Achoo! Stupid cold. Why did I have to get a stupid cold, I can’t believe it. Just my luck. I grab a piece of tissue paper as I walk out of my room and onto the main station of my ship. A young officer hurriedly walks up to me and starts to talk rapidly, darn kid. Can’t he see that I have a cold and can barely here a word he’s saying? Suddenly I realize that he’s stopped talking, he scratches his white hair and then asks, “Are you okay? Do you need to go see the doctor?” As thanks for his concern I end up sneezing in his face. Great. I didn’t want to sneeze in the young ones face; actually he’s probably not much younger than myself. Perhaps he’s older than me. Anyway. I didn’t mean to, just happened. Poor guy, I hope he doesn’t get my cold because of this. Shoot. I watch out of the corner of my eye as he blinks a couple of times then wipes his face. “Princess?” He questions at me. Now I’m getting mad. How many times do I have to tell everybody that I don’t want to be referred to as Princess? Sure that’s what I am, but I don’t like to be reminded of that every .02 seconds. Ever since I was a little kid it’s Princess this and Princess that so when I was who knows how old I just got sick of it. Ugh! Why can’t they just call me Praeni? Now Princess Praeni. Just Praeni? That is my name after all. I feel my hand rising as if to smack the officer standing before me, but I simply rest it on his shoulder and say firmly. “Don’t call me Princess.” He nods and I smile at him before bursting into a fit of sneezes. Suddenly I’m falling into a gigantic black void. The first thing that comes to my mind is, ‘What in the name of Dulcatas is going on here?’ But then I can’t think and all is lost as I hit the hard floor of the main station.
I groan as I roll around on something soft. Slowly I try to open my eyes, but I find I can’t see anything. “Ahh! What the crap?!”
“Shut up Praeni!” I here somebody yell at me and quickly I recognize it as the doctor’s voice. Suddenly a blinding light flashes on and I yell as I cover my eyes then end up falling off the small bed in Sick Bay. I groan yet again as I hit the hard floor.
“This must be deja vou.” I mutter then hear the doctor laugh at me. “Some doctor you are.” I say playfully, “Your patient just fell off of the bed and now you laugh at her? Great. I’m getting a new doctor on this ship. I mean it this time!” Then I uncover my eyes and find the doctor gazing down at me still chuckling to himself.
“Praeni, Praeni, Praeni. How many times does somebody have to haul you down here because you can’t get your lazy butt in here by yourself?” I laugh along with the doctor. We have known each other for what seems like forever. He’s older than the oldest of my kind and hey, that’s pretty dang old. Perhaps before this tale goes any further I should tell you whoever you are out there, a little bit about my kind. We are the people called So’Shalin. The rulers are my Mother and Father, King Girin and Queen Mythiel. I am there only child Princess Praeni. I am 23 years old. Last time I checked that is. Though our people live to be near 500 or around there anyways. Some of the So’Shalin get sick of living so there are a lot of suicidal people in my race. But those people also sign up for the conquering of other worlds. Most of them who are sick of life die in battle unless by there own hand. Sad isn’t it? I wish my parents would stop all of the death going on, but I suppose many just get bored with living. I wonder why the doctor, whose real name is Caerraent though most call him Caer or just Cae, but I wonder why he isn’t sick of life. As you found out I myself am only 23 in a race that lives to be about 500. The oldest in my race is most likely Caer he’s about 597. My parents are 534 and 523. They are starting to slow down, but what’s strange is the fact that even up to the date of our death we always look like we’re still 25. Well, we stop aging or something when we are 25. Then we look like that on the outside while on the inside we still age. I think I’m confusing myself; I never did take the time to fully understand my race. Anyways my parents are almost on their deathbeds. In fact right at this very moment my ship is speeding back to my home as fast as it can just for me to see my parents before they die. I blink and realize that the doctor is staring down at me.
“Stop staring Caer, I’m fine. So what happened?” I ask him.
