Warrior

Everyone has their secrets.

Maybe it’s a small one, like, someone definitely stole that skein of yarn but aren’t going to admit it. Maybe it’s a huge one, like, all this time someone was secretly a ghost and hiding an illegitimate child in another village. Oh yes, everyone has a secret, or even better, secrets. But the secret of the Princess Anastasia would probably beat them all. It’s the kind of secret that keeps one up at night and regularly haunts one’s dreams. The kind that one refuses to tell anyone and never utters a word about. The kind that even the one the secret is about doesn’t know until it’s nearly too late. This is the story of the famous warrior and enchantress, Princess Anastasia Evangeline Teresa Phillips, better known as the Warrior Enchantress and it starts in Riveria.

In the wealthy kingdom of Riveria, a girl and a boy laughed in the palace gardens as they splashed about in the huge fountain containing a regal statue of the girl’s father, the good King Henry. They were both completely soaked, the boy’s tan trousers now taking on a dark brown color and the girls light pink gown now looking more like a magenta one. The girl shrieked as the boy flung a cold handful of water into her face and promptly retaliated by kicking a huge spray of water at the boy’s boots. The boy only laughed before leaping out of the fountain and shaking his curly dark brown mop of hair, sending water droplets flying into his little friend’s face.

“Joseph!” she shrieked. “Cut it out!”

The boy, Joseph only continued to laugh. The girl pouted before attempting to leap out of the fountain like Joseph had, but only succeeding in falling over the sides and landing painfully on her knees.

“Ouch!” she cried.

Instantly, worry was written all over Joseph’s face.

“Are you okay, Ana? Do you want me to call your nanny over to look over it?”

The little girl waved it off. “No, I’m fine. Besides, Gerhie said I should toughen up if I wanna play with him anymore. Am I tougher now?” she asked Joseph, cocking her head to one side.

He grinned. “Course Ana!” He kneeled down next to her. “But before we do anything else, I have to check on your knee. Momma said that I’m supposed to take care of you. She even showed me how to clean little wounds, like scrapes and scratches!” Joseph took a quick look at her knee and winced sympathetically. “Wow, Ana! You must be tough. This must hurt a lot!”

The small fall had miraculously inflicted a strangely large injury. On Ana’s right calf there was a huge scrape, almost the size of a round ripe orange. Red blood trickled down her leg onto her silk stockings rapidly turning them a sickening shade of brownish red.

“You can fix it right?” She asked, biting her lip.

“Sure thing! I’ll get you fixed up in a jiffy.” Joseph pulled out a wad of dressing from the small bag at his side and began to wrap it securely around the injury. After he finished and wiped down Ana’s chubby leg to remove the blood, he helped Ana up and grinned, his eyes lighting up as an idea formed in his head.

“Hey Ana, let’s go to the village!”

Ana frowned. “Why, Joseph? It’s perfectly fine at the palace. Besides, Mama told me not to leave the palace grounds.”

“Why not?” Seeing her the uncertain look on her face, he elaborated his plan. “We can go get a treat! Momma gave me an Argent for my birthday last week. We’ll get some dessert to celebrate you being so tough!” Joseph said, obviously tempting the little princess.

“I’m not sure,” Ana said nervously. “What if I get caught again?”

“We won’t this time, I promise!” Joseph pleaded. “I know a good ice cream vendor!”

“Deal!” Ana replied, her blue eyes sparkling in excitement. “Let’s go right now!”

She marched straight to the palace gates and was just about to leave when Joseph yanked her back.

“Silly, you can’t go out that way! The guards will catch you right away! Follow me! I know a shortcut!”

Joseph guided her through the hedge walls of the palace gardens and soon enough two leave-covered children popped out into one of the village’s many alleys.

“We made it!” Ana joyously exclaimed. “What shall we do now, Joseph?”

There was no answer.

“Joseph?”

She whirled around to see what was the matter and instead of finding her beloved companion, she found a towering, grotesque, monster of a man. She took a step backwards in her fear.

“Joseph?! Joseph, where are you?!” she cried fearfully.

The fearsome man gave a low, rumbling chuckle and a leering grin appeared on his scarred face.

“Your friend being taken care of, sweet. Ain’t it obvious? You’re all mine now.”

“No,” Ana shook her head, panicking. “Joseph! Don’t leave me, Joseph, where are you? Help me!”

“Ana!” Joseph yelled, as he struggled against the hold of a grotesque looking man whose face was littered with thousands of gashes and scars.

“No!” Ana shrieked. “No, No! It can’t be true!”

The evil man laughed cruelly. “You’ve got a lot to learn about the world, girl. Not everything is sugar and candy.”

At this point, Ana was sobbing hysterically and made a reckless attempt to escape. She ran towards the busy village main street as fast as her eight-year old legs could carry her, but the hulking beast of a man grabbed her by the neck and tossed her down onto the dirt floor. Ana screamed and lay, whimpering.

He growled at her. ” I said you were mine! You’re not going anywhere!”

Too busy, to pay attention to what was behind him, the man created an another small opening for escape. Joseph screamed and bit the hands of the man holding him, finishing it off with a surprisingly strong kick to the man’s private parts. He jumped onto Ana’s captor, pulling him off her.

“Go, Ana! RUN!”

“No, I can’t leave you!” she sobbed.

The monstrous man lunged for her and only by a stroke of luck did her miss by a few inches. The man snarled before landing a powerful punch on Joseph face and lunged one more time for Ana’s leg. This time he didn’t miss.

Ana screamed and kicked at his hand as he reeled her back in, leering over her, only to collapse onto the ground in pain.

“Ow!!!! The little bugger kicked my eyes!”

Ana ran to Joseph to help him up, but he shook his head. “Ana, I can’t run anymore. The man, he stepped on me. I think my leg is broken.” The boy looked up sadly at Ana. “I’m sorry.”

“No! No! No!” Ana sobbed. She tugged on his arm. “Please! Someone can fix it, I know they can. The healer around the corner and there’s guards stationed 15 minutes from here - “

“Ana,” Joseph said softly. “ I can’t.”

“But y-you’ll die!” Ana sobbed harder. “And I don’t want you to die!”

Joseph gripped her hand gently and looked into her eyes, his eyes swimming with tears. “I don’t want to die either, Ana. But it’s either me or you, and - “ Joseph hesitated. “If I’m going to die, I’m going to save you.”

“Alright. Sappy time is over!” the men growled. Ana turned, trembling with fear as they got closer and closer.

The scarred one grinned at her fear and suddenly lunged for her, causing her to scream only to leap back and chuckle darkly. Joseph glared at the two and whispered in Ana’s ear, “When I say go, you run.”

Before Ana could nod back, the one with the now bleeding eye yanked at her arm. She screeched and began to struggle furiously. They laughed at her, not noticing that Joseph had managed to crawl over to the huge stack of heavy crates behind them.

“Go!” Joseph yelled when he knocked the stack over. “Run, Ana, run!”

A crate full of apple bonked the scarred man on the head, causing him to groan in pain and release the frightening grip he had on Ana’s arm.

“Joseph!” She screamed.

“Go! Get away from here Ana. Get help!”

Ana fled, running as fast as she could, trying ignore the pounding headache tearing apart her head. Her arm ached and her eyes were so full of tears she could hardly see the ground in front of her. Still she ran desperately, faster and faster towards the closest Royal Guard patrol point only thinking one thing: “Hold on, Joseph, hold on.”