The lost princess of the Hashan Kingdom

The old priestess of the Harshan kingdom stood before the huge number of the citizens of the Harshanians with her eyes popped out with no black pupil but full of white. She screamed on top of her voice to call out the slogan of the Harshanians.

"HARSHAN! ....HARSHAN! .... HARSHAN!"

calling out three times to indicated good news approaching.

"Hear me oh men and women! Hear me sons and daughters! "She screamed.

As she spoke the passion and attentiveness of the crowd was evident with their pure interest in what the priestess had to say to them. It has been a long wait for them.

They yearned for news, So desperate that even if it wasn't a good one they were ready to accept and know what lies ahead of them. And finally the old priestess who isn't seen out of her cottage finally came out to deliver news which they didn't even care whether they will like it or not.

The priestess calling them out the third time gave them hope that they weren't planning on letting go. She spoke to their hearing and a victory broke out in the crowd.

Tears of joy and lifted burdens was heard among the people. The king and Queen finally rose from their tensed backs and stood before their people raising their right hands to show power and victory.

The priestesses words of prophecy was all they had been praying to the gods of the skies for. They didn't know why it took this long but they loved the sudden good news. It was midnight when the words of the priestess kept on playing in the mind of King Shegai.

" An heir will be born! Never lose hope she will rule! An heir will rule! She comes with strength of the gods to protect all ye threatened by the kingdoms. She comes to rule with unforseen power. The Forshans will never be a threat! "

As the king pondered on these words he wondered why it was an heir with a female gender and not a male gender. He had been praying for a son but he wondered what a girl can do to protect a great kingdom such as Harshan. Not that no Queen had rule before but it's been very very long. He also thought of why Forshan was going to not be a threat because so far, Forshan has not even shown any interest in subduing Harshan since the other 5 kingdoms raised threats to conquer them after a lie spread through out the kingdoms that the King of Harshan is not potent to father a child. He had been ill for some few days only to find out some intruders had tried to overthrow him while he was on his sick bed, but for the impeccable wisdom of His Queen, Queen Yaran, all attempts of those intruders failed miserably. His thoughts broke when the Queen suddenly rushed out from the bed to throw up in their place of nature's comfort. He looked so shocked and dumbfounded as a thing like had rarely happened to the Queen. Could this one survive?He asked himself looking worried and at the same time filled with hope.

****Two years later...****

" My Queen run !" King Shegai screamed.

What was happening? Queen Yaran had no idea about the chaos in the palace and the outburst outside the palace. The sudden roar of His Majesty the King had made her jump out of her sleep.

" Run! " "Run!"

She looked backed from the voice only to find her wounded husband fighting 3 armed men with masks which could only indicate that the Kingdom was under attack.

She ran as fast as she could to her one year old daughter's room who was asleep in her small bed. The sight before her made her scream as loud as she could. "NO!!!"

Pain was evident in her eyes as she saw her twin sister raising a dagger towards her sleeping baby.

Out of impulse she rushed and pushed her sister to the floor but was stabbed at her back by the approaching dagger towards the same direction of where her daughter lied.

Carrying and limping with her baby girl, she eloped through the emergency exist of the Palace.

The turn that had been her unforseen tragedy ahead was taken by her instincts alarming state. If she had only known she wouldn't have to use that exit area because what lied ahead of her was her most greatest pain she was going to experience.

"Sheyah"*tears "sheyah" *tears*, am sorry I can't protect you but *tears* you will be fine*tears* you will make Harshan kingdom great again. The last words of the Queen to her unconscious daughter in her arms as they lied in a pit.

A smirk plastered face stood close to the pit and turned around after the night had finally been put to silence.

*Next morning *

The Unconscious king who finally gained consciousness in the palace as he was being attended to by the royal physicians of the palace quickly the hands of the chief physician out of impulse thinking it was one of his enemies who survived from his attacks last night. The physicians knowing the kind of reaction this was spoke immediately

" Long live oh King of Harshan, your servant seeks to attend to your wounds please permit me".

The King who had blurred vision suddenly begun to see clearly who was attending to him and left go off him. Suddenly His eyes popped out and asked "where is the Queen? where is my Princess".

