Dutchess Valentine Cygnus of East Cilane entered the marketplace with her twin daughters, Freya and Dawn. They found it flooded with whispers and rumours of the white knight.

"How utterly aggravating it is to hear all of this chatter for the past 3 weeks. For what? Nobody even knows who that stupid white knight is. Still, everybody keeps talking about him." the Duchess exclaimed as an annoyed expression formed on her face. Her two daughters sighed. Their mother would never stop complaining about the village folk.

Him? Dawn thought to herself, the white knight could be a girl. The Duchess fanned herself and walked further down the street, her daughters following.

"Uggh. It really is ridiculous that this white knight gets so much attention. The ball is in a day, for goodness sake! And nobody except for us is out actually shopping!"

"Mother, you could be a bit more considerate. I mean the white knight did save a lot of people last night. And I think that was very brave." said Freya. Dawn allowed herself a little smile for this. At last, someone who gets it! she thought. Dawn's sister was quite remarkable - she was sweet and smart and very ladylike. The perfect daughter for parents like her's.

"Even if that is true, it is not what we are here for. Like I said, the ball is tomorrow night and we need to buy dresses. You'll be turning 18 soon but you still haven't found suitors yet." the Duchess remarked sharply.

"But, mother, I don't even want to get married soon." said Dawn, her happiness immediately disappeared as the three of them entered a boutique.

The Duchess immediately spotted a very elegant flowy red dress with a low-cut and exclaimed, "Freya, this is perfect for you! Your dark hair and light blue eyes will be complemented so well with this." Freya nodded. It really was beautiful, and her mother was right. The dress would bring out her facial features and natural curves. The Duchess smiled, happy that her daughter agreed. She looked around and found an identical dress in black. She pointed it out to Dawn.

"This would look nice on you, Dawn." The Duchess said. Dawn shook her head.

"I don't want to wear black."

"Dawn's right, mother. Black wouldn't look good on her", Freya said, moving to another row of clothes, "Why not this sky blue one? It's really pretty and it's simple. It also goes with Dawn's almost white hair and light blue eyes." Dawn moved closer to her sister.

"Okay, this works, as long as I'm allowed to say No to creepy people during the ball." she said. The Duchess rolled her eyes at her daughter, but eventually agreed. The dresses were set. Now came the hard part, teaching her daughters how to dance...

---

The Duchess hid a surprised smile when she found her daughters could dance quite well. Especially Dawn! She was doing really really well.

How is it even possible... she thought to herself. Dawn was very unladylike when it came to table manners and greetings and almost everything needed by a lady of the court.

But, here she was, dancing better than her sister, and even better than the instructor! She had impeccable balance!

The Duchess looked at Dawn in awe. This would definitely impress the young men present at the ball! At the thought of Dawn attracting the eye of more young men, the Duchess's mood immediately lightened up. After the lesson, she treated her daughters by arranging a scented bath for both of them. Freya and Dawn, both thoroughly enjoyed it and were waiting in the dining room for a surprise that their mother had planned for them. Neither knew what it was.

Blindfolded, they were taken to a small room. When opening their eyes, they noticed they were surrounded by comfortable sofas and a large window in the front. The two of them looked at each other and walked towards the window. In front of their eyes was a training ground for knights, filled with young men sparring, half of them topless. Freya turned to Dawn.

"Mhhhhmmm. What a gift mother's got us..." Freya said with a gleam in her eye. The two girls burst into laughter right as the Duchess entered the room.

"What's so funny?" she asked. Freya coughed.

"N... Nothing... Mother. Just one of the knights... tripped. And we thought it was funny..." she said innocently. The Duchess looked at them questionably but sat down without further comments.

They watched the knights spar quietly for a while. A couple of minutes passed.

"The knight with the black hair in the blue ring is using his sword wrong." she said.

"What do you mean?" Freya said, looking closer.

"I'm talking about the slant of his sword. It's reflecting light towards us when he should be using it on his opponents eyes." Dawn replied.

"Oh." Freya said.

Dawn looked confused at Freya's reaction and then realized what she had said out loud. She immediately brought her fingers up to her mouth. Why did I have to say that!?! A normal lady of the court wouldn't know that! she scolded herself. For the rest of the night, Dawn did her best to bite down her tongue the rest of the time while Freya and The Duchess commented on which of the knights looked the best.

An hour later, Dawn and and Freya excused themselves and they went down the stairs.

"What was that? The weird comment on the sword light?" Freya asked, breaking the silence.

"It was nothing... Just forget it..." Dawn muttered. Freya nodded. Dawn told Freya that she was going to get a snack before sleeping and the two sisters parted ways. However, instead of going to the kitchen, Dawn slipped out of their mansion and went out for a walk. Her waist length wavy hair swayed in the cold breeze. In the dark, it looked ghostly white - Freya was right. Her hair was more white than it was blonde. She cornered a street and walked towards Dragonfly Lake, one of her favorite places to be.

Suddenly, Dawn heard a shriek, followed by a scream. She turned and ran towards the sound. A small child was being cornered by a large man in black.

"Stop it. Go away!" Dawn yelled to the man. He turned towards her and growled. When she moved closer, he lunged for her, but she blocked him with her arm.

For a minute, the man looked shaken. How was a young girl like her able to block him? He glared at her. Dawn glared back and kicked his legs. He fell to the ground and she gave him another kick.

Abruptly, he grabbed her leg and pulled her down. She cried out in pain and looked at her right leg. The man in black had scratched it and her leg was covered in blood. She punched his face and then kicked his hand of her leg. He let out a loud moan. She got up, dusted herself off and turned towards the child.

The little girl was staring up at her.

"Are you okay?" Dawn asked softly. The girl nodded slowly, still trying to take in what just happened.

"You... You're just like the white knight. You even have white hair. But you're a girl..." she trailed off. Dawn smiled kindly.

"Anyone can be a knight, even a girl. Like you and me." she said.

The little girl smiled back. "What's your name?" Dawn asked.

"Isabella." the girl replied. Isabella told Dawn that the man wanted to have her money. Dawn told Isabella to go home, who said goodbye and walked home.

Dawn tied up the hands of the man who she just fought and then headed towards a little cabin in Rocker Woods. Inside, on a wooden table, lay a shiny white helmet and shiny white armour. Next to it was the first aid kit, which was what she was looking for.

Dawn lowered herself onto the bed and slowly dabbed rubbing alcohol onto her injury, wincing in pain every time it touched her. After cleaning the blood out, she wrapped her injury in gauze and stretched out her legs. She sighed, it was always hard to keep her injuries a secret from her family. And with the ball coming up... she would just have to deal with it.

She looked at the clock - 4 am. It's almost morning already? I better get back home before anyone notices... she thought to herself.