The Falcon Princess

Chapter 1

[Prologue]

—Long ago, there was once a person who had golden blood in their veins.

Their blood had the power to protect all living creatures on this earth.

They lived and died by the Wissen River. Yes, that Wissen River—the one that flows just beyond our village.

It is said you can still find gold in the Wissen River. Perhaps their blood still flows in it.

—The Birth of Roymund Kingdom, The Legend

* * *

Zelly opened her eyes and found herself on a perch.

She felt hunger in her belly even though she’d just woken up. It was a strange hunger. It was much more powerful and animalistic than what she normally felt. It was a very unpleasant feeling.

Zelly raised an eyebrow in confusion. How long was I asleep? No, how long was I unconscious? The last thing she remembered was being dragged somewhere blindfolded and slammed into the ground. But it seemed like things were better now. At least the air was fresh, and the view in front of her wonderful—a vista of lush forest and…

Iron bars?! Her eyes widened. She was locked behind iron bars. Of course—where else would a captive princess be during wartime? If she was lucky enough to still be alive, she’d be locked up. But it was very strange that her cell was in the open air.

Zelly stared out beyond the bars to try to figure out where she was. She had no idea. All she could tell was that this was a forest. But which forest? Forests were everywhere, so there was no way for her to know where she was. Oh, please. Please say we’re not beyond our borders. If we are, it’ll be extremely difficult for our soldiers to find me.

While she was concerned about where she was, she noticed her eyesight was much clearer. It was as if it had gotten better while she was asleep. She could see each and every one of the little leaves fluttering on the branches in the distance. She was in awe of it all.

As she stared in wonder at her surroundings, her legs began to wobble, and this caught her by surprise. She’d just barely steadied herself when she finally saw where she’d fallen asleep. Her two feet were standing precariously on a branch-like structure.

What is this? Zelly was so shocked that she’d fallen asleep like this. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes—or rather, she tried to. But she had no hands to rub her eyes with.

What the… Where there should have been hands, there were wings. Surprise didn’t begin to cover it. In her beyond-surprised state, Zelly slipped from her perch. When she instinctively waved her arms to balance herself, she heard a flapping sound coming from somewhere—coming from her! The shock was so great that her body fell to the ground with a thud. She was frozen and couldn’t move.

No. This had to be a dream. It had to, right? It would be more probable for her to be dead than to have… Wings?

Zelly tried her best to wake up from her dream. She tried to slap her cheek, but the damned wings made it impossible to do something that required so much dexterity. So Zelly decided to bite her own arm—or rather, her wing. She brought it to her mouth and bit down.

Ouch! It was extremely painful. Her eyes teared up, and she tried to touch her mouth. Impossible. Where her teeth used to be… There was a beak. A beak! She flapped her wings in a shocked frenzy. A few feathers fell out and floated around in her cell.

No. She thrashed around. A bird? Then am I dead? If she was in fact dead, it would have felt like a wrongful death, but becoming a bird was even worse.

Wait a second… A bird? Then this small cell… Zelly looked down and slowly raised her eyes. The iron bars she’d staunchly believed were part of a cell were in fact… A birdcage.

She shrieked.

“Skreeee!”

When a peculiar sound erupted from her throat, she clamped her mouth shut. What was that? What was that beastly noise?

Zelly tried to speak human language.

“Skreee!”

No!

She screamed again.

“Skreeee!”

And then she lost consciousness.

Birds and Humans

Zelly woke up because she was thirsty and leaped toward the dirty bowl of water. She shoved her head into it and tried to guzzle it down, but she couldn’t drink at all—her hard beak simply bumped against the bottom of the bowl. She was in a terrible mood because she was hungry, and she felt like she was about to die from thirst. But now, she was about to go insane after realizing she didn’t know how to drink water.

She felt even more wronged about the fact that she was in a bird’s body. She tried to remember how birds drank. She had to live—she had to. But… Damn it. She must have a bird’s brain by now or something. She couldn’t remember.

Zelly did what she could. She opened her beak and dipped the lower part into the water like a cup, then lifted her head. Was this it? She tried mimicking what birds might do, shaking her head and letting the water flow in. Yes, she felt it going down her throat.

