Rob's POV

Queen Flora of the Icenoan kingdom. Regal and charming, she rules the land with an iron fist, making sure everything goes as planned. Her piercing blue eyes and her light brown hair sparkle in the sunlight, wooing everyone she comes across.

She's also, naturally, the world's biggest butt nugget.

"Robert!"

And my mom.

I sighed and closed the book I was reading. It was really interesting, naming and describing the different kinds of-

"Robert, come here now!"

-flora. Of course my mom is named after my favorite subject. Like, ever.

"Mom, hold on, I'm putting away my book." I sighed. What was she going to make me do now? Keep- ugh- Quentin Juneau company? I mean, come on. Everyone says he can harness the power of water. Surely he could entertain himself by waving his arms and summoning a huge ball of water.

One of my mom's maids poked her head into my room. "Actually, Prince Robert, you can take your book with you," she said, a polite smile on her face. "You and your mother are going to the Mycetain kingdom."

The Mycetain kingdom?! "Wait, what?" I exclaimed. "Why?"

The maid shrugged. "Beats me. But your mother is getting quite angry at you for being late to go-"

I ran past her, my book in hand. The Mycetain kingdom? Why? How? Why?

I slid down the banister of the stairs, my fluffy brown hair flying behind me. My mom was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. This time she was wearing a blue-and-lavender fluffy dress, her hair put up in some sickly "royal" hairstyle, with all sorts of sapphires and other jewels in it. I tried not to gag at the sight of it.

"Robert," she started, her crisp voice echoing throughout the entry hall of the castle. "We're going to the Mycetain-"

"I know," I said, jumping off the banister. "One of your servants told me."

Mom tsked. "I thought I told you to behave yourself and act like a prince. Where is your crown?"

I sighed and pulled the silver crown lined with sapphires out of my blue hoodie's pocket. I stuck on top of my mop of brown hair. "You happy, Mom? Let's go."

I walked past my mom without a word to the carriage waiting outside for us. When I sat down on my side of the carriage, the cold sword I hid inside my hoodie rubbed against my skin. Mom would never let me bring it, so I hope the prince of the Mycetain kingdom likes fighting. Preston, I think his name was.

Mom pulled out a needle and some fabric and started embroidering. I rolled my eyes. How could someone- even my mom- find that interesting? Or maybe they don't, they just want to look cool and just be like,  "Oh, I have nothing to do, so I'll just make weird designs on some dress thing."

Mom started making some rose on the fabric. Really? "So," she started, not looking up. "I was thinking about that girl Rosaline.."

I stared at my mom. "What?"

She continued as if she hadn't heard me. "She would make a lovely wi-"

"Excuse me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "For one thing, I'm freaking twelve, Mom. Two, I hate her, she hates me, that's it, now stop it with the marriage talk."

I felt my face heat up. Rosaline Tarsh, one of the "nobles," is the most bratty, spoiled, stuck-up person I have ever met in my life. She doesn't even LOOK that good. But obviously someone's paying my mom to get her to get me to marry Rosaline.

Never, ever wish you were royal, kids.

My mom sighed and kept on embroidering. Seeing that embroidery is the most boring thing ever to watch, I took out my book and continued to read, starting on the paragraph about- sigh- roses. Oh, the irony.

Time Skipperoni

My mom finally stopped embroidering when we heard a scream echoing through the forest.

"Dad!" the voice shouted.

I looked at my mom, who began putting away her stuff. Her eyes were wide in fear. "Stop the carriage," she called to the driver. When the carriage stopped, she jumped out through the door. Confuzzled, I followed her.

Mom headed towards the sound of the scream. Even though she was the world's biggest rose thorn, I followed her. I wanted the chance to fight something, even though I probably wouldn't get to.

We reached the source of the screaming, which was in some clearing in the forest. That's not the weird thing, though. There were these two kids my age with crowns on- princes? One was crying on the shoulder of some unconscious dude in the ground who was also wearing a crown. The other kid was fighting fiercely with I think was his mom against these weird, pitch-black wolves with icy blue eyes- oh, enough with these references to my mom.

Then one wolf turned to my mom and me, all like, "Oh look, new food. Kill these guys, kill those guys, we'll have food for days."

The wolf started advancing towards us, his mouth open hungrily. Other wolves started seeing where he was going and followed his example. I drew my sword awkwardly from the back of my sweater and held it out in a fighting stance.

Mom looked at the sword in disgust. "Robert, why do you have a sword?"

I rolled my eyes. "Mom, this is NOT the time. Wolves are attacking us, remember?"

I ran at the first wolf, slashing at it before it hit the ground, dead. I dodged the attacks of the next wolf before stabbing it in the stomach. I kept on attacking the wolves with that other prince that wasn't crying hysterically until there were only two wolves left.

Apparently the wolves had enough sense to back off. One of them ran off further into the forest. The other, which was bigger than all the others, so I'm guessing it was the alpha, just stared at us, baring his teeth.

Then he... spoke....

"The one of nature and the one of wind." The wolf wasn't even moving mouth!  Was it speaking telepathically? "We will be back. We will defeat you."

The other prince just stared the wolf down. "Shut up, you jag," he said in a British accent.

The wolf turned around and pranced back into the woods to be with his other killer wolf buddy. I sighed in relief.

"So what's your name?" I looked at the other prince.

"I'm Rob, prince of the Icenoan kingdom."

"Vikk, prince of the Starae kingdom."

We shook each other's hands. I turned around to look at the other dude crying. I sighed. "Do you think we should go help him?" I asked Vikk.

He sighed as well. "Yeah, I guess."

A/N Hello!

See ya later!