A Summer Of Missing Princesses

Right now, I could be having a great time. I could be playing with the other kids from my camp, or even work on a project. However, I seem to have made a horrible mistake! ‘What kind of mistake?’ You might ask. Well, pretty much the entire kingdom is in trouble, and it’s all my fault. If only I had kept an eye on that princess...

It was only a few hours ago that all was well. I went to summer camp, as I have been doing for a few years now, and was hanging out with a few friends of mine. Well, all of a sudden, a new camper was brought in. Everybody was looking to see who it was, of course, so at first, I could not see who it was for myself.

“Hey, everybody back up,” one of the camp leaders called.

The kids obediently returned to what they were doing before and that’s when I saw who it was. Princess Aleena had come to be a part of the summer camp! Princess Aleena’s father was right behind her and entered the building soon after. Standing before me was the king and princess of Fairwood kingdom.

“Your Majesty! What have we done to deserve the honor of hosting your daughter?” one leader asked, bowing respectfully.

The king cleared his throat and spoke:

“My daughter has been begging me for a long time to let her go to camp. She says it isn’t fair that everyone else gets to have fun and she has to stay in the castle. I have one request, though.”

“Anything for you, Your Majesty,” the leader said.

“Keep an eye on my daughter at all times! She has a tendency to run off and I wouldn’t want for her to get hurt or lost,” the king said.

“I won’t run off, dad! I promise!” whined Princess Aleena.

The king playfully ruffled his daughter’s hair.

“Selima could watch over her. Selima is our oldest camper, after all,” the leader said, pointing right at me.

I was shocked that out of all the students, I was chosen for this job, so I replied, “Me? But... Why? I’m just a regular teenage girl!”

“Very well, then. Selima, make sure nobody messes with my daughter,” the king said and left.

As he was turning to leave, I noticed he was followed by lots of guards, which is a good idea. When you’re royalty, you’ve got to make sure there are people around to defend you at almost all times. Now, my task was to watch the princess and I assumed it would be easy, but as it turns out, it isn’t all that simple. Princess Aleena smiled nervously at me and looked around the building for a few moments.

“So, this is summer camp,” commented Princess Aleena.

I told her, “That’s right, we’re probably going to gather on the carpet circle soon,”

“Oh, okay,” said Princess Aleena.

A few more campers showed up before the leaders called us to the circle. While I was waiting, I got a chance to get to know Princess Aleena a little better. There’s not much I can say about the circle time, we just introduced ourselves and stated what grade we are in. Aleena, though, could not say what grade she was in as she had never been to school.

After circle time was over, it was decided that we would all walk to the beach together. The beach isn’t too far from where we were at the time so it didn’t take long to get there.

I was supposed to be watching Princess Aleena the whole way there, but I became distracted when one of my friends started pointing and shouting about something in the distance.

“Look! Look! Isn’t that a dragon?!” my friend asks.

Indeed, there was a dragon. It’s not that common for a dragon to be seen from Fairwood Kingdom as they mostly live in a far away land. This dragon was black with a few silver scales and his eyes were a deep red. Somehow, in the time that I was looking at the dragon, I guess Princess Aleena must have wandered off. I didn’t even notice until awhile later that she was missing.

The rest of the kids and I made it to the beach, guided by the leaders and we were having a really good time. I built a sandcastle with my friends Rosa and Donna. It was Rosa who had pointed out the dragon, by the way.

“Very nice sandcastle, girls!” one of the leaders complimented us.

“Thank you!” we all said.

Some of the boys were at the edge of the water pestering some crabs. Luckily for them, none of the crabs got angry enough to pinch them.

“There goes the dragon again!” squealed Rosa.

To which I responded, “I wonder what it’s doing way out here.”

We spent a bit more time out on the beach until the main leader told us we had to return to the building.

“Alright, kids! Let’s head back now!” the main leader called out.

We all got up, dusted the sand off of ourselves, and walked back to the building. Once we got inside, the leaders took attendance. Only then did we all realize that Princess Aleena was missing.

The sudden realization that it was my fault that Princess Aleena was missing hit me and I cried out, “Oh my goodness! What have I done?!”

“It’s okay, Selima... We’ll just go look for her...” one leader said.

I argued back, “No! She was my responsibility. I’m the one who lost her so I will look for her!”

With that, I turned and left the camp on my own. I retraced my steps and searched within a few feet of the path we took. I couldn’t find any evidence of where she went or how she disappeared. However, I could see the king in my mind, already, getting angry over me losing his daughter.

I’d be sent to the dungeon for sure; at least, that is what I was thinking. I kept looking high and low for the princess, but the longer I searched, the darker it became outside and I realized it must be too late. I had to return to camp without the princess and explain to her father how it happened. This was all one big mistake and could have easily been avoided.

“Selima, where is my daughter?” the king asked me.

“I’m so sorry, Your Majesty... I was careless and lost her...” was my admission, “I searched for hours, Your Majesty, honestly! If you give me more time, I will find her and bring her back!”

The king looked dismayed and rubbed his tired head. All the other campers aside from me had gone home and my parents were waiting nervously for me.

“Look, young girl... I don’t think this was entirely your fault. My daughter has a tendency to wander off. However, my daughter isn’t the only missing princess. Six other princesses have also vanished and nobody has seen them since. My guess is that someone is plotting to take over as many kingdoms as they can by removing the rightful heirs to the throne. If you’re up to the task, I could prepare you and send you out to find them all,” the king said.

I bowed and said, “Your Majesty, I’d do anything to help you.”

“Then, child, come to Fairwood Castle early tomorrow morning and I will train you for the mission,” the king said.

That is exactly how I got to the situation I am in now...