Chapter One

Chapter One

A Chapter by atomic_sparrow

 

Daniella Springbourne’s bedroom was a solemn pitch-black. Though it was late morning the curtains had not been drawn back to welcome in the sunshine and the room looked as if it was the middle of the night. Through the darkness a dim outline of a figure could be seen lying serenely in a large comfortable bed.

 

 

A sound could be heard in the corner of the room that slightly stirred Daniella from her otherwise peaceful slumber. Someone was opening the bedroom door softly. Carefully, someone was lightly pressing on the other side of the thick wooden door as to not walk the sleeping princess. The mystery person stopped anxiously in the motion of opening the door when they heard Daniella rouse from her peaceful state. Without waking, Daniella turned over, rested her head on a particularly large satin pillow and continued to sleep peacefully.    

 

The door was now open halfway; the mystery figure was inside the room. Light, guarded steps were making their way cautiously across the polished hardwood. Barely touching the floor the lone figure, coated in darkness made its way past her four-poster bed, of which the curtains were not drawn. The figure walked with more enterprise now, as they grew closer to the thick velvet curtains, which were a dark midnight blue and were drawn tightly across a large window. Suddenly the hand of the dark figure reached out and in a dramatic movement pulled the curtain back. Immediately the bright summer Farachian sun illuminated Daniella’s bedroom, jolting her from her sleep.

 

At the age of sixteen Daniella Springbourne had changed a great deal from the girl who lost her parents and supposedly her twin brother 11 years previous. Though her hair was still dark black; it was now a mat of large curls that fell gracefully past her shoulders and stopped at her hips. She had lost all her baby fat and was now quite slim, although she had never lost weight on purpose.

 

She was very different from the innocent princess she was eleven years previous. Daniella had matured during those years, her face no longer held a mask of innocence and though beautiful it was it had also attained a worldly wisdom, which comes with a significant loss, even at such a young age. All in all Daniella Springbourne looked like a young lady. Although most people who knew her thought she was more like a young man.

“What the hell are you doing, Cassandra?” Daniella shouted frantically, as she shielded her face from the sudden influx of bright light. Standing in front of her, she could see the hazy form of Cassandra Lowra, her maid in waiting. As the form became clearer Daniella could see that it was defiantly Cassandra, she could see her brunette hair being illuminated from the back by the Farachian sun, giving the impression of an angel, though Cassandra was definitely no angel.

“Oh I just thought I should walk you up, majesty.” Cassandra said, trying hard not to laugh as Daniella stood up, still adjusting to the light.

“Alright, you’ve had your little joke, now go away.” Daniella said impatiently.

“Oh yes of course, your majesty.” Cassandra said in a mock polite voice, bowing ridiculously low. She turned on her heel and walked to the polished wooden door with an annoying skip to her step. Ominously Cassandra turned to face her at the door, with a cruel grin on her face as she spoke.

“Oh princess, you should know that it is almost eleven o’clock, so you are about 3 hours late for school. Um…I would have waken you up earlier but my dad was fired yesterday, so I was too sad to get out of bed.” Cassandra smiled at the incredulous look on Daniella’s face and skipped joyfully out of the room.

“I have you know that your father was fired for stealing on ten separate occasions Cassandra!” Daniella shouted, though she could not be sure Cassandra had heard her.

 

Groaning frantically Daniella ran to close the door. It shut with a loud snap and Daniella rushed to her wardrobe to try and get ready for her first day at a normal school. This was the first occasion when she would be taught with other teenagers and not by a snobbish tutor, telling her how great the royal family was and how she must carry on the noble legacy of Farachian royals.

 

Hastily, Daniella pulled open her wardrobe and grabbed some under garments, shoes and the first dress she could find. It turned out to be a beautiful midnight blue dress, made out of velvet and silk, with a silver lining at the top, bottom and on the sleeves. Hurriedly Daniella dressed herself, almost ripping the blue dress in the process, but not caring in the slightest. She was determined not to totally screw up her first day in a school with other kids.

 

No time for breakfast, Daniella thought to herself sadly. Her stomach grumbled ominously, but she ignored it. Hastily she started draw her thick curtains across her bedroom window, stealing only one glance at the magnificent view below her. Daniella’s bedroom was on the west side of the sixteenth floor of her grandmother’s castle, which was called Castle Nebula. From her window she could see the entire Nebula City and beyond, up to the mountains in the distance. It was Daniella’s dream to go exploring those mountains and to see the towns beyond. Though she would be forever bound to the castle, because her grandmother would never let her out.

 

Daniella’s grandmother had been ridiculously overprotective since ‘the attack’, which had apparently shattered her world to its very core. Daniella constantly felt smothered by her grandmother’s rules and regulations, which were extreme to the point of suffocating. According to Amanda Springbourne, Daniella was not allowed to leave the castle, ever. She had to have a private tutor and had to be surrounded by bodyguards at all times.

