Cecilia opened her eyes, seeing only the top of her canopy bed in her room. It was just a dream. Her brother announcing their wedding. A dream. Right? . . . Right? Or . . . had it been real? A living nightmare? How would she get through this? She would go mad if she was forced to marry him! Wait, go mad. She could fake madness at this wedding! No . . . Ronald couldn't know that she hated him. He would, could order her immediate execution or worse. She had to make him believe it was something else. But what? Her mind went blank for a few seconds. The royal siblings from Bethmoora were coming soon. Could she do something with them? What about-?
Her bedroom door opening broke her thoughts. She sat up to see just who was coming to visit her, hoping with all of her being that it wasn't her brother. Luckily for her it was her maid, Alice.
"Oh you're awake, good. The king has been worried sick." Alice said cheerfully.
Alice closed the door behind herself and walked farther into the room. She opened Cecilia's closet and began rummaging around for Cecilia's outfit today.
"I can understand why you fainted. The stress of a treaty with Bethmoora, everyone in the kingdom looking to you because you're a royal, and now a wedding announcement." Alice conveniently left out that it was to her own brother. "Any sane person would have fainted."
Any sane person. A lightbulb went off in Cecila's head.
"Stress? I don't know the meaning of the word! You may leave, Alice. I can pick out my own clothes." Cecilia loudly told Alice. Alice looked at Cecilia like she had grown three heads.
"Are you-?" Alice began.
"I said you can go!" Cecilia interrupted at the same volume as before.
Alice made her way to the door, looking over her shoulder worriedly, before leaving Cecilia's bedroom all together. Cecilia got up from her bed and jumped up and down with joy. She would pretend to be mad because of the stress of her duties. The wedding, the treaty, her royal status. She had to fully show her madness. Who else was nearby? Who else could help spread the rumors that Princess Cecilia had gone made from stress?
She ran to the door of her room and opened it slowly. She saw two soldiers standing right outside to guard her. She slipped out of her room and shut the door. She realized she was in nothing but a long white thin nightgown, but it would only add to her mad appearance. she went up to the closest soldier and stood in front of him.
"There's so much to be done in such a small amount of time! Why are you standing like that?" She spoke to him.
He opened his mouth to answer, but she interrupted him.
"Nevermind that! I need tending to, can't you see?" She grabbed her breasts. "My maid certainly can't do that."
The soldier seemed to be getting increasingly uncomfortable. He exchanged a look with the other soldier. Cecilia looked between the two.
"You communicating? By eyes? I wish I could do such a thing. Sadly, I'm not as lucky as you." Cecilia said.
She began walking down the hall humming an old nursery rhyme.
" . . . mm mm mmm mm mmmmm mm mm mm mm . . . "
The soldiers exchanged another glance before both heading the opposite way, towards the king's chambers.
Cecilia went down to the kitchens and began dancing inbetween the cooks. They got agitated at her, but said nothing. Cecilia grabbed a nearby basket and headed out the door, grabbing someone's cloak on the way out. She would head into the forest, that would show her brother that she was mad. She buttoned the cloak and took the time it took to walk to the edge of the forest to look at it. It was bright red. She was going into the woods with a basket and red cloak. She felt like Little Red Riding Hood.
She paused slightly at the edge of the forest, remembering rumors of hidden fae soldiers, but death was better than being married to your brother and she had to keep her mad appearance. She skipped into the forest singing softly.
" . . . Into the wooooooods, into the woooooods, we're into the woods and out of the wooooooooods. And home before dark . . . "
The forest was thick and overgrown. There was hardly a path for her to follow. She heard some creature out of her line of vision move in the forest. She forced herself to keep moving and keep her appearance, but her heart was beating a mile a minute.
She eventually came to a lake. It was crystal clear, yet so deep that she could not see the bottom. She stopped to admire its beauty. She knelt down in front of it, still holding her basket. She had yet to look inside her basket to see what it contained, but she wasn't worried about it now. She peered into the lake trying to see its bottom, her face slowly moving closer to the surface. She saw her reflection in the water. No. It wasn't her. It looked human, but it wasn't. It had pale blue skin and gills. That was the only thing separating it from humans. This creature was getting closer to the surface of the lake. It was moving fast. The creature stopped an inch from the surface of the water. It studied Cecilia and Cecilia studied it. She was truly fascinated by it. The creature's hands shot out of the water and grabbed Cecilia's shoulders. It pulled her viciously into the water, keeping a firm hold on her. She gasped as it did this, water getting into her mouth. It dragged her down fifty feet then let go, swimming away into the darkness of the lake. Cecilia knew she couldn't possibly swim to the surface in time. She accepted her horrible fate and slowly drifted towards the seemingly endless bottom of the lake. The basket escaped her grasp. Water began to fill her lungs as she drowned. She didn't thrash around, but just accepted her death. She had just lost consciousness from lack of oxygen when another creature swam to her and rapidly began pulling her towards the surface. The creature threw her onto the land and came out of the water itself.