He remembered how after conquering his enemies along with his skillfully trained guards, He went in search of his Queen and Princess only to be informed that they were missing. At the hearing of that he lost consciousness.

He asked again " where is my Queen and my princess"? The worried physicians who had no idea on how to break the mournful news to him kept looking at each other.

"The Queen has been found your Majesty" the high ranked security guard spoke.

"Where is she"? asked the King impatiently.

Without waiting for an answer he rose up from the bed in a clumsy manner and as he rose spoke.

" Take me to her now, I need to see my Daughter and Queen, hurry and help me get up ".

Realizing no movement was being made by his most trusted guard and friend, he looked up to find him sobbing silently.

The kind of confusion plastered on the was heart breaking enough to let the maids around him to break down in tears.

"Will someone tell me where my Queen and daughter is? I just need to hug them and see them, I won't die while doing so, just let them inside if you think am too weak to move".

Frustrated by the sobs and tears he shouted which startled the maids but only made his trusted guard go down His knees crying more audibly.

"I am your King and yet you keep me from seeing my wife and daughter? Who the hell are you to do this, I will have you all punished for.... before he could complete his words the words that made him feel like he had been thrown into snow whiles naked sounded in his ears.

"Your Majesty the Queen is no more, the Queen is dead", forgive me I..." NO OOO!!!! NO OOO!!!! NO OOO...!!! SHE CAN'T DIE,SHE IS NOT DEAD, SHE IS IN THE PALACE TAKE ME TO HER BEFORE I BEHEAD ALL OF YOU!!!"

As he begun Roaring and acting like an injured beast, His trusted Guard who knew him better, of how he can never accept this news without seeing for himself, stood up and held his arms to support him as they were moved to the Royal mortuary where the royalties are taken before being burnt to ashes. He was so angry at the direction where the guard was taking him but he kept calm and held into a very big hope of seeing his two precious ones alive and maybe just unconscious but alive.

*****************************

"My Queen" *Tears* "my Queen" please rise please...I beg you *tears* *Tears* *Tears*....our daughter and myself need you. Please wake up*Tears*.

King Shegai's tears and sounded in the walls of the Palace as he mourned His Queen after getting to see the terrible state of His wife, he realized that his wife was indeed dead from this kind of horrifying bruises and injuries all over her body .

After sometime of crying He called for his Guard who came to stand by his side and later asked "how is the princess doing?".

He almost went mad when the Guard announce weakly. " Your...Majesty...the Queen was found alone ... in the woods.... without the princess".

In the deep forest where sound of humans were devoid of, the sound of a weak crying baby was heard. The curious hunter who had been experienced with these strange events in the forest courageously went into the direction of the sound with his bow and arrow pointed to the direction as well.

On the sight he found, he dropped his bow looking stunned and shocked out of his mind. Never in his thirty years of hunting has he ever witness such an unusual and mind blowing scene.

Not knowing what to do and how to go about this, he clumsy but steady went down to pick up his arrow. To distract the huge python who looked like it was protecting the weak creature in between it's rolled body, the hunter tried to throw out one of his hunted meat towards the opposite direction of the snake for it to go towards it but was dumbfounded when the snake uttered the words "sheyah" and turned around to pass the baby to the hunter.

Shocked and half alive, he stretched out his hands and took the fragile baby from it only to find the snake moving into the deepest darkness of the woods. As scared as he had been he held the fragile little one who looked a bit tired from crying and a wounded little at her right shoulder.

With so much care, as if he had the impression of how precious this child was to their world,he carefully held her and starred at her for a while.

Not knowing where his courage came from, he turned around while looking back at where the incident had just happened which looked like nothing happened, and started heading towards his village.

Forshan***

"Have you heard of what happened in the Harshan Palace yesterday?"

The very beautiful and elegant Queen asked her Husband the King of Forshan.

"Tell me" he said shortly as his back was a little tensed indicating something unknown to the Queen.

"They found Queen Yaran dead in the woods after they spread out a search for her and the princess' whereabouts since they went missing after the attack against them".

The frustrated Queen spoke as if she feared she might go through same. Silence was all that the room echoed after she spoke.

