YAVANNA

There are four major ruling houses on my planet. They are Rohan, which is the primal ruling house of the North. Estel, the primal ruling house of the South. Haga is the primal ruling house of East and Abraxas, the West. All other lower ruling houses report to them. Ours, the House of Abraxas is the strongest and most powerful. Because of this we flourished and prospered in every way a nation could.

Yavanna thrives economically gaining enormous wealth from trade, as we rarely import goods and rather export them. Almost everything is either grown or made on our ever fertile home soil. Not to brag but the land is practically self sufficient.

Our nation is technologically advanced breaking boundaries and reaching feats that some nations could only dream of. It's no surprise that our military strength and weapons couldn't be matched anywhere in the world. Heck! our solar system for that matter. And as my father likes to put it, it'll all be mine to rule one day so I think it's time to learn all the skills on how to be a good military leader. Hence my training begins.

~~~

I walk into the training room knowing I'm late, dreadfully late. To be honest I have not always been very good at being punctual but I try my best.

I blurt out. "Master Erlan my apologies. I know I'm..."

"You're late." A deep male voice cuts me off, a slight annoyance in his tone otherwise he looked calm.

He casually strolls to turn off a simulation.

"A thousand apologies. I am so sorry." I start off again. Wait a minute. "Are you master Erlan?"

"Yes I am." He replies.

A young elf probably in his early thirties stands before me, eyes wide as I take in his features. Dark olive skin which is common for people of Yavanna, hazel coloured eyes, long curly dark brown hair which he pulled up in a man or should I say elf bun, the signature pointed ears of an elf and the appearance of thick muscles on his arms to show that he did some pretty serious work outs. However he had a tall slender frame and not necessarily bulky.

"When my father said I was to train with Master Erlan I was kind of expecting, well..." I continue.

"A groggy old elf man?" He asks.

"Actually...Yes. That's exactly what I was thinking." I stifle out a laugh.

He gives a light chuckle. "I get that a lot."

"If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? Because you look pretty young to be the trainer I was expecting." My curiosity gets the best of me.

"I'm 28." He says.

"Oh." A look of surprise on my face. Okay so I was wrong, but who cares.

"I come from a generation of royal trainers." He shrugs slightly. "Let's just say I attracted enough attention for the King to offer me the position of being the personal trainer of the crown princess."

Well he must be really exceptional if father picked him for me. I notice how he looks me directly in the eyes as most people hardly do probably because they are intimidated by me, this is due to the fact that I'm the crown princess. Little do they know that they are the ones who intimidate me instead and make me uncomfortable.

"Anyway let's get started." He motions for me to come forward. "We'll just do some simple basic work outs to get you warmed up before we move to the reason why you are here."

I easily finish up the warm ups. Since I'm quite familiar with them.

"I'm done Master Erl..." I call out, trying to get his attention.

"Please just call me Erlan, princess." His hazel brown eyes flick upwards.

"I will if you'll just call me Karina." I sigh. "Honestly I'm tired of people always calling me princess, your highness or all those formal titles. My name is Karina."

"Alright then". He nods.

"I know you've been taught self defense even though I'm sure you've never had need to practice it since guards swarm you almost everywhere you go." Erlan laughs softly, the tone of his voice almost mocking me.

His statement causes me to frown and I lower my gaze slightly.

He really thinks I can't handle myself.

"So how experienced are you with weapons and fighting style." He questions me.

His question causes me to meet his eyes. "Pretty experienced." I cross my hands over my chest trying to look fierce.

"Oh really?" I don't think it worked. "Then by all means please show me what you've got." My trainer smirks.

"I'm so going to wipe that smug look off your face." I whisper to myself determined to prove him wrong.

He walks across the room and presses a button which causes the wall to slide through and display a great variety of weapons and gadgets.

My heart sinks.

I have never seen many of the things displayed here in my entire life. Some look vaguely familiar. I'm about to back out and accept defeat until something catches my eye. A sleek black coloured mechanical bow with a set of platinum fused arrows beside it in a black pouch, each one different from the other.

Sweet. I've always been good at archery.

I immediately reach for the bow and lock in my finger print. A blueish hue radiates from it as it scans me, then the slot the arrow goes through opens and I quickly insert an arrow before turning to my trainer, aiming and firing.

"Are you crazy?" Erlan exclaims wide eyed. "When I said show me what you've got I didn't mean you should shoot directly at my face.

"Oh please I wasn't aiming at you. I shot the dummy." I point at the dummy with an arrow sticking out of its head.

"Well I was this close to losing an eye. What if...what if you missed?" He stutters.

"I never miss." I smirk with satisfaction that I've finally made him speechless.

Erlan runs a hand through his hair. "I can't believe this."

"Don't be so dramatic." I roll my eyes.

A beeping sound causes both of us to turn around.

"What's that sound?" He asks. Before I could reply a loud explosion comes from the arrow in the dummy's head.

We are both on the floor in a matter of seconds, heads pounding, ears ringing and eyes watering.

A couple of guards rush in our direction.

The room is thrown into discombobulation. My vision blurs. There is fire in the room and I cough almost chocking because of the smoke that has now filled the air.

I feel a set of firm hands tugging me upwards and carry me.

Only then do I notice Erlan lying on the floor. His chest unmoving and his body totally still.

Oh no. What have I done? I think to myself before everything goes dark.