I'm awoken with the smell of bacon, brightening of the sun and the cool air clinging to my body creating goose bumps. I grab the thick house coat on the edge of the bed and wrap it around my body. My feet patter against the wood floor as I follow the alluring smell to the room connected to mine.
On the long, oak table sits a bunch of food. Bacon, eggs, sausage, all types of fruit and a fresh pitcher of squeezed orange juice. Xenia walks into the room with a couple of napkins in hand. Her long, blonde hair is French braided down her back, she wears a light purple dress that fans against her tan flats.
Her eyes widen when she sees me. "Oh! Good morning, ma'am. I didn't know what you liked so I brought everything from the kitchen that was made." She sits the napkins next to a China plate and silverware. I'm assuming that's where I sit. "Please, sit and eat. You've got a busy day today." She urges, pointing at the brown vintage chair.
I do as she says and sit down, my fingers itching to stuff all the goodies down my throat. That wouldn't end well if I did. "What do I have to do today?" I ask her as I grab some bananas and stuff it in my mouth. I combine the banana with raspberries and pears. God, it's like a swirl of peace in my mouth.
When Xenia looks over at me, she laughs. Her pale cheeks are now red and flustered, "What's funny?" I ask.
"Oh! It's just with all the fruit in your mouth, you look like a chipmunk." I feel my cheeks, they are indeed puffed out. "And to answer your question, the King has scheduled you a fitting for the ball. You're so lucky!" She squeals. "I'm sorry, I sound like a girl."
"You are one." I clarify.
She gives me a sheepish smile, "Right. Best finish your food." She points out.
She starts to walk out the room, until I stop her. "Why won't you eat with me, there's no way I'll be able to eat all this food on my own." I push the chair that's adjacent to mine.
"No, that wouldn't be appropriate. What if someone walks in?"
"So, what! You work hard enough, I insist that you sit down, Xenia. Wouldn't want to upset the King's guest." I didn't want to pull that rip plug, but I know she won't sit and eat with me unless I give her a reason to. She's young, working like this will make her age.
She huffs, "Fine. I'll have a bit of bacon." Her eyes linger on the food, imaginary saliva drips from the corner of her mouth. "And maybe a bit of eggs, and those biscuits looks delicious."
"Help yourself." She grabs a China plate from the far end of the table and started piling on food. "God, do they not feed you all here?"
She blushes as a piece of bacon slips from her mouth onto the plate. "We work a lot, so eating is something that we do when we find the time." She tells me, a blueberry pops in her mouth.
"How old are you, may I ask." I sip on my orange juice, looking at her over the rim of my glass.
"21."
I almost spit out the orange juice. "21! I would have taken you for at least 17."
She laughs, "I get that all the time. How old are you?"
"I turned 18 just a few months ago. My grandpa told me I was getting older; swore he saw a grey hair in my head." She laughs at this.
"No, you're young. Not like me, being 21 and not married is unheard of here in Nygaard. All my sisters and brothers are married, at least two children. Not me, my parents love me, but feel that my life would be better if I were married and had a litter of children. They just don't want me to die an old maiden." I forgot; they live like it's the 1800's.
"You're really beautiful, the first time I saw you I thought I was looking at Rapunzel."
"From the Grimm brother's tale? Now you're just flattering me." I pour her some orange juice; she thanks me and takes a sip.
"My grandfather would kill me if I considered getting married at my age. And then he would kill Alexander." I remember when my grandpa found Alexander in the broom closet, I thought he would burst right then and there. Instead, he sent me to my room and had a long conversation with him. It was only 5 minutes, but felt like 50.
He still doesn't trust Alexander when were alone, and he shouldn't. The things that we did together, the way he made me feel, it's criminal to think about.
After she's done eating her eggs, she asks me another question. "Tell me about your beau? Everyone around here talks about you like you're the devil, but I think what he did for you was noble."
