
“Oh, great Hunter, forgive me,” said the girl kneeling before Hunter. Her hair was very blonde, and she wore a blue dress with a blue cape.
“Get up, girl; why do you talk such nonsense of me being a ‘great Hunter’?” Hunter said lowering her bow and arrow.
“Oh, it is not nonsense, Your Royal Highness,” replied the girl while rising to her feet. “The Prophecy clearly states the great Hunter will come after Hunter the Fourth and will deliver us from the Dark Shadow. You are her daughter, aren’t you?”
Hunter began to feel uncomfortable being called “Your Royal Highness”.
“Who was Hunter the Fourth?” Hunter asked.
“Your mother, of course!”
“What do you know about her?” asked Hunter.
The girl looked somber. Her pointed ears drooped and the brightness of her eyes dimmed. “The Dark Shadow himself put her under a deep sleep,” said the girl. “He took her as prisoner because she would not hand over her precious ten-year-old girl to him. When she neither did that nor told him where to find the Sapphire Horn, he was greatly angered. So he made her go into a deep slumber, never to be awakened again except by the sound of the Sapphire Horn. That is why he wanted it so much,” explained the girl.
“So she really didn’t die, then,” muttered Hunter under her breath.
“Of course not!” said the elf-girl. “She is alive and well, just as you and I, only asleep.”
“What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t, Your Royal Highness. My name is Erin, daughter of Elvin, Queen Hunter the Fourth’s most trusted advisor.”
“Did you say ‘queen’”? Asked Hunter, a little bewildered.
“Yes, I did! And you are definitely a princess! The princess of the
It seemed to be too much for Hunter to take in. Could she really be a princess? And could her mother really have been a queen-a queen of a magical garden? It all sounded too good to be true!
“Come, I will show you your home, the
Things began to fade and become clear again. When everything was normal, Hunter saw buildings and houses made from mud and covered with vines. Flowers bloomed everywhere, and people with pointed ears roamed the stone pathways. Overhead, the sky was slowly continuing to darken, but only at a snail’s pace.
When Hunter came through that archway, everyone turned and stared. They started to whisper amongst themselves. The whispers began to escalate into low talking and finally shout of joy. “It is she,” they cried, “who comes to save us!”
The people came towards Hunter bowing and curtseying. Hunter looked around her, amazed at what she saw. She looked upon the east horizon and saw a big castle with black swirling clouds over it.
“I would assume that is where my mother is being held?” Hunter asked
“Yes,” she replied, “and no one can enter or exit from the castle except the Dark Shadow himself or his followers.” At the very name of the Dark Shadow, the people cringed and gasped. Some even cried out in fear.
“Hunter, if you do not blow the Sapphire Horn by tonight, Midsummer’s Eve, at midnight, your mother will never awaken,”
“Is this the Sapphire Horn?” asked Hunter, pulling out her new hunting horn from her pocket. The people gasped and whispered, not believing their eyes.
“Where did you get this?!” exclaimed
“It was a birthday present,” replied Hunter.
“Come tonight at 11 o’clock; I will meet you at the edge of the forest,” said
And that was that.
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“Excuse me, Lady Hunter, but there is someone I would like you to meet,” said General Bemáu. Hunter was now at the Queen’s Midsummer’s Eve ball and being introduced to a young man by General Bemáu.
“This here is Sir Shad Kardow.” Sir Shad did a slight bow, and Hunter curtsied in return.
“May I have this dance, Lady Hunter?” Shad asked. His smile was dazzling, and his black hair was smoothed back very nicely.
“I think you may,” replied Hunter, blushing slightly.
So off Hunter went with Shad, and they danced three dances together. While dancing, Shad asked Hunter:
“Do you like to hunt?”
“Yes, hunting is my favorite thing to do,” replied Hunter.
“What sort of equipment do you use?” he asked. At that moment, Hunter noticed that Sir Shad had one blue eye and one brown eye. How strange, Hunter thought.
“I use a bow and arrow mostly, and for my birthday today I was given a hunting horn with sapphires embedded in the structure. No one left a note, though, so I never go to thank them,” replied Hunter.
Shad Kardow seemed very interested to say the least, and hunting was all they talked about for the rest of the evening.
At the end of the third dance, Sir Shad offered Hunter a drink (to which she accepted gratefully) and retired to the card room to play Commerce with other gentlemen.
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Prince Chase stared at Lady Hunter and Sir Shad Kardow with glaring eyes. He looks like trouble, Chase thought. He’d better not get in my way, or I’ll be obliged to set him in his place. He sank back into the shadows with a troubled look, continuing to watch Sir Shad the rest of the night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Around 10 o’clock, Hunter retired to her room for the night even though the ball had not died down too much. While walking through the corridors to her room, she began to hear voices again. Instead of being many voices, though, it was just one voice-a female voice. It was calling for help: “I need you! Save me! There’s not much time left! Don’t let me go! Help! Please!” Hunter followed the voices through the halls, the voice getting clearer every step. She came to the coat room at the end of a hallway where it was as if the voice was on the other side of the door, which was cracked open. She peered inside, not knowing what she would find. What she did find was someone she would have least expected:
Sir Shad Kardow.
He was rummaging through coats and cloaks, looking for something. Suddenly, as if he found what he was looking for, he smiled and held up...the Sapphire Horn! It all came back to Hunter, how she had left her hunting cloak in the cloak room with the Sapphire Horn in the pocket. She silently scolded herself for not being more careful.
Sir Shad put on his black cloak, wrapped the horn in a scarf, and placed the horn into his pocket. His form started to become an opaque black mist, blending in with the night, like a shadow. He slipped out the open window, heading towards the forest. Behind him, big bright letters spelled out:
Sir Shad Kardow;
The Dark Shadow
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At 10:30, when she had changed into her hunting dress and had everything she thought she would need, Hunter went to the stables to fetch Belle. She saw a figure moving about the stables, and a young man came out from behind the barn.
“My Lady Hunter, I am Prince Chase, the eldest and only son of Hunter the Fourth. We can talk later, but right now we need to retrieve the Horn the Dark Shadow took.” Prince Chase slightly bowed and mounted a young, brown gelding. “There’s not much time! Come!”
Hunter mounted Belle, asking no questions. They rode into the night and found
Prince Chase led the way to the
“Hunter,” Chase whispered, “wrap your sapphire ring onto one of your arrows; the Dark Shadow cannot withstand the touch of sapphire. When we meet up with the Dark Shadow, fire your arrow when I say so, OK?”
“Alright,” Hunter said, obeying Chase’s order. Being ready for attack, Hunter looked around and was surprised that no guards were anywhere, inside or outside.
A man jumped out of the shadows holding a long sword and lunged at Prince Chase, who drew out his sword. Prince Chase did the same, fighting with Sir Shad. Hunter watched helplessly, waiting for her signal to fire.
“Now, Hunter!” Chase yelled, and Hunter fired.
Just as Sir Shad was swinging his sword, Prince Chase dived to the ground, the arrow whizzing by his head-but it found its target. The arrow pierced the Dark Shadow right in the heart and the sapphire seared his skin. The Dark Shadow lay on the floor, slowly shrinking away with agony. “Let’s go!” Chase yelled.
Up in the tower, they burst through the door where Hunter and Chase’s mother was lying, asleep. Next to her bed was the Sapphire Horn, which Hunter picked up and blew. The sweet sound was heard all through the
The people of
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Princess Hunter V remained a Maid of Honor to Queen
The End
