Hey everyone, Thanks for choosing to read my story! This first chapter in giving a bit of background on Kezia, so please bare with it. This is my first time writing a lotr story so I hope you like it. I hereby humbly promise that there is not or ever will a Mary Sue in this story!

I do not own anything apart from my oc so don't sue me Anyway on with the story!

Kezia was frantically pacing up and down the lavish room. Her tendrils of her scarlet wavy hair slowly escaping its elegant up do to whip around her face as she quickly turned on her heel to continue her rapid walk back to the other end of the room. She was furious, downright livid. How dare they do this! How could they! This wasn't the freaking 1800's. She had a say in her life, she had rights! How could they have such blatant disregard for her opinion? They were signing her life away and she was told she had no choice! She continued pacing as her internal rant carried on.

"Screw this!" she yelled at the empty room. She had finally stopped pacing but her breathing was still erratic as she stood in the middle of the empty room, her fist clenched tightly in to fists at her side. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. Yelling and ranting would do her little good, right now she needed to calm down and focus, to be intelligent and find a way out of this mess. Slowly she released her breath and unclenched her fists repeating this method several times feeling she tension and anger ease away before she opened her dark blue eyes.

A timid knock sound at her door and she turned slowly to face it. She caught sight of herself in the floor length mirror noticing her hair was escaping she sighed and brushed a few strand back and tucked them behind her ear.

"Enter" she called out. The door opened and a familiar small figure belonging to her maid entered. Sophie her maid bobbed into a curtsey, a habit that Kezia had been trying to get her out of when they were alone. She had been succeeding so this sudden formality immediately brought a frown to Kezia's face. "What are you doing?" she demanded, her tone harsher than she had intended as she was quite close to Sophie.

Sophie stood up properly but refused to meet Kezia's eyes. "His highness would like you to make your way to the ballroom immediately." She stated simply.

Silence followed. A long silence which left Sophie feeling extremely uncomfortable. She began to fidget when she felt Kezia's gaze on her but she still refused to look up. She had grown close to Kezia, the Princess had quickly taken Sophie under her wing, she did not really have much need of a maid as Kezia was fiercely independent so the role Sophie had assumed was more of a confidant, a friend to the Princess. Her fear to raise her eyes was because she knew what she would see in Kezia's. Eventually she could not resist and raised her face to look.

Kezia was standing there in all her finery, truly looking every inch a Princess. Her heart shaped face was framed by a few strands of her scarlet hair. She had the traditional white porcelain skin that accompanied all red heads, she also had inherited the fiery temper to go with it. As Sophie looked into Kezia's face she caught her breath. Kezia was beautiful, there was no doubt of that, soft pale pink full lips that permanently seemed to be smiling creating small dimple either side. A small dainty nose and a pale blush that highlighted her cheekbones, contrasting perfectly against her pale skin giving the impression of a soft glow. Her eyes were lined in a soft charcoal grey that swept into a flick and matched perfectly with the silver simmer powder on her eye lids.

The gown she wore looked like it was made specifically for her; it wouldn't have surprised Sophie if that was true. Designers often tried to get Kezia to model their latest designs to create a royal trend that everyone would pay handsomely to mimic. The dress was a masterpiece on its own, a sheer dress that was adorned with sequined blue flower and plant motifs. A strapless design that had the sequin vines and flowers twirling their way around her chest hugging itself to her torso. The sequins covered her breasts but the shaped outlined her figure beautifully. A sheer section appeared underneath her chest in a tasteful wavy design giving the illusion that the dress was in two pieces and a glimpse at the Princess's flawless skin. The swirling flower design then emerged once more sprawling delicately across her waist and hips and covering her essential areas before the pattern gave way to the sheer material with the occasional flower adornments. Threw it the skirt of the dress you could see Kezia legs silhouetted against the pattern. Her cheeky interpretation of a dress suitable for ball whilst being modern yet tasteful. A pair of pale blue stilettos each adorned with a flower from the dress finished off her outfit perfectly. The Princess despite her station rarely chose to dress up but when she did it was breath taking.

Yet that was not the reason for Sophie to lose her breath. Kezia had chosen to match her dress to what she consider her best feature, her deep blue eyes. Eyes that reflected her emotions even when her face betrayed nothing. What Sophie saw in Kezia's eyes made her immediately reach out to grasp her hand. Kezia was strong willed and independent to a fault but never had Sophie seen her look so lost. The eyes that looked back at Sophie were filled with despair and desperation.

Kezia felt Sophie take her hand and start making soothing comments but she couldn't make sense of them. She felt numb. She felt lost. But the over riding sensation was hopelessness. She couldn't think. She needed to find a way out of this yet her mind refused to co-operate and now she needed to go, her time was up.