I smile, "I'm not shocked." I then tell her all about Alexander. The first time we met, which was at The Blondes party. The second time we met, he was late to his father's business, and how he hit me with the door and we had a cute moment. Our first kiss on my balcony, the time we went to go see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I left out what happened after that. She looks too innocent to hear THAT part. When I told Lyra what we did, she freaked the fuck out. I'm serious, screaming and raging occurred, her mother thought someone was attacking us.
"He sounds dreamy, I wish to meet someone like that, no shocker he risked his life to save you." I frown, "Oh! Did I say something wrong, I'm sorry." She apologies, her blue eyes widen.
"No, you're fine." I assure her. "It's just- he wasn't supposed to be there." Her face tells me to go on, "I left in the middle of the night to Insofar, to do the spell for Yount. Alexander found out I was there and came to rescue me, he thought I was kidnapped. When I did the spell, he was used as a threat, in case I didn't comply." My throat starts to choke up as I continue the story, "He- uh I didn't comply and in result, he was stabbed. Not to my knowledge, the knife was laced with monkshood, and he's in a coma."
Her blue eyes soften, creases in her forehead furrow more. "That's why you're here, I'm so sorry. I can't even imagine how you're holding it together." She clutches onto my hand, rubbing the inside of my palm. I give her a warm smile.
After I's and Xenia's chat, which was nice, she helped me get dressed for my fitting. She brought me in a long, dark green dress with a square cut style and fitted sleeves. The dress was fitted at the waist and flowed out around me. Turns out, girls in Nygaard don't wore pants, unless they're sparring. I wonder how Katana's finding this.
Xenia left to go attend to her other job, while I followed behind Ben, my guard, to the fitting room. The King has limited my access around the castle, lot's of places are closed off. I wonder why, maybe there are rare jewels or secret documents only he can see.
The fitting room is on the other side of the castle, this part is more open with sunlight and windows. We walk down a narrow hallway to a door at the end, Ben pushes it open. Inside, I see a bunch of wall mirrors, in front is a wide, circle spin thing you see women standing on when they're getting fitted for a wedding dress. An old woman with grey hair, yellow glasses and a shall wrapped around her shoulder stands by the mirror. She stretches out a measuring tape.
When she sees me, her glasses are pushed up. "Finally, I thought it would take forever. Ben, thank you for bringing me her, this should be a while, go take the load off." Ben smiles, which I've never seen before, and shuts the door. Now it's just me and the lady. I fiddle with the sleeves of my dress, is it hot in here or just me?
"Hello." I speak.
"Hello to you too, honey. Come on over here, don't be shy now." Her red polished nail points to the circle spin thing. I walk over and stand on top, watching her every move. She opens up a rustic brown box with intricate design on the side. Inside, there's small pins, some thread and a pincushion. "I need you to take off your dress." She says, not paying any attention to me. When she sees me hesitate, a laugh escapes her wrinkly lips, "Honey, I've seen it all, just take the dress off."
I sling it over one of the mirrors, the only thing around my bodice is a slip dress. The cool air from the vents freezes my nipples. She stares at me, "Do you know what you want? Any type of design." The measuring tape stretches out over my arms, she writes the measurements down in a compact book.
"I haven't given it much thought." My mind goes back to when we first came to Nygaard, I spotted a beautiful black dress with sparkles on it. "Now that I think about it, when I first came into town, there was a sparkly black dress I spotted. Can you make something like that?"
Her lips purse up, "I think I know what you're talking about, princess cut, correct?" I nod. "Then I do, it's a beautiful dress, but not classy for a ball, that's more for a formal dinner." I sigh, "How about this, she sits in the chair next to the mirrors, "I take the design of the dress, but make it into a ball gown."
"I like that." She smiles.
"Perfect, now stay still so I can measure the rest of you." I tell her OK. The measuring tape wraps around my hips, "Wow, do you eat."
"Ex-exuse me." I stutter, is she calling me fat!?
