"You know what I want."

"And you shall have it," the King promised, "just as soon as you marry the Prince."

"Father," Sulli gasped, "you cannot be serious!  You know a marriage right now would only hinder my plans."

The King ignored his daughter's outburst and returned his attentions to the festivities going on around them.  His only child's eighteenth birthday was supposed to be a time of joyous celebration, and instead they were upset with each other.  He did not let himself think of it often, but it was in the moments such as this that the King wished his Queen were still alive to guide him.  He could lead legions of men into battle, but trying to hold a decent conversation with his daughter was an entirely different skill of leadership that he simply had not mastered.

The Princess picked at her food idly until the clock struck twelve.  The fireworks were about to begin and all of the village people would eat meat and bread in her honor.  What a joke.  As much as her father tried to hide it from her, she knew.  She knew what poor conditions her people lived in, how hungry they were day in and day out.  That was why the King tried so hard to marry her off, so the joining of kingdoms would restore their own to riches. 

Sulli wanted her people to thrive once again, but not like that.  She was not a token or a trophy to be exchanged for wealth and food.  If anyone was going to bring health and happiness to her kingdom, it certainly was not going to be the Prince of Nolstop; and through marriage, no less.  It had to be a joke.

At midnight, the Princess excused herself from the Royal Feast and found the man her father wished her to wed.  He was on his merry way to being a fine drunk, just like her father.  Sulli took him aside and led him to the extensive labyrinths that used to belong to her mother.  This was the only place, she knew, where they could be alone.

"Prince," she said coldly in greeting.

"My Princess," he slurred, "how be you tonight?"

"You want to marry me, don't you?"

"More than anything."  He winked at her.

"You must not want for much, then."  She pitied him.

The Prince of Nolstop flashed her a sloppy smile and raised his wine glass in agreement.  He took a generous sip and wiped the excess around his lips with the sleeve of his silken shirt.  The glassy look in his eyes was soon replaced with a lost, faraway expression.  She was losing him, and fast.  She had to get her point across before he fell into a belligerent, drunken rage that would be beyond all reason.

"Look," she sighed, "I will accept your proposal of marriage, but..."

~*~

The King was furious, the Queen of Nolstop was furious, the Prince of Nolstop had a hangover, and Princess Sulli was nowhere to be found.  The Royal Guardians were on high alert as they inconspicuously searched the kingdom for the missing princess.  According to what little could be interpreted from the Prince's slurred declaration that morning, he and Princess had had an agreement.  He gave her his army, she gave him a .  A crass tactic, but very effective nonetheless.

"It's alright," the Prince reassured his almost-father-in-law. 

"You gave my daughter an army and now she is missing!  What part of that sounds 'alright' to you?"

"She said she would marry me when she returns," the Prince muttered.  "Besides, I didn't even give her the whole army...just a couple men.  That's it."

"That's all," the King groaned.  "Do you have any idea what you've done, boy?"

The Prince did not respond, but the King did not need him to.  He could not expect someone so small-minded and incompetent to comprehend the depths of what had happened to his family.  Now, not only was he responsible for the death of his wife, but also the disappearance of his only daughter. 

"Oh, gods, protect her," the King prayed.  "You have taken everything from me."

The Prince slumped up in bed and reached for the bottle of wine at his bedside.  He poured himself a glass and offered one to the King.

"Your Majesty, I could always go after her."

The King laughed to himself, a bitter, humorless laugh that only years of despair could carve out of him.  The thought alone made the King want to roll his eyes in an unkind nature that did not suit an old man.  He did not mean to laugh in the face of a naive prince, especially when said prince offered to save his daughter, but the whole notion was so ridiculous. 

He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if the Prince of Nolstop went in pursuit of his daughter, it would be the Princess who would need to do the rescuing.  The King was furious, of course, but he knew his daughter.  He knew her plans and her motives.  If anyone was going to survive this journey, it was going to be her. 

It always had to be the Princess.

Just like it always had to be the Queen.

