Hello again readers! My second update on time! Yaaaaay! Make sure to send me plenty of reviews, I need the feedback. I started to have review cravings last week, so please don't make me suffer! Review! Review!
Rhonwen tried to remain interested as the long, boring, official-kingdom-business discussion between the adults was made longer by the arrival of more dignitaries. Sadly, she failed terribly and was having great difficulty stifling a yawn when she spotted her father. He was obviously bored too, no great surprise there, but when Eugene became bored to also became mischievous. Vincent was not paying him any attention, since he was too busy speaking with King Justinian, and none of the other royals ever seemed to pay much attention to Eugene. He was not the king of Ringdorn by blood and Rapunzel tended to do all the talking in diplomatic situations. Eugene was amusing himself by seeing how many rude or ridiculous faces and gestures he could make behind Vincent's back before anybody noticed him (besides Rapunzel, who had been subtly glaring at him every chance she got since he started his little game). Rhonwen tried not to laugh when Vincent turned and her father's face transformed from a grotesque grimace into a haughty expression of dignity. The look Vincent gave him could have curdled milk.
But eventually, despite her best efforts to listen and learn from the interactions, she could stand it no longer and asked her mother's permission to go to their suite, pleading exhaustion. Rapunzel granted it, of course, and her father quickly added himself to her party, saying that she would need his help to find her way. After enduring a few rolled eyes from some of the royals and glare of undisguised loathing from Vincent, the pair managed to escape the library.
"So," said Eugene when they were almost to the suite (and far enough away that nobody could possibly hear him from the library,) "I'll go to the suite and find out what kind of sissy, scented soap VIN-cent had them put into my bathroom, and you can go and find the other kids."
Rhonwen blinked, looking at her father in astonishment.
"How did you know I wasn't…?" she began, but was quickly interrupted.
"I may not be an active thief, but your mother still has to bow to my people reading skills," Eugene said, smiling roguishly.
"Not bad, Dad," Rhonwen smiled, equally roguishly, "And thanks."
"No problem," he replied, "I know you don't want to spend your time hanging out with an old guy like me," here he sighed melodramatically, "Go, find other young people, and be happy! I'll go and wallow in my loneliness."
"Knock it off!" Rhonwen said, whacking his shoulder sarcastically, "You're such a drama queen!"
"That's a drama king, and don't you forget it!" he replied, very sure of what she would say next, as this was a common exchange between them.
"Don't be too sure!" she said mordantly, already going in the direction of the large sitting room where she thought everyone would be.
Emile was sitting in the hedge, staring out at the entrance to the palace he waited for more royals to arrive when he heard movement from the room directly behind him. His first instinct was to hide himself, but then he realized he was already doing that and so he decided that while he waited for the next royal party to arrive he could spy on whomever was in that room. He carefully peered through the window above his head to see the occupants of the room beyond it.
On first glance, Emile saw only Princess Melody from the Southern Kingdom sitting in a chair and reading a book from his mother's library, in which the light "Pre-negotiation" conversation was now going on among the adults. She appeared to be alone until he saw someone stir on the seat on the other side of the room. It seemed that the Sleeping Prince, Prince Augustine, had been moved into this lounge room so that he wouldn't be disturbed by the conversation in the other room. This seemed rather boring, but watching them was better than watching the empty road so he continued to gaze inside and his effort was rewarded by the entrance of the beautiful Princess Rhonwen and the rebellious Princess Rosa. This might be an entertaining sight after all!
On her way into the lounge, Rhonwen encountered a most unusual sight. There was a redheaded girl, about her age from the looks of her, storming up to the door with a severely dissatisfied expression on her face. When she saw Rhonwen she stopped short.
"Who're you?" she asked, in a burly, tomboy way.
"Princess Rhonwen, of Ringdorn," Rhonwen replied uncertainly.
"Oh," the redhead replied curtly, "A royal. Drat. I suppose that means I have to announce my title to the entire world now, so that you can know I come from a long, inbred line of royals who ruled the same country as my brother will. Well, you can forget that. I'm Red."
Rhonwen couldn't help but giggle at the expression Red got on her face when she described her family heritage.
"You can call me Rhoni, if you want to," she said merrily, "I hate that formality stuff too."
Red got a strange look on her face for a moment, and then she smiled widely (a little too widely to be proper for a princess).
