“Princess Rema,” said Orion as he entered Rema’s quarters. She was sitting at a table writing in a notebook. “Have you finished your studies?”

Rema closed the notebook and turned to her Keeper. Orion was trusted with protecting Princess Rema at all costs. Chosen by King Tresden and Queen Amella, Orion was the most seasoned warrior in the Kingdom of Sabbia. Sabbia was located on the South Eastern-most continent of Fenrir and rarely had any visitors. A desert land that, at times, felt like an entire different world.

Where Orion came from, the King and Queen never knew. He showed up one day and saved the King from a monster out in the desert. A grizzly gray beard, shaggy gray hair and scars to mark his past adventures - Orion quickly moved up the ranks before being trusted to the Princess. Something that Rema was very grateful for. Her and Orion had become close and with his help her potential to be the strongest, most intelligent ruler in all of Sabbia grew with each day.

Orion approached Rema at her desk and knelt down in front of her. Rema wasn’t a little girl anymore and her day as Queen would soon arrive, but Orion was protecting her for many years and remembered when she was just a child.

“Please, Orion,” Princess Rema stood up to greet her guardian. “No need to kneel before me.”

Orion laughed as he stood. “Apologies, Princess. I have just returned from the markets.”

“The markets? Did you bring me something?” Orion wasn’t the only one who recalled Rema’s days as a child and her sense of wonder and excitement over a potential present made them both feel reminiscent of the old days.

“I did,” Orion presented the Princess with a small pendant. It was the color of the sand that filled the Kingdom of Sabbia and etched upon it was the word “Queen.”

“It’s beautiful, I love it!” said Princess Rema.

Orion bowed to his Princess. “Let it be a reminder that one day you shall rule this land with honor…”

Unfortunately for them both, the King and Queen did not feel Rema was fit to rule Sabbia and would prefer a son on the throne. That’s where things get complicated. A prophet foresaw the future for the King and Queen and told them it would be impossible for them to conceive, but with a magical item fetched from the main continents on Fenrir, Queen Amella found a way. The item was rare and would only allow for one use and that use brought much joy to the King and Queen in the form of Rema. Despite having limited options, the King and Queen soon realized that Rema may not be a strong enough leader even with Orion’s guidance.

There were no other options that they could think of, but they approached some of their elders for advice. If something were to happen to Rema then the next child in their bloodline would sit on the throne. The child in question would be Erytos(eh-ree-tos), one of Rema’s male cousins. The King and Queen felt so strongly about not leaving the Kingdom of Sabbia in Rema’s rule, that they considered their options.

One day while walking with Orion, Rema overheard her parents discussing potential ways to deny her the throne. The truth is, Rema didn’t much care for becoming the Queen of Sabbia, but she knew the only way to avoid it would be to be removed from the conversation altogether… By any means necessary. She contemplated her options and thought maybe she could appeal to them to let her and Orion leave the continent. Sabbia was all desert and she had read about and heard tales of the beautiful places elsewhere on Fenrir.

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That night, she thought it best to pitch her plans to Orion before her parents. However, when she arrived in Orion’s quarters, she found her trusted guard in chains. Her parents standing in front of him.

“Come here, my dear daughter,” said King Tresden, but Rema knew what they potentially had in store for her so she ran. She ran as fast and as far as she could, making it out of the castle and running barefoot into the desert. It was night time, but the ground was still hot and she could only go so far. Eventually her parent’s guards caught up to her and they returned her to the castle.

“Keep her here,” said Queen Amella. “Dig,” she commanded.

The guards were hesitant, but loyal… They followed her orders and dug a hole big enough for the Princess. Tears filled Rema’s eyes as the guards knelt her down in front of the hole dug for her. She held something close to her chest. The pendant that Orion gave her.

“If only there were another way,” said her mother, but no tears filled her eyes. Rema could tell her mother felt no remorse as she felt the flat part of her mother’s sandal strike her chest. When she hit the base of the hole, she hit her head and things became blurry.

It immediately became hard to hear, hard to breath and hard to see. The sound of the sand being pushed on top of her made her squirm and try to fight her way out, but she was too disoriented from the fall to put up much of a fight.

The next day King Tresden visited Orion in his cell. He explained that one day they would let Orion out to serve the Kingdom of Sabbia again, but at this point in time they could not trust him. He had grown too close to Rema and the King and Queen feared that he would retaliate. That very same day the King and Queen invited young Erytos to their castle to discuss the future of their Kingdom and when they invited him into their grand dining hall they had one more guest that they didn’t expect.

The guards laid on the floor with sand coming out of their mouths and sitting at the head of the dining table was Princess Rema. All over her skin were tiny grains of sand and the pendant that Orion had given her was imbued in her chest. It had become a part of her. The King and Queen as well as young Erytos stood frozen in fear.

“Princess,” Queen Amella began to say, but Rema stood up slowly from her chair. You could hear more grains of sand fall off her body as she rose.

“I am Princess no longer,” said Rema. “From this day forward you will address me as Queen.”

“Don’t be silly, child, I am the-” Before Queen Amella could finish her sentence Rema turned her into a sand statue then did the same to her father, the King.

Erytos stood there for a moment and came to the conclusion that running was not an option. Instead her young cousin knelt down before his new Queen. Rema ignored the gesture and slowly walked beside the table. The food set up for the former King and Queen to court young Erytos was still on the table. Rema picked a grape and ate it.

“Doesn’t quite taste the same now,” she said as she chewed. “Do you know why that is, cousin?”

“B-b-because you were dead…?” Erytos replied.

Rema shook her head in disappointment as she walked over to her cousin. Erytos stood up as she approached him. “No, no, my dear, sweet, cousin… It’s because I have never felt more alive. And I hunger for something sweeter. Something Sabbia can’t provide.”

“Name it, cousin,” said Erytos. “Whatever you want, I shall retrieve it for you!”

Rema slowly turned around and looked at the chair she was sitting in. It wasn’t the throne, but in her eyes it took on the form of it. She looked back at Erytos. “It can’t be you who retrieves it. You already tried to take my seat once… I can’t let that notion go unpunished.”

The guards outside of the dining room heard the screams of Erytos, but before they could enter the room Rema opened the doors. They stood in disbelief as Princess Rema stood before them, transformed. It was the same two guards that helped bury her. She grabbed one by the throat and filled his lungs with sand. She turned to the other and said, “Bring me Orion.”