Amelia's Adventure

By Dimitrios Spyridon Chytiris

A Kingdom in Great Danger

Who will be the one to save the world from destruction?


"Amelia had looked in this particular book before. She remembered it very well because it was the book with the silver dragon and the golden knight on its cover. She had really wanted to read it but couldn't since the pages were all white, blank. Not anymore though! For some bizarre reason, the young princess could not explain nor understand, the book was writing itself!"
A young princess decides to run away from the dullness of the palace in search of an adventure, like the ones she used to read when she was a child. However her plans soon change as she finds herself facing an ancient curse that threatens to destroy the whole kingdom. Now Amelia, with the assistance of an eccentric young woman called Marcella and the brave Golden Knight, must find a way to stop a flock of bloodthirsty dragons from burning down the whole world and turning it to a wasteland.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dimitrios Spyridon Chytiris
• Release date: Jul 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393224754

Dimitrios Spyridon Chytiris

Dimitrios Spyridon Chytiris (Δημήτριος Σπυρίδων Χυτήρης) was born in Corfu, Greece in 1982. He studied at the Anotati Ekklesiastiki Academy of Vella in the city of Ioannina and returned to Corfu island after finishing his service in the Greek Army in 2008. He enjoys very much to listen to good music and travel as much as possible but above all he loves reading and collecting books. His personal library contains more than 900 books so far. Chytiris considers reading to be very intimate and sacred and often says: "Once I finish a book, especially a good one, it's very hard for me to start reading a new one right away. It almost feels like cheating! I need my time to be able to move on to the next one".

Book preview

Amelia’s

Adventure

2020

Amelia’s Adventure

by Dimitrios Spyridon Chytiris

©2013, 2019, 2020  Dimitrios Spyridon Chytiris

Author’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dimitrios-Spyridon-Chytiris/1402519603298119

Table of contents

Amelia’s Plan

A Chance for Adventure

Nana Fortezza

The Cabin in the Woods

Back at the Palace

A lot of errands

The Granite Rock

Farewell

The Book that was Unwritten

Marcella

Unpleasant Events

Royal Reports

The Golden Knight

Confrontation

When the Adventure Comes to an End

For my sisters,

Barbara Sophia Margarita and Paraskevi, who will always be the great princesses of my life...

Dimitrios Spyridon Chytiris

Amelia’s Plan

Once upon a time, many years ago in a country far away from ours, there lived a young princess named Amelia. Amelia was a very beautiful girl with long blond hair braided into a nice pigtail that rested on her back. Her face was fair and smart with two bright green eyes that looked like the green color of emeralds and red cheeks like the sun just before it sets.

Amelia lived in a wealthy country, filled with goods such as food, juicy fruit, wheat but also animals such as sheep and cows that gave sweet milk and rich butter. The Kingdom was filled with precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum as well as many rare and expensive stones such as diamonds and sapphires.

Her father, Phaethon, who was the King of this country, wanted his daughter to have everything because she was his only child and he loved her tremendously, so he had bought for her everything imaginable.

Her jewelry was unique, no other girl in the kingdom had bracelets and necklaces like the princess’, and many people claimed that several of the jewelry had been made by the hands of the elves and that their beauty outpaced even the beauty of the stars and of the moon. 

If someone opened the huge closet in her bedroom they would find at least thirty-five pairs of shoes in innumerous colors; some were red with small sown ribbons on top, others golden with tiny scarlet rubies stitched on them and others silvery with ribbons that strapped on the side.

As for her dresses there are no words to describe them, even the rainbow was envious when the princess came out on her balcony after the rain wrapped in wonderful clothes made of priceless fabrics. There were white dresses tufted by hand, pink with see-through laces around the neck, blue-like-the-sea that opened up like umbrella flowers beneath the waist and many-many others, all gifts given by the Lords and Kings of the cities of the country and the neighboring kingdoms.

SOMEONE WOULD EXPECT that a girl with so many lovely things, jewelry, clothes, wealth and beauty would always be cheerful and happy but our young princess didn't feel really happy at all.

Her King father and Queen mother were trying with all their heart to keep her content but no matter what they did she would always seem to have a shade of sadness in her eyes and that disappointed them gravely.

Amelia, of course, knew her parents loved her with all their existence, and she loved them also, more than anything else in the world actually. It was not the love of her parents that troubled her. Another concern was torturing her.

Having grown up within the limits and the solitude of the palace Amelia never had a real friend. Her sole companion was a nanny, who for many years now had passed away. The daughters of the maids called her miss and not Amelia. But what she wanted was to have friends and not servants, and not being able to have them made her very sad. Everyone saw in her a young girl who had to be served. She felt like a colorful  crystal clear glass that all loved to look at and admire but no one dared to drink of it out of fear it might break, or like a wonderful brand new dress that always remains kept in the depth of a chest so it won’t crumble! But there is no fun in that, nor wisdom, thought Amelia, if you have something nice and you keep it away what is the point of having it at all.

Another dull thing, the young princess disliked, was the daily routine of the palace; she would see everything being repeated again and again and again day by day without anything ever changing. How frustrating and tiresome for a youth her age to have to experience the same activities over and over.

She wanted to live adventures like the ones her mother used to read to her when she was just a bit older than a baby, she wanted to speak with the elves that were hidden deep within the lush green forests, to get a close look at the witches of the east and the dwarves who lived in the mountains. And above all watch brave and valiant knights fight with breathtaking and bloodthirsty dragons. She knew of course that all of these were nothing more than childish fairy tales; however she would very much like to live, for just once at least, an adventure while she was still young without the royal guard lurking at every step she made.

So one day she decided to set in motion a very smart plan that would help her experience everything she had ever dreamed of.

IT WAS AFTER MIDNIGHT, a cozy night of May; Amelia lowered the bed covers and began to listen closely, in the middle of the night, for any kind of sound that would indicate that someone was still awake; the large ancient pendulum clock which stood against the wall of the room showed twelve and twenty-five. She could hear nothing in the depth of night, not even a breath of sound. That was a good sign. 

She got up carefully and very quietly trying to make as little noise as possible. She put on a thin coat over her nightgown and as soundlessly as a cat exited her room out into the dark corridor holding a chunky white candle that gave her a little discreet yellow light.

Then she headed to the stairs and ascended three floors up, where there were many rooms filled with bed sheets, curtains, towels and a room full of small vials and dried herbs. This was the room Amelia visited for just a few minutes and then she rushed back to her bedroom; she took off the coat, wore a woolen sleep cap and lay again on the soft feather mattress.

And there as she was laying half sleeping half awake, several names went through her mind.

Myrian...no, she is much too short she thought to herself, Anna...but I doubt she will do, she is huge... who is the one that fits all body proportions? she wondered. And then out of nowhere the perfect candidate popped up.

Nina, yes Nina is the one I need... and with this last thought Amelia relaxed and fell in a calm refreshing sleep. 

Nobody noticed of Amelia’s visit to the filter cabin, not until the very next day that a most unexpected surprise made them realize what the young princess had done; and truly this was an extremely unexpected cunning that had never happened in this quiet kingdom before. The plan was simple but effective.

A chance for adventure

The next morning Myrian was running around the palace very angry. Nina had disappeared for four hours now and she alone had to do all the washing up, the spreading out and the ironing of the entire palace, and all this work had to be done just before noon and that meant in less than two hours! If only she had known where Nina had been, she would surely give her a piece of her mind.

Now she had been sent to wake up the little Lady because her mother had asked for her in her chambers, they had to plan that reception and be quick about it; Myrian couldn’t stop thinking that she would not make it to finish all the work waiting for her in the wash house. She had no idea how right she was.

So she ascended to the fourth floor in a great hurry, crossed the corridor and reached Amelia’s bedroom out of breath. She knocked at the door and waited... No answer came; she knocked again a little louder this time and said:

Your Ladyship, wake up, your mother is waiting for you in her chambers, she insists that she has a matter of importance to talk to you about and also you have to decide on the decoration of the hall the reception will be held in... but again no response from the princess.

There was no other way, she would have to enter the room and shake the girl to wake her up and all that as fast as possible because washing up, spreading out and ironing were waiting for her four floors below.

So in she went, and headed to the big window that saw to the full flowered garden. She opened it wide and bright warm sunlight lightened the room.

There, on her feathery mattress, the princess was laying motionless; her bed covers drawn up to her head. Only the white sleeping cap she liked to wear could be seen coming out of the covers. She stirred gently, because of the bright light that had entered the room. Myrian gave a long sigh and went over the girl’s bed determined to wake her up because she truly had no more time to waste over this.

Miss Amelia she said while lowering the sheets, Miss Amelia, it is time you... but her phrase was cut in half and stood still, as if petrified, her mouth open in awe.

The youth she saw laying on the feather bed was not Amelia, daughter of the King, but Nina the servant who had been missing for the past four hours.

Turmoil prevailed throughout the palace when the King and Queen learned of the disappearance of their daughter. They had all of the servants looking for her in every possible hiding place, even His and Her Majesty themselves were looking for the princess. Myrian was now sure that today she would not come to finish any of her chores. Not the washing, nor the spreading or the ironing. Only one person in the entire palace was left alone not looking for Amelia; Nina, she was still sleeping and nothing they tried could possibly wake her up. She was therefore left to sleep and snore until she woke up by herself; this was eleven hours after the moment Myrian found her on Amelia’s bed, at around ten minutes after ten at night.

When she finally woke up she received a barrage of questions that she was unable to reply. She had no idea where the princess was lost, nor how she had ended up in Amelia’s bed with nothing but the girl’s nightgown and sleeping cap.

The only thing that she did have recollection of was climbing up the stairs with a large pile of bed sheets in hand and the little Lady asking her very politely to come by her chambers to pick up some laundry, sheets and stockings. She went into the bedroom to pick the laundry but the princess asked her to sit for a while offering her a cup of black tea, which Nina denied at once of course:

"No, thank