"I think I'm going to like you, Rhon," she said happily.
"You going to the lounge too?" asked Rhonwen, smiling at the further shortening of her nickname.
"Yep," replied Red cheerily, "You want to join me?"
"Sure, why not?" said Rhonwen, and then added, "I've never been to one of these. My brother is the heir, so it was always him that got to come. It's good to have a friend."
Upon entering the main lounge Rhonwen was gratified to see that there were some other people in the room and her instincts hadn't been wrong. Princess Melody (who, as with most of the other princes and princesses, Rhonwen had never met) stood when they entered the room and began to greet both of them in the proper manner.
"Princess Rhonwen," she said cordially, "Princess Rosa, so good to see you!"
Rhonwen smiled. Of course everyone knew who the girl with seventy feet of hair was. She was about to reply in the same manner, but Red beat her to it.
"It's Red, Mel, you know that!" she said curtly, "And it's good to see you too."
Melody blinked a bit in surprise, but then smiled in a way that made Rhonwen sure they would get along.
"That's a boy's name."
"So what," Red replied, "I'm calling her Rhon!"
The three girls giggled and this and had soon broken into an easy conversation. After discussing recent news from their kingdom's that they thought would interest other girls their age, the conversation fell into the topic of the most recent royal engagements and marriages. Melody was the most up to date, so she led the conversation.
"Ok," Melody started, "So I just heard that the young Prince Addison from the Sun Kingdom and Prince Clarence from the Northern Kingdom were both recently engaged to noble women from their kingdoms."
"My brother Rufus was just engaged a few months ago to Princess Emilia from the Northern Kingdom," Rhonwen added shyly, "She seems very nice and the two like each other a lot."
"And my brother, Xavier, was just promised to Lucia of Northern," Red added, not so shyly, "That settles most of the children in the Northern Kingdom."
"All the royal children actually! Prince Charmon II, heir of the Northern Kingdom has just married Princess Adrienne of the Kingdom of the Sun, the elder sister of Prince Augustine, the heir. And his younger sister, Princess Dianna, has just become engaged to Prince Edward II, heir of Andalasia!" Melody said excitedly, "I hear Dianna and Edward and Charmon and Adrienne are madly in love, and that they are perfect matches, both for their countries and for them!"
Melody and Rhonwen, the only princesses currently not engaged (besides Red, they assumed), both sighed happily here, imagining what it must be like to be engaged to your true love. That is, they almost sighed, until Red's decidedly sour voice brought them back to reality.
"Don't believe everything you hear," she said crossly, "That's probably what everyone says about me too, but it isn't true. I've never even met my betrothed."
Both girls looked at Red in astonishment.
"You're engaged?" Rhonwen exclaimed, barely able to keep the shock form her voice.
"Don't sound too surprised, Rhon!" Red chuckled.
"To who?" Melody asked.
"Prince Augustine, heir of the Kingdom of the Sun," Red replied in a bored way, and if she had said his name far too many times for her enjoyment, "I've never seen him before in my life. One day my father just got this letter from him, proposing marriage and my mother was so excited she sent a positive reply before she even told me about it. Luckily we weren't expected to marry right away; I think they were just trying to find a way to gain an alliance between our countries."
Both of the other girls in the room had an expression of shock and not a small amount of amusement on their faces because it was very clear from Red's little speech that she had not noticed Augustine was sleeping on the sofa on the other side of the room. Even if she couldn't recognize his face, saying such a thing in front of a boy would be mortifying. Red noticed this and stopped talking, looking at her friends questioningly, and they burst into riotous giggles.
"Have you two both lost your minds?" Red asked, her bewilderment growing.
Just then, seemingly disturbed by the squealing laughter of the young princesses, Augustine sat up and looked around him in a disoriented way. His sudden movement surprised Red, who was unaware of his presence, so much that she screamed in a way quite unbecoming to a princess and fell out of her chair, which only cause her friends to laugh all the harder. Seeing the young ladies only seemed to confuse poor Augustine further, but upon seeing Red fall he rushed over to help her back up again.
"My dear lady, are you all right?" he said concernedly.
"I'm perfectly capable of getting myself up, thankyouverymuch!" replied Red, glowering as she stumbled up to a standing position, "How long have you been lurking there?"
