Hello!

This would be my first upload to the fairytales section, and I'm not really sure what the taste of readers here is, but I hope you'll be gentle with my story!

Okay, one warning, THIS STORY WILL CONTAIN FEMALEXFEMALE RELATIONSHIPS. I know most people are not bigots, but for those of you with a problem, suck it up or leave now.

:D Please enjoy and review, I like to know where I'm going wrong.

An Unconventional Fairytale

"Good morning sunshine!" A high melodic voice rang out through Anna's dark chambers, and echoed off the grey stone walls over and over again, making the nest of covers on the four-poster bed groan in irritation.

"Very funny," Anna replied through a voice croaky from sleep. Suddenly the heavy wine-red velvet curtains were flung apart with a swirl of dust and bright sunlight shone into the round stone room, illuminating it and causing Anna to throw off her covers to sit up and glare at the brightly smiling blonde girl who stood by her balcony, the bright morning sunshine illuminating her golden hair and giving her an angelic halo. This was something that never failed to make Anna feel even less divine than usual, as she cowered narrow-eyed in her messy bed and she tried very hard to bite back a sarcastic comment.

"Well, get up then!" The angel commanded in what was essentially a rather irritating and high-pitched voice.

"I'm semi-up," Anna told her, "Can't you give me a few minutes to adjust before I have to be fully up?"

"… You could have if you'd tacked a 'Your Highness' onto that…," The angel, whose name was actually Rosalina Doehart, and who was in fact the Princess Royal of a rather small country named Mercia strode forward and tugged Anna, who was in fact said Princess' rather reluctant maidservant out of her bed. Anna spent a moment or two regaining her balance before pulling her hands free and stretching her hands up to the ceiling. "I can't believe you. It's far too early to be up,"

"Well, I can't believe I'm doing my maidservant's job, so we're even," Rosalina informed her smugly, crossing her arms across her chest.

"You never complain about doing the cooking,"

"That's different," Rosalina replied shortly, and Anna shrugged, eyeing her undressed Princess.

"How come you can't manage to change out of your nightdress? I mean, I accept I was sent here to look after you, but you manage everything else just fine,"

"Well," Rosalina began, her big blue eyes sparkling with excitement, "I thought that should a prince come to rescue me this morning, we could have a lovely moment where he happens upon me in my nightdress and there will be a moment of sexual tension as I whirl around and stare – with this seductively surprised expression-," She pulled the face and Anna begrudgingly admitted it was definitely seductive and surprised. "And the he kneels and begs my pardon before hastily exiting the room but not before the teasing image of my uncovered body burned into his mind and torturing him every night until our wedding night,"

Anna felt she probably shouldn't be surprised by now at the detail in which Rosalina had planned each and every one of her rescues, but still felt her mouth dropping open and one eyebrow raising in incredulity. "That is both highly disturbing and impossibly unlikely," she said flatly. "And may I ask where exactly your disgruntled and equally underdressed maidservant fits into the picture?" Rosalina waved her hand impatiently.

"Of course you would have to hide in your room until the moment was over," She said, as though expecting anything else was ridiculous. Anna rolled her eyes.

"Well then my Princess, why don't you go and wait upstairs for your prince while I get dressed, then I'll come up and make you presentable for the rest of the day?" She said, rolling one shoulder and frowning as the pull made it ache more than usual. Rosalina frowned. "It's getting worse, isn't it?" She said solemnly, sitting down on the bed beside Anna. "I thought it was just my imagination, but it is,"

"Do you think it'll just get worse with time until we're rescued?" Anna asked, holding out her left forearm and absently tracing the tattoo of a dragon etched there. Rosalina shrugged but inspected her tattoo, which was identical but for the addition of a rose, to indicate she was the one who had to be kissed for the curse to break. Anna sighed. She wasn't even sure how long it had been since she had arrived at the castle. At the start of the curse she had begun etching tally marks into the stone wall; but after the eleventh day she forgot for quite a while, then gave up scratching into the wall at all. "Well, go on then," She said to Rosalina, elbowing her in the ribs, "We don't want your prince catching you halfway between undressed and dressed, cause the that's the least sexy part of the day," Rosalina grinned, momentarily forgetting the tattoo and the dull pain in her left arm, and hurried off upstairs. Of course, Rosalina had insisted that she move into the highest room of the tallest tower, and Anna move into the second highest so it was easier for her to get to her. Anna washed and dressed quite quickly and hurried up the steps to where Rosalina was stood inspecting dresses. "The pink one today, I think," She said, throwing a stunning smile at Anna, who sighed and picked up the dress and began to unbutton it while Rosalina slid behind the screen and undressed, having clearly already washed. Anna eyed the dress with distaste as she finished undoing the buttons. It was more meringue than dress, and had far too many frills, and yet Rosalina still made it look divine. Anna, on the other hand, stuck to simple dresses in simple colours that made it easier to work around the castle. Sometimes, when there was a lot to be done, or when Ava had promised her a ride, she would even wear men's leggings and a tunic, and would feel a delicious rush of forbidden pleasure in being so liberated.

