It all started when Alastor and Daniel Cornel, twin princes, had a fight. A huge one. No one in the kingdom knew what it was about, but it happened and it was quite out of the blue.

The two brothers had always been pretty close. They always played together in the palace... or so it seemed.

The fight wasn't to be taken lightly. Daniel was the oldest, the heir to the throne, but after the fight Alastor became pretty interested in becoming king. He turned a small portion of the army, the best of the best, against his brother and in the end he managed to take over half the kingdom.

The entire kingdom split in half after that, the northern, which was Daniel's, and the southern, which was Alastor's.

This vendetta of theirs became worse and worse as the years flew by. Eventually, Daniel got married and his wife gave birth to twins. A week after the news were announced, the palace got attacked by his brother and his family was presumed dead.

Alastor had three kids of his own. A daughter (the oldest), and another pair of twins. When he had his children, Daniel attacked his palace in return and Alastor's second daughter, one of the twins, went missing. Both brothers claimed they didn't have her.

Alastor never stopped searching. He became obsessed. As for his brother, he never stopped grieving for his lost family.

Apart from family drama that concerns the entire world, there are also some people you don't want to mess with... The witches.

They're pretty much the most powerful beings across the kingdoms and you don't wanna get on their bad side. Seriously. Just don't.

They live in clans, usually in mountains or near water, depending on what they mostly practice magic on. They're not really hunted and hated, but they're not quite welcome either, which is why they isolate themselves. Some clans have rules against associating with other people and could banish you for that.

But that's nothing compared to having a witch's hair cut short. All of them grow their hair pretty long, but if one of them angers the leader, they could get a pretty permanent haircut. Then everyone would consider the witch a disgrace and an outcast.

Witches are usually born with the gift but others manage to practice some magic through many years hard work, after at least three decades.

But there aren't only torn apart kingdoms and powerful witch clans. There are also meadows and fields almost everywhere.

And then there are the bad neighborhoods... At least one in every town or village. Some towns were plain bad neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with high crime rates, but little money and full of homeless people. Drunks in every corner. Broken bottles everywhere.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows in the real world.

Crystal Meadows lived in a meadow, which is pretty ironic. She never knew her mom, but her dad was the best person she'd met, and she'd met lots of people.

People who didn't want her around because she was weird.

She never really got why people called her weird. She wasn't really that different from other girls. She just didn't like staying in and doing housework. She liked going out, horseriding, climbing on trees and reading.

The girls never paid her any attention, because they considered her a little boyish, and the boys didn't want her around because she was a girl.

In the end, she stopped caring about what people thought. She did her own thing. Or that's what she convinced herself was going on...

Her father, Benny Meadows, was also a lonely man. He didn't go to the tavern to drink with the other men, because he had a daughter to raise on his own. He didn't have a garden, because he was too busy with bringing Crystal up to grow some flowers.

And, trust me, he was the best dad in the world.

When Crystal was 3, she asked to learn horseriding. He taught her the basics on a pony.

When she was 5, she asked for a unicorn. Now, Benny couldn't really go out in the forest and find a real unicorn, as they were facing extinction, so he stayed up all night the day before her birthday, and made a fake horn for the youngest horse they had, Ash.

Ash was newborn at the time. He was a dark gray horse with a black mane; was the most beautiful horse in the stables, and Crystal's favourite.

She was pretty excited when she saw her "unicorn", but Benny convinced her that it was a baby and had to return home to its mother. Crystal knew the "unicorn" was Ash, but was excited nonetheless.

When Crystal was 6, she wanted to learn archery. Not what your average six-year-old would want to do, but she didn't care.

Benny got her a bow and a quiver and arrows and taught her, yet again, the basics. He was too a man of many talents. He had traveled a lot and had been all over the Kingdoms, before they split up, back when there was only one Kingdom.

Things got bad, though, when she turned 16.

After a long day of taking care of the horses and working around the house with her dad, they went inside to rest. She was lying on the armchair, reading a book, when she fell asleep. It had been a long day.

When she woke up a few hours later, it was raining. She realised she had woken up because she could hear Benny talking with some other man, but decided to act as if she was still asleep for a while. Maybe she wasn't supposed to know this conversation was taking place.

