The next prince I was going to serve was young. 

I didn't have much information about him. I wasn't told much except for the fact he was young, the youngest out of all the princes I served. 

I wondered what he looked like, how he acted, and especially what he tasted like. I'm sure he would be a wonderful dinner. Maybe he could save his life if he killed me first.

I devoured all the other princes before him, I took their souls and dumped their bodies elsewhere. Now there are so many kingdoms without any princes, without any heirs for the throne. None of them know it was me. None of them knew I killed their princes. They don't know where I went and it'll stay that way.

The journey to the kingdom was going to be a long one. This forest seemed to go on forever. I wasn't sure what time I would arrive. Around supper? Nighttime? My horse wouldn't go any faster than the speed it was going now so I had to deal with it.

I couldn't do any tricks or magic as I could back home. I had to act human. I had to be like them and learn their ways. It was dumb and foolish but that's my punishment for getting banned.

I decided to become a knight. I might as well take out all my anger on enemies and kill them. I used to be in the army of several kingdoms before I became a protector for princes. At first, I didn't eat them but one of them had found out what I was and I couldn't let him live after that. Soon it became a habit, almost an addiction. I wouldn't just take the souls of princes, other people too, kings, queens, villagers. Almost anything I could touch.

I had to go back to taking the souls of princes, they had a bounty for me, and they still do, but no one knows who I am. I'm safe under this suit of armor. No one can stand a chance against me. I know how to fight, I can take down an entire army if I wanted to.

As I continued riding through the forest the sun was slowly starting to set. Maybe I would reach the castle before it was completely dark. I was nearly out of the forest, after that I would have to go through a field and then the castle would be straight ahead.

The sunset gave everything a mixture of a pink and orange hue. Everything looked lighter but soon this forest would be dark and it would be hard to travel through without a light source.

---

I finally reached the castle. It was dark out but not too dark. That would change in a couple of minutes. 

I got off my horse and walked it to the gate. Two guards came over and one of them took my horse and led it away to a nearby stable. The guard that led me to the entrance of the castle made no conversation with me. He opened the doors and someone else led me away. It was a servant.

We walked up a big staircase and to a large room. The throne room. That's when I met the prince.

The servant pushed open the big doors covered in gold designs. The room was a bit larger than I thought. It didn't have a lot of things in it though. From the doors to the throne chair was a red rug. To get to the chair you had to walk up two small steps. In the chair was the prince. Next to him was a guard. 

The prince looked bored sitting in the chair as if he had been sitting there all day waiting for me. The servant walked ahead of me and I followed after him. We stopped a couple of feet in front of the throne. The servant bowed but I made no movement. I kept eye contact with the prince.

The servant turned to me and I finally looked away from the prince. "This is prince Atlas. You're going to be his guard." He bowed once again and left the throne room. With the wave of his hand, the prince dismissed the guard standing next to him. I didn't start talking till it was just the two of us.

 "How long will I have to be your guard?"

"Why do you ask?" I narrowed my eyes. "Am I not allowed to ask?" He sighed. "No, now answer my question."

"All the other princes I served told me how long I would be their knight. I expected you to do the same." I said. "Follow me." The prince got up from his throne. "I'll show you around. We'll talk on the way."

We exited the throne room and he changed the conversation to something different. "You might be here for you long, you might not. I don't really have a time limit. You're supposed to be my guard while I train how to sword fight. Got it?"

I nodded when he turned his head to look at me. "Did you have a guard before?"

"I did but he died." The prince shrugged as he said this. "This is my parent's bedroom, they're away in another kingdom. Two doors down is my bedroom, next to it is yours if you even want to sleep that is."

"Okay. How did your last guard die?" The prince shrugged once more. "No one told me so I assumed he got poisoned or someone killed him."

"How old are you?" The prince stopped walking and turned around quickly. He had a frown on his face. "How many questions are you going to keep asking? Why do you care?" His small outburst had no effect on me so I asked another question. "Am I not allowed to know about you?" He let out a frustrated sigh and turned around and kept walking but this time he sped up.

I was much taller than him so I had no trouble at all keeping up. I nearly matched his pace but still walked behind him. He angrily pointed out all the different rooms, each one I noted in the back of my head. I wasn't really paying attention to that though. I was paying attention to him.

He was different from every other prince I had. They were all loud, they were rude, and had no respect for me. They always gave me orders yet this prince wasn't loud till he was angry, he may be a little rude but that could be because of me. The other princes were rude as soon as I met them. I may ask him a lot of questions but that's only because I want to see how different he is from the other princes.

Not only was his personality different but so was his looks. Every prince I had to serve was white but Atlas? He was black, it was lighter than most people who had the same skin tone as he did. It was rare for a black prince to become king. They were always killed before they even had the chance to own a kingdom.