A sigh of exasperation escaped her lips and she felt her face form the serene mask of calmness she often adopted when she didn't want people to know what she was feeling. "Sophie" she said her voice managing to stay even despite her wanting to cry, wail and scream about the injustice of it all. "Please fetch my tiara" she paused collecting herself "the one with the sapphire" she added as if it was an afterthought.

Sophie let go of the Princess hand, she saw the forced calmness settle on Kezia face and did as she was bid. As she returned she saw Kezia sitting at her dresser, placing a necklace round her neck. It was a long silver chain that joined in the middle and then fell intertwined to between her breasts where it ended in a dark blue Sapphire. Sophie walked over quietly and placed the tiara on the Princess's head. The moment it was put in place Kezia stood abruptly and left the room.

Her mind was still blank as she walked the corridors to the ballroom. The sharp tap tap of her stilettos on the wooden floor the only sound she heard until she came to the waiting area to join her father and mother were she could hear the orchestra playing and the murmur of many people in conversation.

"What took you so long Kezia" the sound of her father's voice brought her out of her trance like state. She still couldn't think properly so she did the only thing she could at this point. Beg.

"Please Father reconsider." She began "It is not what I want, I can't do this. I won't do it. To be forced to marry is wrong. I have only met him once and I really was not enthralled with him " She paused gasping for breath "He is an insufferable idiot who I quite frankly would happily never associate with again. He is stuck up, rude and obnoxious and I will never be happy with him nor will I ever forgive you if you do this to me!"

"You disappoint me Kezia" Her father spoke in a low tone oozing with disapproval "I do not do this for your benefit but because it is your duty. You are the Princess and therefore you must do what is best for your country weather it please you or not!"

"I may be a Princess but I am a also 21 year old woman with a life to live. I would rather live it without having such intolerable fool for a husband sucking any joy of life I might find away from me" She argued her voice raising in volume.

"You will do as I say, You are a Princess but you refuse to act like one! Your Mother and I were already married at your age. Why? Because it was my duty to make sure our line continued and now you must do the same." He shouted at her.

Kezia stood there for a moment, her mouth agape. "To continue the line" she repeated in a small voice. "To continue the line" she repeated once again. Finally fully comprehending what he meant. It wasn't till a single tear fell from her eyes that she realised they had misted over.

"Oh for christ sake Kezia, pull yourself together we do not have time for your antics, try and delay this all you want but I am making your marriage announcement tonight!" he stated without emotion before turning and making his way back to the door. Taking the hand of the Queen, her mother who had remained silent throughout their exchange. Kezia's misted eyes blinked as light suddenly appeared as the grand doors began to opened to the ball room for the King and Queen to make their appearance.

Kezia took a step back, away from the ballroom, soon another step away followed as she backed away from the future her father dictated before she knew it she had turned and was running as fast as she could in her heels away from the ballroom, her dress flaring out behind her. She vaguely heard her father call after her but she refused to stop, believing that she could run away from the future chosen for her. Suddenly she was outside and she felt the cool air whip around her skin and saw her breathe steam up in front of her. But still she refused to stop. Running away from the palace, only now did she realised she never called it home, always the palace. She ran through the palace grounds toward the wooded area near the palace lake. As she made it to the woods she staggered but caught her footing, placing a hand on the nearest tree she quickly glanced behind to see if she was followed. Seeing some movement in the distance by the palace she quickly tucked herself behind the tree.

Her breathing was still laboured, her chest heaving after running. Kezia would not deny it, she hated exercise with a passion, she had only been to the gym once or twice but she had always left feeling disgruntled. She hated getting sweaty and dirty so now avoid them like the plague, luckily for her, her figure stayed much the same without exercise so she had never seen the drawbacks, until now. She was shockingly aware now how unfit she was, sure running in stilettos wasn't exactly the easiest thing but she should not be struggling this much.

She peered back round the tree and saw that guards in the distance had moved towards the gate. Silently she cursed herself, if running away was her objective then the best route would have been through that gate however in her hurry she hadn't really planned what she would do, honestly she was surprised she had managed to get this far without being caught.

Slowly she turned back to the woods and walked further into the trees. She had got so caught up in running away from the situation she hadn't really thought what she would do if she succeeded. Did she really want to run away, or was she just making a point. To be forced to marry to 'continue to line' was an old and ridiculous notion, she found herself huffing in annoyance. Her father had always wanted a son but instead he got her, a daughter. Until now she hadn't thought it was that big of an issue to him, he had always been stern and cold towards her but she had put that down to the pressures of being a king. But he had just told her that her only purpose was to basically be a broodmare. It sickened her. She was his daughter for God sake and he was palming her off as if it was just another business deal.