 

Castle Nebula was the most protected location in all of Farachia and that is precisely why Daniella’s grandmother brought them to live there after ‘the attack’. That was what Daniella’s grandmother had always referred to it as, it was always known as just ‘the attack’.

 

Castle Nebula was the grandest and most secure castle in the whole of Farachia. It was made out of polished stone and had beautiful wooden floors (in most parts) and exquisite glass windows. The castle was one thousand years old and had been built by the founders of Farachia, Maximus and Rosemary Watson, Daniella’s ancestors. It soared high above Nebula city, with its sixteen towers and far below the city, with its network of underground dungeons, almost like a maze.

 

The Castle sat nestled in the middle of Nebula City, which was on the north central coast of Farachia. Farachia was the island that Queen Amanda ruled over and that Daniella would inherit someday. It was an enormous island with forests, mountain ranges, diamond reserves and heaps of active volcanoes. It was an island made for adventure and Daniella longed to explore it. Farachia was a world power among the other islands, which were Pinnapelia (to the east), Sapphire Island (to the north), Sandy Island (to the north west) and Minoea (to the south west) Farachian was an extremely wealthy nation with a traditional monarchy. This had always incurred the jealousy of others. This was why the Farachians had many dangerous enemies, some open and vicious and some secret and vindictive. All of these enemies were capable of horrible acts of malicious cruelty. Daniella knew this all to well, having lost her parents and possibly her twin brother at five years old. 

 

Although Daniella was very young when it happened, she could still remember several intense feelings, sights and noises from ‘the attack’. She remembered seeing her brother curled up frightened on his chair, she remembered feeling very afraid and worst of all she remembered the horrible screeching noises made by the Ravens, which she could still hear in her nightmares. Afterwards, she recalled attending her parent’s funeral, although that was harder to bring to mind. No funeral was held for Alexander, because they never found his body. Daniella hated that Farachian custom and planned to change it when she came to power. Initially Daniella believed her brother might have survived, but her hopes were crushed when the royal investigation into his whereabouts was called off. They never found his body and the royal family never attained closure.  From that moment on Daniella’s grandmother had given a new meaning to the word ‘overprotective’. Daniella felt like she was in a prison, not her family’s best castle.

 

Although Daniella could understand where her grandmother was coming from, after all Daniella was the last living heir to the Farachian thrown, a monarchy that had dominated Farachia for over one thousand years. Killing her would hault one of the most powerful monarchies on the planet, making way for a powerful dictatorship. It was true that her life was a rich prize that many would love to take and many had tried. But Daniella did not want to live her life in fear, she could not let tyrants scare her into hiding, she wanted to be free. Luckily for Daniella she had managed to convince her grandmother to allow her to go to a normal school with working class teenagers. And to Daniella’s amazement, she could even walk around without bodyguards! Though it had taken Daniella almost eleven years to persuade her grandmother to allows these basic freedoms.

 

Now Daniella was going to a real school and although she was three hours late  she could not help being very happy. Daniella felt so jubilant she felt she could almost fly. So with a skip in her step almost like Cassandra, she made her way to her bedroom door, stopping only to pick up her tiara, which she had to wear whenever she was outside her room. Daniella’s tiara was made of diamonds and silver (diamonds being the national Farachian stone) and had an elegant design with lots of majestic swirls. Daniella didn’t like being pampered but she loved her tiara.

 

Not bothering to do anything to her long black locks, Daniella carefully placed the tiara on her head, where it sat perfectly still and serene. Not bothering to check herself in the mirror Daniella raced out of the room as fast as she could go. Her classroom was located at the bottom level of the castle on the western side, it was a long journey and Daniella had to hurry.

 

After travelling for over ten minutes, Daniella noticed that with each passing step her surroundings became darker, gloomier and less refined. As she went on each corridor seemed to be smaller with less decorations and fewer windows. She had been travelling for ten minutes so far and she could find no sign of the school. Worried that she would be really late Daniella broke into a run, her lovely dress flowing behind her as she made her way down apparently endless corridors. As she ran she noticed a definite slant beneath her feet and new she must be getting close, as the classroom was on the ground floor of Castle Nebula. She turned a corridor and found the polished wood beneath her feet had stopped and now the floor was a dull cold stone, along with the walls of the small narrow corridor. Daniella continued to run at a steady pace along the corridor, though it appeared endless.

 

Breathlessly she turned a corner and found herself face-to-face with the door to herself face-to-face with the door to her classroom. It loomed in front of her making her feel like she was going to her own execution. Suddenly Daniella felt quite nervous and tried to master herself for her first day of normal school. Closing her eyes and trying to keep calm herself down, she inhaled deeply and then exhaled, though it did little for her nerves.

