A Troubled Mind

The humans have been at war with Elves for thousands of years. The hatred they had for each other runs deep into the depths of their souls, buried right into their bone marrows, to the extent that no human could stand the sight of an Elf and if one is caught, the worst kinds of torture were implemented.

Their favourite was cutting off the long pointy ears and nailing them to the walls of their borders. Some even competed on how many ears they’ve nailed.

On the other hand, no Elf wanted to hear the word 'human'. In fact, if an Elf should mistakenly pronounce the word 'human', he is immediately executed and if a human is caught, he is turned into a slave and treated like a dog till he dies from exhaustion. 

The Elves weren't normally this brutal. In fact, they are naturally peaceful creatures and had proposed peace to the humans which was accepted but the human King breached the treaty. 

He lured the Elf King into his castle under the guise of a feast to celebrate six months of peace then he poisoned the Elf King and his guards and beheaded his only heir.

This treachery blackened the hearts of the Elves and another war broke out.

Thus, the war went on and on and on. Huge amounts of blood was shed, many many precious lives were lost and soon enough, the Elves got tired. Fighting wasn't their forte. They were better inclined with nurturing nature and healing so they lost a lot of battles. 

When they noticed their numbers were dwindling drastically, they stopped fighting and fled to a part of the world, where the humans couldn't find them. 

As time went on and the world continued to evolve, the humans soon forgot about war. Within a few years, they believed the Elves were extinct. People began to fabricate stories about them for entertainment. They acted plays and wrote novels that even described their coexistence as harmonious. Only a handful of people knew the truth. 

These handful of people still hated the Elves with passion and believed they still existed. Thus, they created an organization and operated in the shadows, executing missions to find out where the Elves were hiding.

Prince Ron was currently reading a book called Fighting Destiny. He especially liked the character Theo who was a handsome elf with the air of nobility and a pro with a bow. 

Yes, poor Prince Ron had a huge crush on this character. He had already read the book hundreds of times but he always loved to re-read Theo's parts. In fact, he knew some dialogues by heart.

Ron was about to read his favourite part of all when the large doors to his room swung open and his sister rushed in with her train of servants who had their heads bowed and quickly stood at corners to avoid the wrath of the youngest Prince. 

Everyone knew Ron didn't like to be disturbed especially when he was reading. Whoever disturbs him will be sent to pack horse shit from the stables or perform so other worse punishment so they closed their eyes and silently prayed to any diety to save them from the Prince's wrath. 

As expected, Ron was deeply displeased. He slammed his book shut then turned to face his elder sister with a frown that was enough to give a person wrinkles for life.

"What are you doing here?!" he spat. "You know I don't like to be disturbed when I'm reading. You did this on purpose!". He then turned to the guards standing outside. "And why did you let her in? You're all useless! You should have stopped her!"

The guards began to sweat. How could they stop the crown princess from going into her own brother's room? That's the same thing as courting death!

Princess Rose rolled her eyes at her brother's complains. "If you're done with your childish tantrum, mum and dad want to see you"

Ron's face wrinkled even more. How could she call him a child? In front of the servants and guards?!

Said servants and guards acted as if they were deaf, dumb and blind. 

"I'm not going. Leave me alone" he said just to anger his sister. He knew he would have to go. His dad, the king, doesn't entertain tardiness nor disrespect. He won't hesitate to seize Ron's books and ban him from the library then subject him to harsh training for weeks.

Rose knew that she had actually hurt her brother so she decided to coax him. Besides, she was in a good mood. She was getting married soon! What Princess wouldn't be happy?

"Dear brother" she said in a sweet voice. "Don't be mad okay. I know you don't like to be disturbed when reading but what father and mother want to discuss with us is very important. Don't take this matter to heart. Let's go. Afterwards, I'll persuade dad to let you go out"

Ron's mood immediately did a 360 degree turn. A bright smile replaced the darkness on his face and the guards breathed sighs of relief. Princess Rose is truly a lifesaver!

Ever since Ron turned 18, his father put him on house arrest and hired different teachers to educate him in matters of the state and about ruling a kingdom for when Rose gets married and becomes the queen of another Kingdom, he'd be the crown prince. Next in line for the throne. 

Ron wasn't really interested in becoming the future King. He'd rather go on a world tour and experience different things but he had no choice. This was his life whether he liked it or not. Sometimes he wished he really wasn't a prince. 

Since his sister had already apologized, he decided to let it go. "Okay. Let's go see them but you must uphold your promise"

"Of course brother" Princess Rose said, wearing a large smile. Both of them proceeded to the throne room, where their parents awaited. 

Prince Ron and Princess Rose look exactly alike. In fact, everyone who didn't know them thinks they're twins. The only difference was the length of hair, gender and their personalities. 

Where Rose was calm, sweet, smart and elegant, Ron was wild, brash, mischievous and easily angered. Not a drop of elegance was in his blood.

In fact, some people question -in their own hearts of course- if he's really royalty. Maybe he was found in a ditch somewhere but the resemblance to the rest of the members of the royal family keeps them puzzled. 

The siblings had curly auburn hair softer than cotton, skin as creamy as milk and smooth as silk, cat like eyes with pupils the colour of emeralds and long lashes the colour of their hair. Their noses were straight and pointed and beneath that were small plump lips as red as blood. 

The siblings of the Kingdom of Ashenmore were just exquisite.

Princess Rose has the figure of a supermodel and she loved to flaunt it. There wasn't a single type of cloth in the world she couldn't rock and there was no colour that didn't suit her. Coupled with her easygoing temperament, she was loved both within and outside the Kingdom. There was no man in the world that didn't want to marry her. 

Prince Ron on the other hand was quite short for his age. Even at 18, he looked 16 and this fact annoys him because people look down on him thinking he was still a child. He was glad his sister wasn't too tall so they were almost the same height. She was just an inch or two taller and she's four years older than him.

Though he's quite lazy, his father still made him go through some exercises so he had a full six pack and nice muscles. It made any clothes he wears look like it was tailored just for him. Though his temperament was quite wild, he still had a lot of females dying to be with him. No matter what, they couldn't deny that he was a handsome young man.