Chapter 1 : The Fateful meeting

----------------------------------------

"Meeting you was fate, but falling in love with you was beyond my control."

----------------------------------------

The kingdom of Dolcenia was in the midst of a celebration, for their annual fete week. Traders and merchants from all over the kingdom and out had come to trade their soft silks, jewellery and many other exotic things.

Ella's parents, healer Kace and Miranda Ahcpel had sent her to buy some special herbs from one of the little shops in the market. As she was checking out the herbs for her needs, the palace messenger blew his sharp horn in the middle of all the hustle.

She was a beautiful girl with hair as black as the night sky. She wasn't petite like all the other girls of her age, but rather she was pretty healthy, having just the right amount of meat in her body. Her eyes were also dark brown, but then anyone could have mistaken those for black as they only seemed to be brown in the sun.

Wearing a simple dress and flats, she did not really care for her appearance that much to be exact. She believed in the beauty of a person's soul and not their looks. Ella had great knowledge in the fields of herbs and possessed the voice of a nightingale singing the beautiful hang of the night. To put it in simple terms, Ella was a lovely girl.

Everybody stopped what they were doing immediately and quickly paid attention to whatever the messenger had to say. It was quite a rare occasion for the messenger to be here. Let's just say that Dolcenia never had any interesting messages from the palace that frequently.

The young messenger dressed in the royal palace's clothing started reading from a scroll parched in his hand "The King of Dolcenia, on the very occasion of the Kingdoms annual fete has given an order out. The order is for a ball to be held for all the kingdom's people, next week in the palace halls. All maidens and gentlemen of no class or status respective are to attend this ball."

After hearing what the messenger had to say the people were shocked.

Their king had invited everyone to be in the palace! This type of event had never occurred ever since the late royal king and queen and passed away, but now it seemed like the King was ready to normal out the happenings in this kingdom. People started to burst out with joy and maidens squealed with excitement.

Everybody was ecstatic after hearing this very news.

But Ella had not been affected much, after all, lavish parties with balls and gowns and wine were totally not her cup of tea. She quickly bought the herbs that her parents wanted and then took off.

On the way back to her humble abode, she had to cross a forest. The forest kept many people out of it as there were many rumours of evil spirits lurking there but for Ella, the woods were her best friend.

Humming her favourite lullaby gently, she was just skipping along when she suddenly saw a black silhouette move from the corners of her eyes. She paused and then went towards what seemed to be a man near a tree.

Just as she neared him, she saw that there was an arrow stuck to his calf and that was causing him to bleed a lot.

"Oh heavens! You're hurt! Please let me help." Ella quickly took out some herbs from her basket and then quickly crushed them in her hand, took the arrow out and then smeared the wound with it. Then, she tore the ends of her dress and bandaged his wound shut.

The stranger during the whole process was staring at her. He had terribly handsome features that Ella had failed to notice in all the distress. His eyes were the brightest shade of blue she'd ever seen and his brown hair glistened in the daylight.

He was donned in quite weird clothes, clothes that would surely not belong to a commoner.

On the other hand, while Ella had been tieing up the strangers wound, his heart was beating way too quickly. The maiden helping him, in his eyes purely seemed divine. Her black hair and beautiful eyes captivated his heart. The way she had gotten worried over a stranger had made his heart warm. He desperately wanted to know who she was.

"What is your name?"

"My name?" Ella asked, quite surprised that the stranger was speaking to her at all.

"Yes"

"My name is Ella. Ella Ahcpel. And may I know what is your...." She was just about to finish her sentence when they heard the sharp voices of horses hooves and the guards along with them.

"Search the perimeter! He cannot have gone too far!" shouted the guard from the top of the horse.

Ella was confused. "Who might they be looking for?" She thought.

The stranger then quickly took her hand, placed a kiss and then said "Time doesn't permit to stay for long. Until next time Ella"

Saying this smoke entered her whole vision, and by the time her vision reappeared, she noticed that now the stranger was gone.

The knights had now surrounded Ella. The head guard asked her "Did you see an injured person here?"

Ella's heart for some reason wanted to lie and so that's what she did. "No officer, I was just passing by."

"A young girl in the middle of the forest. It seems suspicious. You may even be an accomplice to the intruder. CAPTURE HER GUARDS!! We need to take her to the palace for interrogation"

"Officer! No!" cried Ella. She did not want to go to the palace, for everyone knew that it was where the King resided. And everyone also knew that the King spared no person associated with any sort of crime.

But the officers quickly bound her hands and despite her pleas dragged her off to the palace for the interrogation.

And looking back, if Ella knew what was in store for her in the palace, she would have never taken the path crossing the palace that day.

She would have never even gone out of her house.