Chapter 2

Arrival

I woke up laying in a bush. As I got up I noticed my strange surroundings, it looked as though I was still in China but everything was different. I could faintly hear a small ringing sensation in my head as I leaned upon my elbow to brace myself upwards. In the distance I noticed a small group of men behind a forest of trees. I couldn't see all that well but it looked as though they were carrying weapons. I bravely decided to inch forward, still hiding behind a dozen bushes, in order to see better. There in the distance stood a man; roughly 6 foot with long dark brown hair and a chiseled face that would've passed for a models. He wore a long red tunic that left his bare chest open just enough to see his broad and well muscled chest. He leaned over a pond of water and looked as though he was en-canting some sort of spell. Just as he was about to lift up his head I noticed that the men in the trees were making a run towards him, weapons high in the air ready to strike. My body moved on its own, not even giving me time to think as I threw myself in front of the strange, beautiful man with my arms stretched out wide showing my defensive stance. One man who had nearly punctured the beautiful man with a dagger stopped in his tracks right near my heart.

"Wah? Hey girl you better move before I have to kill-"

The beautiful man in the breathtaking red tunic was now stained in more red. A deep red that dripped down his face and clothes, and seemed to give him a more evil aura around himself.

"Ha. You're a pretty low assassin if you can't even kill a prince right before your eyes."

The blood stained man stood there with a grin on his face as he licked the sharp edge of the dagger that he had pulled from inside his tunic.

"How shall I deal with the rest of you insolent brats then hmm?"

The man stood there dagger in hand as he portrayed a lunge-like stance. He put his free hand on my shoulder and whisked me behind his back, as though he was going to protect me. Me. How could such a dangerous man possibly want to protect me from any harm? He probably just enjoys watching my reactions to all his blood lust.

"Stand back. You are the maiden who saved my life, in return I shall grant you the highest privilege a woman could earn. You shall be my wife."

The man pounced on the remaining four assassins. He took them all out with ease. Puncturing one to his right, then swirling in a semi-circle to get the one on his left. Jumping in the air as two of the men collided and then kicking their heads together. This beautiful man no longer looked like a man, but a beast urging for more blood; for more battles. His bare chest was now covered in the other men's blood and dripped down on to his tunic.

"Ah damn. Look what you stupid people did. You made me ruin my new shirt that I was suppose to wear to the coronation. How do you suppose I fix this mess?"

As he looked down he noticed that although he didn't kill anyone, they were all dripping in blood and passed out. At this realization he sighed and turned his attention to me, he gave me the biggest smile I've ever seen.

"So pretty lady, you ready to give me an heir?" He said with a sarcastic tone.

I was flabbergasted. Not only because of how devious and sexy this man looked while smirking with blood stains across his body, but how in this situation he could even fathom sex. I could feel my mouth begin to gape at him and my cheeks begin to flush; it was the only response my body could manage.

"Are you kidding me! You were almost killed, you beat up some men to a bloody pulp, and you wanna go do it?!"

"Yes?" The man said while cocking his head slightly to the right with an even more mocking tone.

I gaped at him again.

"I'm leaving." I said as I turned and began to walk away.

"Wait!" The man uttered while grabbing on to my sleeve. "Hey I'm sorry, I didn't mean it ." He gave me another one of his huge smiles. "At least let me thank you by taking you to the palace. I mean what girl doesn't want to visit the palace?"

Palace? I thought to myself. Exactly what time and day an age am I in right now? Well that's beside the point, if I want to survive and find a way back home I should probably steer clear of this man.... Home. I felt the tears begin to well-up inside my eyes. I really didn't want to cry in front of this man but I couldn't stop myself. I felt a tear roll down my cheek, but I quickly wiped it away hoping he wouldn't see it.

The man had a confused face but then it began to brighten, "If you really wanted to visit the palace that bad that it brought tears to your eyes I'm very happy. Maybe I could convince you to work as a-"

I couldn't control my sobbing as I fell to the ground covering my eyes with my hands. I have no idea what this strange man is talking about, nor do I care. However, the thought of returning home is scary. Why? Why do I need to return home. There's nobody waiting for me there. Yui has a girlfriend, Shino hates my guts, my mother rather date her boyfriend then pay any attention to me, and my dad. My dad is gone forever; he left me without even so much as a note. My mother told me that she told him it would be better for me if he just left from my life; but I can't believe he would just leave me. Dad. I sobbed even harder; I've never cried so much in my life. Suddenly I felt something warm wrap around my whole body. It felt like I was floating on clouds and that it could whisk me away at anytime.

"I'm here, so don't worry. I'll protect you from any danger out there so don't worry, just cry as much as you want. It's only the two of us right now."

He hugged me tighter allowing my head to go on his shoulder as I cried. First I cried for my old life, then I cried knowing that I'd have to start a new one. A new life in this new world.

Chapter 3

Another Prince

After my sobbing fit dissolved I realized I was still in this man's embrace. I quickly pushed him off, my face heated and flushed from the warmth his body gave me.

"What are you doing?!" I said in a voice that had as much anger as I could manage; which was not much.

The man sat there, still holding me in his arms, looked confused.

"What do you mean? I'm just comforting my lonely princess." With this last statement the man gave a sly but cute grin.

I was dumbfounded. How could I end up in a new world, only to end up in some man's arms. I didn't want to have to live with a heart break twice in my life. I have decided for the time being that I would give up on love and solely concentrate on living my new life. I pushed away from the strange man's grip and propped myself up off of one of my elbows. I thanked the man for his hospitality in a most sarcastic tone as I turned on my heels and started to walk in the opposite direction.

