I, Ocean, have no last name. Hardly anyone knew my name. They knew me as ‘Missy,’ or ‘young little thief’. I don’t even know why my abandoned parents gave me this last name. Did we live by the sea, or was there some deeper meaning to it?
That didn’t matter right now. What mattered right now was that a girl who could pass for my clone had just shoved me the most important relic in all of the Shilesberg kingdom. The princess's crown.
I sat staring at it. All the tiny, translucent crystals engraved into every curl of the silver-plate crown. The crown had a heart-shaped middle, and inside that was an upside-down teardrop shape, and inside that shape was the biggest jewel in the crown, a dark purple teardrop-shaped diamond that sparkled in the sunlight.
I heard what sounded like a stampede of horses galloping behind me, but I didn’t make much of it.
“Find her! Find her at once!” Yelled a starkey yet booming voice I swore I’ve heard before.
When I heard gasping I finally got too curious and peeked out of the alley. I saw what had to be about twenty horsemen covering all perimeters of the road with a lone soldier on a midnight black horse leading them, as they rumbled through town. The Queens guards were riding through town! I quickly shoved my head back in the alley as they zoomed by, the bare presence of them making my hair blow east and the pebbles on the path vibrate.
As the horses grew more spaced out, I knew the last of the guards was yet to pass, but one knight just had to look at me. When he saw me, his eyes widened, but he was going so fast that was all I saw before he passed the library and was out of sight.
I thought it was over until I heard someone yell a thundering “HALT!” and all the galloping ceased.
The starkey voice on the midnight horse returned. “What is it, Shawn?”
“I saw the princess! She was in an alley, clutching the crown and wearing rags sir!”
My heart jumped.The one talking is the one who noticed me. I thought.
I was in for it now. And I wasn't even the princess.