Chapter one
Josh woke up with a jolt one evening to find himself in a strange room. Every possible entrance for wind and light had been shut tight to make it very dark within the room and his heavy head didn't make things better. He found himself in bed with a couple of other strangers, who were littered on the floor below and possibly under the bed too , naked. Everything either smelled of alcohol or sweat. One of the girls' face was alarmingly close to Josh's, which almost made him scream .Surprisingly , he found himself fully clothed with his belongings intact; clothes, wallet, phone and everything. He lifted the ridiculously heavy weighted blanket that seemed to be pinning him down under its weight and proceeded to tiptoe his way across the room and towards the door, gathering consciousness along the way. He had to make sure he didn't step on a girl's face or crush another guy's exposed groin as he made his way out. He tried to recognize who his strange fellow occupants were, but his head had different ideas, and it was hard to stand straight without staggering a little now and then. He shook his head violently and soon realized it was very stupid thing to do before he managed to speed dial his best friend's number. It had hardly rung once before Clarine picked up the call. She'd been waiting anxiously to contact him all day and began to yell at him.
"Where in the devil's name are you , you little p-punk?" she yelled , clearly furious.
"I think I'm at the Gresonbaks mansion-in the human world-" he muttered weakly
"Get your disobedient butt back here. NOW." She ordered , before Josh hung up.
He squinted at the phone , grumbling, and pressed the fat red button that had the picture of a galaxy on it. Dots of twinkling light on the galaxy seemed to swirl around on the button and then, like glowing orbs, sprang out of the image and flew about the room, looking for the most suitable spot to create a portal that would lead him home..The Jirehdom Castle. Luckily there was a full-length mirror propped up against one of the walls , and the lights struck it , before the whole of its reflective surface glowed a faint red, showing glimpses of his grand room on the other side of the "portal" that had just formed.
"Okay. Home, here I come!" he cried , running into the portal at an alarming speed with his eyes closed, screaming like a child. Once he was through, the portal's face from the human world was reduced into a mere, plain , ordinary mirror.
On the other side, in a totally different room, lit up by photo crystals which acted as lamps, Clarine stood waiting, and looked as though she'd been hit by a truck. Her long black hair flew about like tassels and she had bags under her eyes, which were red from sleeplessness . Ten whole minutes had passed since she had gotten off the call with Josh and she wondered what was taking him too long. Time passed a lot slower in the human world, and ten minutes in the spirit world was a considerably long time . She stood at a safe distance , about ten meters away, knowing quite well about Josh's childishness, tapping her foot with her arms folded in front of her. She observed her watch repeatedly and looked like she would break into a million little pieces herself. She and her head-minion, who was a vampire bat shared worried glances before staring into the portal once more. She could never hold on to her toughened, domineering personality when she was around Josh, and was reduced to a kitten-like softness because of the special place she had for him. Josh however ,who was usually a shy, dorky little guy, unleashed his wild side at a maximum, forgetting he was a prince, whenever he was around his best friend, for he felt he could be himself around her. And though Clarine would show her annoyance on the outside, she didn't mind Josh's peculiar way of expressing himself in the least. But this time, he had managed to get on her very last nerve, and also the queen's , by absconding into the human world since last night. He was in the habit of doing it whenever his Grandmother the queen, upset him , and he would return only after he'd drunk himself blind with his friends in the human world.
Every minute that flew was in vain and Clarine was on her toes , waiting for Josh. Five more minutes passed and there was still no sign of him. Clarine's chest rose and fell and her head hurt as she contemplated going into the human world to drag him back home herself. She stormed towards the portal in his room in heavy steps that could easily crush a head and just as she was about to walk into it, a tall ,built figure rammed into her short frail one, and they both tumbled across the carpeted floor, holding onto each other till they'd stopped rolling. They held each other , staring in shock one moment--and then burst into breathless giggling at the whole situation. Clarine straddled him, as she was on top and tickled Josh all over to the point that he begged her to stop with tears streaming down his face. She got off of him and proceeded to box his ears till they were red, still adamant in seeing to it that he was punished for being a rebellious little puppy.
And then, having composed themselves, they looked into each other's eyes for a while till both of them turned away awkwardly.
"You stink" she told him "Go to the bath house this minute and clean yourself up, I've already activated the crystal inside--,then come downstairs to dine with me" she said with a slight smile, amusing herself silently , quite proud that she hadn't given away the fact that the queen would be joining them in the dining hall. She was the worst at keeping secrets.
And with a stupid grin plastered on his face he disappeared into the royal bath house that was attached to his chambers. Clarine had long dismissed his designated "concubines", for she found it absolutely disturbing to have her best-friend being bathed by young maidens as though he was a helpless toddler. She decided to ask him about his recent activities in the human world once he'd eaten and was made comfortable .
