The Legend of Gryffon

The sound of the jade tea set hitting the marble floor echoed the quiet hallway. There was a scream of a woman. The sound attracted the attention of the palace maids and servants. They ran into the second princess, Gabriella's room, and fear filled their hearts.

The second princess's body was hanging from the ceiling. Her body was limp and her pale face was completely covered by her long wet red hair.

The servants wasted no time and carried the second princess's body to the hospital wing.

Upon hearing the news of the second princess attempting suicide, the Empress fainted and the whole palace fell into chaos.

During the late hours of the night, the sound of the doctors pleading for mercy could be heard from the hospital wing. They went as far as to kneel before the Crown Prince in hopes that he will let them off.

The Crown Prince sat on his throne, looking distressed. He massaged his temples. His red hair was messy and his face showed signs of fatigue.

" Is there any hope that she will wake up?", he asked.

" There is! There is hope that Her Highness will wake up! Crown Prince, you just need to give it some time!", said one of the doctors.

The others immediately started to say the same thing.

The Crown Prince sighs and leaves the room.

' All I have to do is wait. But how for long?'

---

Vampires, witches, wizards, fairies, werewolves, elves, and mermaids. Humans hear about these creatures in folk tales. No one would have thought that these creatures which were associated with tales that were originally told to scare children would be real.

Located somewhere in the Bermuda triangle is the Etroanian empire. A place where magical creatures live in peace.

The Etroanian empire was fairly large with more than five kingdoms under its ruling. This empire was first found on October ninth in the year two thousand and ninety-eight by a Scottish explorer named Tiana Knox. Tiana Knox was an explorer who was heading to Mexico and decided to navigate the plane by herself.

She flew the plane and she crashed in the Bermuda triangle. Just as she thought she was about to die she was rescued by an Etroanian. When she woke up she was in an unknown land. She was surprised to see the empire. The person who saved her showed her around Etroana.

Tiana was able to go back home eventually and wrote a whole article about her experience.

Some people were reluctant to believe that there was such a place like Etroana so many investigators were sent to the area. They were surprised to find out that Tiana wasn't lying.

  After that very day explorers and archaeologists came from left and right to Etroana. They were astonished to see that such a huge empire kept thriving without the help of the rest of the world.

  ----

The airport was busier than usual on this particular day. Many people were going in different directions. Among the huge crowd, a lady with bright red hair stood out. She was a beauty with an attractive figure, misty blue eyes, and rosy pale skin. She wore a white turtle neck sweater paired with a pink plaid knee-length skirt and pink coat. Pearls dangled from her ears and adorned her neck. Her white mary jane heels made a click-clack sound as she walked forward. She carried a small cup of coffee in her left hand and her phone in her right hand.

As she walked, a man walking in the opposite direction walked past her, bumping into her. The cup of coffee in her hands spilled onto her coat. She turned around to see that the man has disappeared into the crowd of people.

' He didn't even apologize!'

" Gabriella! There you are"

Three girls squeezed their way out of the crowd and stood in front of Gabriella. One of the girls, whose name was Beatrice, had short platinum blonde hair with upturned green eyes. She wore a simple white sweater dress, green thigh-high high heels, and a large light green faux fur coat.

The other girl, Riley, had honey-colored skin with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. She was dressed in a yellow long-sleeved crop top paired with a white knee-length skirt, yellow ankle boots, and round-framed glasses.

The third girl, Helena, had pale skin with jet black hair and dark blue eyes. She sported a white short-sleeved top with a plaid jacket and matching pants and white sneakers.

" Where were you guys?", asked Gabriella.

" You walked away after getting your coffee. We searched the whole place for you", Beatrice.

" Did I?", Gabriella asked herself as she began to walk away.

The three girls were speechless. They got their luggage and walked out of the airport. They got into a car.

-------

It was a cold winter afternoon. The usually busy roads of Etroana were empty with not a single car or person in sight. The stalls that sold street food were gone. In front was instead a clear road that had snowmen and ice sculptures on either side of the road as you went by and winter-decorated houses. Winter lights were lit brightening the place and with the snowflakes that fell, the whole scene looked dreamy like a winter wonderland.

The car stopped in front of the massive royal palace.