Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

Oceanna was preoccupied in her room, carefully packing away a precious object. “There! That should do it,” she spoke to herself with joy. “I just know he’s going to love it.” She was about to close it carefully as well until the Prince of Adastria came running to her bedroom door, his face beaming with excitement. “Hey sis, let’s go explore the town together,” he declared gleefully. Oceanna hurriedly shut the case with the absence of caution as soon as she heard her brother, turning to face her bedroom door while hiding the cased object she smiled at the young boy, “Sure thing! I’ll be right behind you, so go on ahead.” That was all it took for the elated young boy to leave ahead of her. Taking this chance, Oceanna quickly replaced the cased item in her closet behind her clothes. ‘I’ll give him this after the celebration ceremony is over,’ she thought. Though somehow, she had a horrible feeling in her gut that something along that train of thought would not go as planned. Shrugging off that feeling, however, she closed her closet doors and darted after her brother, Saiyo. When they had finally reached near the main city, Saiyo quickly asked the carriage man to stop nearby, since it was against the laws to bring a carriage into any main city of a kingdom if the person was a resident. However, the law doesn’t abide to those that weren’t from the kingdom. As the two hopped off from the carriage, some knights, a maid, and a butler that they brought with them followed behind the two’s every movement. It didn’t take too long for them to reach the main city but as soon as they arrived, they were greeted with warm welcomes and bustling busybodies. “People sure do seem busy, huh?” Saiyo mumbled as he waltzed through the district filled with merchandise. Since the servants and knights were walking a little far behind, they could not hear what the little prince said, but not Oceanna, she heard him word for word and that made her giggle. “They’re probably busy preparing for your birthday celebration today and the receiving ceremony,” she responded with a smile. “It’s quite a blessed day. Especially since no one knew your birthday of all days would fall on the ceremony of receiving.” The ceremony of receiving is a rite that is celebrated amongst the people on Eaeway from many different empires. It is where special children at the age of ten are chosen by a guardian divinion and would then become blessed with the powers from that divinion. The high priest would first receive a notice from the holy saint or saintess regarding the rite’s approaching date and from there the ceremony would be carefully planned out three months early. “Mmm, I suppose you’re right...” The prince mumbled once more before something caught his eye. “Oh hey! Don’t those rings over there look cool!” Once something shiny and cool had been spotted by the prince’s eye, he had a habit of buying a pair for himself and his sister. “Wait here, I’ll be back,” the boy exclaimed with glee. Eagerly as he ran over to the sales merchant a knight and the maid followed in pursuit while the other two remained with the princess. Waiting patiently as she did, another little boy looking to be younger than her in a dark grey cloak covered down from head to toe had accidentally bumped into her. However, before her knight could stop him, the boy fell - crashing his palms and knees into the cobblestone. Even though the boy looked somewhat weak, that was no excuse in the knight’s eyes to bump into royalty and not ask for forgiveness. Then again, none of that nonsense mattered to the princess as she gestured to the knight to stay where he was. Bending down to reach out a hand to the young boy, she noticed that there was something strange about him. “Chocolate colored, pointy ears…?” She mumbled loud enough for the boy to hear her. And as if trying to protect his identity, he quickly scrambled to cover his face and ears a little more with his hood. Realizing his crisis by his ears and complexion, she soon came to discern him as a dark elf. The opposite of light-elves that she heard so much about. Usually, people aren’t so fond of dark elves for the many horrible things they’ve done. So, if someone found out they might report him, and he’d be punished for the many things his kind has done. Yet, for unknown reasons, the little princess couldn’t find a single fault with the young elf. She pitied him, “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything about you,” she reassured calmly outstretching her hand a little more. The little elf caught sight of this and hesitated. He wasn’t too sure if the little girl were telling the truth, but he had a gut feeling, somewhere along the lines, that he could trust her. And with that, he reached out to grab her hand which was warm to the touch. The complete opposite of his bodily temperature. When he was completely on his two feet, Oceanna giggled a little to make him feel at ease. She then looked over to her brother who was still busy negotiating with the sales merchant before turning back to the little elf. Reaching her hand towards her earlobe she carefully took off one of her earrings and begun attaching it to the elf’s earlobe. Confused as the little elf was, he slowly began to mellow when he felt a wave of warmth surge through his body. “It’s a clip-on. An expensive one that was specially custom-made for me. It’s built with a fire elemental stone inside and it’s supposed to generate warmth to whomever that utilizes it,” she explained. “I normally used it when I was sickly - since it helped a lot, but now, I think you might need it more than I would.” “…” The little elf spoke not a word but nodded his head instead and ran off, without thanking the princess for her kind gift. “Are you sure it okay to let him go like that?” Her brother spoke up behind her when the little elf left. Giving her a small fright, she rapidly spun on her heels only to be met with her brother’s dubious expression. “S-Saiyo when did you get here?” She quickly queried, sweating bullets from her nervousness. “Did you just give something to that guy?” Her brother asked curiously examining his sister’s facial expressions. "N-No, I just helped him up and told him to be careful. T-That’s all, " she sputtered looking everywhere but the prince’s face. Now because they are siblings, Saiyo knew exactly when his sister was lying to him. Nevertheless, he also knew that whenever she lied it’d most likely be for the benefit of protecting someone else. Since she was that sort of child. Sighing, the boy took a step back from his sister, “Guess I’ll just ignore it like always, right?” He aimlessly spoke to the air and walked ahead of her snapping his finger to call his maid. Suddenly comprehending this, Oceanna relaxed a minute before catching up to the little prince. Her knight, and butler following her every movement. It seems as though the boy had bought the matching pair of rings from before. “Although it seemed cool from afar it harbored a wind elemental, and strangest of all it seems as though it ended up with that merchant on accident. Since it’s illegal for anyone to use elementals without authorization, I made a slight negotiation with him and now I’ve got it.” "I’m pretty sure he just didn’t want to question sovereignty, so he willingly gave it up, " said Oceanna, feeling a sign of guilt. “Maybe so…but I find it strange. I don’t necessarily believe that it ended up with him on accident. You think so too, right?” Inquired the little prince as he grabbed Oceanna’s hand and placed one of the rings in her palm. Taking the ring and placing it on her index finger on her left hand she spoke nonchalantly, “I guess I agree with you there. It is doubtful.”