Princess of Kamira Ch. 01

This is the first story I've written that has a ongoing theme. Warning: There will be incest in the story. There is also racial conflict, and fictional politics. This first chapter is Non-Erotic. All character are 18 and over. Please enjoy, and comment.

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Once upon a time, across an ocean and another land, lived a lonely young girl. She had everything a girl her age might want, toys, beautiful clothes, a lovely home. Everything, in fact, except a family or friends.

For as long as she could remember, she'd lived in this house with Lady Alger and her servants. She'd grown up here and it was all she knew. She never left the house and grounds, it was her whole world. Lady Alger had friends with children, of course, and they would come to visit, but they almost never spoke to her. Neither did the servants, save for her own maid, Grace. The reason, as it was explained to her, was because she was dark skinned, a color that was a lovely, creamy caramel, but so different from the pale peaches and cream color of Lady Alger's skin, and in fact, everyone else she had ever met.

Lady Alger was not her mother, but her caretaker and tutor. The few times the girl had broached the subject of her origins, or why she was here, Lady Alger was cool and emotionless as she would answer. "You are here to learn the lessons of comportment, and the habits and schoolings of a proper Lady. You are to be my charge until you are ten and eight, then you will be sent home." But where home was, and anything about her home or family, were a mystery to her. She dared not ask, for once Lady Alger had struck her when she pushed the subject.

So it was, the years passed. The girl excelled at her lessons. She read voraciously. He mind could not take in enough information. Her imagination kept her company. Through her books, she would travel to far off lands, slay monstrous beasts, have grand adventures. And while her mind wandered, her body changed. She grew taller, her breasts and hips budded, downy hair grew in embarrassing places. Until the day she turned eighteen.

Dawn broke that day, just as is had every other day for her entire life. Sunlight filtered through her embroidered silk drapes, speckling her canopied cedar bed with shafts of light, lighting upon her face and covered body. She awoke, excited for the day ahead. It was her birthday. "Today, I will know. Today I will know everything!" On this excited shout, she pushed off the covers and sprung from her bed, quickly ringing for Grace. She then hurried to her vanity to remove her sleeping cap, looking at herself fully in the vanity mirror. She marveled at herself, so different did she look to herself. Her glossy black curls fell in waves past her shoulder to curtain her waist. A few short curls shorn to frame her face. Her eyes were large, the shape of almonds and the color of violets. Her lips, she had always thought them over-large and clown-like, but this morning they looked lush and full, pink as if strawberry-stained. Her neck was long and graceful, but covered by the high, restrictive neck of her night dress. Delicate shoulders, high, impossibly round breasts. As she looked at them, her nipples suddenly puckered and she gasped. Mesmerized, she slowly reach up. She thought suddenly, I wonder what they feel like -- "My Lady! I am here, we must get you ready! They have come!"

The girl whirled around in her vanity chair, guilty jerking her hand away from her breast as Grace rushed in, holding her freshly pressed garments. Grace quickly started stripping and dressing her, so quickly that she had no time to wonder at the fact that she had never seen the dress that Grace was dressing her in, or to ask questions.

"Grace! Stop this at once! I would have answers!" The girl had never snapped at the maid, but she had questions that needed answering. "Grace, what is this I am wearing? Who has come? I noticed that only very few of my things have been packed. I will know, Grace!"

The girl was shouting now, whirling on her maid fiercely. She was so confused, it made her angry suddenly. She was wearing a gown so different from the high-necked, long sleeved gowns she was used to. She wore no corset, she had no under garments! The bodice was tight, a rich dark green silk, the neck was low and beaded, the sleeves were short and also beaded, the waist banded in a lighter green rutched silk with beads stitched in all over it. The skirt was long, layered panels of green silks in different shades, and she marveled at the matching silk slippers. Grace stared in wonder at her Lady. She was a woman now, an exotic woman, leaving her forever. Grace teared up, but blinked quickly to keep them at bay. She'd come to love the girl, but had known this day was upon them. "My Lady, I cannot tell you, for I do not know. Lady Alger gave me the clothes to dress you in, and told me to dress you in nothing else, to have you ready to leave at once. Please my Lady, do not be angry with me, I would not have you leave me forever while angry with me!" Grace's sad cry went straight to the girls stomach and she realized suddenly, "I an going away from the only people and the only home I have ever known, alone in a stranger place." The girl stopped suddenly and set, stunned at the realization. "Alright Grace, lets finish here."

