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She pulled the cap of her cloak over her head, so that her face was covered with shadow. Did she have everything she needed? She looked around in her room. Yes, she was ready. She slowly opened the door of her bedroom and walked out. The girl quickened her walking pace and almost ran through the halls of the beautiful Palace of Pirithnyn, capital of Jeevika, the Waterkingdom.

"HAETA! SYNA SIG!" One of the guards ordered her to stop and show herself. Why had she been so stupid to take this route to the stables?! She stopped running and turned to the guard as she whispered: "Umbreyta!"

"I am sorry, Milady! I thought you were someone else!" The man made a little bow.

"It is okay, guard! Now go back and watch out for the real Evillians!" She replied with her mother's voice and decided not to change back in her own form until she was far away from the Palace.

When she arrived in the stables she immediately walked towards Hestûr, her horse. He was white with a silver-like shine and his manes seemed to be frozen icicles which where fluttering in the wind. Hestûr looked curiously at her with his neon blue eyes and snorted. "Easy, Vinur Minn!" She whispered in Hestûr's ear. She took the light blue reins in her hands and climbed onto the saddle. "Hlaupa, Hestûr, hlaupa!" And the horse galloped out of the stables. Vapor clouds came out of his nose and the girl's cloak fluttered like a ghost who was hunting her. "Umbreyta Aftur!" She yelled as she saw the edge of the forest looming in the distance. Finally she'd managed to escape from the Palace where her parents were holding her to 'protect' her, although she didn't understand what the danger was. Where were they protecting her from? Kidnappers? Assansins? No, she could protect herself, she thought as she touched the hilt of her sword attached to the belt around her waist. It wasn't very sharp or strong, not to talk about the quality of metal, but she could defend herself with it and that was enough.

"Rólegur, Hestûr!" She said to her horse and he immediately slowed down as they were approaching the forest called Andar Skógur. The trees were moving in the wind and strange shapes seemed to hide in the shadows.

The girl threw one leg over the saddle and jumped with both feet on the ground. She looked around and scanned the environment. After she made sure Hestûr's reins were tightly knotted to a tree she walked to another direction. The path was very slippery, but it didn't hinder her. When she finally found a nice training place the fightress unsheated her sword and started hitting all the poor trees around her. Her sword(wo)manship was very bad, but she could never train, unless she escaped from the Palace and went to an abandoned location, like Andar Skógur.

After a hour or two her throat felt dry and rough, so the swordfightress decided to go and find a river or lake to drink some water. The thirsty girl knew there was a river called Niatsyr nearby. There it was! She ran towards the river and fell onto her knees, but when she touched the water something strange happened... the water froze. "NO! I'm so thirsty!" She exclaimed confused and angry. "Catalina?" A soft voice said. The girl turned around and saw a white shape of an other girl with a beautiful dress and a long braid in her hair, she was an Andar, a resident of Andar Skógur. "So that is your name, isn't it? I am Andaria, Princess of Andar Skógur."

"So what?!" Catalina yelled at Andaria, but immediately drew a guilty face. "I... I am sorry, I didn't mean to... I am just so thirsty! Can you help me, please?" She asked the princess. "No," was the answer. "I can't, I'm a Ghost." The Waterprincess gasped and looked terrified at the girl in white. "But I won't harm you!" Catalina sighed and knew that the Ghostprincess was telling the truth. "Then do you know why I can't drink? Everytime I touch the water it freezes!" Andaria's eyes were wide opened as she whispered: "So... You don't know it..." And the ghost made a step back, she looked terrified. "Then it is even more dangerous!" She continued as she went back towards the forest quicker and quicker. "You should have stayed in the Palace!" She yelled at her and she turned around, running back into the deep, dark forest.

Catalina was confused, but she yelled: "Come back! Tell me where you were talking about! Come back!" She let out a scream as she hitted the ice with her fist, but when she did that something strange and unexpected happened. The water in the river what was still flowing now froze, too. "No!" Catalina cried. She stood up slowly and sauntered to another part of the Niatsyr, where the water was still streaming. Carefully trying not to touch the water, she brought her mouth to the river, but she accidentally touched the transparant liquid with her left hand and a whole part of the river on her left side froze. The Princess sighed and sat back straight. "Ahh," she heard someone groaning, like he had pain. She scanned her environment with her sharp eyes, but she could only see rocks, the frozen river, and trees at the other bank and behind her, which were all covered with snow. She probably imagined it. When she turned back to the water it wasn't transparant blue anymore, it coloured red, red like blood. Catalina gasped and her gaze fell on a trace of blood going beneath the ice. She followed it back to its source and saw... a boy, or rather: a young man. He was around her age and had beautiful black, long hear in one braid hanging at his back. He was slightly tinted and weared dark-red, almost black, equipment with below it high, black boots reaching his knees. Catalina suddenly realized that she was staring at the young warrior, who was laying half-frozen against a rock, which was sticking out of the water. His gloves were covered with a thick, red substance; blood! The Waterprincess searched for the place it came from and suddenly saw that the young man was injured at his stomach. She had to help him! She carefully tried to pull him to the shore, but his legs were stuck in the ice and his forehead laid against the big stone. All in all it didn't look very comfortable and Catalina decided to take him with her to the Palace to let him heal. But how? How would she be able to take him with her? How would she smuggle him into the Palace? How could she steal some medicinal herbs unnoticed? She would need a plan, because once the boy was in the Palace, there was no going back.

Meanwhile, the injured warrior was still bleeding and freezing to his death, so Catalina had to do something as fast as possible! But pulling him out there herself was impossible... Or not? She suddenly had an idea. She took her cloak, made of magic fur from a silver, mortally wounded wolf she had once redeemed from his suffering and laid it around the young man on the ice, what immediately melted. She could only just grab his arm before he would have sunken. The Waterprincess took both his arms and pulled him back to the solid ground. With a sigh of relief she went back to get her fluffy cloak, so that she could warm her patient. While she was making it comfortable for him she whistled, twice high and briefly, once low and long. After a few minutes Hestûr appeared between the dark trees and gallopped towards the two of them. Catalina managed to get both of them on Hestûr's back and the Princess, the Horse and the Stranger rode away, out of the forest, to the Palace, thinking of a Plan...

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I really hope you liked it! Please leave a comment! And don't forget to vote and follow! Thank you so much!

PS: I get the idea that my chapters are too short, should I make longer chapters?