The baby kicks and screams. It wants to get out, now, but now is not a good time, because the king is dead and his daughter needs to be crowned Queen and the baby is about to be first in line to the throne of a country it hasn't even met yet and that needs to happen first because they need to control the narrative and because they cannot allow the remaining supporters of the Red Fox Clan to threaten her kingdom any longer, and so she needs to claim her birthright and her family's legacy to ensure the wellbeing of her people which has to come first, always, even before her own comfort. Even before her baby.
"Fight, little one," Cassandra whispers. "Fight."
Fight, Cassie. Fight.
---
She had never expected the crown to be so heavy. But she wears it with pride. No, not pride - resolution. The crown hasn't been worn since her mother married her father. Now it's hers.
And she's not planning on ever taking it off.
Catching her breath and slowing it, Cassandra opens her eyes. She looks up at the throne. Her father's throne - no, her throne. It is surrounded by the grim banners symbolising her father's passing, but they are contrasted by her own. A bright red, with a golden hawk at its centre. A hawk flying down, hunting its prey. Fighting for it.
---
She could truthfully not tell what weighed heavier on her - the baby in her belly, or the crown on her head. Both scream at her, but she walks with a straight back and head up.
Her father is dead.
She is Queen now.
The baby inside of her kicks.
It's time.
Fight, Cassie. Fight.
YOU ARE READING
Long Live The Princess
FanfictionAn AU in which the Red Fox Clan infiltrated Castle Araluen years earlier. This idea came to me, quite literally, in a dream.
