The castle rose into the sky out of the mountain it sat upon. Yet again, her heart felt a bit squeezed. It was the same feeling she’d had when she’d heard the prince’s name.
This is no time to be getting cold feet!, she thought, finding no other explanation for the feeling.
The tall, pointy, precipices of each tower were made of gleaming, turquoise gemstone. White brickwork and ochre accents made up the other parts of the castle’s outsides. The building winked at her with its stained glass windows. She walked up the steps and made her way to the large door. It lumbered above her by at least forty feet.
Don’t expect a warm greeting. The advice of the men from the college had come back to her.
What would be the opposite of a warm greeting? she wondered. Was it being kicked out or just being turned away? Camilla felt herself prepared for either. Years of stomping her foot and yelling at ‘no’s had made her quite resilient in a battle of getting her way.
So Camilla knocked. She wasn’t really sure of any other way to kick this off. She waited and heard nothing.
She knocked again. Still nothing.
Her patience waning, she prepared to start banging her fist against the door. But then she looked to the side.
On the side of the door, sliding down from the top, was a thin, metal tube. A small, hinged flap covered the flared opening at the end. Camilla was reminded of those funny telephone tubes at the playgrounds she’d been to. Images of children standing on their tiptoes and yelling into them came back to her.
She stepped over to the tube. She opened up the small metal flap. And then she took a deep breath.
“Hello?” she finally spat out.
The tube was quiet. Camilla listened for any kind of sound. She could swear she heard some kind of rustling on the other end.
“Hello!” she yelled again.
Now there was definitely whispering on the other side. Someone had noticed her.
She kept listening, until…
“Um,” a voice started. “Hello?”
The voice sounded very confused.
“Yes!” Camilla yelped in relief. “I-I’m here to-”
Camilla was cut off by the sound of something whirring. She looked up to see a tile mosaic sun near the door. The middle of the sun opened up to reveal a very large spyglass. A speaker popped out of a different mosaic tile.
The spyglass retracted out of the hole and snaked all the way down to her level. The lens was nearly as tall as her. It looked at her condescendingly, if it was possible for a spyglass to do that.
“What do you want?” the voice from the speaker asked outright.
Just like the voice from the tube, this one seemed a bit bewildered at Camilla’s presence.
“Well, I’m here to talk to the prince,” said Camilla.
The voice paused.
“I’m sorry?!” the voice answered. It had gone from slightly confused to near dumbfounded and very offended.
“I said that I’m here to talk to-!”
“No, don’t say it again!”
The spyglass retracted back into its hole, leaving only the speaker.
“ Miss, I don’t know what your deal is-”
“My deal”, Camilla said, stomping her foot, “Is that I need to talk to the prince, so that I can-!”
Yet again, Camilla was cut off.
“Yeah, sure. Look, can you please just beat it? This is really not a good time.”
Camilla’s face flushed with anger. She opened her mouth to express said anger when a second voice came through the speaker.
“I’m sure you’re needs are important, ma’am,” said the second voice. “But is there anyway this could wait until say… next month?”
Camilla was done. Her small reserve of patience had officially been depleted.
“That’s it. I’m coming in.”
A series of phrases like ‘no, no, no!’ and ‘just leave!’ rang from the speaker, but Camilla was not to be stopped. She rammed herself against the door and shoved. The heavy slab of wood inched forward until Camilla finally opened it enough to fall forward.
Hitting the floor hurt, but not as much as she would’ve expected it to. She looked down to see that she had landed on a very large, soft carpet. It rolled out in front of her, leading to a small staircase at the other side of the room. As Camilla pulled herself off the ground, the rest of the room unfolded before her.
Stretching all around her were white high rise columns propping up the enormous rounded ceiling that hung above her. Giant windows rested between each column letting the blazing sun of the day in. Windows, ceilings, hallway openings; dozens and dozens of surfaces were lined in swirling golden accents glinting in the light. Blue and yellow tapestries hung from the walls. Each one of them had sun shaped patterns sewn onto them.
