Fixation

Chapter 2- "The Cold -blooded Emperor"

( A/n: The Italics refer to events that have happened in the past )

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The sound of hooves of the horses treading on the grass filled forest floor broke the serene atmosphere. The royal procession was almost near the moat surrounding King Arthur's castle, the King of Ecrothia. Leading the procession, just behind the bearer of the royal banner was Emperor Adrian, the emperor of The Drorenth Empire, on his obsidian royal charger. It had taken them almost 3 days to reach here, even while moving at full momentum. They had only stopped for the first night at the nearest kingdom, Acryrin but had been on the move for the past two nights. Ecrothia was, after all, the farthest kingdom from Drorenth.

The kingdom of Ecrothia, true to its reputation , was magical and surreal. Though of average size, it was covered with greenery, much different than the majestic and lofty grandeur of the Kingdom of Drorenth. Save for the few villages, the lush green forests, colorful flower fields and green valleys stretched out as far it met the eyes. It was one of those kingdoms one only heard about in fairy tales.

Emperor Adrian was not one to be impressed by something as trivial as nature but even he was intrigued about the place. Although that might have had to do with a certain dark haired maiden, he thought as his mind wandered back to the strange woman he had encountered.

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The royal cavalry convoy had been travelling for hours and they had decided to rest and put up for the night in a clearing of the forest. They were quite close to King Arthur's Palace so they had decided to start their journey again at the break of drawn. Adrian had thought it would be a good opportunity to explore the forest a bit more before they got out of it. He was slightly fascinated with the place though he would never admit it. 

Not much gave him fascination in life anymore, after all that he had been through. His experiences had made him merciless, cold blooded and stone-hearted and he liked it that way. However it felt good to explore a new place, dare he say, exciting. He stopped his charger near an Apple tree. The forest was not only sumptuous, it had different berry bushes, grape vines, apple orchards and orange groves too. The forest was well cared for, it seemed.

The distant sound of hooves snapped him out of his thoughts and drew his attention.

Amidst the lush green forest, the luscious dark brown mane of the horse stood out like a sore thumb, matching the attire of its occupant. The person was wearing the usual male riding gear with a big brown cloak. The hood of the cloak was pulled up covering most of the person's face. The person stopped the horse near a tree that had a dartboard attached to its trunk and hauled themself off of the horse with practised ease. They pulled down their hood and Adrian's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

The person was clearly a female. Most females he knew steered clear of horses and preferred carriages to them, the few that did try never really succeeded so it was surprising to say a girl ride a horse with such expertise. She was stroking the mare's mane. He could see the fierceness and the fire in the beast's eyes die down at the touch of it's master, or should he say, mistress.

His eyes raked over her form. Not much was discernible due to her attire but she clearly had the outline of a female. She was of average height, though she looked a foot shorter than him. Her obsidian hair was pulled back into a tight bun at the top of her head.

She moved towards the tree with the dartboard, took her stance in front of it and pulled out the arrows that she had been carrying around with her, on her back. She positioned her arrows on the bow and shot three arrows in succession, two of which hit their target but the third one wavered a bit and impaled itself on the trunk.