~*~

Sulli passed out loaves of bread and canteens of fresh water to the men and women around her.  She looked at the people who had gathered to help her restore her kingdom to its former glory and for a moment, she felt her heart warm with affection.  The Princess quickly stomped out any emotions that could lead to attachment later on down the road.  She knew what to expect from this journey, and if everything worked out well, at least half of the people around her would never return home again.

Once she was certain that all of the people were given supplies for their journey, she stood in front of the group and withdrew a faded, golden scroll from her satchel.  When the sunlight caught on the gold and reflected across the greenery, she knew she had everyone's attention.  The voices around her fell to nothing, leaving only silence and the wind to contest her own words.

"Brave hearts," she said to them, "I do not thank you for joining me on this adventure.  You have come here of your own accord, and if I am honest with you, I do not expect many of you to return home with me.  If you wish to leave now, feel free to do so."

She waited.  One by one, the group dropped from hundreds of bodies to only a small handful.  When the Princess was certain that the remaining few were not going anywhere, she continued speaking.

"For those of you who have stayed, I only warn you to heed my every order.  The numbers are lessened, but that changes nothing.  Many of you will die.  It will be bloody, it will be painful, and no one will know about it.  There is nothing glorious or honorable about walking into your deaths, so follow me closely.  And if you choose to disobey me, then you deserve whatever death fate has for you."

Without further preamble, the Princess turned towards the East and began walking.  She heard the leaves and twigs of the forest floor crunch after her, as well as a rise in the noise levels.  People were talking and walking behind her, ready to follow her into a battle unlike anything they had ever seen before. 

Unlike anything would ever see again, if they made it out alive.

~*~

At some point, the forest floor made way for a dirt road.  The path seemed like an endless line.  By the time the sun began to set, Sulli could look both where she came from and where she was going and see no beginning or end.  Only dirt.  The people in her party, the Brave Hearts, as she had dubbed them, were beginning to complain of thirst and exhaustion.  Sulli pulled out her golden scroll and held it up to the light.

Follow the dirt path until you come to a fork in the road.

"We are almost there," she encouraged the people.

The Princess forced her feet to carry her onwards, towards a great unknown that not even the sunlight could illuminate for her.  She commanded some men to light candles and walk ahead of their party.  With the added light, she noted that they were, in fact, nowhere near where they needed to be.

They had been walking all day, from before sunrise to sunset, and with countless miles under their shoes the Princess still could not estimate how far off their first destination was.  She only thanked the gods that there were no children amongst the group. 

Hours passed and still there was no fork in the road to be seen.  With a heavy heart and aching feet, the Princess declared that it was time for rest.  The sun was just over the horizon, making it impossible for any of them to get a decent moment's worth of sleep.  Sulli used her satchel and long hair to cushion her head and cover her eyes, but she knew that many of the men were not so fortunate.  All around her, she could hear the grumbles of dissatisfaction and frustration coming from the men. 

Specifically, the words of anger came from the army men that her fiancé had given to her.  Every single one of them.  She knew she should not have trusted them.  They did not come from her land; they did not understand the importance of this journey and what it meant to her people.  Sulli did not want to shed any blood so soon into the journey, as it would lower morale, so instead she slept on it.  All of her best ideas came to her when she was either sleeping or peeing, and she was not about to pee with all of these men around.

"Princess," someone said, "wake up!  Princess!"

Sulli's eyes flew open as soon as she felt feet moving hurriedly over and about her.  She noted that many men from the Nolstopian Army were missing, but something else was awry.  She just could not quite place what it was.

"What is the matter," she asked as she rubbed her eyes.

"Most of the men have left us," a young woman said.  "They took your satchel, Princess, and they have gone ahead.  They have left us."

Sulli blinked tiredly as she absorbed this new information.  The soldiers had stolen from her.  They took her satchel.  They took the scroll.

"That is my birthright," Sulli screamed. "I will rip open their chests and feed them their own still-beating hearts!"

