The Jewel Of Humanity

*An Alternate Universe**TWENTY YEARS PAST*It was night. The full moon illuminated the sacred Chapel inside the tower, at the very top of Castle MeadowBrook."We must find a way to keep the jewel safe, Your Majesty," confessed the Royal Chancellor of Meadowbrook to the Queen, Bihaldy, who was holding her sleeping, infant daughter, the Princess. She was such a perfect, beautiful babe  to her. She saw the resemblance in the tiny face of the man she had loved and ruled with. He was dead now, and here she stood in the light of the moon with her Royal confidante contemplating how to protect her legacy."Are you suggesting I hide it from my new husband, Chancellor?" She asked. Knowing full well that was exactly what he was suggesting.

Princess Flossina focused in and out of consciousness. She kept hearing a loud, sound, similar to crashing. She also felt a strong hand holding the back of her neck in place while pressing something cold to her lips, forcing her to drink something, which was bitter tasting and sticky. She wanted to spit it out, but she couldn’t move. Her body was in so much pain. Whatever she was drinKing seemed to stick to her insides and melt into her. She could feel her insides stinging and moving as she was forced to continue to drink the unknown contents. She felt excruciating pain shooting through her body. She didn't know if she screamed out or not, so overwhelming was it. Her eyes felt too heavy to open. Where was she? She asked herself. Even in her mind, asKing that question seemed to take forever to develop into one cohesive thought.

She wouldn't marry a complete stranger and be shipped off somewhere else because he didn’t want to give up what was rightfully hers in the first place. She had never let anyone know, but she couldn’t stand her Stepfather. He appeared kind and brave to everyone else, but she could see through him. He was power hungry. She was to rule over Zuff, just as her mother had, and her mother had before her. She would serve the people and guide them, do her royal duty by upholding the peace of the land, but she would only do that as the rightful Queen of her home, and none other. Her stepfather would have to come to grips with that. They all sat down at the table and began their evening meal and that's as far as her memory went.She looked down at her clothing and realized they weren't hers, and there wasn’t a

Marlon had swore a blood oath that when the time was right he would rescue his father at whatever the cost it took. That cost at the moment was his life, a price he thought paled in comparison to his father. Five years ago he had put his plan in motion and payed the previous healer who had resided there before him with a handsome sum of gold to leave the Kingdom and start fresh somewhere new and faraway, and to forget seeing Marlon. When the physician saw the large amount of gold bullion he was overjoyed and happily taught Marlon everything he knew, which took two years, but finally the man made him recite the ancient oath a healer took, thanked him again for his generosity and disappeared. For three more years after that he had bided his time playing the part by day and  thinKing of ways to seek out his revenge by night. The first task was killing the King

A fierce, black dragon appeared from out of nowhere, catching them just twenty feet before they were to hit the ground, and they were off to safety.***Now he stood here, in his private chambers, at dusk with the red and orange ombre sky as a backdrop, looking at her, after just delivering the horrible news of her mother’s death. He could see she was about to fall apart. He saw the unshed tears of sadness welling up in her big gray eyes. A telling trait of her innocence. No one could act this good, he thought. She looked so lost and confused to him. Her voice was quiet but regal. He wondered if she even noticed it. He felt like an ass."My mother is dead? And I..." She couldn't say the words."Committed the crime." He