This story is dedicated to my faithful readers who inspired me so much in so many ways!  A few I'd like to recognize for their helpfulness is:  Marsprincess, Missbritian101, Poet3, Sandrastasyn, Chicka19, and, most of all, Tremaine Raisa.  All of you are so wonderful!!  I can't thank you enough.  I'm glad that you've enjoyed my story.  :)

Prologue

Kidnapping

Every night, the fairies would enjoy dancing and singing in their beautiful voices, but tonight was different. Tonight would hold the life-changing moment that would change the land. The mist that hung low to the ground would signify as ‘beautiful’ to any other fairy, but to the group of guards standing watch outside the main gates to Queen Tatiana’s castle, it meant danger.

Kalen, guard number eighteen, was having the uncomfortable feeling of doom. A knot was forming in his stomach, strengthening the unease. He gripped his spear more tightly and kept his eyes fixed on the forest not too far away. The breeze whistled through the trees, causing him to jump.

“I’m telling ya,” Alvin said. He was guard number seventeen and was standing next to Kalen, lazily yawning and closing his eyes. “Nothing ain’t going to happen. We need to get eh healer to take eh look at yeh. You over-react too darn much.”

Kalen ignored the jive and continued to watch. The guards around him shifted restlessly. It had been a long night and the twenty or so young fairies standing next to the gate still had several more hours left until they were relieved. Kalen came to attention as a twig snapped in the forest.

“Animals,” said Alvin dismissively. “Make noise all the time.”

Kalen again said nothing. He was not going to make a fool of himself like he did almost every time Alvin liked to flaunt his authority. Kalen marveled at the fact that Alvin had been able to make captain when he was so irresponsible. But Kalen couldn’t keep his suspicions in any longer.

“Something’s going to happen tonight,” he said aloud. “I can feel it.”

“Nothing is going to happen!” Alvin snapped at him.

“Let’s just keep quiet until we’re relieved, shall we?” said Marcum, a fairy standing a little farther down the row. “I’m getting a headache from standing here in the cold and you two bickering idiots don’t help any.”

“Why don’t you—“ Alvin started, but he was interrupted by one, long, musical note sounding from the guard post above.

“The heir has been stolen, block the gates!”

The twenty guards stood back to back, ten facing the gate and ten facing the forest, their daggers and spears pointed in the directions they were facing. Kalen’s stomach was flipping over and over again and his mind was racing. The heir of the throne has been stolen? He thought. But Queen Tatiana just gave birth!

They waited and then, CRASH! Yells joined in with the clanging of the gate as it flew off its hinges and into the night. The guards were catapulted in every direction, landing on the grass with sickening crunches. Kalen sustained no injuries but looked up in time to see a cloaked figure hurtling towards the trees. He tried to sit up but some invisible force was holding him down. He felt pressure on his chest. It spread to his mind and with one last look at the retreating thief, he fell into darkness.