She did not take the time to brush the leaves out of her hair or to fix her dress.  The dirt road only went in two directions and there was no way the Nolstopians were going to return home with her golden scroll.  They wanted everything for themselves.  With the fury of three generations of betrayed women boiling through blood, the Princess took off in the other direction.  She heard the shouts of the remaining people, but her heart was pounding too loudly in her ears for her to heed their warnings.

When she had been running long enough to make her entire body damp and sore, she found the fork in the road that they had searched for the entire day previously.  Her heart soared with happiness at finding it, but her blood still ached with the anger of betrayal.  She looked behind herself, just to make sure her band of Brave Hearts was still following the path.  When she found and finished up the Nolstopian soldiers, she wanted to return to her original path with as little delay as possible.  She was pleased to see that the Brave Hearts were only a mere half mile or so behind her. 

There was plenty of time for revenge.

~*~

Sulli found the men sleeping just to the left of the fork in the road.  That was hardly a surprise.  They were all exhausted, those soldiers more so than anyone else since they had to leave early in order to betray the rest of the group.  The Princess stood before their sleeping bodies and thought about all of the things that she could do to them before the other Brave Hearts caught up to her.  She needed to do this quickly, quietly, and cleanly, so as not to lower morale when the others saw.

First and foremost, Sulli took her satchel back from one of the men and made sure that her golden scroll remained undisturbed.  Once satisfied that nothing had been damaged, the Princess proceeded to punish the men for their treason.

With over ten men sleeping around her, Sulli had to be sure not to wake any of them.  Wanting a simple punishment for them, she untied the bosom of her dress and withdrew the Lust Dust her aunt had gifted to her for her eighteenth birthday.  It was meant to entice the Prince on their wedding night, but Sulli figured it would be much more beneficial to her now. 

Quietly, she sneaked around the bodies and poured a little dust into their open mouths.  Even in their sleep, the men began springing wood all around her.  The Princess had to hold in her laughter as she put away the dust and took out her favorite blade from her girdle.  She wanted these men to bleed and she was not going to be gentle about it.

~*~

Sulli wiped her hands on one of the dead soldier's clothing to get rid of the blood before she rejoined the Brave Hearts at the fork in the road.  They could smell the blood on her, and she knew it, but no one dared to bring it up.  The remaining people, all of them normal villagers and townsfolk from her kingdom, knew that their princess was their leader now.  She was not to be questioned.

Sulli pulled out her scroll and held it up once more.  The sunlight was scarce, but there was just enough to make the words known.  The golden letters glittered their warning to her and she read them aloud to the people.

"It says 'Walk past the old cemetery, but for the sake of your life do not go inside', so that is what we shall do.  No going into the cemetery."

"But what if someone we know is buried there," a man asked.  "We must honor the dead."

"I am telling you," Sulli snapped at him, "that if you go into that cemetery, you will be the dead one.  The scroll said we do not go in, so we will not.  Do not ask stupid questions again, or I will let you die."

Whispers spread as the Princess led them into the heartland of nowhere.  Up until now, her cutthroat determination had only been talk.  After all, who would be afraid of the pretty princess with only eighteen years under her belt and no experience outside of the castle walls?  Now, with blood as her perfume and a scepter of bones, the Princess was recognized as a force to be reckoned with.  She had actions to back up her claims and no one was going to try to force her hand.

She heard a choir of stomachs growling in hunger behind her around midday.  Even her own stomach was aching for food in a way that it never had before.  Royalty did not know hunger in the same way that the village people did. 

"We will stop and eat now," she announced. 

They had a long journey ahead of them, with herself at the forefront, but there was no fear within her .  The only thing the Princess felt was a fiery passion to set things right again.  She looked inside her scroll one last time as they sat down to a feast of old bread and water.  The sky began to darken, making it difficult to read, but when she finally deciphered the script a feeling of dread solidified in her lungs.  She felt weighed down and slow for the rest of the evening when she saw what challenge was waiting for them. 

Climb the hill and cross the Valley of the Dead before sunset

Two hours until sunset.