I woke up on my own to the sound of someone shuffling around in my room, and before I’d even opened my eyes, still in the midst of a drowsy, half-asleep awakening, I almost believed I was laying on a cloud- and had all night. Never had I slept so comfortably, and it had to have been because of the soft mattress and silk sheets.
Soft mattress and silk sheets…
My eyes popped open and I stared forward, intensely glancing around the room only to find that I was, in fact, still in the unknown world. Hanging overhead, the silk ribbons and pristine ceiling greeted me as they had when I awoke twice in my dreams, but this time, it was no dream.
It felt the same as those two experiences, yet it was different. Still, I didn’t feel as if I belonged, but I was fully aware of everything around me- could easily control my movements without slow, delayed response- and I had entered through a bathtub this time- after death.
At the other side of the room was the maid who’d hounded me with irritating questions the night before, and with her blond locks held back with white ribbon, dress the same coco brown covered by a cream apron, she was holding up a dress, examining it with a careful eye. Another sat atop the unused tea table, and I watched her for a moment.
The one she held in her hands was far too fancy to be anything casual, even for a “princess.” It had a layer of translucent fabric, a clean silver, that covered over some sort of iridescent material, and with each subtle movement, the colors shifted and changed, flashing around a tinted rainbow.
As for the one on the table, however, it wasn’t nearly as fancy, being a navy blue in color with white accents. It was laced at the skirt’s edge, the neckline, and the waist; and other than that, it was a rather simple sleeveless dress. I wondered what it was for, and yawning, I sat up in bed, staring at the woman who now spun to me.
I opened my lips to speak but snapped them shut upon recalling my personal desire not to speak just yet, and with a blank stare of neutrality, I cocked my head to the side, raising a brow at the dresses.
“For the day,” said the maid, her voice less desperate and more gentle than it had been last night. She smiled, glancing down at the dress she held in her hands, and from the look in her eye, I couldn’t tell if she was excited just to be near the dress or excited for me. Or excited in general.
“Which do you want?” she asked. “You certainly cannot wear that red robe forever, Your Highness.”
I glanced down at the robe which was disheveled and pushed around, nearly wide open, and quickly, I snatched the insides and pulled it shut over me, feeling a flush of shame, but when I looked up, the maid merely blinked, awaiting some sort of response.
When I pointed to the blue atop the table, her smile faded, and disappointment flashed in her eyes, but she nodded and promptly switched out the dresses, walking over to where I sat, now hanging my legs over the edge of the bed, just barely touching the floor. I felt like I was twelve again, but thankfully, the height of the bed was just taller than normal- this body wasn’t any shorter than my own.
The dress wasn’t bad looking at all, but it was hardly my style. I didn’t suppose there were jeans or sweatpants to spare, and to ask for something like a shirt and pants would likely make this girl faint in a world where they insisted I wear a dress. Hell, it felt like I’d almost time travelled back if it weren’t for the fact that this place was nowhere on Earth- past, present, or future.
After standing, she started reaching for the collar of the rob, and I was quick to jump back before she could snag it. I met her drawn brows with a shake of my head, and for a moment, her stare was blank, unsure, but she seemed to get the hint when she exited.
Climbing my way into the dress was the easy part, going in one foot at a time, but when I pulled it up, slipping my arms through the thick straps, I realized there wasn’t a damned zipper but instead buttons. I was great at zipping up dresses on my own, but this world wasn’t so advanced to have a damn zipper, so I was left walking around, back exposed, trying to maneuver my way around using the mirror as a guide, only to get three buttons before slipping and collapsing to the floor with a short cry and a heavy thud.
As soon as I pushed myself up, weak arms trembling from the weight of myself, there was a knock at the door. My head glanced up at it, and from the crack beneath the door, a shadow peered its way beneath. Someone was there, and I assumed it would be the maid as she likely was too eager and waited outside. Stumbling until I could finally balance myself on bare feet, I started to answer only to stop before more than a “c” sound could escape.
