DIMITRI

  THE PRINCESS OF THE BURNING KINGDOM

  There was once a kingdom of fire. Every day and every night, for hundreds of moons, the fire keeps getting warmer and deadlier. But before that, it was a kingdom of joy and laughter. A queen, actually, who was actually crowned with bright jewels, dressing her sweetly, her crown heavy on her head. And every man in her kingdom was kneeling down to take her. The queen, innocent and yet vengeful as she was, took a powerful suitor with his eyes drunk in greed. And the queen needs a powerful man.

  So, she was surprised when she found that when her belly was full, so was a maid’s. A maid with a beautiful face whose eyes were facing the king sweetly.

  But the queen did not care. Not when her baby was due. And so, both of them were getting the infant out of their wombs; only one of them could live.

  The queen woke up from her exhaustion and saw her round baby that looked exactly like the father of it. A boy with the future of a king. But she wouldn’t let the maid’s kid, who was also a boy, survive. She planned to slowly poison the baby’s food for a few weeks after his birth, but it was buried deep down.

  Little did she know that years later, when the child she was raising as her own did not belong to her. The cruel greedy king made sure that her child would be swapped at night and she would attack her own child without even knowing.

  ‘’What happened after?’’ A guard asked, drawing his attention to the boy.

  She broke out, throwing everything to the floor, her voice echoing to the empty walls and the mountains that were up close. She ran away. Ran to escape from her lies. What kind of mother kills her own child? The rain shower blinded her vision, and she slowly realized that she was about to fall from a cliff.

  She would be dead, her cruel husband on the throne with his own bastard child next. But a strange man caught her.

  His eyes and clothes were foreign. She did not know this man’s tongue, but she knew very well that his soul was kind.

  They both stayed for a while tathis hidden house, offering her meat and tea. The queen was staring at the man while he was cooking. She was staying silent when she began bathing her skin. She did not care about life anymore.

  The days passed, and nothing changed. But the man was not a brute. He admitted to her in the queen’s tongue. He was once a noble from the opposite kingdom, trying to live in peace after thousands of wars and famines.

  The Queen remained silent. So the man had enough and grabbed her by the hand, forcing her to get out to the sun.

  ‘’Why?’’ Another guard showed tremor, and Dimitri lifted his eyes and continued.

  He showed her a garden. A beautiful garden with every kind of flower and fruit, growing in harmony. Showing that even with different kinds of plants and flowers, growing in different seasons and environments, they can grow together and make something beautiful.

  The Queen had never seen such a big and beautiful garden, with each scent moving to her wrinkly nose. Out of kindness, the once noble offered her one pale daffodil. They slowly began to talk, to grow closer together and even closer.

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  Dimitri cut his words, realising he said too much and felt his face erupting from the color red.

  It was time for her to go. She never revealed her title to him or even her name. When she finally got her strength back, she was at the doors of the palace. Everyone was worried sick, and everyone considered the flower she was holding in her fingertips.

  When she was inside the hall, she found out that another woman was expecting. Little did they know that the Queen was also with a child. A child that shall be all her own.

  When the time was due, there was doubt. What if he looks like him? The son of the king, now at the age of ten and eight, was trying to take care of her, and when it finally got out, her beautiful daughter, she paid close attention to her eyes, which were the same as hers.

  When she woke up, she found that her daughter now had her husband’s eyes. She now knew what her husband wanted to do. There was a sudden fear in her soul, but she soon saw that the maid was holding her daughter.

  Make her a servant for my daughter. Her queen commanded. So she will know that her daughter will be alive and safe.

  Dimitri stopped talking. Every guard was on their tiptoes.

  ‘’Go on’’ One of them commanded.

  ‘’I am thirsty.’’

  ‘’I will cut your tongue.’’

  ‘’Then, how will I continue?’’

  After they gave him a gallon of water, the boy continued.

  Five years had passed, and both of the girls grew up close. The moon and the stars. Not only a princess and a servant, but even they could have been sisters. The king grew greedier, with the son close to his arms, and the queen…took a dark path to witchcraft.

  When she was found, the entire kingdom went to war against her. They tried to attack her; they set fire to the stone walls, destroying people, criminals, and innocents.

  The king, as he was throughout the entire war, found a little girl’s corpse, saying that she was dressed in rugs. He couldn’t see her face, but he knew that he had won.

  ‘’No…’’ One of the guards gasped.

  The queen was a powerful witch who managed to defeat almost every army. But she wasn’t strong enough when the son of the king stabbed her in the back. He apologised to his queen mother. He wept for her, telling that he didn’t want to do it, that it wasn’t his choice. The queen believed him. But when the king appeared with all the victory and to show his final blow, the queen put a curse.

  The throne and the crown will belong to her blood and hers only. If not, the kingdom and the world will sink.

  So, the king laughed and chopped her head off.

  ‘’What happened after?’’ A guard spoke, and Dimitri blinked.

  ‘’The king won, the princess lives.’’

  ‘’It's not the queen's, you idiot. They both lost for their sins.’’ Another one grunted and glared at the boy.

  ‘’Will you let me go?’’He asked.

  ‘’Don’t be coy’’Another one gasped.

  So, he remained silent until they opened the cell and gave him all of his belongings.

  ‘’So?’’One guard was tapping his

  None dared to sit on that throne. Because they found the little girl's corpse dressed in rags, they never found the girl who was dressed in jewels. And they didn’t know that before anything happened, the daughter of the princess swapped clothes with the daughter of the king so she would be protected. They didn’t know that the daughter of the king passed, and they didn’t know that the daughter of the queen heard everything about the curse.

  Maybe she ran away, maybe she was killed. But there was still in people’s hearts that one day, the princess of their dreams would return and bring rain to the fire castle once more with her dress and her hair dressed in daffodils.