She felt her eyes sting as tears now trickled freely from her eyes. She had only found out about her engagement announcement an hour before the ball and that was by fluke as she overheard the butler confirming details with her father about tonight's ball. She had confronted him immediately but was quickly cast aside by her father who claimed her had more important matters to attend to. What could be more important than ruining your daughter's life! She had thought it was odd to have a ball in November but hadn't given it much thought and just assumed it was in honour of another deal between a neighbouring Country. She now felt thoroughly stupid, how could she have been so blind and naive. That feeling only intensified as she walked into a low hanging branch.

"Fuck!" she swore as she felt the smarting pain spread across her forehead. Growling in exasperation she ran her fingers through her hair quickly finding the pins that held her hair and ripped them out flinging them to leaf covered floor. Her scarlet wavy hair quickly swung free of its bindings and flowed to midway down her back. Slowly kezia removed her fingers from her hair and massaged her temples the tension from tonight was quickly bringing on a migraine. She slowly started walking again she could feel the cold setting in, it was November and here she was walking round in a sheer dress ... not her smartest move. She usually was intelligent and observant but the events of tonight had thrown that to hell. She gasped suddenly as the realisation of what she had done set it. She had ran away! She had no other clothes with her, she had left her phone in her room and her purse. The gate was now locked so was trapped inside the palace grounds.

"Shit, shit fucking shit!" she swore loudly venting her frustrations. There was nothing left for her now she would have to return to the palace and face the wrath of her Father who she had publically humiliated by running away, well she had tried diplomacy first and when that failed she ran. "I am so screwed" she groaned.

Knowing she would have to return was a daunting prospect one she would like to delay as long as she could so she continued to walk through the woods not paying attention to where she was going. She had ridden in these woods often so she knew how to get back when she wanted to but for know she was happy meandering, looking up at the night sky through the empty branches of trees. The moon and stars were out and she spent a while walking whilst looking up. Another stupid mistake she would come to realise when she went to take another step and finding nothing there. Completely overbalanced her arms cartwheeling backwards as she tried to stop herself falling. Her eyes quickly taking in that she had reached to cliff face that provide a beautiful view across the lake below. Normally it was beautiful but when you are a second from falling 70 feet into the freeing water below you have to a new perspective of it.

Kezia let out a scream as she lost her battle for balance and fell. She felt the wind buffeting her face and ripping through her hair, the sound of her scream echoing in her ears and her dressing sparkling beautifully in the moonlight. All of that disappeared as she entered the water hard. The air was knocked out of her by the force she hit the water with. Her mouth still open from screaming quickly tried to gasp for air but she only succeeded in filling her lungs with water. The water was dark and she could feel herself flailing blindly to try and swim to the surface, whichever way that was. She could feel her movements slow down as the icy water claimed her, she could feel herself slowly sinking as her movement eventually stopped and watched as the air bubbles escaped her mouth rising to the surface ... THE SURFACE! Finally she had located the way up but now she lack the capacity to move. Trying to move her arms was like moving a lead weight, she had to move now! She was out of air and could feel the blackness taking over her vision. Every movement was a huge effort as she kicked and flailed her way to the surface. She was almost at the top when she completely ran out of oxygen she could feel the burn in her lung but fought the urge to breath as it would only let in more of the icy water. In one last effort her arm broke the surface and she burst upwards out of the water. She managed to cough out some of the water and take a ragged breath in before she sunk back under the water again. Kicking once more she surfaced again spluttering as her body tried to breathe again. Her eyes took in her surroundings making out the shore about 500 metres away. She rolled on her back so she could breathe freely and kicked her way to the shore her arms too heavy to move. She was so tired and the cold was really seeping into her bones so much so her teeth began to chatter uncontrollably. As desperate as she was to reach the shore quickly her energy level was so low she progress was slow. Eventually she rolled over to look at her progress and found the she could reach the bottom of the lake with her feet. Forcing herself forward she began to stagger to the shore line. By the time the water was at knee height her dress was clinging to her body and her red hair was plastered to her face. The tiara pinned in her hair began to slip and she watched in fall into the water next to her. She was a dead woman if she lost that. Despite the cold she stopped and bent down in the water to retrieve the sparking headwear. Straightening up she froze, 10 feet away from her on the shoreline stood a man also frozen to the spot like her. He had long blonde hair flowing over his shoulders and was wearing what looked like a green tunic and leggings. His face looked young and beautifully angular his eyes were a light blue eyes staring at her, shock was the most prominent emotion evident on his face.

Well damn! Why can't I be forced to marry him. Was the last thought Kezia had before she collapsed into the blackness.

So there it is, the first chapter out the way I was surprised by how long it got!

The next chapter is straight into lotr, so watch this space.

Love it? Hate it? Reviews are always appreciated I can't get better without your feedback