 

With one pale hand, Daniella leaned on the stonewall. It felt cold and it was very dirty. Groaning slightly she removed her hand from the wall, seeing that it was covered in an unpleasant mixture of dirt and dust. Glancing around she realised she was quite alone, so she quickly wiped her dirty hand on her dress, causing a small brown stain to appear. Oh well. Daniella thought to herself idly. Making sure that she was alone, she peered down the gloomy corridors to her left and to her right, it was then that she noticed something. Something that would seem a normal sight to anyone else to anyone else, but to her it was a phenomenal one.

 

There, at the end of the dark and gloomy corridor to her right was a door. Though it looked like any other door, Daniella could see that it was much more than that. Through the frame of the door she could see the bright light of day, contrasting dramatically with the gloominess of the corridor. She knew this door lead out of the castle and it was unguarded. The bright and beautiful day shone through the cracks and beckoned her to explore the magical world beyond, the one that she had never experienced.

 

Daniella was about to walk up to it, but then shook her head. She couldn’t do this, not today, when she had practically begged her grandmother to let her go to a normal school. Groaning slightly Daniella resolved to go to school like she had planned. So she turned on the spot, put her hand on the wooden doorknob, wincing at how dirty it was and opened the door.

 

The classroom was not at all like Daniella had pictured it in her minds eye. The room was about as big as Daniella’s bedroom. But unlike her room, the classroom was not made for royalty. Its walls were a bare greyish stone and gave off an infectious feeling of dreariness, which seemed to have etched itself in the faces of the students, who stared at her with a bored indifference.

 

The students were an even mixture of boys and girls, who were dressed in plain brown clothing. They had reasonably clean faces and hair, which had been arranged into neat, simple designs. The boys wore brown pants and brown shirts with white ropes tied around their waists as belts. They were a far contrast from any of the young men Daniella had previously met. The girls were simple brown dresses with shawls around their necks, most of which were dull variation of brown, but some of which sported bold blue or red designs. All of the students had begun to look at her now, though they couldn’t see her in the darkness of the hallway.

 

Nervously Daniella stepped into the low budget classroom. As she took in the small, dusty wooden desks spaced a metre apart from each other, littered with scraps of yellow parchment and feathers for writing notes. All the desks had the same musky scent of old wood. She noticed that there was only one small and grimy window in the room, which cast one lone fragmented ray across the dirty classroom floor.

 

Glancing at the teacher, Daniella saw a tall bearded man, with a brown pair of pants half covered by a large  black shirt, with a similar white rope to the boys laced around his waist, except his was laced with blue threads. His shoes were simple brown sandals, which looked old and severely wore out, she suspected that he had mended them himself. Briefly she met the teacher’s eyes, they were a deep piercing brown and combined with the man’s wild facial hair, he came off as quite excentric. He looked about forty-five years old. He was standing behind a poorly made wooden podium, which was composed of rotting wood. He was positioned in front of a tattered map of the world, the only decoration hanging on an otherwise forlorn and vacant wall. The map showed all the five island nations (Farachia, Pinnapelia, Sapphire Island, Sandy Island and Minoea), with several small islands in between, though it was very wore and had parts missing, like they had simply fallen off.

 

To Daniella’s dismay the door was positioned at the back of the classroom, so she braced herself for the long walk to the teacher. Although it was only a short distance, it seemed like one hundred miles to the anxious princess. She felt nervous, but reminded herself that this had been her individual choice. Mastering her nerves she put one foot in front of the other and began to walk. Her expensive shoes clicked on the stone floor drawing unwanted attention and glances from the students as she passed. Although only a small minority of the pupils had really observed her.

 

As Daniella made her way to the front of the classroom she was partially illuminated by the rays of sun from the window, which cast uneven light on her head and her upper body. At once the other students in the classroom took a lot more notice of her. It was obvious to them who she was. The light of the sunlit up her midnight blue dress, bringing out the silver embroidery cleverly worked into the design. The rays of sunlight shone directly onto her tiara, making the diamonds sparkle in front of her black hair, like stars in the night sky.

 

Without looking up at the astonished faces of the students, Daniella made her way to the teacher, who to her surprise, did not look astonished at her elegant appearance. He merely stared at her with his large, piercing brown eyes. She could see a slightly smug smile on his face, which caused her nerves to return, making her blush and look down at the ground.

“Your late.” The teacher said aggressively to her. If Daniella had of been looking at him, she would of seen that he was smiling smugly.

“Well, sir I was…..um…..” Daniella could not think of a reasonable reply, which would get her out of trouble, so still looking at the ground she let her sentence fade away weakly.

“Excuse me, what was that?” The teacher said forcefully. Daniella wished he would just let her sit down.

