The Adventures of Princess Amberly

Chapter 1
A New Beginning
Several years ago, on a large Mediterranean island, there lived a king and queen who ruled the kingdom of Sernovia. They loved their country so much that they frequently mingled with the citizens and their children. The king would host beautiful royal balls and hold kingdom-wide picnics in the town square. He would listen to anyone who had concerns with any business in Sernovia. The king wanted it to be a peaceful kingdom, full of harmony and contentment, to be enjoyed by all its citizens.
The queen would often read stories to the school children, stories that captured their attention and imagination. She always made reading fun and would allow the children to rewrite stories to include special endings or events. Every child had a chance to read his or her story the next time they met. As a special reward for working hard, the queen would host a field day at the palace once a year. All of Sernovia’s children looked forward to spending the day at the palace with the queen and her family. There would be puppet shows, ice cream, and lots of fun games. She was very imaginative and would create her own puppet shows and games from all the books she had read to the children throughout the year.
Eventually the king and queen decided it was time to have children of their own. After a few years of marriage, the queen gave birth to twins, Prince Sherman Kota Jasper IV and Prince Sedrick Kota Jasper. Prince Sherman was born first.
The queen was filled with joy, but she and the king both noticed some differences between the two. Prince Sherman was a loving child who always seemed to be cheerful and happy. Prince Sedrick, however, cried constantly and kept many in the palace awake for nights on end. As time went on, the king and queen presented each boy to the citizenry of Sernovia, who loved them both.
Prince Sherman was raised to be a king and was often with his father.
Prince Sedrick loved books and would go with his mother to read to the children of Sernovia. As Prince Sedrick grew up, he began to read books about inventions. Shortly after age seven, Prince Sedrick could be found in the barn working with tools. He was very intelligent and loved to invent things. When Sedrick was only eight years old, he secretly built his first robot; it would do whatever he asked.
“Clean my room, now!” Sedrick would tell his robot in an authoritarian, cranky voice when his room appeared as if it had been used to test nuclear weapons. The robot would gently pick up all the dirty laundry and misplaced toys without hesitation.
When Sedrick was nine, he made some modifications to his robot, so he would not have to waste any time doing chores or homework. He just ordered the robot to do his work for him. Sedrick was very sneaky and kept this robot a secret until one day when his brother witnessed the robot cleaning Sedrick’s dirty, disorganized bedroom.
Prince Sherman crouched down in the hallway and looked though the crack in the door so he could see this amazing invention clean Sedrick’s stinky, messy room. He was astounded when he heard his brother bark out orders to the robot: “Do my homework! I need it done in five minutes.” Prince Sherman was in awe as his brother’s robot finished his math, science, and social studies homework in four minutes and thirty-seven seconds.
Without warning, Prince Sherman suddenly let out the loudest sneeze of his life. He quickly covered his mouth and ran down the cold, stone hallway to his bedroom. Sedrick scampered to his feet and slammed his door, but he knew it was too late. His secret was out, and it was time to put his robot away for a while. Sedrick ordered it to his closet until he could come up with a plan to outsmart his brother.
Later that night as the family sat down in the palace dining room to have dinner, Sedrick presented his robot to his mom as an early birthday gift. The robot strutted into the room carrying a two-layered birthday cake, covered with sweet strawberries and thirty-three brightly glowing candles. Sedrick stood up and began to sing “Happy Birthday” to his mom. Prince Sherman sat quietly, never spoiling Sedrick’s fun. The queen was so amazed by her son’s brilliant invention, she sprang to her feet and gave Sedrick a bear hug and a soft, gentle kiss on the cheek.
Even though Prince Sedrick would become the greatest inventor Sernovia had ever known, he had a secret. He wanted to be king. Sedrick would lie awake in his bed, surrounded by disheveled sheets and blankets, wondering if God hated him for not allowing him to be the leader of the great land of Sernovia.
As time passed, Sedrick put aside aspirations of becoming king; he knew his hopes and dreams would never come true, for Prince Sherman was the chosen one. Instead, Sedrick put his faith and trust in himself, for he knew he was a brilliant inventor. He would snicker at the thought of the robot he’d built when he was just seven years old, realizing that he could one day be as powerful as a king by concentrating on inventing machines for the whole world to idolize. Sedrick was very supportive of his brother and never showed any sign of jealousy. Instead, he made a life for himself and traveled all over the world showing off his inventions.
The princes had grown up to be very different men. Prince Sherman frequently caught the gleaming eye of many of the kingdom’s maidens who were drawn to his broad shoulders, light brown hair, and intriguing brown eyes. Prince Sedrick, though, had little concern for physical appearances, and it never seemed to bother him to be shorter and less sculpted than his brother. Looking at both brothers, no one would guess they were twins.
It was customary for the royal family to travel to kingdom-wide events in the royal carriage, which was unlike any ordinary carriage. It was pearly white and horse-drawn, with gold wheels and a padded, purple, silk-covered seat—all covered with a canopy of purple silk. The coachman was posted high on a gold pedestal, where he guided eight, majestic, white horses with purple leather reins. The carriage had been presented to the late King Tracouedius Kota Jasper III in 1782 for establishing a peace accord with the neighboring kingdoms, an agreement honored to the present day.
Rumor had it that the carriage had been built for a wealthy gentleman as a gift to his bride on their wedding day. The carriage had awaited the newlyweds in front of a large stone castle situated on a cliff overlooking the sea of Roosevelt Island. Just as the happy couple had finished exchanging their vows and exited the castle to begin their honeymoon, a terrible storm hit the island. The bride was so scared, she jumped into the carriage to shelter herself from the storm. The groom followed, trying to convince her to wait in the castle for the storm to calm. Just then, the carriage began to spin, flinging the groom into the twirling sea where he met his fate.
The bride was knocked unconscious and woke several hours later to find herself on the floor of the undamaged carriage on a strange island to which she had never been. The bride was so overwhelmed with grief that she gave this astonishing carriage to the first peasant who passed. The bride was never heard from again. The carriage, on the other hand, found its way to the kingdom of Sernovia.
One day, Prince Sherman and his parents were traveling in the royal carriage to a kingdom-wide celebration in downtown Sernovia. The sun was shining, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day, when suddenly the gold wheels shot straight off the wheel bearings, and the carriage plummeted off the narrow road into a long, deep ravine.