"My King"? She tried to move to his direction since he looked too quiet, tensed and somehow unaffected by the news. The king lifted his left had half way indicating to the Queen to leave to her quarters. Although frustrated, she left looking at him worriedly. She knew partly of the past incident about Yaran and her husband king Raymond.

Although she knew about how they were betrothed to each other, she knows not what made them not to end up together so breaking the news to him, she didn't know how affected or unaffected he was.

The cold looking King Raymond looked outside and once he sensed the presence of his Queen departing he allowed his tensed shoulders down as well as the tears in his eyes to freely flow.

King Raymond kept to himself what he felt for Yaran all these years. The woman he had betrayed in the past deserved the best not this,he hated that he caused her pain at that time. "Yaran please forgive me" he uttered and left to write a scroll which looked very important as his sad looking eyes changed to that of one who was determined to do something productive.

***In the village of Forshan****

"The gods have been good to us...oh thank heavens and all the skies for this blessing" the middle aged woman who held a clean and calm looking baby girl in her hands praised and showed gratitude to the gods of Forshan. "She looks like a princess, look at these royal eyes oh... she's perfect." As she kept on praising, her husband who looked so mute after returning with the baby finally spoke.

" I need to have some rest". On saying that he slept on their not so attractive bed and started to think about the name "sheyah".Was that the name the gods wanted for her? Was she really from them? Or someone dropped her there to die but was saved by the god of wisdom. The slave citizens of the Forshans believed in the python god and had a lot of faith it's wisdom.

Upon hearing the stories from their past of how their native land used to make sacrifices with snakes but we're once protected by a python's to a safe cave when they were attacked by a lion, they begun worshipping the python and refered to it as the python god and later ended their snake sacrifices. From what he knew about the god, he thought that, this child must really be from the spirit to help them out in their struggle.

As he kept on thinking he fell asleep to only find himself in a dream.

***Dream***

"sheyah, your people will take care of you", uttered a royal looking lady who carried a baby towards a river near the forest. "Sheyah look, your people await you in Forshan, your grandparents await you there, look, that's one of them, pointing to the direction of the man, as scared as he was, he stood.

"come, take, she's one of your own, take her and protect her till she becomes a Forshan. Take her" .

As he held his hands straight, he opened his eyes only to realize it was a dream.

Waking up, he saw the baby sleeping peacefully close to his wife, who had shelter her in a protective manner. He smiled, knowing that this child was now part of his family, they had lost all their children to the other kingdoms during the great war against their land, they lost not only their land but separated to different parts of the kingdoms when the enemies raided their land after the war on different occasions to choose those they needed as slaves.

They were unfortunate as their children had been taken by the Harshanians while they were taken another by the Forshans. They never had a girl but were ok to have one for the first time. At least they know the gods remembers them.

Pondering about the dream he interpreted it as the god of python giving out the baby but thought of why the god wanted the child to become a Forshan, that would mean, when she's 18, she had to be given out to the Royal palace to serve forever and become married to one of the Forshaian citizens.

Oh was this how the gods wanted to free them from slavery? The man wondered and just looked back at the baby in eyes full of hope and slept again.

***The land of Harshan***

It's been a tough, rough and mournful weeks after the tragic incident that befell their kingdom.

The hope that had been restored for some couple of years was crushed after the incident happened. The people stood at the gates of the royal palace and mourned their wise Queen who was no longer with them.

For the past 2 weeks they kept on coming hoping to hear some good news but none was received about the king's condition or the princess' whereabouts.

The King had been ill after learning of the death of his wife as well as his daughter's unknown location. Everyone had no idea what really caused the sudden illness but assumed it as that of the tragic incident.

"My love, my daughter" the king kept on saying on his bed as his temperature kept rising, the chief physicians had tried all they can giving him the medicine they knew was going to bring him back to his strong self but nothing seems to work.

Full of anguish and hopelessness they turned to the high ranked guard and friend of the king to announce the current state of the king. In dismay, the guard turn to walk into the chamber of Elders to announce the state of their king.

"What are we going to do now?" An elderly person questioned in the chamber as the news about the king's state was announced to them. "We can't let this news go outside the palace". Another Elder spoke.

A sudden cry bursted out from one of the few women sitting in the royal seats. All eyes turned to her as she was being patted by one of the elderly women.

