Lotus' P.O.V

I woke up in discomfort, the sun was shining through my window, I could hear birds chirping from outside. I got out of bed and cleaned myself up. I went to the bathroom to tidy up my hair, it was a complete mess. I stared at the mirror, studying my appearance. My dull emerald eyes were what stood out the most, people said that they shine beautifully in the light, despite it being dull and matte. As well as my long raven black hair. My gaze was suddenly drawn to my necklace, I sighed in sadness, as I left the house, prepared to do my chores and daily routine. Drying my laundry, gardening, and cleaning the house. I would normally finish early, so I would wander around the village. Oakwood. Such a humble place, I'll admit I do enjoy the people's company, I hate people who are ignorant. Glad to know I live in such a kind village. Strange...For someone who has given up on the world, I sure do talk a lot about these friendly traits don't I?

The townspeople greet me warmly, all I can do, is give them a smile....a fake one. I look around, and there is a group of girls huddled around a poster, screaming so loudly it makes me wanna go deaf. I walk up to them and stare at the poster, it had a note written on it.

"Dear people of Oakwood,

As you all know, it is almost time, for the lord of DevineFalls to step down,

His eldest son, Lucas Desteen, has come of age, to take his father's place as the rightful heir to the throne,

Before he becomes lord, Lucas must choose a maiden, and ask for her hand in marriage, to rule alongside him,

The Desteen family will be visiting this village tomorrow at noon to pick a young woman, note that all maidens ages 16 to 20 will get a chance to meet Lucas,

If you are lucky you will be the one"

I read the poster, and rolled my eyes, the girls behind me gasped once they saw my expression, they all snorted in annoyance. "You dare insult the lord's son?!", one girl who was slightly taller than me spoke. I just sighed in response and walked away, I was NOT interested in these kind of stuff. I hear an argument stir up in the group of girls. "Lucas Desteen will choose me! For I am the fairest out of ALL of you!", one high pitched girl shouted, I continued to walk, trying to ignore these bride wannabes. I arrived at my house, and locked the door.

Night was lurking around the corner, as I sat on my bed, staring at the beautiful sunset. I was deep in trance at how the colours of the sky shifted from red, orange, yellow, and slowly into purple. I kept watching, until finally, the stars and moon were visible. I fell back onto my bed and read my note again. I smiled, a real one this time, and drifted into a peaceful slumber.

My eyes slowly fluttered open, as the annoying sounds of fangirl screams could be heard loudly from outside. I looked out my window and saw a huge crowd of people gathering around someone, I squint my eyes to see who it was, but as soon as I saw the symbol on their armour, I looked away in disgust. It was the Desteen family. I took one more glimpse outside, and saw the main attraction, Lucas, he looked to be around my age, perhaps even a year or two older. His battle armour was grey with a symbol on it, the symbol that represented DevineFalls it was a bird with two spears crossing each other in front of it, he had jet black hair, covering one of his eyes, they were a nice hazel colour. He wore a black mask that covered his mouth. I saw his gaze turn towards mine, I could tell a smile formed on his face by looking at his eyes. I felt warmth fill me for the first time in a while. I then snapped back into reality and turned away. I wanted nothing to do with this.

I tried to go back to sleep, but all the screaming gave me a major headache. In the end, I just got out of bed, and decided to do my chores early today. I checked the list of what needed to be done. I was running low on supplies, so a quick stop to the village market wouldn't hurt. I grabbed a basket and left the house. I tried to avoid the crowd of maidens seeking marriage with Lucas, but that was near impossible, the streets were covered with people and guards questioning if I was seeing him. I shook my head with a glare of annoyance. I was peacefully buying food when I felt a light tap on my shoulder, I sighed and turned around, prepared to tell the stranger that I was not interested in the lord's son. I whipped around and just as I was about to speak, my body froze in surprise. Standing before me, was Lucas, his eyes locked with mine, I looked closely at his mask and saw he had that same warm smile from earlier today. " Hello m'lady, my name is-", I interrupted before he could finish, "Yea, yea, I know. Your the lord's son, and heir to the throne, Lucas Desteen", I rolled my eyes. His smile slowly faded, "Hmm, your not going to try to impress or act all lovely in front of me?", his voice sounded soothing, but I tried to ignore it. In response, I shot him a glare. "No, why would I? I have no interest in marrying anyone, especially the likes of you....I don't believe in love", that last sentence seemed to puzzle him. "You're.....Different..I'll give you that....",  he said, I couldn't see, but I think he was grinning at me, it was hard to tell baca use of that mask. "Sure, whatever", I said with a hint of bitterness in my voice. I turned around in attempt to make a mad dash back home. When I thought everything was going back to normal, I heard a massive amount of screaming from behind me, curious I turn around for a brief moment, and see Lucas running desperately towards me, confused I looked at what he was running from, bad idea. I saw a HUGE crowd of fangirls chasing after him, they looked angry and desperate to catch up to Lucas. At first I thought there was nothing wrong, after all I was not participating in this. I was about to step to the side, when Lucas caught up to me and grabbed my wrist. Shock spread throughout my mind as he practically dragged me through the forest, he was much faster than me. It took every ounce of my energy to keep up a good pace with him. I shouted for him to stop, but no response. I dared to look behind us, and sure enough, they were still chasing us. Was there no end to their so called admiration for Lucas?! I tried to pull away from his grip so I could just hightail home, but nope his grip only tightened, fantastic....Why did I think this was going to be easy.....

