Chapter 1: My fight is not with you

It was the start of the battle; it was fierce and intense. It was a perfect sunny afternoon as the battle continued. It was my first battle to go into, but I had my father's commander by my side to guide me through to make battle decisions that were in the best interests of obtaining victory. In our culture, it was customary for the first born, whether it be son or daughter, to go into battle on their own, along with military might behind them to prove that they are worthy of leading a nation as King or Queen.

On this occasion however, it was a battle to protect one's territory of any invading enemy.

I took a deep breath as I looked at my Commander, "Are we ready for this?" I asked him, "As ever will be, your highness… always remember, you must look confident and never show fear in the face of your men that you are leading, or in the face of your enemy, understand?" he told me. "Yes sir" I responded.

"Good…. As we can see, the enemy are flagging their ranks to the left and to the right. They are getting ready for us to attack first to try and pin us in from the middle and from the front, leaving us not much room to move if we move in right away to attack." My commander told me. "What do you suggest we do?" I asked him.

"I suggest we separate our army, one to meet at the right and the left and meet them head on, whilst we have a larger remnant waiting behind and ready to attack when the enemy thinks they have us in their grasp, but in reality, they've released all of their army towards us and we have them within reach, making it an easy victory, your highness" my commander told me so confidently. He is father's right hand man and has won many wars with my father by his side. My father was the King of the Kingdom of Aspire. My mother died during childbirth, so my father raised me until his old age.

I am 20 years old and am the legal age to become queen of my country, but there is one thing stopping me, I have not won a war to declare I am strong enough to run my Kingdom on my own and currently, the commander and the elders have been running the Kingdom until I become queen.

Although by blood I am the rightful heir to the throne, but it was decided by my own counsel that I should go into battle and win this victory against the enemy coming against my Kingdom, but to make matters worst, it is the shadow King I am facing this day as my opponent on the battle ground.

My name is Princess Cassia of the Kingdom of Aspire. I am the sole remaining heir to the throne. I am aware there are people who don't want me to be Queen, but I need to prove myself that I am worthy to take my father's throne.

Today, I have my father's commander of the army with me to guide me on my first war battle.

I can see the King of the Shadow Kingdom off in the distance with his army generals as both of our armies collide on the battlefield. "Commander, I am going to battle and join the men…." I said.

"What, highness you can't!" he scolded me.

"If I don't prove myself to the men of the army and prove that I can be their comrade and fight side by side, how will I earn their respect as future queen?" I said to him putting my helmet on and going into the battlefield with my men. "Let us go!" I said to some of the commanding officers with me.

As I am riding my white stallion horse into the battle in my battle armour, along with my commanding officers with me, I joined in the fight of the battle. Swords clanking against each other and defending myself with my shield not to be hurt by the enemy's soldiers.

Suddenly, I am faced with what looked like a knight of some kind in battle armour. The Shadow King wore completely black battle armour, and you could not see his eyes, but this enemy in front of me, wore nothing but a hooded cloak and some armour but he did not protect his head.

I pushed him away from me with my shield as we exchanged some battle on the battlefield.

"My fight is not with you, warrior princess" he told me. "Who are you?" I asked him to as I let my guard down momentarily, when suddenly, an arrow was shot towards him, when I pushed him out of the way, "Look out!" I told him and pushed him out the way.

"You… saved my life?" he questioned me. "I don't know who you are, but I don't think you are a threat to me…..get out of the battlefield if you are not here to fight me…" I told him and left him on the battlefield and made my way towards the shadow King. My aim was to get to him and offer him some terms of peace somehow, since he declined my first offer. Apparently, he's been an enemy of my Kingdom since I was born. Honestly, if I am going to become queen, I want to make peace with all enemies to make my people's Kingdom a peaceful one to live in without fear for their lives, I thought to myself with determination in my eyes as I fought my way through the battlefield and helping my soldiers fight off the enemy.

Meanwhile…

"Sire, it looks like the warrior princess is making her way to our side of the battlefield… what do you want us to do?" the Shadow King's commander said to him as they watched from the mountain top, "Let her come… I shall like to meet this, warrior princess… she seems intriguing…." He grinned.