A little girl of about 10 stood atop the palisades of a castle. She wore a tunic and breeches, a play spear and sword of wood hung from her body. "Hey you little brat!" shouted a man, burly as a bear and hairy as one as well stood at the top of the stairs. The little girl with a braid to her butt turned around to look at who had called her a brat. It was her uncle, king of the castle. "Uncle! Uncle!" she shouted and darted threw the warriors on the walls. Arms spread she leaped at him and flew at his chest. The man's burly arms wrapped around her small frame and hugged it to his large one. "Oh how I've missed my little warrioress, how have you been my sprite?" he asked in a gravely voice and she giggled softly pulling her face from the heavy leather of his jerkin. "I have been training as you told me to do! Big brother helps me when he can and I can ride the best from here to Dunsburry!" she grinned widely at him before he set her down.
"And when will you take this horse tail off your head?" he asked as his gnarled thick fingers tugged at the thick braid of hair. "I'm not going to cut it off uncle! I like it. Think about it uncle if it gets long enough I can put a blade in it and whip it around like..." she tossed her head laughing causing her braid to whip around and smack the big man in the face. "That!" the man rubbed his bearded face before letting out a deep bellowing laugh.
"How many times have I told you to keep that devil braid under control?" Asked a smooth voice behind the big man. Different as day and night a man walked up behind the king, it was Aliana's father, dark haired and whip cord lean he leaned against the stone walls looking at his dark skinned daughter. she had oddly taken after her mother and her uncles people more then his. (I'll draw some pictures and scan them sooner or later lol). Though she did have his bright green eyes.
"Move over old man, you greet my daughter before I can even get off my horse. What kind of man is that?" asked the dark haired man with a arched eyebrow as he wiggled between the burly man and the wall. The king let out a loud barking laugh, king of barking leopards they called him just for that laugh. "I greet your daughter before you can cause despite being OLD I can still MOVE." he patted his brothers back as he lifted the nimble little girl into his arms. "Father, uncle wants me to cut off my braid!" Aliana protested softly as the very thing under discussion swayed in the air. A few nearby guards laughed softly. "Oh and become as barbaric as you?" asked her father tugging at his brothers beard. "Should she grow a beard too?" the man snickered as the king tugged at his wirey red beard. "I do believe it would help keep their faces warm.. What do you say Bornhald, how'd you fancy a woman with a beard?" the king shouted up at the captain of the guards. The man turned with a look of horror on his face from under the cap stared down at his king. "Really sir.. would you fall for a woman who looked like you?"
"I fancy myself King of looks thank you very much Bornhald, so yes I would fall for a woman who looked like me." the man stroked his beard with a large grin before a small figure darted between the men. "Father really! What would mother think to hear you say she'd look better with a beard?" The small little girl stood on tip-toes with hands on her hips and long red hair done in elaborate braids. "AH! My princess! You mustn't tell your mother I said.." he reached down for his daughter who twirled away from him and wagged a finger at him much like his wife did. "Oh but papa she's right behind you." said another voice, the kings eldest daughter said. While the youngest looked like her father the oldest looked like her mother. Long blond hair, supple features and a calm cool attitude. Her mother was right behind her, looking like a older version of his daughter. "Hello dear..."
"Hello dear indeed." she sniffed at him before reaching forward to twine a finger in his beard and tow him over to her.
The royal family of Arnhorld consisted of three families joined together as one. From the cold north the family of now ruling King, Sabren Venhalen. From the south, the spry family of aristocratic women and men with tactical thinking ways and powers over the mental capabilities of the mind. From the East a family of nomadic element wielders, with golden to dark mocha skin. The west is still greatly unexplored and the people there are unknown. The kingdom is not planning on expanding their borders for now, waiting for the west to come to them at their own time.
"I'm telling you Aliana, it's not right for women to wield weapons." the man speaking to her was her scholar teacher from the south. Of course he didn't think it right to wield a weapon he could make a person love him with his mind. "Your powers should of manifested by now Aliana." he walked around her in his dreary gray robes, long gray hair pulled back away from his angular pointy face. The young girl rolled her eyes boredly at the old man. In the south their mind powers manifested around the ages of 9 or 10 sometimes 11 at the latest. Being part of the royal family a strong group of power wielders it's been known to have manifestation at the age of 8 or even birth in vary rare cases. "Really teacher, I am the first to be born from the south and east kingdoms.. Could it possibly be that I don't have the powers?" she asked as she leaned against her desk head resting on the books stacked atop it. His pacing stopped and he sniffed as if he had smelled something foul. "Why of course not! Everyone in the royal line has the powers! You should be no different." He waved his hands around as if it was the end of the world. "But the royal line has never before had a joining of the east tribes.. Maybe that's how the north became powerless? Joining of the south and east tribes created plain children who could not wield the elements or hold the mind." the old man looked at her as if she'd gone mad. She was only 12, it had been two years since the king had returned from that hunting trip talking of bearded women, cutting off her braid and being in love with himself but she could still remember it clearly.
"Really child I think you should be the most sensible of the people in the castle... Your mother and father." the old man was named Dunwald, professor Dunwald of the south academy for aspiring youths. Her father Hector had come from there, he had been a rare person to be born with mental capabilities. Her mother was just as special with the ability over the elements of the male side of the elemental table. "Really Mr. Dunwald.. You should know by now that I take after my uncle."
"The king?" the man asked and gave another sniff, apparently the thought made him jittery. She had spent many days of her childhood racing about his castle playing with the guards in their free time. "Yes Professor Dunwald the KING." she said the title as clearly as she could. This man was so fascinated with how a barbarian of the north could hold a country of three people together. Have a person from the south loyal beyond all else to him who wasn't blood and still tell those raunchy jokes at the dinner table. Dunwald started to fan himself with a lacy thing that the courts of the south used in their summers, a fan Aliana thought it was called. "Oh heavens." he said and sat himself in a high backed chair.
Aliana snickered, she loved unsettling the old man, his expressions and replies where rather funny.
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