…Of course, she mused as she brushed Rosalina's hair and carefully twisted and clipped it in place, the real thrill should probably come from flying on the back of a dragon, as neither were things that a normal young lady would do. For all the terrible restricting aspects of the curse, there were some freedoms she would almost have given the world for. "Well, I'm off to see Ava," Anna informed Rosalina once she had finished with her hair. "You coming?"

"No, I'll be down later, I think I'll wait up here for a little longer," There was a note of longing in Rosalina's voice and Anna's heart clenched a little with the knowledge that they would probably never be rescued. The curse would inevitable spread from the left arm through the rest of their bodies and ultimately kill both the two of them and Ava. The notion brought a sense of crushing despair that Anna forced aside violently as she descended the spiral staircase, deciding instead to complain in her head whoever thought of the idea of a princess in the highest room of the tallest tower. Finally reaching the entrance hall, now somewhat dilapidated with scattered armour lying on the stone flags. Most of the knights who had entered the building had fled the second they had laid eyes on Ava. Now, admittedly the first knight looked very young and Ava had been quite irate at being interrupted in her and Anna's favourite game – but still, to run screaming was rather an overreaction, surely?

"Ava!" Anna called out. "Where are you?" A low rumbling noise came from the ballroom, which was now missing a roof and the walls that separated it from the dining hall and the courtyard, creating a huge space for Ava to do pretty much whatever she liked- which was mostly arranging and rearranging the rubble which she would curl up on at night. Walking into the huge space, Anna saw Ava spreading her large purple wings in a stretch, her large mouth opening in a yawn to reveal several rows of brilliant white teeth. Spotting Anna at the other end of her bedroom, she blinked her big yellow eyes and trotted over quite amiably. "Good morning," Anna smiled as Ava nudged her with her head, which was around the size of the bed Anna had just left. She smiled affectionately and patted her nose. "How are you this morning? Your leg any better?"

Ava held up her front leg, which was where a large silver cuff bit into it, causing quite a bit of pain. Clearly it had been designed to cause pain and irritation to the dragon and therefore make it quite volatile when faced with intruders. However, whoever it was who designed this cuff hadn't banked on two things; one, that Anna and Rosalina would be outraged by this treatment and find a way of treating the injury caused, and two, that Ava would be so sweet-tempered and only become depressed when she was in pain. At the moment the cuff didn't look too bad, there was only a little swelling around it. "Hmm… It looks okay for today, so I'll probably just bathe it tomorrow, okay?" Ava replaced her foot and nodded the affirmative.

The rest of the day passed easily, with Ava helping Anna and Rosalina do a few chores, and playing with them when it was time to rest. Rosalina always did the cooking (as Anna was completely hopeless in the kitchen) and neither of them were entirely sure where the food came from, they just knew that whatever they needed would be there. After dinner, Anna changed into some leggings and a tunic and Ava placed her head flat on the floor so that Anna could climb up her neck and settle between her shoulder blades tightly gripping one of the long spines that ran down her neck. Gripping tightly with both her hands and her knees, Anna used all her will power to keep her eyes open as Ava tumbled through the dusk air, humming her contentment while Rosalina squealed at her to stop from the ground far below.

As the night drew near the two girls gathered a little pile of firewood that Ava lit with a little hiccup of flame. As they sat around it in contemplative silence, Ava thought a desperate thought so deep in her brain that she barely acknowledged it – she thought with a terrifying certainty that she would die in this castle.

However, Fate had never been Anna's friend. From the very moment she had been given the job as Princess Rosalina's maidservant, it had, in fact, been mocking her. Because of course the one time the Princess chose to be adventurous was the same night as the full moon and of course she would drag Anna along and of course the Princess would cut herself on the one mirror in the hall of mirrors that would cause this whole mess. So, the next morning, while Anna was crushing up herbs for Ava's leg and wondering what Rosalina would make for lunch that day, she was blissfully unaware that Fate was about to prove her wrong yet again.

There is the first chapter!

And like I said, please review, especially if you think something needs fixing. Seriously. I'm tough, I can take it.

Thanks a lot

Sparks' Cat :D