'Fran? What are you doing here?' She asked, surprised.

Fran was her childhood best friend, a slightly cooky girl, now in her early 20's. Her thick inventors goggles rested atop her head, nestled in a big curly black bob. She definitely stood out in Bellicosus Kingdom, even more so than Esme, with her striped waistcoat, ruffled skirt, and what looked to be cowboy boots, which Esme was never quite sure where she managed to find. Fran had a way of never really caring if people were staring at her, which they usually were, that had always made Esme slightly jealous.

It had been months since they'd seen eachother, and it felt so good after everything to finally have her best friend around.

'How did you know I was here?'

'Are you kidding? When you finally got caught and put on trial, the entire town knew. Word about what happened spread faster than you'd think, Esme. I immediately came here because we need your help.'

'No, that's not going to be happening, Fran. I'm settled here now, and I was frankly lucky that I wasn't executed, so I need to lay low and get through this sentence.'

Fran looked at Esme, completely confused.

'You have to help, we don't have any other options. I'm not leaving until you hear me out.'

Esme sighed heavily.

'Fine. Explain to me why you need my help.'

'After you got chased out, the town was in complete uproar. Everyone protested, and I mean everyone, Esme it's been awful, we've all been searching for you for months. There's been fighting and rebelling, people even set things on fire. It's going to be destroyed if we don't act soon. People want to kill the King and Queen for not trying to stop you, they're so upset that the knights went after you. As soon as we found out that you'd be returning to stand trial, the fighting got worse. We want you to come home and help us.'

'And how exactly would my presence help in this situation, Fran? They're fighting over what hapened to me, remember?'

'Because you can defeat the knights. If you face them yourself and if you battle them, you stand a good chance at defeating them and then it's over. You were always the best fighter, so we kind of need you.'

Esme thought this was a crazy idea. She couldn't take on 15 knights by herself, she'd need her own army, and she'd need a plan and resources. But she couldn't just let this carry on, Fran was right, she had to do something.

'Look, I have to do my community service now. But you're going to come to the palace here with me, and we're going to ask them what they think. But I'm not going to just waltz right back in and fight 15 knights alone,' Esme explained.

'Sounds like a plan. I've never been inside a real life palace before, this'll be so exciting!'

'If you say so, I'm going to be a lady in waiting. And you are going to make yourself scarce until I finish my shift. But I can't have you walking around town, you draw too much attention to yourself and the last thing I need is more trouble.'

Inside the palace, Esme was tasked with helping Darcey get ready for a function that evening. Adalia was on hand as well. She'd brought Fran but had left her in a side room until she could muster up the courage to ask about the situation.

'So, I need to ask for some advice about something,' Esme started.

'Of course, what's up?' Adalia replied.

Esme explained what was going on.

'It doesn't look like you have a choice, Esme,' Darcey replied, 'you obviously have to help your old friends.'

Esme showed them the room that she'd left Fran in.

'This is Darcey and Adalia, they know about the situation,' she said.

'Fran, why don't you come and sit with us. I'll make you a cup of tea and we'll discuss a plan, how does that sound?' Darcey asked.

Fran jumped up from the floor, delighted.

'Thank you so much, Princess Darcey, I promise I won't be any trouble!'

'I'm not a princess, but thank you.'

The four of them sat around the table, in Darcey's living room. Fran was completely entranced by her surroundings.

'This is all so different to back home, the palace never associated with the townspeople, we're actually slightly scared of them.'

'That's not how we work here, I'd go crazy if I never had guests. But I guess they're not exactly guests considering both Adalia and Esme work here now,' Darcey replied.

'Seems like a fun job, though.'

'It gets me by,' Adalia responded, 'So we need a plan for this situation. Obviously Esme can't just walk right back in, pullout a sword and fight them, so you're going to need to do something a bit more drastic. I guess you know what you have to do, right?'

'I think I do, and I'm not looking forward to it,' Esme sighed.

'You're doing it for a good cause, to help your old friends. It's not going to be like last time.'

'Besides, you'll have other people around you this time, people showing support. But it's only right, it's what you have to do,' Darcey added.

'Face them as the strong fighter that you've become, show them what they lost.' Adalia said.

Esme accepted what she had to do. She was going home to face her old town for the first time in a year. And she knew exactly how she was going to do it.

Darcey stared at her.

'You still got the character and the costume?'