"Lurking where?" Augustine asked, seemingly still a bit confused as to where he was, and a bit in awe of the stunning woman who now stood before him, glaring venomously.
"He wasn't lurking," Rhonwen said through her laughter, stopping Red before she started cursing at the poor man, "He was just lying on the couch. He fainted earlier, and they must have put him in here to rest!"
"Fainted?" Red asked, her temper seemingly dissolving into amusement, "What kind of a man faints?"
"Not this kind, I assure you, my lady," replied Augustine happily, not seeming to take offence to a thing she had said against him, "I did not faint, I fell asleep. It happens sometimes to me sometimes. But, I beg your forgiveness for my lack of manners; I am Prince Augustine, heir to the Kingdom of the Sun. And who, my lady, do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
Red just stared at him for a moment, her face becoming very pale. Then her body seemed to decide that it was her turn to faint, and she crumpled into poor, bewildered Augustine's arms.
Emile pulled away from the window as Princess Rosa, or Red, as she seemed to prefer, fainted dead away. He couldn't stop his laughter this time, but merrily chuckled to himself in the bushes, trying not to let it become too loud. That was the last thing he had come to expect after what he had seen of Red, and, like her two friends inside, he had to laugh despite his concern for her. He gradually regained control over his laughter again and was about to return to his spying when a loud announcer sang out the declaration of the arrival of the King of Agrabah. Emile jumped and hid himself more thoroughly in the bushes.
Why do all the announcers have to be so blasted loud?
Reluctantly, he abandoned the scene inside the room behind him and pulled out his notebook to record the arrival. It was a more difficult task than he would have thought.
The King of Agrabah has arrived in as much splendor as his wealthy kingdom can provide for him, and I do not exaggerate. His party is preceded by a large group of dancers, all in bright red silk costumes, and led by a large, blue, singing monstrosity which I can only assume is the famous genie that follows the king. The king himself is not in a carriage, and neither are his sons. They are all riding on the backs of elephants. I have never seen an elephant in person, and I must say that their size is, well, impressive. Especially when they are draped in red, yellow, and white silk and they wear feathered hats on their heads. My question is how the royal family is going to get down from their backs. Oh, there it is! Question answered. The elephants have just knelt to let their riders get down. That's incredible. I have no idea how we're going to fit those things into the barn though. Cogsworth will have a heart attack.
Emile paused in his writing here to look up again and see the royal family as they descended.
The King is wearing the traditional garments of his country, and they are bright, pure white, right down to his pointed shoes. The only thing that isn't white is the large, purple feather on his turban. His sons are each dressed much the same way, with the exception of the color of their feathers, and good gracious does he have a lot of sons! Seven he brought with him, and I hear there are three more young sons and five daughters he must have left at home! His eldest son, Prince Ahmed, rubs my fur backwards just by the way he walks. I could be wrong, but I don't think I'll ever regret not knowing him. It's the same way with most of the rest of the princes, 'Ajib, Akif, Ala', Afeef, and Adnan (and it must be hell trying to remember who's who in that house!). There's one son though, Prince Akram, who seems to me to be very polite. He didn't sneer and Cogsworth and Lumier on the way in, like the others did. I'll have to keep an eye on him.
Just then Emile was distracted from his writing by a loud, obnoxious, and dangerously close squawking. He looked above his head to see an abnormally large, red parrot, screaming at the top of its lungs.
"LOOK AT THIS GIANT WOLF I'VE … GAAAAACK!
Emile wasted no time. He reached out, grabbed the tattling bird by the neck, and pulled it into to bushes. He clamped his hand around its beak and looked back out to see what the damage was. Surprisingly, only a few people were even looking in their direction, and it was clear from their expressions that they hadn't seen his hand. He inwardly rejoiced about his wise choice to move further away from the door. They were too far away for him to easily hear them, but that meant that he was too far for them to easily hear him. Him, or the insufferable bird he was now holding prisoner. His shoulders slumped in relief as the royal party all followed his parents inside. That was dangerously close.
So there it is! I hope I made everything clear enough on who's engaged to whom, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to tell me in a review! I'll be very glad to explain how many children each kingdom has and who is the King and Queen, since not everyone has arrived yet and you could get confused. I know I have. I had to make a chart to keep track of them all! Review! PPPPLLLLEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEE!