There's a knock on my room door. Tired, I rub my eyes...

"Come in," I call and sit up. My reflection looks lazily at me from the other wall, while Wendy rumbles impetuously through the door.

"My goodness, Naomie! You're still in bed! It's already noon!" she shouts in surprise and runs to me. "I've heard about your hair. Mom got a huge fright yesterday. I wanted to ask you, but you were already gone..."

Gone? I frown.

"It's a good thing Hilde has a potion for everything. You didn't walk through the castle like that yesterday, did you?" Wendy climbs onto my bed and pulls on the covers. "A scandal!" She grins.

"In a nightgown?"

"In a nightgown!"

"Uh... Yes... I think... How do you know..." I ask, but she interrupts me: "The servants have their gossip. I was wondering what they meant by flatteringly dressed! In your nightgown! I can't believe it... Hurry now. Get dressed. Mom was in a bad mood all day. She said your hair looked like a soldier's. You? Ha ha! A soldier."

Cheerfully, she pulls me out of my warm bed and to my wardrobe. She rummages through my robes and mumbles something incomprehensible. I look at her tiredly. Wendy has braided her orange-brown hair into a braid and wears a rust-red dress with a dark blue sash.

My cousin hands me my favorite turquoise dress made of fine, light fabric, a light blue sash and pink embroidery. Then she rummages through my jewelry. While I get dressed, she starts babbling cheerfully:

"I'm looking forward to seeing you fully here. Not just so shadowy... Oh. Naomie. The flower ball. I'm so excited! I want the decorations to be heavenly."

Again, I frown and look at her, confused. "What do you mean by shadowy and here?"

She slaps her hands in front of her mouth in shock. "Yikes. No. Just ignore that... It doesn't matter!"

"Wendy! Please! What did you mean by that?"

"No. I'm sorry. Really. Mother forbade it."

"So you're hiding something from me?" What? This was MY dream. My perfect dream: No puzzles, no strange occurrences, never a nightmare. Why did the dream suddenly become...

"Yes." She nods.

"Wendy."

"Nothing bad. Don't worry about it. It'll dissolve soon anyway. Mother wants to tell you herself. Much more important is the flower ball! The ball!" She helps me lace up the dress. "Can I borrow jewelry from you? Yours is more beautiful than mine."

"You’re changing the subject."

"The flower ball is important!" she replies and pulls the strings a little too tight.

"Hey!"

"Perfect!" She ignores my protest. "So, the flower ball! Are you as happy as I am?"

Sighing, I give up. Something is going on here, but Wendy won’t say more. "Honestly, I don't feel like joining this ball. Even if it's Aunt Tanja's latest idea. Dancing is not one of my strengths," I object worriedly and thus get involved in the change of subject. Wendy wouldn't tell me anything.

She babbled incessantly, and occasionally blundered in her eagerness, but she was also a royal stubborn. I wouldn't get any more out of her.

And she didn't let herself be tricked.

A careful, royal stubborn.

"I'd rather stay here," I murmur. Aunt Tanja was planning a big festival in the city that bordered one of the many forests. A new event: the flower ball.

Greenforest was the capital of the country and only about half an hour's carriage ride from the castle. And that's where the biggest celebration of the year was to take place.

"Come on. Don't act like that." Wendy hands me one of my many long pearl necklaces. "The party will be wonderful. Very different from our court balls. Everyone will be there. From the farmer to you, the princess! The atmosphere will be wonderful. Mother has outdone herself with this idea. We so rarely get together with the common people."

"Wendy. I can't dance. I don't care about the mood. It's going to be a horror," I protest while Wendy turns her attention to my hair with a brush. "And we certainly won't have a chance to meet the common people! Ouch. Please don't pull out my hair," I scold as Wendy pulls the brush through my curls a little too energetically.

Actually, this is not her job. She probably sent the servants away. Dressing me and doing my hair is something that she has always enjoyed and that she rarely left to the servants. As if I were her personal doll.

Well, if she got the chance. Wendy's mother liked to keep her busy with classes and social tasks, but now and then Wendy escaped her control.

Wendy has much more contact with the noble families, influential trading families, and noble daughters of our age than I do.

Sometimes I have the feeling that Aunt Tanja lets Wendy do social tasks that should actually be part of my duties. However, she denies this.

I don't mind if Wendy makes me her 'doll'.

It is the opportunity to chat with her undisturbed and without the court protocol breathing down our necks.

"You're too negative," she says, combing my hair more carefully. She twists my curls into her finger. "So! Dancing. It's going to be funny, Naomie."

"I'll only make a fool of myself if I have to dance," I grumble. "And the common people and we will hardly have any contact. Have you forgotten that? There are different party spots."

Princess Naomie is just as clumsy as Nelly, my real self. Why I am so clumsy in my dreams is unclear to me. But here no one laughs at me when I stumble over my own feet. A princess is not laughed at.

(At most secretly behind her back, but I don't care. What I don't see...)

"So let's hope no one asks you to dance." Wendy reaches for an enchanted oil, which she massages into my hair. This oil prevents my hair from curling into stubborn curls. Instead, it flows down my back in silky waves. She uses a fine comb and the same oil to straighten my bangs a bit. "But that's going to be difficult. As pretty as you are, your chances are very slim. Imagine: A dance with the son of a miller or baker. An adventure."

"Yes, exactly." I roll my eyes. "If a baker wants to dance with me, that would be a scandal. Because then the poor guy would have sneaked into the wrong party."

"Naomie!" Wendy giggles. "Then you're dancing with a noble young man while I sneak up to the mob and look for adventure!"

"Don't be silly,"

"You are the heir to the throne. You are expected to dance. And you will shine in the process!"

"Just encourage me! The last time I danced with someone, I tripped over his feet, and we ended up in a fruit punch together. In a fruit punch!" That had been an unpleasant dance with the son of some nobleman.

"Or you can sneak into an adventure with me." Wendy winks at me. She doesn't mean it. Her mother would rip her head off if she dared to mingle with the common people.

"I don't want to dance with the son of a baker! You dance with the son. I'm standing on the sidelines and cultivating my bad mood, or something. On the sidelines. Alone, since you left me," I tease her. "Leave!"

"Excuse me. But for my part, I'm looking forward to the ball." Wendy laughs softly. "The most important noble families will be there. Do you think I'll find a good match? To get married? I'm old enough for aspirants to come forward, but so far there's silence. And Mama always tells me to be patient and wait. I'm too young! Waiting! Until when? Until I'm old and wrinkled?"