As soon as her thirst was quenched, she could finally think straight. Zelly shook her head relentlessly, drinking to her heart’s content. It felt so good to drink water that she forgot to be annoyed about how birds drank.

Yeah, at least I’m alive. But wait. That’s… it? She thought about that for a moment. The one who was alive wasn’t her—it was this bird. So what the hell was she thinking?! I might already be dead.

She screamed inside her head, flapping her wings madly. Her wings were all over the place, making quite a racket. In her rising anger, she shrieked aloud.

“Skree! Skreee!”

Give me back my life!

Just then, something clamped down on the base of her wings. She couldn’t thrash around and only pedal her talons through the air. What is this? She looked around frantically for the source. No… a person? She kicked the air again, shocked that a person was grabbing her wings painfully.

“Is it hurt somewhere?” they muttered.

She fell silent and immediately played dead. It was bad enough that she was a bird, but being captured by a human was even worse. How could she know if they were good or bad? Zelly might not know much, but there was one thing she was very aware of: Humans were cruel.

As soon as she pretended to be in pain, the hand that was holding her loosened. It seemed like they were thrown off by the limp bird in their hand. So I might not be this person’s bird.

Zelly racked her brain on what to do next. She was annoyed that, at some point, she’d accepted her current status as a bird. But right now, she had to get out of this situation. Could she even fly? She had to fly somehow if she wanted to escape.

Zelly twisted her wings in the person’s hand, and they let go completely. It seemed like they were trying to take a closer look. She swiftly scratched the human’s hand with her talons.

“Ouch!”

The person crouched in pain, and Zelly used their shoulder as a ledge to jump off, flapping her wings with every ounce of strength she had.

Huh? As she flapped and flapped, she noticed something about her wings. Air whooshed past her as she felt the ground getting further and further away from her. Are my wings… larger than my body?

Zelly kept flapping, and the person she’d scratched became smaller and smaller. I just escaped! She suddenly felt very proud of herself. Well?! How do you like that?!

She laughed haughtily to herself. But after a while, she felt like crying. I’m supposed to be human, too…

She sniffled. But she was a human who couldn’t wipe away her tears.

* * *

Zelly flew for quite a bit until she stopped to sit on a branch and rest her new—and now tired—wings. She grabbed onto the branch with both talons like she’d seen birds do, and… Huh?

The branch broke much too easily. She squawked. It sounded like she was dying. She fell straight down to the ground and winced at her aching back. Then, a squirrel scampered up the tree that she had fallen from. Zelly watched the squirrel as it swayed its tightly wound tail almost mockingly and glared at it. The squirrel froze as soon as it met her eyes.

I see, so… I’m stronger than squirrels? When she pushed herself up, the squirrel dashed off and ran away. If she were human, she wouldn’t even have given it a second glance, but it seemed this bird had incredible eyesight. She could see every little movement the squirrel made to run away.

Zelly flapped her wings upward and perched on a slightly lower branch. Carefully extending a leg in front of her, she examined her talons. They were hook-shaped and sharp. She had one, two, three, four…

Zelly whipped her head up. Wait a second! This has to be… Am I a bird of prey? She shivered, remembering how her wings felt larger than her small body and how much her wing hurt when she bit it with her beak.

A mirror—she needed to find a mirror. Zelly was about to rummage through her pockets for it but sighed. Of course. I don’t have a stitch of clothing on.

She set off to fly and find a pool of water in which to see her reflection. When she reached a certain altitude, the entire forest came into view. Ah! She couldn’t help but let out a gasp of exhilaration. A bird’s eye view—it was amazing to be looking down at the scenery from this vantage point. An autumnal carpet of green and dusty golden trees spread out before her. The leaves fluttered in the wind like a rustling sheet of silk. She stared in awe. Everything was crystal clear.

Then suddenly, something caught her keen eye. It was something she recognized—the flag of Roymund Kingdom, of which Zelly was a princess.

Without a second thought, she immediately flew for it. She had no idea where she was, struggling through the forest, but seeing that familiar flag made her cry with happiness. Her heart pounded, knowing she wasn’t far from home.