“Hey, girlie! What part of ‘beat it’ don’t you get?”
A disembodied voice flew through the room. Camilla whipped her head to find a source. She found it at the top of the stairs.
Standing at the top off the stairs, with his arms crossed, was a young man. He glared down at her through square rimmed glasses. He would’ve looked like an average teenager had it not been for the luxurious blue robe that draped from his body. The shimmering cloth gleamed in the sunlight of the room. Just like the tapestries on the wall, his robe was covered in yellow sun patterns. The cobalt blue of the fabric contrasted against his beige skin.
Even from here Camilla could see his flaring nostrils. She hadn’t seen him step into view. Before she could ask where he came from another voice piped up.
“I have to agree miss, this is very inappropriate.”
From behind a wall at the top of the stairs stepped another young man. Just like the other one, he was dressed in a flowing robe with yellow sun patterns. Unlike the other boys cloak, which scowled in a deep, somber blue, this boy’s cloak donned a fiery, bright orange shade. The light of the room bounced off of his chestnut skin.
He looked down at Camilla as well, through similarly shaped glasses. Unlike the other boy, who stared at her with nothing but contempt, this one looked at her with very concerned, uncomfortable eyes.
The two definitely seemed to be a bit of a duo. The same height, same robe and same glasses. And the same level of concern, though expressed in different ways. They both seemed to be waiting for some kind of response from her.
It was only now that Camilla was beginning to realize that she hadn’t really planned this out. If these two’s reaction was anything to go by, “give me what I want” might not work as well as she would’ve hoped. She thought back on her grandpa’s books and remembered how characters meeting royalty acted.
Camilla swooshed her cape back and tossed her hands in dramatic gestures.
“My name is Camilla of the… Earth Realm! And I have come to seek out an audience with the prince.”
She tossed her hands on her hips and pushed out her chest to look like her version of “valiant”. The two boys shot each other annoyed looks.
“Okay, Earth Realm girl. You still haven't told us why the heck you’re here!” shouted the blue robe boy.
Camilla sighed and immediately dropped her “valiant” speak. “Look man, I’m just trying to get home. I got washed away in a flood, I had to outrun ghost guards and talk to cat men. And apparently I got “displaced” or whatever, and…”
“Wait,” said the blue robe boy. Camilla was getting quite sick of being cut off. “You said you got displaced, like, you were in one space then you got tossed here?”
“That’s what the people at the college said.”
The boy in the orange robe’s face contorted in worry.
“Oh, no. The walls really are getting weaker. This is not good,” He whispered to the other boy. Even from far away Camilla picked up on his hushed anxiety.
“Like I said, I just want to -”
“Quick question,” interjected the boy in the orange robe. Camilla grumbled. “Just a quick question, nothing really important, not that it even matters but… how much do you weigh?”
“I’m sorry?”
“You know on a scale of ‘not that much’ to, like, ‘a lot’. How much do you… um… weigh?”
Camilla looked down at herself. She wasn’t really sure how to answer this question. She checked her frame.
“I don’t know… like… some?”
The two young men looked at her. And then they looked at each other. And then they nodded. In a swooping motion the two boys stepped down the stairs and made their way to Camilla. Before she could protest, the two tossed their arms under hers and lifted her off the ground.
“Hey!”
“Calm down,” said the blue boy. “And stop squirming!”
“We’re just trying to toss you out,” said the orange boy.
“That’s why I’m squirming!”
The two began to carry Camilla to the door as she kicked and flailed and insulted. She was sure she was going to be tossed on her butt when-
“Wait!”
A third voice pierced the room. The two boys gulped.
Camilla looked up. It was just a shadow moving quickly against the wall at first. Soon the full image of the person began to come into full view. She felt her breath get caught in her throat when she saw him.
Standing there, at the top of the stairs, was Prince Elios.
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