“Sorry, Benny. He found out. You can't keep her here forever. You knew that from the beginning, when her mother's maid left her here.”, the other man told Benny. His voice sounded a little gruff, but he sounded sad too. She recognised him.

Andy, she thought.

“You know I can't just give her away, don't you? She's my daughter.”, Benny croaked.

“She's not.”, Crystal stifled a gasp. “I'm sorry, Benny. There's nothing I can do. Maybe if you'd told me from the beginning... I could have misled them for a little longer.”, Andy, also known as Andrew Dow, replied. He really sounded sorry.

Andy was a common soldier from King Alastor's palace. He usually ran errands for his Majesty in the village and was the closest to a friend as Benny ever had. He was married with a daughter, but Crystal had never met his family.

Speaking of Crystal, she didn't understand what Andy meant what he said that she wasn't Benny's daughter.

If Benny wasn't her father, then who was? What did Andy mean when he said her mother had given her to Benny? She tried not to give herself away and stayed quiet. She'd ask questions later.

“At least give me some time to explain. Please.”, Benny begged. There was silence for a while.

“Fine. I'll be back the day after tomorrow. Morning. That's the most time I can give you.”, Andrew sighed, eventually.

When she heard the front door close, Crystal shot up.

“What was all this about? What was Andy talking about?”, she frowned.

Benny looked taken aback for a moment. He was surprised she was awake. “You heard all that?”, his face fell. Crystal nodded rapidly. “Well, then, that saves me the time of deciding whether to explain to you or not.”, he sighed.

“You weren't planning on telling me?”, she raised an eyebrow.

“That's not what I said.”, Benny shook his head.

“Are you going to explain, or what? It's not like we have much time from the sound of it. What's going on?”, Crystal demanded. She wasn't usually one to press people, but she was confused and pretty scared. She needed answers.

“Can't I explain in the morning? Your mind will be clearer then and I'll have enough time to think it over--”

“No. Why did Andy say you're not my father? What did he mean when he said my mother's maid gave me away to you? Who is my mother? Does Andy want to take me away? Why does he want to take me away?”, she rushed. She was getting teary-eyed. There were so many questions floating around in her mind, that she felt as if she was going to explode if she didn't get them out.

So Benny sat down opposite her and explained what was going on, or at least, everything he'd promised her mother he would say.

He explained how her true father was the king, and she was the lost princess everyone had given up hope on finding. How her mother had ordered her maid to take her away and keep her far from the stress of being royalty and from the feud between her father and uncle. How her mother couldn't save her brother and sister from all that, because she was sick and dying and the maid got busted getting her out.

And Crystal absorbed every word like a sponge. She remembered everything exactly as Benny told her. She could rewrite it word for word.

“It was late night and raining when she knocked on the door. She was worried you'd get a cold. She didn't stay long; just enough to explain what was going on. She wasn't given any specific orders on where to take you, but I knew her personally and she said that I was the only person she trusted with this. She got me back into a mess I had been trying to get out of for years.”, he had sighed.

And in the morning, he was finally done.

“I'll have to help you pack. Are you ready?”, he asked her. She shook her head and said nothing in reply. “I'll get Ash ready. Go get your stuff...” he sighed anyway.

“This is my home... I can't leave all this behind! Who cares what the King says? I'm my own person. If he wants to get me to the palace so much, why doesn't he get of that throne of his and get his butt over here himself?”, Crystal hissed.

“Careful. Now that he's found you, the walls have ears.” Benny muttered. She looked down and rushed to her bedroom to pack.

She wiped a tear from her eyes and took her belongings out of the small wardrobe and onto her bed.

But she couldn't bring herself to pack. She loved the village. It was her home. She wanted to see the world, not get trapped in a castle for the rest of her life, never to see Benny again.

No matter who her biological father was, Benny was the one that brought her up. Only he deserved to be called her dad.

But then again, she didn't have much of a choice either. And would be there the next morning to get her. Everything happened so fast, she didn't see any of it coming.

She did get to see the world though. She saw it all. All the beautiful places. All the good there was in people.

But she also saw all the ugliness hiding in the world. People's bad selves. The trauma they caused.

And eventually, she settled down. She never thought this was the way everything would end, but we never really know our future either, do we?