The bath house held up to it's standards and was the envy of every other neighboring province. It was located right atop a magma crystal that heated the pool sized bathing area like a hot-water spring. His Grandmother, Her Majesty herself had seen to it that he bath house was built to her tastes, which proved to turn out be of the highest sort.
Ever since Esther, his Grandmother had ascended the throne and established her queenship in Jirehdom , the province had waded through countless adversities and had won many wars. Thanks to it's ally, the Bloodmoon province, they had no trouble in swatting away whole armies that bore ill will against them, as though they were nothing but a swarm of flies. Sachi ,the blood emperor had taken quite a fancy to the Jirehdom queen and was on toes-edge to aid her in every way possible to please her. Clarine was the heir to the Bloodmoon province ,and Josh to Jirehdom. The two provinces combined were more powerful and superior in wealth and resources than all the other kingdoms combined .Clarine and Josh had grown up together since when they were very little and had been born in a peaceful time when the great wars were done with and there was joy and laughter dancing in the air. Fairies and gnomes and goblins and trolls had launched their trade and were finally able set up little shops to sell their wares in peace.
When Josh came out of the bath house with a towel wrapped around his waist and wearing nothing but a red sea-shell necklace that Clarine had gifted him on his seventeenth birthday, the minion gave a loud and awkward screech and grabbed on to Clarine's blushing face, hiding him from her view.
"Oh put some clothes on, will you?" she said , thanking the bat for his quick-thinking. She wasn't accustomed to seeing bare skin, especially that of a boy, and didn't plan on making it a habit anytime soon either.
"Yeah, yeah.." said Josh clearly oblivious , much to her annoyance, and began to walk towards the wardrobe to dress himself while Clarine gave out a loud embarrassing cough and a sneeze before running downstairs abruptly, having pried the minion off of her face. Josh's tummy gave a loud growl and he felt as though a pack of wolves were gnawing at his insides. Another of Clarine's minions that hung about a high wooden beam in his ward took it as his cue and at once flew out of the room to rile up the royal kitchen. The minion flew out of the room, along vast stony corridors , down the enormous stone steps and into the great kitchen , where things always seemed to be moving with people hurrying about , clanging their pots and pans. The fresh order set off another bigger bomb in the minds of the cooks . The Prince's favorite delicacies began to be produced at an alarming rate, for his appetite was quite notorious, which the cooks were used to by now.
Having dressed up in clothes that were described as "casuals" back in the human world, he ran to the gallery , ignoring a very guilty-looking bat fluttering about the room, and gazed at the two setting suns in awe and wonder. Looking at the sky always seemed to make him forget that he had a worry in the world. When he was a little baby, and a peculiarly solemn one at that, Esther would bring him up to the gallery in her arms and would smile involuntarily when she saw her little prince's face look like one of the soft glowing suns.
The sound of Clarine coughing and sputtering out a mouthful of bat fur, caught his attention and he chuckled as he saw Clarine run into the garden outside the castle and much to the patrolling guards' amusement, dipped her entire head into the fountain to get rid of every bit of fur that might have stuck to her face and hair, and she did it in a way that seemed quite routine for her considering the number of bats that never seemed to stop flying around her regardless of daytime or night . The bat in the room fluttered about Josh, feeling quite sorry for himself as he didn't mean to cause such an inconvenience every time. It so happened that Clarine was in fact allergic to bats, and once she'd dried and gathered herself , Clarine went straight into her room next to the Josh's chambers , which again, had been furnished by a very insistent Esther. She showed up the next minute , looking prim and lovely in her glittering black evening gown and took Josh by the hand, leading him to the dining area as if nothing had happened.
The Chief minion followed them to the dining room, while keeping a safe distance from his mistress, and perched upside-on a special stand that was placed just for him in the dining hall. As they entered the grandly-lit hall, with Josh talking non-stop about how famished he was , one of the guards who was standing at the entrance coughed twice to warn them that her majesty was waiting for them at the table and looked somewhat like she would pounce on any one she saw and give them a nice beating. At once Josh shut himself up and followed close behind Clarine, quite timidly, knowing his grandmother was angry at no one else but him. The head cook who stood trembling at the other end of the room shook his head at Josh as a way of giving his condolences. Josh nodded at him and then looked at his nanny, and the head maid who both gave out a startled gasp when Esther began to tap on the hard surface of the rose-wood table with her long bony fingers. The atmosphere in the room was notably gloomy and eerily quite as though a storm would break out any moment. Esther sat at the head of the long table, as usual , Josh would sit on her left and Clarine at her right.
Josh tugged at Clarine's gown sheepishly and pointed to the other end of the table. Clarine just frowned at him , shaking her head, and took her seat at Esther's right , silently hoping that She wouldn't be very harsh on Josh for being an "insolent little pup". Josh broke into a sweat and eyed his best friend , shocked at her betrayal and began to shuffle his way across the floor to get to the other end anyway.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked Esther, breaking the silence.
Josh timidly turned around to see sparkling green eyes glaring at him. He would always turn into a stammering mess when faced in situations like these.
" ca-can I have my s-supper s-sent to my r-room?" he bleated, trying to keep his weak knees from giving away.
"NO. You are not going ANYWHERE!" She thundered. The guards standing at each entrance, the head-maid and the cook all jumped a little.
Clarine quietly placed her young, tender hands on Esther's old ,jeweled ones, as a way of calming her nerves a bit. Esther let out a startled "oh!" and composed herself. Josh shuffled his way back to the end where his Grandma was, and took his seat opposite to Clarine. Now even Clarine seemed to be glaring at him. "I have very important things to discuss with you tonight ," began Esther "- which I intended to do yesterday considering you start school in two days time. Josh gulped audibly, already dreading what she might say next.
"If it wasn't for your insolence, when you decided to run off to the mortal dimension without notice, things would've been a lot simpler" She said. "I dismissed all twelve of your guards and minions on your request , only because you promised me that you would be a more responsible child, and this is what you do?" She was breathless now. If it wasn't for Clarine's hand placed on hers ,she would've banged on the table a good number of times now.
Esther wasn't the kind to lose her temper this easily when dealing with matters of the court, but her only family, the future of Jirehdom, her grandson, drove her insane with his happy-go-lucky attitude. At this point she almost wanted to keep him imprisoned in his chambers and remove all portals to the mortals' dimension till she was sure he'd learnt his lesson. She trusted his safety entirely to Clarine and she had been doing a wonderful job so far. But at the smallest window of escape, when even Clarine was nowhere around him, he would travel to the human world and not return for days on end, spending jolly hours with the friends he'd made there.
Now, having calmed herself , she began with a low tone, "Are you aware of what happens in two days' time young man?" she often called him that when she was on the edge of lashing out .
"First day of high-school?" said Josh, quite proudly, thinking for once that he wouldn't disappoint his Grandma
"And what else?" asked Esther , the corner of her lips twitched in an odd manner .
Josh was at a loss of words and looked about the room, pretending to be in deep thought. Everybody else except for the three royals that sat at the table smacked their foreheads with their palm in disbelief.
"I don't know!" he said, covering his face in embarrassment .
"It's your eighteenth birthday , dummy" said Clarine, in a not-so-princessy way.
Josh let out a loud gasp which sounded like he was both excited and horrified at the same time. He had forgotten all about it. "You are to begin your special training lessons alongside Clarine , who also turned eighteen about a month ago if you remember correctly," said Esther , and then eyeing him dead in the eye hissed, "and there will be no excuses!"
Oh he remembered Clarine's birthday alright, he remembered how all the elders from both the provinces had made such a fuss over her turning eighteen. There had been a grand feast , with a lot of music and dancing and twice the amount of speeches that had bored him out of his mind. Oh no, it wasn't that he was nonchalant about the whole thing, he just didn't have an affinity to pretending to like people who each thought themselves more important than everybody else in the room. And that very night , she had been granted full control of her powers as the future blood empress. The ceremony which unlocked one's powers on their eighteenth birthday was called "The breaking" , and as painful as it sounds, it was so indeed. For one had to take extreme measures while the breaking took place , and in the presence of the elders in order to maintain a balance between the energy flowing through all known dimensions during the ceremony. And for days on end, Clarine hadn't woken up from a deep slumber as she went through a distinct metamorphosis, that altered her body to be able to contain the vast amount of power. After she'd woken up, the Head master of the school had paid a mandatory visit to record the newly "broken" student's unique attributes in his log book.
There was nervous energy in the room now, and Josh , if he wasn't on a chair, would've fallen flat on the wooden floor. Esther and Clarine sighed at the same time as they watched Josh being quite paralyzed in thought. The head-maid gave out a low un-womanly grunt that indicated that the food was growing cold. The head-cook clapped his hands twice and about seven elves that were too tall to be elves, brought in hot steaming delicacies in platters of Gold. Everybody in the room watched as Josh's eyes lit up and seemed to twinkle as his mouth watered at the aroma that wafted out from the vessels. He wiggled in his seat in excitement and waited for his Grandma to begin.
"Did you wash your hands?" asked Esther
"Yes Grandma" they both replied
"Then we shall begin!"
And Josh needn't be told twice , as he gobbled up the food as if it would run away if he wasn't fast enough. Oh! how he ate and ate till he looked as if he would burst. Esther and Clarine smiled slightly as they chewed their food in silence. Watching the Prince eat was a such a delight that it made the head cook cry whenever he saw his food being ravished.
"My word! Stop crying you—cry baby!" said the head maid to the cook.
The very next morning , Josh would be back at school, and a special assembly for students, who were turning 18 that September in the spirit world, was organized. There were countless students and a countless programs had been held since eons and this one was no special. However, little did they know that there was a never going to be a more spectacular event as Josh's "breaking" in centuries!
A/N : If you liked what you just read, please leave a comment. Have a great day!❤️🐈
