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The next three days were filled with preparations for the celebration of Karil’s twenty-third birthday and of a wonderful hunting season. Even the crops had done well. The dragon relocation had been done splendidly also. It had been an overall good year.

Karil sighed as she walked around her castle. Her work had kept her so busy she had forgotten many important days. The pressures of ruling a whole kingdom alone with the small amount of help from her advisors had gotten very tiring. She had been overworking herself for such a long time now.

The princess then came to the desired hallway. She walked down the corridor and came to a hall that led to the gardens. After a minute of walking, she found herself in the castle gardens located in the very center of the structure. This was the place she often came to when she needed to think.

Karil sat down on a bench and looked at her surroundings. There were trees that grew strong and tall. She could see the morning sky over her and beautiful paved walkways that led to a fountain in the center of the large garden. She looked to the far corner of the garden and spotted two magnificently carved gravestones.

The woman then stood up and strolled over to the two gravestones. She knelt in front of them and bowed her head low.

“Good morning, Mother. Father,” Karil said quietly.

“She shifted her eyes and read the plaque that was embedded into the ground between the land markers. It read:

Cornelia and Fredrick Seravir

1287-1348

Queen and King of Seravira

“You may be gone, but I’ll never forget you, and I’ll use the lessons you taught me in my everyday life to become as good of rulers as you.”
-Karil Seravir

Karil looked at what she had said so many years ago. Her parents had died when she was only eleven years old. The memories of the funeral came rushing back to her as she read and reread the plaque.

The princess remembered the time she had first heard her parents were going on the expedition together. The one where they were going to go explore and map out the outer regions of Seravira, but ended up being attacked by dragons who had made the lands their nesting grounds.

The hazel-eyed knight closed her eyes and let her memories take her back to a time almost twelve years into the past.

“Mother, Father, why are you packing? Are we going somewhere?” an eleven-year-old Karil asked her parents as they neatly piled clothes into bags.

Cornelia smiled down at her daughter then knelt and brought her into a tight embrace.

“Your father and I are going on a journey. We’ve been requested to explore the lands outside of Seravira. I apologize for not telling you sooner.”

The little girl nodded. “Oh. When will you be back?”

This time, Fredrick answered, “Your mother and I won’t be back for a few weeks. We may even be gone for a month.”

“A month? Oh… That is a very long time,” the little girl said sadly.

Fredrick nodded, then spoke again, “If there was any way we could stay here or bring you along, we would, but it is impossible for us to arrange that.”

Karil nodded, and started to cry slightly. “I understand,” she said. “But I don’t want you to go.”

Fredrick knelt and hugged his daughter, comforting her enough to stop her crying.

Karil finally stopped. “I love you, Mother, Father. I want you to promise that you will both come back, safe and sound.”

Fredrick and Cornelia laughed. “Okay. We promise, Dear,” Cornelia said.

Karil stood up and sighed. She wasn’t that same child anymore. She wasn’t and couldn’t be that carefree since she had a schedule full of work that required her to be responsible and serious. Her parents’ deaths are what caused it. She remembered the time when she received news of the incident as well.

The young princess watched silently as guards came into the castle grounds carrying her injured parents.

“Mother! Father!” She screamed as soon as she recognized her parents.

The girl ran over to where the guards were carrying stretchers with her parents lying on top of them.

Karil grabbed her mother’s hand and kissed it. Cornelia smiled weakly. “I love you honey. Don’t ever forget that,” she said just as weakly as her smile was. She then went cold and limp, having left this world for a better life elsewhere.

Karil then ran to her father. “Father, don’t leave me!”

Fredrick winced in pain from the open wound on his chest. “Forgive us… Karil. We love you… more than you may know. Remember… that you… must treat… this kingdom… with the same respect… they treat you… with, okay… sweetie?”

Karil nodded. “I will, Father, but won’t you be here by my side?”

Fredrick shook his head. “I won’t sweetie… but… that doesn’t matter… anymore.”

Karil shook her head. “Father, don’t leave me! Don’t! Please! You can’t!” the young girl screamed.

Fredrick looked deep into his daughter’s eyes that reminded him so much of himself.

“Karil Seravir… I expect you to… rule this kingdom… properly… and be fair… to all.
Remember what… your mother and I… have taught you.”

Karil could hear her father’s voice become raspy. She saw the blood he coughed up and knew he was going to die just like her mother had only moments ago. It was so unfair.

The desperate princess hugged her dying parent. “Father! What will I do without you? I don’t know what to do! Father!”

She felt her father grow cold beneath her. She just stood there, sobbing and crying. Her light pink dress was stained with the blood of her parents. She wouldn’t let go of the corpse on her own and had to be pulled away by her guards.

“MOTHER!!! FATHER!!!” she screamed

The funeral that followed the deaths of Queen Cornelia and King Fredrick was the most depressing event Karil had ever had to go through.

After the funeral had ended, Karil found herself in deep sorrow. She cried herself to sleep each night and noticed that she became short tempered with her advisors and maids. The only way she could express her feelings was by training. She trained most of her day, and pretty soon she became an excellent fighter. She was strong, and after four years of training, she could beat all of her knights in duels, so that was how she was accepted into knight hood. That was how she became what she was, the general of her knights and the powerful princess that ruled her kingdom almost perfectly.