Damn this is harder than I thought.
Sighing, I reached for the wall and knocked twice before realizing I could have just opened it myself, but the maid seemed to understand what I meant as the door clicked open. I mentally thanked her for not going far as I needed unwanted assistance with the buttons, and as I watched her walk through the door, my stomach dropped as did my jaw.
It wasn’t the maid.
For a good fifteen seconds, I was frozen where I stood, eyes wide and lips pinched. I was locked into eye contact with the man who had rushed alongside the servants and the apparent King and Queen when I burst to life in a bathtub- how many years had they been bathing me, anyways?
At first, I felt uncomfortable shock, a pure form of awkwardness shrouding the air, but it suddenly turned into a mesmerizing daze as a result of staring into his eyes. They were so peculiar- unlike anything I’d ever seen before- and I always knew about heterochromia, but never had I seen it like this- and so clear, too.
“Is there...uhh… something you need help with?” he finally asked blinking away the stare, watching me expectantly. One of my hands still held together the dress at the midst of my back, but from my lower back up, it was completely unbuttoned.
I shook my head, but following his raised brow- doubting my sincerity- I sighed and nodded, spinning around to reveal an unbuttoned dress and bare back of smooth, pale skin.
Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I felt like I’d just eaten a pepper, my face going hot from embarrassment. I hated exposing myself around anyone I didn’t know, and I thought things would be fine when I shooed the maid, but now, I was stuck with this.
He didn’t seem to mind, however, as he easily complied to my request and proceeded to carefully button each one, hands moving slowly to prevent any tear to the dress, and as he did so, I repeatedly wished that he would hurry the hell up because surely my neck and ears had gone as red as a tomato, too.
As he buttoned the top, he said, “So, you cannot speak, then?” I turned to face him, taking a step back to increase distance, and nodded. “How peculiar.”
I merely stared. He had come for a reason, being the one to knock, and so, I waited for an explanation, trying to keep the awe from my eyes. Blue and green- neither the same. I started to find my own fascination with them borderline annoying, so I decided to avert my gaze to his black brows, barely touched by the sway of his bangs’ dark locks.
“You can write, understand language, and even respond in proper gestures, yet no voice comes to you?” he pressed. I felt the heaviness of his words, like pressure hovering over me, but I nodded. “What a strange situation.”
I nodded before pointing to the door. His eyes followed my hand, and I turned my finger back to him and tilted my head, trying to silently ask why he’d come in the first place.
“I was told to keep an eye on you,” he said. I went stiff, feeling that unease creeping back towards me. The world felt wrong enough as it was, but the distrust I had for these strangers started to become more evident, especially after this man said he was told to watch me as if I weren’t to be trusted. “Do you care to join for breakfast?”
Despite my suspicions- and his own- he spoke calmly, softly, and in his tone, I detected true concern, but I wouldn’t let another person fool me. Jonathon seemed generous until I saw him slit open a throat, so there was no telling what this sort of person could do.
The pecking hunger in the pit of my stomach begged and begged for me to finally eat, and I decided it wouldn’t hurt to risk it. If I wanted to get to the bottom of my being here and where here even was, I had to play along. If they thought me to be their sleeping beauty (which truly seemed like what I was), then I would be. No Aurora, however. Just Eleanor. Eleanor… whatever my surname was now.
Eleanor Raider was dead, after all.
Breakfast was about as awkward as one would expect.
I had gone to a grand room, equipped with a large, glass table equipped with fifteen chairs, all empty except for two, and as soon as I sat down- the boy, Wren, having taken a seat a few chairs away- I was served chicken, or at least it tasted like chicken, and some sort of sweet and tangy sauce that felt like candy with a sort of kick. It wasn’t half bad, but the rolls that came with it tasted sour, so I swallowed them down forcibly, trying not to let it be obvious my insides shivered at the taste, lips pinching.
