Dark Kingdom Origins

Chapter 3

Varian fell back and onto the floor as he was startled by Zabrina waking so suddenly and loudly. She panted heavily and looked around her area. She saw sunlight coming in through several windows, many beds lined up against the walls, and a boy lying on his back groaning in pain. While seeing him, her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of her hair. She looked down and grabbed her hair in a panic to see it from its natural raven black to a cerulean blue. She kept her eyes on the male stranger, wondering who he was and why he was with her.

Varian stood up slowly and realized the girl had finally awaken. He noticed her eyes, they matched her hair. And they were big, her eyes. But they were also fearful, like a wild doe caught in a hunter's sights. Timid and excited at the same time, Varian decided to calm her down.

"It-it's okay, miss," he said to her raising his hands in a non-threatening way. "You're safe here. I'm not going to hurt you."

Zabrina had calmed down a little bit, but she was still leery.

"W-who are you?" She stammered out.

"My name is Varian."

"Varian," Zabrina thought to herself. Then she remembered the name. It was the prince! "O-oh!" She said out loud and lowered the top half of her body to bow to him. "Y-y-y-your Highness!"

"Oh no, please," Varian raised the girl back into a sitting up position. He didn't want to be royalty right now, just a gentleman helping a damsel-in-distress. "Please, just call me Varian."

"Okay... Varian... what happened to me? The last thing I remember is running out of the garden."

"You were hit by a meteor. My gentleman-in-waiting and I helped you. Nurse said you were in a coma. You were in it for a whole week! I thought you'd never wake up. But I stayed with you the whole time and read to you."

"You... you stayed with me?" Poor Zabrina was so confused. "You stayed with a complete stranger for a week?"

"Yes. You were in a weak position and I couldn't leave you alone like that. And I didn't want you to wake up alone." Zabrina looked down, trying to comprehend the kind gesture of the prince. "Has no one ever been nice to you?"

Baffled, Zabrina raised her head to him and said, "I don't know what to say."

"Your name would be nice," he coyly noted.

"Zabrina. My name is Zabrina."

"Zabrina," he repeated in awe. "That's a beautiful name."

Zabrina turned her head and tucked her knees in to cover up her blushing face.

~TN~TN~TN~

A few days had passed by since their first encounter, and Zabrina was finally able to leave her hospital bed after the first night since waking up. The first thing he did was buy her a dress. Now, he didn't know anything about dresses so with Adira's help, he gave Zabrina a dark blue dress with a deep purple bodice and puff shoulders and red accent.

Varian showed Zabrina around the castle, making sure she was alright medically. He was showing her his lab, shelves full of chemicals, a work table with noted papers and equipment.

"So you're a scientist?" She asked him.

"I call myself an alchemist," he replied, she look confused as to not knowing what the term meant. "An alchemist is a scientist who can turn something boring into something amazing."

Not looking where he was going, Varian tripped into a shelf causing a bunch of filled vials to fall.

"Watch out!" Zabrina yelled out holding her hands out.

Varian ducked his head, waiting for a crash and explosion, but nothing happened. He slowly opened his eyes and straightened himself out to see Zabrina's hair glowing and waving around. He looked at what she was holding her hands at, it was the vials. She seemed to be holding them without touching them! She then placed the vials back on the shelf, untipped and safe. Her hair returned to its former calm state.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Ugh," Varian stuttered for his words, he was in awe of Zabrina's power. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. How did you do that!?"

"I don't know," she looked at her hand. "I just didn't want that stuff to fall on you. I never had this before the accident."

"Amazing... what else can you do?" Varian was excited now.

"I'm not sure."

Zabrina opened up her hand and a zap of energy appeared quickly and left just the same. They both gasped. She tried the trick again, concentrating harder to keep it going. The zap stayed a bit longer, she focused on making a ball. Then she created an energy ball in her hand, yes it was small, but she still made it. The two gasped in excitement at the new ability.

"Wait, wait, hold that," Varian went to a cupboard in the room and pulled out an empty vial and placed it on the floor. "Try and hit it."

Zabrina nodded and thrust her hand to the vial. The energy ball headed to the vial and shattered it into pieces. Varian giggled in excitement. "Fascinating! Absolutely fascinating!"

Varian and Zabrina spent the rest of the day experimenting with Zabrina's newly discovered powers. She could create energy balls, move things without touching them and teleport herself and others.