After her make-up done, and the last of her books taken away, the girl, escorted by Grace, emerged from her room for the very last time. They made their way silently and slowly through the house, to the entryway of the house. The first person to see her was Lady Alger, who actually teared up as well when she saw the girl. Rushing forward, she gathered the girl up in a quick hug, before pulling her forward. The girl herself was so stunned that she could only stare amazed at Lady Alger, she didn't even notice the man that they now stood before.

"Here she is, as she should be, and ready for you, my Lord." What?, the girl thought, finally taking notice of the man, and was rocked to her core. Dark, skin as dark as her own! Eyes, the same color and shape! He was so tall! Like herself who, at thirteen, was almost as tall as Lady Alger and the other women in the house. But she was dwarfed by this man. This man in tall leather boots, dark pantaloons, a leather belted very large sword, long, straight black hair, rougher features then her own though, but the eyes... They were so much like her own. She was so stunned, she did not notice that Lady Alger had said something. "Introduce yourself, girl!" Lady Alger nudge her forward, and the girl curtsied low, and looked up at the stranger. "Good morning, my Lord. It is very good to meet you. I am Lady Aelliana." And the man smiled. It was so brilliant, she almost covered her eyes. When the man stepped forward and caught one hand to press a kiss to it, she nearly fainted.

"I know exactly who you are, Princess. And I am Jalir, your brother."

He spoke with a rich accent, and she was stunned anew. Brother? Princess? What is going on? Her mind was whirling and spinning and she couldn't breath. So she did faint this time. And her brother caught her.

***

When Aelliana awoke, she was obviously confused. It was midday, judging by the sunlight, but she was jostling about, laying on something warm, and when she opened her eyes, she was looking out a window, watching trees rush passed. Suddenly she remember that morning and sat up abruptly, almost knocking over Jalir, whose shoulder she'd been sleeping on. She sprang up and dove to the seat on the other side of the carriage. "You're awake, sister" Jalir said suddenly, startling her again, "When you didn't wake, I was worried, but you kept stirring, so I believed you just needed more rest. I am sure you have questions." He said finally, looking at her intently. Aelliana nodded slowly.

In truth, now that the time had come for answers, she couldn't think of what to ask. "Where are we?" She asked suddenly, then immediately felt foolish when he said simply, "A carriage." She felt annoyed too, and she snapped "But where is this carriage? And where is it headed?". "We are on our way through Morantell, this country in which you have been sequestered. We are headed to the shore, where we will be boarding a ship to return us to our Homeland." Jalir looked out the window at the passing wood and looked thoughtful for a moment, almost wistful. "It will be good to go home. I have missed it." She did not wonder then how long he himself had been away from their homeland. She asked instead "What is our homeland called? Why was I sent away? Do we have parents? Am I truly a Princess? Are you Prince?"

She questions sprung from her lips faster then she realized she could ask them, and Jalir laughed at her eagerness. "Our homeland is Kamira, the island of the Lost Kings. You were sent away to get a western education, without the influences or indulgences that you would have been spoiled with had you been raised in our country, or on the mainland. We had to send you to Morantell, because in Loremar's governing country, Castile, our people are not welcome, and the King would not have you too far ashore, even though you would have gotten a better education from the well learned scholars of Delmar. But he feared that among the other Royals, you would not be safe." Jalir looked at her seriously now. "Our country is not well liked in Loremar, sister. And so it was that we sent you there to learn their ways, so that when you rise as queen, they will see a modern western woman in the skin of a Kasmiran. They worry, because they do not trust the darkness of our skin, the darkness of the skin of all the people of Abiran."

Jalir went silent and Aelliana stayed quiet as well, watching the trees go by but not really seeing them. Instead, she saw the scorn on the faces of Lady Alger's guests, she saw the slight fear in the eyes of the servants, she saw every child she had met treat her with disdain. She understood then, that her people were different, and so feared and treated as lesser beings. She could not understand why people feared that which they did not understand. Now Aelliana understood why she had never left Lady Alger's estate. Had people seen her, both she and Lady Alger would be scorned so. She suddenly realized that Lady Alger had sacrificed so much for her, and was grateful, but had to wonder why she had done so. Everything was such a mystery to her, and Aelliana wondered if she would ever have the answers she so believe just hours ago she would have.

"We are arrived." Aelliana was snapped out of her reverie to realize they had come to a halt on a small town. Out the window she could see a large, foreign looking ship, The ship that would take her home. Finally.

***