Caught Between Two Kings

Chapter 1

Firebird

I can't believe my kingdom was attacked and destroyed by the druids, I saw my people and my parents die right before my eyes, had my parents not sacrificed themselves in order to grant me access to the secret tunnels underneath our kingdom I would probably be dead right now.

It all felt like a nightmare, a bad dream I can't wake up from, how did I go from discovering my powers and looking forward to my coronation to losing everything.

My people were known to possess great powers from elementals, to witches, to fairies, and so on, but the greatest power to us was the power of the phoenix which was very rare to achieve and it was said that the last phoenix had gone extinct hundreds of years ago but was rumored to run in my family bloodline through my father, although he didn't possess the power he was still the most powerful mage in our kingdom along with my mother who was known as a legendary witch.
They were the king and queen of Florencia and were known to be very much in love, they had tried for ten years after their marriage to have a child but that proved abortive until they finally had me and named me firebird because they said I reminded them of the flaming bird of a phoenix.

There were two things ranked and deemed important to our people beauty and power, if you can't acquire those two you were deemed inferior in the eyes of our people, I know it's a bit shallow and superficial but what do you expect when you have a kingdom full of creatures with exotic looks this was bound to happen. Growing up I never had a problem with my looks since I got them from my parents who were ranked no 1 in the looks and power department. While growing up my people have always been obsessed with my looks since they claimed they had never seen a creature as exotic as me so I always grew up being praised for my beauty some even going ahead as referring me to that of a goddess. Although my mother always claimed that beauty wasn't everything I could still see the pride and relief knowing that her only child had at least passed the first requirement and was closer to achieving the second which made her less afraid of our people seeing me as an inferior and going against me when I was  to take over the thrown and rule our people.

Our people had a tradition that once any child turned sixteen they must be brought under the full moon to determine there powers and I had just turned sixteen which was why I and all the other children who had turned sixteen as well were currently gathered at the massive field used to hold this gatherings and I could tell my parents were incredibly worried that my powers wouldn't come forth due to the fact that I have never showed any sign of what my power could be which had them increasingly nervous and led to them consulting our kingdom's oracle who also couldn't detect an hint of power in me, they had hoped that by the time I turned sixteen there might be signs but to no avail.

My people had started there chants which meant the ceremony had begun, once a child's power manifested they were to join there parents in the crowd and was therefore accepted by our people while the ones who had no power were to wait behind while their faiths were decided which could either mean banishment, death, bullying or lower ranking jobs from maids to janitors to servants and so on.
I spotted most of my friends and I could see there powers had started to show and not long after a lot of children went into the crowd while being cheered by our people this went on until only five remained me included.
I could see the heartbreak and sorrow on the faces of my parents and that of the remaining children's parents, I felt so sad for putting that look on their faces and that's when I started hearing the whispers,
"I can't believe the king's only child has no power"

"I always knew she was only good for her looks"

"Poor child, such an unfortunate situation now she can't even take over the thrown"