"Be strong Yaharan", the elderly woman said,the woman who looked exactly like the late Queen cried more as she heard those words. As eyes of sympathy and worry reached her, she finally stopped and sobbed quietly.

"I" *sob* "I..I wish all those intruders will be executed today....they have caused us too much pain".

Almost all the elders turned to look at the guard who finally breathed out to release the anger in him before talking as he looked in the eyes of the woman he had been in love with all these years...

Yaharan, the woman who constantly broke his heart till he finally realized how deceptive and scornful she was.

"They refuse to talk on who sent them, therefore I can't order their execution, finally breaking his eyes from hers,he looked back at the council.

"They need to die anyway! Whoever sent them might have asked for their souls in exchange of this calamity they have brought upon us".

Yaharan rose expressing how much passionate she was about this case and how much she wish for nothing but justice. Tension between the two close friend and relative of the weak King and the late Queen, the highest position among the elders rose to cease the tension and begun to speak.

"Execute them immediately!."

It's been a very rough day at the palace of Harshan after the execution of the intruders took place in the town square. The chief guard had done his best to keep the elders from agreeing to this execution yet his efforts amounted nothing. All this was because of his new suspect and former lover 'Yaharan'. If he had suspected her earlier he would have used a simple trick to get the truth from those intruders but he had no choice since an immediate order means immediate. Now all he hoped for was to have his king back on his feet, strong and healthy like he used to be.

His illness seem not to be leaving anytime soon and the search for the princess seem to be a rootless turn out. Giving out a long sigh of exhaustion he left for his room. "You seem to have failed miserably today too" said a cunning and sexy looking Yaharan while lying on the bed of the chief guard. "Get out"...he said without taking a look at her and walking straight to his bathroom. "You know I can help you save this Kingdom from being attacked in the days to come sweet...heart" after stressing and stretching the word sweetheart she laughed audibly in a mocking manner to annoy the guard more. The guard came out looking so annoyed and pointed his finger at her " I know you have something to do with this tragedy upon this Kingdom and believe me, I am going to have a lot of joy slitting your throat apart after I get all the evidence I need witch"...!!! gritting the words witch in his teeth, he walked straight to grab her by her arm and pushed her towards the door. " Get out now"! " Before I..." He couldn't finish his words when Yaharan run towards him and kissed him so passionately which was very unexpected. After breaking the kiss she looked in his eyes " Herman...I know you don't trust me but I am innocent and I need you to believe me." The guard looked at her eyes and thought why on earth he had to fall in love with this cunning witch. He remembered clearly how she use to deny his kisses but now she was trying to make him get his trust and she did that with such a passionate kiss. He was now sure of his suspicions and not knowing where the thought came from, he thought of making her believe he now trusts her so he could know exactly what she's up to because it seems that's the only way to know what the fox in the sheep's clothing looks like; by letting the fox undress infront of him one day to finally see it's natural appearance and true nature.

Looking at her deceptive eyes he kissed her back passionately and groan while doing so. "I believe you". She broke the kiss and gave out a smile that couldn't come out as sincere but rather evil. He thought to himself "Yaharan your end is near".

Ten years later

**Forshan kingdom**

"Father, Father, cried a twelve year old girl who walked out from the hut to her old looking father. "Father, mother said you shouldn't stay outside for long the smoke from the burning trash comes directly to our hut " she said. "Sheyah, he said will coughing aloud, don't worry about me, am getting old that's why I cough it has nothing to do with the bad air,I have to come out and see the surroundings for a while". Limping back to his hut, his daughter helped him back to the not so bad looking room which smelled like flowers with a little smell of the smoke from outside. The old man who used to be an active hunter was now looking ill and limping on his leg. Sitting down after being helped by his daughter he looked at her and remembered the first day he found her in that divine yet terrifying encounter. He was smiling while admiring how good he has been with his wife in taking in such an adorable and beautiful girl. He use to fear the thought of sending her away to the palace one-day but that was just one of his problems now. Two years ago a fox tried to attack his daughter when she saved a baby sheep from being attacked by the fox, on trying to help the sheep escape, the fox jumped on his daughter which was a miracle how it only looked into her eyes without harming her but looked angry and vicious. On arriving he only ended up stepping on one of his traps that was meant to caught beasts like foxes from attacking his lambs. Unfortunately for him, he was rather hurt by his own trap. "Sheyah"! "ah" !! " someone help us"while he kept shouting and screaming at the pain in his leg and heart, some villagers arrived from their huts and attacked the fox who was still looking at the little girl and lamb which looked protected in the girl's arms. After killing the fox by the skilled hunters,they helped release their fellow hunter's leg and sent him to the health hunt to be treated by their physician. It was such an intense experience for him and his family afterwards, their daughter was now the center of attention, everyone wondered why the fox didn't harm her and were touched to know she was protecting a lamb too...the news spread among the villagers and most of the children refered to her as the protector when they saw her with her mother on market days. Recalling all these, the old man had no doubt his daughter was special by all standards and he hoped that one day just one day this special gift will one-day save them from slavery.