He scratches his pale blue hair and sighs, “Praeni you foolish young one. All of you below the age of 200 hundred or so just never get the idea that when you have a cold you have to go to the doctor. Foolish! All of you! Anyways. The cold you had was a bad one, but I have driven it from you and you should be fine now.” I barely heard what he had said. I was thinking about my parents. I suppose he knew this because he bent down and stared at me. “Praeni, it’ll be okay. You just have to find a mate then when you do that you shall be the Queen of your race.” He just had to remind me didn’t he? Most people didn’t get mates until they were 100 or older. But here I was being forced into finding one at a mere age of 23. It was the law or something that said I couldn’t be Queen until I had a mate. Well can’t I stay a Princess? But no, they wouldn’t let me do that.
“You know I don’t want one. Not yet.”
“I know dear. But, it must be done. And before you are 25 if I remember them telling me so. Or else if they are still around they get to pick for you.”
“Stop reminding me would you? I don’t like to be reminded. I’m only 23! Why me?” I asked then stood up to face the doctor. “Do you have a mate?”
Caer shook his head, “No. If I ever had one then I probably wouldn’t have been able to live this long. And I never really got around to having one.” True. For if your mate dies you die as well. Hmm.
I opened my mouth to say something to the doctor, but was interrupted by a call from the Main Station. “Princess Praeni. We are approaching our planet. Perhaps you would like to get around now.”
I sighed at being called Princess again, “Okay.” I said to whoever it was telling me this, “I’ll get around.” Then I sighed again and headed out. “Bye Caer!”
“Goodbye Praeni, and don’t forget to wear a dress.” Even as he said this I growled. I hate dresses.
I stare at my reflection in the mirror and sigh. I hate dresses. Hate! Die dresses! I can’t help but smirk as I imagine thousands of dresses burning in a fire. I grab a comb and brush it through my silver hair. Well, this is it. Now I’m off to see my parents. Perhaps for the last time. I don’t want them to die, I love them. But I must accept this. One of many other things I must accept. The fact that you get old, you slow down, you die. Again I sigh. Such sad thoughts. Suddenly my thoughts are interrupted by somebody over the COM system. “Princess we shall be landing in a few seconds. Are you ready?”
“MY NAME IS PRAENI NOT PRINCESS AND YES I’M READY YOU IDIOT!”I could almost feel fire lighting within my yellow eyes. I couldn’t help but start to yell at the officer. I don’t know why but sometimes I just can’t keep my temper under control. Oh well.
“S-sorry Prin, er, Praeni.” The officer stuttered.
“Just don’t do it again.”
“Kay.”
Poor guy. I’m sorry really, but I don’t say that I am. Can I disappear yet? To disappear would be grand. Then everybody can skitter around wondering where their Princess is. Oh well. Disappearing is not possible for me. I grab my dark cloak as I head towards the door of my quarters. Casually I put it on as I step out into the fairly quiet corridor. Actually it’d be completely quiet if it wasn’t for some crewmen repairing the lights at the other end. As I walked by they both bowed at me. I smiled and nodded at them. Poor dears, look ready to faint.
I stepped up in front of my Mother and Father. They looked tired, “Mother, Father. Hello.” I said and bowed to them. They smiled at me. It has been a long time since we both have seen each other.
“Hello my child.” Said my Mother, “It is late. Let us have dinner and then go to bed. We shall talk more tomorrow.” I nodded to her and soon we were all heading to the dining hall. I found out that my Mother and Father we actually pretty much okay. ‘Cept they were always tired they seemed okay. After dinner they went off to sleep, but I wasn’t yet tired. I smiled almost evilly to myself as I decided to go to the training hall and beat up some of the people there before going to bed.
When I walked in everybody stopped moving and turned to stare at me. Suddenly I guess they all realized who I was and where on their knee’s. I shook my head and then said, “Anybody going to fight me?” The men blinked and slowly one by one they stood up. Men. I shake my head some more. To bad they won’t let other Females fight. I’m the only one. And why? Because I’m a Princess. I sigh. Now that’s fair, not. Oh well. Again I ask them if anybody is going to fight me. Nobody says anything, cowards. “Well?! There has to be somebody that wants to take a chance at beating up poor little Princess Praeni. Please? Somebody?” My eyes widen as a tall black haired man steps forward.
“Sure. I’ll give it a shot.” He says smiling.