I swear we've been running for a straight up 5 minutes! That might not seem long, but imagine running at top speed none stop, while being chased by an angry mob of fangirls for a straight up 5 minutes! I was so close to exploding out of anger, I wanted absolutely NO part in this, and look at me now! The lord's son himself, is getting me into HIS mess. Finally, I had reached my boiling point, I made a sharp turn through bushes, crossing in between trees and rocks, until we finally lose the mob. My lungs feel like all the air in the world has just escaped from it, Lucas is beside me catching his breath and eyeing the mob that passes right by us. I turn to him, anger boiling in my eyes as I slap him hard, right across his face, slightly taking off his mask in the process. He adjusts the position of it and continues to stare at me. "WHY DID YOU BRING ME INTO THIS MESS?!", I yelled, clearly with the temptation to just throw him into the river. His eyes showed how calm he was, yet he was still pretty surprised at my anger. "Well....I uh.......Kinda told them...that I uh..Um to shorten it.....Their mostly angry with you...", he says rubbing the back of his neck. My anger only grew as I thwacked his head with my food filled basket. "Ow.... Uh heh I guess I deserved that....", he smiled. What was with this guy? I sighed, and calmed myself, "Why are they after me?!", I said trying to hold back my anger..."Uh well.....they saw me take a slight interest in you, and sorta....went crazy....especially the way you acted in front of me", he chuckled. At that point, I exploded. "YOU GOT ME INTO THIS MESS, SO YOU HAVE TO GET ME OUT OF IT YOU SICK BASTARD!", my anger got the best of me, as worry crawled at the back of my mind. I could see in Lucas' eyes, that he was hurt, but I had no intentions on apologizing. "Just go back home and they'll forget about you if your not seen with me", he waved his hand around in boredom. I rolled my eyes and got up. I immediately started to walk home, until I heard Lucas speak again. "W-Wait! Where are you going?", he asked with a tint of desperation. I turned back to him, "I'm going home....", I said firmly. His eyes slightly widened. "Right now? A-At least let me walk you there", he smiled. I turned around with annoyance threatening to spill out. "Fine", I said through gritted teeth. I could see his smile widen through his fabric mask. "Wait", he signed me. He vanished behind the bush again to do something. For some reason I stayed, half of me was yelling to leave, but the other half wanted to wait for him, I was also curious to what he was doing. A few moments later he came out wearing different clothing. He no longer wore armour, and instead wore a long black robe like jacket that went to his knees, it had no zipper or buttons, and fit him perfectly and wasn't big at all, under he wore a striped grey and white shirt with a black cross on the middle. His mask stayed in the same place, his pants were dark grey, as well as his shoes. I looked at him confused. "I took off my armour, it was really weighing me down"."Wow......Is that what you were wearing under?", I asked, he nodded with gleaming eyes, "Ugh whatever, let's just go", I winced at how I was starting to be interested in his type of personality.

The walk back home was quite peaceful, with the occasional question from Lucas from time to time, all in the result of me either ignoring him, or giving him a brief answer. Finally, we reached my house, I was quite relieved that I could finally get away from this guy. Without saying anything, I dashed into the house, "H-Hey, wait I-", I didn't turn back, and locked the doors as soon as I got in. I leaned against it, and fell to the floor, what was this feeling? I asked myself, I heard a knock on my door, I didn't move. "H-Hey....Please....At least tell me your name before I go.....", his voice was soothing and sincere. I sighed and opened the door to be face to face with the mask covered man. "My name......", I hesitated, for I have barely told anyone anything about me, not even my name. It was.....weird.....but a tinge of happiness crept into me....Though I shook it away.... "My name is.......Lotus", I gleamed, which took me aback, I never showed much emotion to anyone, especially someone I just met. I looked at my reflection in Lucas' sparkling eyes, which was something my eyes didn't do, mine were dull and matte, but people said that my emerald eyes were beautiful, though I disagree. Lucas smiled brightly, as the moonlight highlighted some of his facial features, as well as the lamp post slightly lighting up the area. "Heh....Lotus huh....That's a....Beautiful name....It fits your sparkling eyes", he beamed. I stared at him in utter shock, I looked at his eyes once more and saw my reflection, they were indeed sparkling, I couldn't be feeling happy could I? I wanted to run. He leaned closer to me, leaving only a few centimetres between us. He came closer, I denied it, I shoved him away, in disbelief, and ran into my house once more, locking the doors for good. Lucas called out my name, but I block it out, running into my room and into my bed. I smacked myself on the head multiple times, no way I could be happy, happiness is a lie.....This is a dream, this isn't real. My thoughts raced, as I slowly drifted into sleep.....

Hai, hope you liked this chapter, it takes awhile to make each part, so I'm sorry if it takes a long time to publish the next chapter, but I still hope you like what you see :D Til next time, don't die of boredom :) <3