The Prince of Shadows

Chapter 1: The Prince

Birds chirped outside the window, perched on a nearby branch. The sun shone into a large, extravagant room. Weapons and armour lined the ways, each one with a blue crest in the shape of a dragon, the symbol of the Kingdom of Warren. There was a large brown closet and if it was opened, you would see beautiful clothing, full of bright colours, jewels and symbols.

A few paintings hung from the wall. One was of a family. The father had fiery red hair and sharp blue eyes. He looked almost frightening as he had a stern expression on his face. He had a hand resting on the son's shoulder. Beside the man, stood the mother. She had long golden, braided hair and beautiful green eyes. She looked joyful, if you looked closely, it almost looked like she was laughing at her husband's intense expression. Sitting on a chair that the two adults were standing by, was the son. He had golden hair like his mother and blue eyes like his father. He had a gentle smile on his face. He looked super young. Each person was dressed in attire fit for royalty and each one had a crown on their head.

The King's was dark blue with sapphire gems. It was quite spiky. The Queen's was silver, with lapis lazuli gems on it. The Prince's was a mix of blue and silver, with a mix of sapphire and lapis lazuli on it. In later years, the boy would discard this crown and choose one that looked darker in nature. It was black with emeralds in it. But the painter didn't know the future and so he was portrayed wearing a crown befitting of a Warren prince. There was a small plaque that read 'King Kai, Queen Ashia and Prince Talos of the House of Warren'

If you moved from the painting towards the corner of the room, you would see a lute. It looked well kept, almost as if it had rarely been played.

There was a bookshelf nearby, full of books on history, romance, fantasy, old myths and legends and pretty much anything imaginable. They were all disorganized. As if someone had simply just put it in a random spot in the bookshelf once they were done with it.

Beside the bed there was a nightstand. On that nightstand there was a closed book. But if you opened it up and took a peek at it, you would see it was full of drawings. Mostly of animals.

A beautiful tiger graced one page while a cheetah raced across the next. A roaring lion greeted you if you flip the page, followed by a large direwolf. A fruit bat, an owl, a falcon and a chameleon followed.

On the last page, there was a drawing of a teenaged girl. With hair shorter than average, eyes stern. Freckles dotted her cheeks.

There were plenty of blank pages after the last page that had been drawn in, showing that the book was still in use.

In the middle of the room, there was a bed. And burrowed under the black and blue blankets, there was a shape. A tuft of golden hair stuck out from the blankets.

"Rise and shine!"

A loud voice boomed as the double doors slammed open. A young man walked in, confidence gracing his steps. His wide orange eyes surveyed the room before landing on the tuft of golden hair. He sighed and walked over. He sat on the bed, with his back turned away from the lump. His hands rested on the soft blankets.

"You know, you have to get up at some point."

The lump groaned and curled up into a ball and ducked the rest of his head under the blanket. The Prince did not want to be disturbed.

It was his mother's birthday. And every year on her birthday, they would hold on a big celebration to remember her. It was ten years ago that she had went missing. His father and many others believed she had been killed during a Shadow attack.

10 years ago, an owl Shadow raided the palace. Queen Ashia vanished that night. It happened in his room. Something had snuck in and dragged her out the window. He had awoken to her screams and cried out to his father. But by the time he had got there, she was long gone.