“Look at me!” He snapped. Daniella looked him right in the eye. His brown eyes and her blue ones challenging each other to look away, like soldiers on the field trying to intimidate each other before the swords were swung.

 

For a moment everything was silent, then eventually he looked away and spoke to the whole class.

“Students, this is Princess Daniella Springbourne.” He said sneering around the classroom, most of the students smiled cruelly and some whispered to each other.

“She is here to learn with us lowly peasants.” He continued sarcastically.

“She is to be treated with all the royal respect she deserves.” He smiled vindictively to himself and gave her an elaborately silly bow. Daniella was about to protest, but she was interrupted.

“Miss Springbourne, my name is Mr. Burgundy and I am your permanent teacher. Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself.” With that statement, Mr. Burgundy stepped down from the podium, moved to the side of the gloomy room and looked at her expectantly.

 

Startled, Daniella walked nervously up to the podium and turned to face the class. Feeling very anxious she gripped the edges of the podium, which were very dirty and wore, so bits of wood began to fall off as she spoke.

“As you know my name is Daniella and I am a princess.” Daniella said, ignoring the continuous stares from the students. “I have a grandmother…uh….who is the Queen.” Daniella said pathetically. She had never been very good at public speaking, simply because she had never been aloud to speak to the public, owing to her grandmother’s strict regulations.

“Well, we know that, stupid!” A girl with long brown hair shouted from the back, Daniella could see that she was lying back in her chair with her feet resting lazily on her school desk, crushing her parchment and feathers beneath them.

“Now, now, quiet Sarah.” Mr. Burgundy said, though it was obvious to all in the room that he was enjoying seeing a royal being humiliated. Ignoring all the hostility in the room she tried to continue.

“Well, I like to dance and practice my fencing.” Daniella said, becoming more enthusiastic. “And one day I would like to explore the world.” She said, finishing with a smile.

 

The classroom was silent for a moment, until Mr. Burgundy got up from a chair he had temporarily sat himself in and walked over to her. He glared at her coldly, wiping the smile from her face quicker than a sword is swung at an enemy. Feeling like the only sheep in a pack of wolves Daniella braced herself for a brutal, verbal. And she was not disappointed at all.

“Miss Springbourne, how can you have the ability required to run this country, if you can not introduce yourself properly?” The teacher said vindictively as the class rang with cruel laughter.

“I mean here you are in your expensive clothing and beautiful tiara and you can’t even address us like you should.” He laughed loudly at this statement, along with the rest of the class. Daniella felt herself go very red and just wished he would stop. Why was he putting her through this? What was his problem?

“Seriously now, you don’t even deserve this!” And to Daniella’s horror he plucked her beautiful tiara off her head and waved it about! The classroom rang with ear splitting laughter as she gropped for her tiara, the diamonds sparkling as they were waved about like a national flag.

“Come on, Princess, come and get it.” He teased, as he lifted it higher and higher, with his dirty, hairy hand.

“No!” Daniella shouted, fearing he might drop it. That tiara had been in her family since Farachia was first settled, it was precious to her.

 

The laughter grew louder and crueller as Daniella jumped up and down trying to grab it, the whole thing was like a nightmare. Finally, she could not take it anymore. With one tremendous leap she grabbed the tiara with one hand. With the other hand she pushed Mr. Burgundy so forcefully that he feel onto a school desk, sending it crashing to the ground with him on top. He screamed as he was sent sprawling on the hard stone floor. But Daniella did not care at all.

 

With a flourish of her hand she placed the beautiful tiara on her head and began walking to the classroom door. People in the room stuttered in protest as she passed them, but no one dared to block her way. Mr. Burgundy shouted for her to come back, but her mind was made up. Determined, Daniella continued to make her way to the door, stopping only to grab a brown body length robe off one of the hooks near the door. She would need it where she was going. Putting the robe on over her dress Daniella walked out of the classroom door and down the corridor to the door that led outside. No one was following her. She could see the outline of light in the gloom and became convinced of what she was about to do. After about a minute she came to it, the door to freedom and adventure.

 

Daniella didn’t care anymore, she was going to explore the city. With one final look behind her at the deserted corridor, with it’s gloomy depths and suffocating walls she became adamant. With one liberating movement of her hand, she pushed open the hardwood  and immediately was bathed in a glorious light. Daniella knew she was going to be free, no matter what dangers lay ahead outside the castle walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



© 2008 atomic_sparrow


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Added on February 17, 2008
Last Updated on February 17, 2008


Author

atomic_sparrow
atomic_sparrow

Australia



About
The sparrow is generally friendly in all seasons, though can be shy and secretive sometimes. Found in both urban and rural areas the sparrow can be very territorial and protective. Although not a wate.. more..

Writing
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A Story by atomic_sparrow


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A Chapter by atomic_sparrow