“Luminous!”

TWACK!

A ruler smacked down on the wooden desk, right next to Luminous' ear. Waist-long blonde hair flew everywhere as she awoke with a start. The book she slept on slid down her fair face, laying open on the table below her.

“What did I tell you about sleeping in the library?” Huffed a gruff olden voice below her small button nose.

Luminous’ blue eyes groggily shifted to the gray mouse in the red sweater vest. He was thumping his tail on the desk while holding the ruler in his hand like it was a gigantic sword he wasn't afraid to use.

“Umm, that beds are in books, and reading about them makes you sleepy. . .” Yawned Luminous.

“That beds are for sleeping, and books are for reading!” Corrected the mouse. “Honestly, I don’t know how you got to be a lady in waiting for the prince. Even if your mom is the queen’s favorite lady in waiting, the queen doesn't seem to favor you particularly. . .”

The mouse paused; he looked for the girl's reaction on her face.

"Oh come on, master mouse, is it so bad to be sleeping in the library?" Luminous continued, oblivious to the comment before.

"I'm serious, Luminous, you should be sleeping in your own bed now," insisted master mouse. “If you ask me, maybe I shouldn’t let you rent out hero books so often. Maybe you would go to bed earlier.”

“Hey, but that’s not fair!” Luminous slammed her hand on the table so hard it shook a little underneath Master Mouse's feet. “I didn’t even stay up that late reading! It was because of this awful dream I had. There were animals like we see every day, but different, dark, and all shadowy. They didn't talk or act right. They just attacked without rhyme or reason. It was like they were, umm . . . corrupted?"

"Well, whatever dreams you've had, that's still no excuse to—" Master Mouse stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening. “Wait, what do you say about your dream?”

DING DING! Chimed in the clock on the wall.

“Ahh!” Luminous jumped up so fast that the chair she was sitting in hit the carpeted floor. “I didn’t realize how late it is, Brenda-bot is going to kill me!”

"Hold on, stop!" yelled master mouse. “I have to have words with you!”.

“I can't, I'm going to be late!” Yelled Luminous, scooping up the book she was sleeping on a moment ago.

“Desisted!”

"I have to leave," she implored, picking up the hem of her pale pink dress with her other hand

“Abstain!”

Luminous looked side to side, anxious.

“Brenda-bot is going to kill me…” She murmured.

The mouse had to get her to come with him. He knew he was out of time. This can’t be happening today, he wasn't ready, but then again, he never really was.

“You can’t leave the library without checking out a library book!” Yelled the mouse. “It’s against library rules! You have to come with me this instant!”

Luminous bit the bottom of her lip, her head swiveling between the mouse and the clock.

“Just put it on my card, like you always do," she said, hand already on the wooden door. “I would love to say hello, or uh goodbye!” She said, running into the courtyard. “I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!”

Master Mouse stood on the desk in the library, shaking his head at the small girl who had left the massive doors open.

“Late, huh?” He mumbled. “I most certainly hope not.”

Luminous ran across the courtyard’s cobblestone pavement under the wooden awning. She spotted the group of red rose bushes that was beside the duck pond. She dove towards them, hiding in her usual hiding spot.

“I can hide here until Brenda-bot walks in with the rest of the ladies in waiting, then I can sneak in before anyone notices.” Luminous nodded to herself. “Yes, this will work—OWW!"

Luminous felt something tug hard on her long blonde hair. Rubbing her head she turned around, seeing a baby duck eyeing her, with her hair in its bill.

“Why is your hair the color of corn?” Asked the duck.

“Corn?” Asked Luminous.

“Ya, why is your hair a weird yellow color?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Always been this way, even my mom has red hair like the rest of the kingdom.”

“What about your dad?”.

“Oh, well, you see, I don’t have a…”

“HONK! I say it’s currently out of the ordinary honk!” Quacked a goose. “I say it’s otherworldly, definitely otherworldly.”

“Quack! Don’t nobody want to hear your quackpot theories, old man!” Quacked a duck.

All the ducks, swans, and geese that were playing duck, duck, goose earlier were now huddled around Luminous quacking loudly. Luminous hastily put her finger over her mouth, shushing them, but to no avail..

"Guys, please be quiet, Brenda-bot is going to catch me," pleaded Luminous.

The ducks fell silent as a menacing aura stood behind Luminous. All the ducks shook, backing away from the frightening figure behind the girl.

“Finally.” Luminous sighed with relief. "Now, I can be stealthy without Brenda no—"

“Luminous….” Seethed a woman's voice from behind her.

Luminous’ breath caught in her throat, as a cold chill ran down her veins. She lunged forward to run, but before she could get away, a metallic hand grabbed her wrist, pulling her up off the ground.

“Oh, nooo.” Luminous squealed. “It’s Brenda-bot.”

The red prince and all the ladies in waiting giggled from behind the robotic nanny.

“And just where were you?” Hissed Brenda-bot.

“Umm Master Mouse was attacked by uh, sleeping shadow monsters. "I had to help him," said Luminous.

“Luminous, are you lying to me?” Yelled Brenda, tightening her grip on the girl's tiny wrist.

“No, they spit sleeping sand.”

All the ladies in waiting and the prince burst out laughing. The robotic nanny fumed from her pointy metal boots to her metallic bun on her head.

“That’s enough!” She commanded. “Not only have you skipped all your morning lessons, but you have missed out on preparation for the ball. You know the ball, the one we are throwing for the princess of the other five kingdoms, so our prince can choose a princess to marry to be our next queen. That ball.”

“Oh, ya, that’s tonight, huh?” Asked Luminous.

"Fifteen years old is too old to misbehave like this." Brenda hissed, dropping Luminous to the concrete floor. “Now get in formation.”

Luminous quickly scrambled, picking up her recently borrowed book. She began heading to the back of the line when she heard May Bell (another lady in waiting) laughing and whispering to the others.

“Nice dress, Luminous, the lier.” May Bell sneered, flipping her dark red banana curls. “The outdated style matches your out of place yellow straw hair.”

Luminous looked at the other ladies in waiting, they all had red, orange, or pink hair, utterly different from her blonde hair. She also saw that they were all wearing slim dark red dresses with long sleeves, while she wore a light pink dress with short puffy sleeves.

“Oh, thanks. I like your guy’s new dresses too.” Luminous smiled. “I also think the new nickname suits me.”

Maybell glared at Luminous with her dark green eyes. But she had already ducked between Maybell and the others heading to the back of the formation.

As she made her way to the end of the formation, Luminous noticed that the yellow rose that was amongst the red ones was plucked out. The red queen must have had one of the gardeners pluck it out because it didn't belong there, and the red queen doesn't like things that don’t belong.