Camilla had come to terms with the fact that she had been transported to a magical, fantasy land quite easily. What she hadn’t come to terms with was how, even in a land of magical princes, cat-eared college professors, and interdimensional traveling, waiting rooms could still be the most boring places to be put.
After Camilla had (begrudgingly) agreed to wait, Deimos and Phobos had lead her to a small room. She had been forced to sit in waiting rooms before. The pale walls and gray floors of the doctor’s offices her mother had brought her to came to mind. But Camilla would have gladly taken those sad, colorless rooms, over the vibrant, tacky one she was in now.
Camilla sat on an overstuffed pink sofa with clawed feet. On the floor, was a frizzy rug with floral patterns. In the corner to her right was a small, analog tv, with an antenna and dials to change the channel. A few overgrown house plants sat in other corners of the room, and the whole ugly mess was brought together with rose-striped wallpaper. It was like her grandmother’s living room, only more garish and without the promise of cookies at some point.
She looked over at the chestnut door she had come through and read the gold plaque next to it:
Thank you for waiting!
signed , Puzzleader Elios.
The whole thing was written in an annoyingly loopy font.
Camilla tried being mad at the prince for making her wait, but the only thing that kept popping up in her mind was his kind-hearted face. She had been completely mollified out of her temper for the moment. All there was left to do right now was sulk and wait.
She shifted on the couch so that she could lay down. Her satchel backpack rested on a small table in the middle of the room. Camilla flung her arm over her face as she lay, trying to think.
Stupid flood… stupid Puzzleworlds… stupid prince…, her thoughts trailed as she rested. She could’ve easily fallen into a nap if a rumbling hadn’t roused her. What started as a small rumble, turned into a low roar as the room began to vibrate. Camilla stood up and looked out a small window near the sofa to see what the commotion was.
Rolling up a dirt path behind the castle was a procession of extravagant carriages. Camilla counted at least thirty of them before more kept appearing out of the distance. They were all quite lovely vehicles, but the one leading the charge was the most eye-catching. It was bright, bright red and covered in golden accents. It didn’t shake and jump back and forth like the other carriages. It drifted along, smooth and dignified.
The red carriage and all the ones behind it came to a halt. The man who stepped out of the carriage was less of a person and more of a force.
Dark piercing eyes peeked out from the wide brim of his wine colored hat. A long curtain of auburn waves fell from his head, moving down his back in elegant swoops. His tall lanky form was only elongated by the scarlet zoot suit he wore. And the sun bounced off his sand colored skin as he looked around.
Behind him came two tall, strapping, women, each wearing empire waisted dresses that stopped just past their knees. Just like him, they had intimidating, wide brimmed hats. But their keen fashion sense wasn’t what made them stand out. It was the weapons that were strapped to their sides.
The woman in purple had a long shotgun on her side. It was cased in gold plating, with a wooden handle and pump. The woman in the blue had two revolver handguns saddled on the sides of her hips. They both stood in leather boots, looking fierce and alert.
Bodyguards? though Camilla. That’s all she could reason they’d be. They seemed too intimidating and vigilant to simply be traveling companions.
The three scanned the perimeter with a quiet intensity. The man front looked left. And then he looked right. And then he looked up.
His eyes deadlocked onto Camilla’s.
Out of instinct she immediately ducked down below the window. When she crouched back up to look again she saw the man talking to a young girl with a clipboard. Like the prince and the other two boys, she wore a long, flowy robe. It wasn’t covered in stars and moons however. It was a plain solid, gray color. Camilla guessed it must have been some kind of uniform around here. She pulled a pen out of the messy bun atop her head, wrote something down on her clipboard and then guided the man and his companions towards the castle.
Hmmm… ,thought Camilla. The red hat, the stylish clothes, and the weapons. Like so many things in the Puzzleworlds so far, this seemed too familiar. Camilla sprang from the window and went to her backpack at the table. She pulled out her grandpa’s storybook from the inside and began to flip through the pages. After a bit of searching she spotted it. There he was.
Rendered on the printed page in the soft brushstrokes of her grandfather's paintbrush, was a painting of the man below. And next to that was a description.
Puzzleader Konrad: King of the Contraption
Known far and wide as a true king of invention and innovation, Puzzleader Konrad stands confident and true as the leader of Gnaritas. Pushing his city further and further to new ideas, Gnaritas has become a thriving home to some of the most prolific thinkers and innovators of the Puzzleworlds. With his bodyguard/advisers by his side Puzzleleader Konrad leads his people to a brighter future everyday.
Camilla stopped at the first paragraph. She didn’t need to read anymore. She stepped back to the window and kept watching more guest step out of their carriages.
A woman with hair as straight and flowing as river stepped out of a purple carriage in a silk gown. The minute she was free of the vehicle giant, transparent wings sprung from her back. Camilla flipped again, looking for a name and an image. She jabbed at the picture on the page when she found it: Tatiana, Empress of the Fairylands.
A much bulkier carriage than the rest shook as a giant of a man stepped out. A bush of a beard protruded from his face and down his chest. The weather outside was balmy and spring like, but he was dressed head to toe in bulky winter clothes. A large wool coat and thick boots all accented in dense amounts of fur widened the man’s already hulky silhouette.
Flip, flip, flip! There it was again; Jotenn, The Sovereign of the Snowtops.
Camilla kept on observing trying to make some opinion about all of this. She watched as more people in dimly colored robes sprung from the back side of the castle to meet the visitors.
She thought and thought for a few moments. If the prince was telling the truth, she would be home soon enough. That was where she wanted to be, however… Memories of reading her grandpa’s books came flooding back to her. Images of sitting in comfy chairs near fires, or beneath trees with filtered sunlight holding a book just like this filled her mind. There had been so many days when it felt like these books were the only thing she had.
And here she was. Practically standing in one of them.
Camilla wanted to go home. She wanted to make amends with her mom. She wanted to walk her grandfather out of the hospital and joke about wheelchair flames. She even (slightly) wanted to make amends with the unwanted guests in her house.
But could she blame herself for wanting to look around?
Camilla stashed the book in her satchel and tossed it back over her shoulders. She peeked out of the door to make sure she wasn’t being watched, and snuck out of the waiting room.
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