Accursed Protection

     I had started, but never finished it, and I don't know where it is.  Anyway, this one takes place in medieval times, and it was inspired by a scene from a video sequence from one of the Final Fantasy games.  I've never played any of them.  I was watching an Anime Music Video.

     The story is called Accursed Protection.  The main character is a spoiled princess who believes all the royal subjects exist to serve her, and she doesn't care much about other people's feelings.

     There's a few small details I don't recall, but while she's out of the castle some men from an enemy kingdom try to kidnap her.  She manages to escape their clutches and runs away.  She runs into a gypsy camp, into a tent to hide from the people chasing her.

     In the tent is an old gypsy witch (or whatever they're called).  The princess demands that the woman give her something or cast a spell to help her.  The gypsy doesn't want to, so the princess grabs a dagger and threatens to kill her if she doesn't.

     The gypsy decided to cast the spell of accursed protection on her, but she doesn't tell her exactly what it does.  I don't recall if I had the gypsy actually say the name of it or not.

     The princess leaves the tent and the camp, but just on the edges, the enemy men emerge, so she turns back toward the camp.  I don't recall exactly how I had it happening, but the gypsies didn't help her at first, and even expressed disgust towards her, but as the enemy men drew closer, the spell began its work.

     Here's how the spell of accursed protection works.  If someone is trying to harm you, then any person nearby, who isn't trying to harm you, will suddenly try to protect you, even if it means they will die.

     So, some of the gypsies near her start putting themselves between her and the enemies, and they get killed.  She has her moment of confusion, but then she runs away.  She's on a path and falls, and there's a woman with some children, or something.  The woman tries to help her up and find out what's wrong when the enemy men catch up.  The princess then watches in horror as the woman and her children all fight against the men, and get killed.

     The princess runs away crying and feeling terrible, and manages to finally lose the enemies.  She has a little time to think, but cries herself to sleep in the grass.  Some time later she's awakened and finds herself surrounded by the enemy.  They finally capture her and take her away.

     Those men have made a base at an abandoned island prison.  The whole of the prison is on water, meaning, you don't see dirt anywhere.  It has a large, open, flat area, and the cells are on the far end.

     From the mainland, you take a rowboat across about a half a mile of water to a dock, go up some stairs, and then you're on the front of the "island".  You're looking across an open space of flat stone with no side guards, and on the far end are where offices and offer quarters were.  Prisoner cells are beneath everything you see.

     They take her and put her in a cell, not bothering to lock it, because there's no real need to.  She has more time to think, and she periodically overhears some of the men talking about what they plan to do with her.  There's debate on whether she should be held for a ransom or killed as an example, or other things.  Finally, it's decided that she will be killed at dusk.

     This is where the spell's secondary power kicks in.  It's getting close to dusk, and she's terrified and crying profusely and praying.  She realizes there's no one around to protect her, and she's a little glad for it, but she still doesn't want to die.

     She hears men coming to retrieve her, and she hugs her knees close to her chest, closes her eyes, rocks back and forth, crying and praying, and then she hears the sound of men shouting and screaming.  She stops and listens, and the men who were coming to bring her up, leave to see what's going on.

     For some minutes, she listens to the sounds of men crying out in pain, shouting, running around, and generally behaving as if they were being attacked.  At one point, blood starts dripping down beside her from the stone ceiling.

     She closes her eyes, resumes her rocking, and covers her ears in an attempt to block out the sounds.  It eventually stops, but she's too scared to leave her cell, and she eventually falls asleep.

     She's awakened the next morning by the sound of someone calling in the distance.  Still a little scared, she gets up and leaves the cell, goes down the corridor, and up to the surface level; a putrid smell growing as she goes.

     As she goes through the door outside, she sees the entire flat area strewn with body parts and red with blood.  As she starts slowly across the area, with bare feet, she gains more understanding about what has happened and her own behavior prior, and all that's left in her is sadness and pity for the men, despite them being her enemies.

     On the other end of the area appears a familiar face.  Either her father or the captain of the guard, I hadn't decided yet.  Someone of authority, and someone she knows.  He helps her down the steps to the dock, and she's wondering what her future will be like, and if it's even safe to go back and be around people.

     I'd have to tweak the story a little to really work the lesson learned angle.  Develop more of the before and after, know what I mean?