When I was a little girl, my mother would tell me stories of a far off land. 

She would tell me stories of heroes and kings. Of dragons burning down cities leaving behind wakes of ashes. She would tell me stories of princesses and princes and fairy tales. Now I was stuck in my very own version of a twisted tale where the prince I had met was a jerk. One who made us train everyday from before dawn to when the sun set. Yeah, he wasn't a fan favorite and some had even quit, which just added to the prince's haughty attitude.

And I would spend everyday under his command training with the elves or with everyone learning new moves because I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing me quit. As soon as the Inibrius were gone, the elves would leave and humans would be safe from the magical creatures killing everyone.

That was my motivation.

"Girl!"

I turned to one of the older men in my group, his greying hair was cut short but the slightest hint of stubble adorned his chin. He walked towards me and I braced myself for more ridicule about 'me not training right'.

"What is it this time? Am I standing wrong? Are my fingers not positioned right?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest and glared at him. The others were hooting at us and I knew I wasn't going to like this conversation.

"Oh no nothing like that. The boys and I just think you should wear something a bit more...revealing. You must be hot in all those clothes." He gave me a toothy grin and I returned a sickly sweet smile before turning my back on him to continue training.

But apparently the hint wasn't strong enough and he grabbed my shoulder. I didn't even think it through before I spun around, my fist connecting with his nose. He stumbled back, hand gripping what seemed to be a now broken body part with rivers of red pouring down. The smell of blood entered the air and looked at my hand.

Did I hit him that hard? Whoops.

The field had grown quiet and I looked back up to see the prince coming to stand in front of me.

"Little human, why is this man bleeding?" His blue eyes moved over me and I watched the dark specks of sapphire rolling in the icy cool color.

I shrugged my shoulders. "He was being an idiot."

"I wasn't aware that idiocy caused people to spontaneously start bleeding from the nose."

He almost sounded amused. "Yeah? Well I think it's a new phenomenon."

I turned and walked away from him, knowing that it was probably an insult to someone like him made me smile.

"Oh and little human, why didn't you use all of your strength in that one hit?"

Of course I hit him hard. I broke his nose!

"There's lesson to be learned here!" He had caught the attention of everyone and I was half tempted to turn and punch him for using that over repeated line again. "If you are forced into hand to hand combat, strike with all you have because that may be the only hit you'll have."

He went on and on as I walked away heading home.

By the time I had reached the edge of the forest, I was watching the sun was just beginning to sink over the horizon, the forest becoming a mass of shadows in the red light. I looked into those shadows and I would swear I saw one move. I wrote it off as fatigue from the training and kept walking, but something made me stop suddenly.

The shadow was moving. It was walking the same way I was headed. It could have been and elf, a human or a really stupid Inibrius, and in my own split moment of stupidity, I decided to go check it out.

Walking towards the forest, I saw the shadow taking carefully measured steps to hide behind trees before he came to a stop in between two.

What is he doing?

I walked towards him as he stepped out of the shadows and my heart nearly stopped. Its body was shadowed and the only thing I could discern was the red eyes. Red eyes staring into me.

In that moment I felt like everything was stopping and I couldn't breathe.

"Lilly!"

I turned to see Jordan running after me, sword in a sheath bouncing at his hip. It had been two months and tension was high around the so called 'training grounds'. Day after day we met, training with swords, bows and sparring with each other and there had yet to be any updates.

"Lilly, what are you doing?"

"There was..." I did a 180 and looked back into the woods. "Did you see anyone there?"

I looked at him as he panted, trying to catch his breath. He had obviously been running for a bit. "Umm, no- just you and me here."

He didn't see him? I swear he was just right there...

"Why?"

"Oh... nothing. What's up?"

He looked at me for a second. "The prince called a meeting, apparently there's been another attack."

I crossed my arms in front of me, forgetting the shadow in the woods. "So now they need our help? What to send us in first to get slaughtered? For them to come out looking like the hero of a situation that's their fault?"

By now he was standing to his full height, eyes looking at me, almost searching for something before he spoke again. "The meeting is just for the Elves. I might have been listening in on the conversation after he went back to his tent.."

"So why are you telling me this?" I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Lilly... the Inibrius attacked two villages on the path here. Not only that... but they're on a path that will eventually lead through Aranis."

Aranis...

I stared at him, not willing to believe that they were headed there. The place I had grown up, each street still running through my mind. The forest in the dawn, the lake with mist hanging over it. They lived about a thirty minute ride away from here. My family was still there...

"I know you hate the elves and you're worried about your family bu-"

"I'm going. I need to protect them. They don't know what's coming and I can't leave them there. We'll ride up and warn them and stop the Inibrius before they show up here."

He didn't look surprised at what I had said. From the look on his face, he looked like he knew what I was going to say.

"Well, then I'm coming with. You'll need help if you want to face them especially with the elves keeping the humans out of this."

I nodded. "What time?"

"In about three hours. Go home, rest a bit and make sure that you're ready when I come to get you." He gave me a boyish smile before running off. He was way too excited about this and I... I was filled with dread. Something bad was coming.