I felt something tug on my arm in the same place again, but this time I simply shook it off.

"I don't want to be near you any longer. Please just leave me alone." And with that I was off into the wilderness of the forest, my second mistake of the night.

As I continued to walk deeper into the unknown forest I could still feel the glare of a pair of eyes on my back from moments before. It scared me to think that someone could watch me so intently. While deep in my thoughts I had barely noticed the sun retreating into the depths of the vast sky. Leaving me with little light as the sky turned a purpley-blue; almost like a bruise that had yet to wash away. The forest had been getting thicker in the few hours I had walked it, and I didn't even know if I was going in a direction of a town. My best bet was to settle down in a nearby cave that seemed to be as empty as my heart had once been. I lied down, slowly closing my eyes allowing the darkness of my eyelids to engulf me into a deep sleep.

~*

I could feel a yellow light penetrate my eyelids as they remained closed. I flickered them open a few times to grow accustomed to their new environment. I looked around and noticed that I lay on top of a cozy bed, where someone had wrapped me in a warm, wool blanket. There seemed to be a furnace lit up with a small crimson flame at the end of the small room. To the right of it was a counter top with cooking equipment sprawled over it. I heard a faint squeaking noise as the small brown door was opened by a lean looking woman. She seemed to be about 5'4, about the same height as me. She wore an apron over her dirty clothes; almost as if she was a chef that had just been dusting the furniture. She gave me a small smile as she took a few steps towards were i laid.

"Good morning. It's nice to see that you were finally able to get up. You've been sleeping for nearly two days already."

Two days? I thought to myself. Where am I? At this thought I announced to the lady the same question.

"Ah. Well my husband found you laying in some dirty looking cave so he brought you here. He thought I could help" She said with a huge grin on her face.

"Well um thank you." I replied. "But where exactly am I right now."

"O silly me." The lady seemed embarrassed because she had not answered my previous question but answered a different one. "You are in the Palace of the Ueki Clan. The finest Chinese clan that has ever exist thus so far in history."

I shook my head as I processed all this new information in my head. But something seemed to nag at me from the back of my mind. The palace. Why have I heard of the palace before.

"AHH!" I shouted at my realization. "There doesn't happen to be a coronation soon is there?" I asked hoping I didn't get the answer I was expecting.

"Ah. Yes there was young lady." The lady smiled. "It was two days ago. Actually the night my husband found you and brought you in was the night of the coronation. How did you know?" She gave another pleasing smile unaware of how I came across this information.

As I parted my lips in an attempt to answer her question she gave out a low scream of excitement and pounded her fist into her open hand, as if a new idea had struck her.

"I almost forgot." She said in somewhat of a tizzy. "We must make you look presentable. The first prince has wished to see you well after he saw my husband bring you in. In fact when he saw you, he took you away from my husband and carried you in his arms all the way here. It was the most romantic thing I've ever seen the prince do. Ah my heart still trembles at the thought of the prince embracing such a fair young maiden like yourself."

First prince? It couldn't have been that man I had run into earlier. My head started to ache as I remembered my previous conversation with him.

"Ha. You're a pretty low assassin if you can't even kill a prince right before your eyes."

Damn, he was a prince.

Before I could even get a word of protest out, the woman seemed to shoo me out of the room into a different room across the hall. A new woman, of equal stature held a beautiful red dress that had a v-neck cut that went way to low for my own comfort. She gave me a dazzling smile as she captured me by the waist and pulled me into the changing room. Out of the corner of my eye I got a glimpse of the other woman wishing me luck as she retreated into her room.

~*

I stood in the room, that's only occupants seemed to be clothes, and faced the long full body mirror. The red dresses v-neck cut went all the way down my body and stopped at my bellybutton. The ends of the dress seemed to frill out to the sides covering the rest of my legs. The lady stood behind me placing her small hands against my shoulders.

"It suits you very nicely. The only thing you need to do now is to fix that hair of yours."

Within moments another lady showed up and slammed the door open, scissors and comb in hand as if she was going into battle. She rushed over to me and circled me to view each side of my hair. She gave out a low sigh and propped me into a chair that sat at the other end of the room. She didn't even give me a chance to seek before she started clipping and brushing my hair into a million different strands. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see what the strange lady was doing to me. When I opened it seemed as though a different person was sitting in the chair. Is this girl really me? My long curly brown hair was not straight and pinned into a bun which let out some strands here and there. An expensive looking red clip ornamented the tip of my bun.

"It wasn't easy but maybe now you're presentable to my lord." She gave a teasing smile as she once again looked into the mirror to examine her work.

Although I wasn't happy with things being done to myself without my consent, I couldn't help myself from smiling at the woman's work in the mirror and thanking her.

From far away I could hear loud footsteps, it seemed to get closer and closer within every second. Before the door swung open I could hear an old voice shutting, "My lord, you shouldn't just barge into other people's rooms-".

That's when the door was hit off the side of the wall and a tall man stood in its place. He had long brown hair and had on a uniform fit for a prince. It was black with shining pieces of gold encrusting it. He seemed to be about roughly 6'2 and was slim but muscular. He had a long sword in its holster at his side. As I looked up and saw his face I could feel my mouth drop. This man's face looked chiseled to perfection, and similar to the face she had saw earlier. However, it wasn't the same man, was it?"

"Hello, my fair maiden. I've been wanting to see you." At this notion he bowed to me, his arm placed at his chest. All the other woman seemed as dumbfounded as I. They were probably shocked at a prince bowing to a stranger. I was shocked at how I had run into two princes, in two days; both seeming to have completely different personalities. O god, what do you suppose I do next?