“Okay then.” I say and then take up my fighting position. Those in the room who have never seen me fight before probably thought my position was stupid because I seriously looked like I was ready to dance. Ha. Fooled those guys. I chuckled as I attacked. Brave guy. I suppose I’ll take it easy on him. Soon the fight was over, I won. Go figure. I always win. “Good fight, but you need more practice to beat me.”
The onyx-eyed man smiled, “Yup, suppose so. Oh well. It was fun.” Standing up from sitting on the bench he bows to me and then says, “Goodnight Praeni.”
I blink surprised. He didn’t call me Princess. Could this guy possibly know that I don’t like to be called Princess? I know for a fact I’ve never seen him before. “What’s your name?” I ask suddenly and he blinks. “Well?” I ask again. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Toracak.”
“Nice to meet you. Now, I must be going to bed now. Perhaps we can fight again some other time?”
“Sure! Bye!”
I smile and then go off to bed. As I sleep I am completely unaware of what is happening. Lying in my bed I am suddenly lifted up by somebody. I wake up and look up to see Toracak. I blink unsure of what’s happening then start to yell at him. He quickly tells me to shush and that alone make me angry. “We’re under attack. You Mother and Father told me to come get you and go to your ship. Now. Um. Where’s your ship?” I growl at him.
“Okay fine. Whatever you say. My ship is in docking port #93 of the royal ships.”
“Oh, okay! Um. Where’s the docking port?” At this I smack my forehead. This guys not that bright, but okay. Just then red lights throughout the hallways start flashing and a noisy buzzing sound starts to fill the building.
“That only happens when a real emergency is going on.” I mutter. Tor looks down at me still running.
“I said we’re under attack. Now please where is the docking port?”
I leap out of his arms and grab his hand, “Follow me.” We run to my ship as fast as we can. “Wait.” I say, “Where are my parents?”
“They said for me to get you and get our of here and they would try to stay and battle the enemy off.”
“Oh. Whatever. Here’s my ship.” I say then run up and demand the hatch to open. The entire crew is still onboard as they were told. Dang I thought I told them to all get a little vacation while we are here. Glad they didn’t obey my orders though. Running as fast as I can followed by the utterly confused Toracak I get to the Main Station. “Get us out of here!” I yell. But nobody moves they just stare at me in my pajamas. I hiss at them then and they start to get the ship going. I let go of Tor’s hand then and he blinks at me.
“Guess I’m going to, eh?” He questions to me. All I do is nod. “Okay.” He says and sits down on the floor then watches the screen showing us slowly leaving my planet.
“Princess. We are now orbiting the planet.”
I nod, but my instinct tells me to get out of orbit and head off. Quickly I tell the others to do just that and I watch my planet as we slowly blast away from it. To me it looks fine, but suddenly without any warning at all it blows up. The whole entire planet explodes some how. Everybody’s eyes go wide as we watch it happen. Beside me Toracak gasps. He leaps up and walks over to an officer, “What happened?” He demanded.
The officer gulps and then looks at Tor like he’s an idiot. “I’m not taking orders from a low class person such as you.” He says to Tor. ‘Low class?’ I didn’t know that. But I guess Tor is. Hmm. Oh well that doesn’t matter now.
Slowly I say, “You better answer him now officer.” I watch as displayed on the screen before me fragments of my once beautiful planet sputter off into space.
“Yes Princess. Sensors show that the planet blew up.”
“Yah. Well my eyes tell me that much idiot. Now tell me why.”
“Yes Princess. It seems that an enemy of ours has planets bombs deep with in our soil somehow and then detonated them.”
“How many bombs?”
“Over a million.”
I couldn’t believe it. But there it was right in front of my face. “Everybody’s gone.” But then I think to myself, “How many other ships left the planet besides us?”
“None.” The officer says.
“None? So. We’re all that’s left.” I blink and tears end up flooding down my face. Something I would never do in front of my crew is cry, but now I can’t help it. Something’s on my shoulder I can feel it. I turn to look at what it is and it’s Tor’s hand.
“It’ll be okay Praeni. It will.” He says and does his best to smile at me.
Year 5803 Planet Dulcatas destroyed. Number of So’Shalin left: 52 included among them Princess Praeni.
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