"Oh no, is she breathing?" It checked her for any signs of life. "I'll have to do CPR." It said once it found her not breathing.
This creature, male, began pushing his hands onto her chest to get the water out and breathing into her mouth to get air in. After a couple of cycles, Cecilia began to cough. The creature rolled her onto her side so she could easily cough the water out. She slowly opened her eyes once all of the water was out of her lungs and saw the creature who had saved her. He had blue skin, gills, webbed hands, and black eyes.
"Are you alright?" He asked her, genuinely concerned. "Don't you know how dangerous it is for someone like you to be in these woods?"
"My basket." Cecilia said, ignoring the creature's concern. "I let go of my basket. Please. Get my basket."
She shakily pointed to the lake. The creature agreed to get it for her and jumped back into the lake. Cecilia coughed a few more times and leaned over the lake again, watching him disappear into the darkness to retrieve her basket.
"My lord, the Princess Cecilia, she has gone mad. She went off about things to do and communicating through eyes." The guard who was positioned at Cecilia's bedroom door informed the king. His partner stood at his side.
The king was in his throne, thinking this information over.
"It is the stress! The peace talk with Bethmoora and the announcement of the wedding must have made her mad! She is overwhelmed!" Alice told the king.
One of the cooks from the kitchen burst through the doors.
"Is it true that Princess Cecilia has gone mad? I just saw her grab a basket and cloak and head towards the forest! I think she is going in! A soldier would never survive that forest, much less a mad princess!" The cook fretted.
The king gripped the arms of his throne as this all sunk in.
"Get General Taylor! Tell him to gather some men and go searching for Cecilia! I want her back here alive!" King Ronald commanded.
The guards, maid, and cook all hurriedly left the room to deliver the message.
Cecilia sat crouched over the lake, squinting to make out the form of the creature who had saved her. She hadn't even gotten his name. A hand grabbed her shoulder and she jumped.
"Cecilia." She turned to see Taylor. "This forest is dangerous. You are all wet, you must've fallen in already. It's a miracle you're alive. I've heard stories of mad woman drowning because they were not aware of the danger they were in."
"I almost did drown, but a water creature saved me. He is going to retrieve my basket now." Cecilia told Taylor, turning back towards the lake.
"He is not retrieving your basket, he is going to get others to drown you." Taylor chastised.
"If he wanted me dead, why didn't he let me drown before?" Cecilia retorted. Taylor was at a loss for words.
Cecilia saw the creature who had first dragged her down into the water again. It was close to the surface and looked angry. It broke the surface of the water and grabbed her forearm. It opened its mouth in a screech, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Before it could drag her under again, Taylor used his sword to sever its hold on Cecilia. As his blade went through its arm, the creature turned to water. It was no longer seen in the water and its hold on Cecilia was gone. Taylor grabbed Cecilia's upper arm and pulled her up.
"Do you not see the dangers? We must leave now!" Taylor reasoned with her.
"But my basket!" Cecilia argued.
"Forget about it!" Taylor said.
He pulled her back toward the castle, out of the forest. Cecilia looked back into the lake and could have swore she saw the creature swimming towards the surface, her basket in hand.
Cecilia had been taken to her brother in his throne room. She was pronounced mad, the creature who had gone to save her basket a figment of her imagination, and she was to spend the next couple of days stress-free in hopes that it would bring her back to normal. Taylor escorted Alice and Cecilia to Cecilia's room, where her red cloak and now-transparent nightgown was removed and she was put under her covers to warm up. The covers were pulled up to her chin. Taylor began stroking Cecilia's damp hair almost lovingly as he stood at her bedside.
"I'm not mad." Cecilia stated.
"You went into the woods. Those woods are dangerous. Not even our own soldiers go into that forest." Taylor reasoned with her.
"I want to be there when the Bethmooran royals come for the treaty." Cecilia looked at Taylor with pleading eyes.
"If you are well enough."
"I'm well enough now!" She said.
Taylor shook his head slightly. What was he to do? There was a short silence between them.
"Is Alice gone?" Cecilia raised her head slightly to look.
Alice was gone. She had taken Cecilia's still-wet clothes to get properly washed and dried.
"Then would you like to help me get warm, General?" Cecilia said sexually. She had her usual seductive smile on.
Taylor saw this glimpse of the old Cecilia and decided that he should cling to it and that may bring her and her sanity back. He smiled at her in the same way. He stripped himself of his clothes and hopped into bed with Cecilia.