All while I ate, the awkwardness grew. I felt the King and Queen’s eyes burning into my skin, their attention more on me than their own food, and I didn’t dare look up. I was afraid to accidentally make eye contact with either of them. Halfway through, I dared the feat, only to notice that they’d hardly eaten a thing, both of them trying to hide the fact they were watching with such relief.
I got the whole thing that I was- allegedly- their daughter who’d never been awake since birth, but watching me eat? Really?
It was quiet, too. Even Wren seemed to notice the behavior, not engaging in it himself, and I didn’t shoot any looks his way of asking for help, either. I wanted to, but I had to remind myself that he was sent to keep an eye on me, and I trusted him as much as I trusted legends of immortality. Not at all. Besides, why would I, their alleged daughter, be pleading for release from the awkwardness? It didn’t fit the part I decided to play.
When I was done, a servant took my place and offered to pull back my chair. I almost did it myself, but remembering my goal, I allowed him to do it for me, and before leaving with Wren who was also getting up from his seat, I smiled at the two of them and nodded. They both smiled back, brows slanted and eyes turning to each other with such relief that I almost felt bad for them.
An entire nineteen years of a daughter sleeping, unable to wake by any means necessary. They’d been waiting such a long time for “my” awakening, and now, here I was, mentally screaming at their uncomfortable stares. I still would do the same at every meal so long as they invaded my comfort as they had, though.
I was automatically headed back to the only room I knew how to get to, but not even a few steps away from the dining room’s open arched doors, Wren asked, “Have you had any chance to look around?”
I paused and glanced up at him. He was a good eight inches taller than I- clearly over six feet tall- but I was plenty used to looking up at people, being about average height for an American woman.
I shook my head, and he nodded at that, understand that I’d hardly have any time to do so, given my situation. To them, I’d only been awake for less than twenty four hours, after all. They didn’t even know of the nineteen years I spent in my own damn world, not to mention that I willingly ended them.
My gut pinched, but I pushed the thoughts aside, filling it with the thousands of questions I wanted solved. I hadn’t seen any part of the castle, and if they didn’t have any sort of technology, then there was surely some way to educate oneself.
I knew just where I had to go.
Wren keeping an eye on me made me no more comfortable than I felt on my own, and the knowledge of his eyes lingering on me, keeping a suspicious eye close, was unnerving. If he caught me looking into the world, would he be suspicious?
No, I thought. Why should he? I should be uneducated, as intelligent as a child, and trying to teach myself about my world would seem plausible, wouldn’t it?
Still, I didn’t want him lingering regardless. With a wave of my hands, I shooed him. His head jerked back, brows furrowing, and he quickly understood what I was trying to say. With a chuckle deep in his throat, he silently motioned for me to go ahead, and I did, leaving him behind to wander the halls in search of a library.
Through the windows, I overlooked the city once more, watching it with keen curiosity as I sauntered through, trying to find a door that didn’t look as plain as all of the others. With a dining room that had such an obvious entrance, certainly the library would be the same. With that logic, I wandered for a good ten minutes, watching the windows more than I watched the doors and where I was going. At times, I stopped for a good twenty seconds to watch it.
It was large, and the castle seemed to be high above it, up some sort of hill, overlooking it like an intimidating guardian, letting all know that it was watching- every little thing they did. The castle wasn’t watching, however. It was only I, a confused young “princess,” creeping through the window, watching a woman carry a basket of fruit down the road or a man chatting with another man, their bodies almost too close for casual conversation.
Shrugging, I continued on, turning a corner only to jump back, nearly stumbling to my feet but not before Wren caught my arms, holding tight to steady me. When I stopped moving- and falling- he released me and stepped back, pinching his lips to stifle a laugh.
My face contorted into a childish frown, and I crossed my arms to overemphasize my frustration in both him and myself. I had failed to do things on my own, and I ended up following him as he led me down to the library.
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