In the evening his wife arrived with her little but manageable income and food items for the house. Ever since her husband was hurt from that ordeal, she was now the active one who manages their farm and goes out to trade some of their farm crops and flocks. Her husband tried to let their daughter help and assist her but she refused almost everytime, except for when he receives long visits from his friends. She never liked their young and beautiful daughter among the so called friends of her husband, in their time some of the old men, could show interests to young girls and as friends, their fathers would have not much choice but to give them out for marriage at the age of fifteen as wives, sometimes when the girls get lucky, they get betrothed to younger men which was still not good but was better than old men.

On arrival the stress was evident on her face and movements. "Mummy, welcome home, I miss you so much" sheyah ran to her mother with such a joyous mood which made the woman forget a little about the stressful day, this wasn't the first time their daughter always welcomes her home with such a soothing joyous attitude. There were times she just welcomes her quietly but that had everything to do with her little fights with some of the children outside . She was happy to have such a beauty as a daughter...she hoped one-day her children will find her but even if they don't, this blessing was enough for her to be grateful. "Mother, I prepared your favourite food today, father enjoyed it very much". Sheyah said without caring whether her mom was in the mood to be cheered or not, she kept on talking and talking about the activities that went on, in the day,until she fell asleep on the wooden chair. Sighing, her mother,helped take her to the little bed for her and went to the room her husband laid. "You shouldn't be going out, the smoke is very unhealthy for you" she said. "Rassa, I am not a child, I can't be kept inside forever and stop trying to turn our daughter to a watch guard" he said looking very not bothered. "Sheyah is not a watch guard" she kept on talking about how their daughter was concerned about him as well and how they have no intention to stop caring.

"Rassa I have something to tell you", he coughed a bit while trying to say this. His wife saw how serious he looked and patted him " it's okay take your time, I am listening". Looking at his wife he knew he had lied to her years back but now is the time to tell her the truth before she does whatever she wants with their daughter which included marrying their daughter off. "I found sheyah in the dark forest"... A gasp escaped his wife's lips while she stood up looking at her husband in disbelief, how could he have hidden this from her all these years. "I am sorry but I didn't want you to reject her"...he said while reaching out to her hand. She shifted a little from him while looking hurt and betrayed. "How could you keep this from me? Sheyah is very adorable and I would have never rejected her, what if she is one of the missing important person's children" she said. "What would an important person's child do in the dark forest crying in between a python god?" Another very audible gasp escaped her lips, this time she looked like she could pass out." Manuel"!!! she looked so shocked and felt like her ears were misleading her. "Yes Rassa*cough* she isn't from the river bank like I told you, I didn't find her by the river side, I found her in that state in the dark forest. I knew you might reject her if I told you this entire truth because you fear the divine encounters *cough*" he said looking worried and regretful.

" You should have told me I...I .. I needed to know what if I wasn't good to her, what if I didn't love her, the gods would have been harsh on me, I just found her adorable and loved her on first sight, like who knows what would have happened to me, if I thought she was your hidden daughter and not from the river side like you said" she said looking very betrayed and wronged. "I am sorry I..." He was cut off by his wife "why are you telling me this now? Huh? Do you think you might depart soon?" She questioned while sobbing silently to avoid waking their daughter. With this said, her husband stood up and limped towards her and hugged her while sobbing with her. "I can't tell if I would depart soon but I still need to tell you everything".