"No, that wasn't meant to be rude. The women around here are all tall and slender, it's nice to see a women's body." She clasps down on my hips, "These are child bearing hips, you could easily pop out twins, I've seen it before." I bet she has, she looks 100.
"Thank you for the complement, I'll take it in check." I mean, what do you say to that? It's not everyday someone tells you you have child bearing hips. I ask questions to eliminate the silence around us. "So, how many people have you made dresses for?"
She furrows her eyebrows, thinking of a number. "Let's see, I've been alive for 125 years, born in 1879. I've made over 150 dresses."
My eyes widen, "How are you so old! I didn't mean for that come out the way it did, but I didn't know werewolves could live that long."
"Not all can, I'm a primordial werewolf. Only a couple of us exist today, during the War of Sons, my kind was killed. Besides me, a couple live across the world." Wow, that's amazing. To be able to live that long, 125 years, I can't imagine what she lived through, all the experiences she had. It must be lonely; everyone you've ever known is dead and gone.
Something pops into my head, "If you were born in 1879, that means you were old enough to be around for Rhella. Did you know her, or dress her?" I hear a squeak come out of her; I can feel her thinking.
"We don't talk about her around here, not after what she did. But, to tickle your fancy, I did know her. It was 1895, I just turned 16 years old. My mother, at the time, was the head seamstress, I was her assistant. My mother made me brush my hair 100 times, made sure my dress was pressed and clean. We weren't just meeting a regular in our village, but the new Queen. My mother was hired to measure and make her new dresses fit for a Luna. I remember it like it was yesterday, legs shaking and sweat beating down my forehead."
"When we entered the room, she was sitting on the window sill, right over there." She points to the window on my right, so weird to think that Rhella was in the same room as me. "The thing that came to my mind was that she was so beautiful, long wavy hair, chocolate skin and the eyes of a virgin. She was quiet, a bit reserved, but my mother and I never thought of it, just measured her and left. Never would I have guessed she would cause destruction."
'If she was in my situation, she wouldn't judge', a voice says.
I jump, the women pulls on my slip. "Honey! I've got a needle in my hand, could have stabbed you. Stay still."
"Sorry." I mumble. "You didn't hear that?"
"No, shouldn't I be hearing things, I am the old one after all." I stand still as she continues with her work. I know I heard someone speak, and it wasn't me nor the old women. Maybe it was the bad cheese or a figment of my imagination.
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Once the woman was done measuring me, I tell her thank you and follow behind Ben. We didn't move far once the woman stopped him and had a chat, asking how his mother was or something. While they talked, I walked over the balcony nearby and looked over.
Frosty snow fills the mountains, and everything around it. For miles and miles there's only snowy mountains, there's no way anyone would or could escape them. Where would they go, Canada? Down below I hear grunts and clanging. A head full of black hair peaks out of a hat, it's a woman. She's swinging around a sword, on the other side of the sword is a man with rough hands. A ponytail peaks out of his hat.
"Is that all you got, Uncle?" I hear the girl say.
"Push my buttons, girl, and you'll fill my wrath." The man replies back. I notice those voices, leaning over to get a better view, I see that it's Katana and her uncle, The King. What the hell are they doing? Earlier, I asked Ben where Katana was so I could talk to her, but he said she wasn't in her room, matter of fact she'd been gone since the sun came up. Kai was in the library all day, never to have come out. Trust me, I waited outside.
She's been with her uncle the whole time, I'm surprised. The way she was around him a few days ago made me believe she didn't want to spend any time around him. Guess I was wrong. I don't know how she can be out in that cold weather, when it got cold in St. Helena, I would wear three jackets. She moves so gracefully, so sign of fatigue.
But her uncle, as swift and sharp as the sword in his hand. He is a beautiful site to see, his sword clangs against her's trying to win the fight. His arm was at the correct angle, feet a good width apart and eyes so determined.
I don't get to see how it ends once I hear Ben calling for me, saying we need to go. I reluctantly look away and follow behind him, many questions on my mind.
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