Ding-da-ring-ding-dong-ding-ding! Ding-da-ring-ding-dong-ding-ding!

Talk about annoying alarm clocks. The Bells of Dawn at St. Michelle's temple could be heard throughout the Fae capital, Taloria. It wasn't an annoying noise on it's own, but when it has been your wake-up call for every single day of your life, it gets a little tiring. At least, that was Eliza's opinion on the matter.

The Fae Princess slipped out of bed, her hair a mess on one side and still fairly well brushed on the other, her backless nightgown bunched up around her waist. The sun shone in her tall windows and practically spotlighted the beautiful rug she landed on after removing herself from the bed. Just another day, really.

Eliza grabbed her brush and re-did her hair before pulling on the long, fancy, frilly blue gown the royal staff had laid out for her the night before. Once she was mostly clothed, she slipped on her shoes and placed her royal circlet on her head before fast walking - running was never allowed when she was wearing a gown - down to the dining room.

The dining room itself was rather plain. Sure, it had high, vaulted ceilings, but so did every other room in the palace. The walls were painted a dull brown, and there was no real artwork or other decor to create interest. The only furniture in the room was the oversized table, which could seat as many as a hundred, all at once. When there was only the royal family, it just made the room feel empty.

Eliza sat in-between her older sister Angelica and her younger sister Cornelia, and across from her sister Peggy. Breakfast was, as always, a large and varied assortment of various foodstuffs, taking up far more of the table than there were actually people sitting there. Eliza served herself a ham and cheese omelet, as it was the closest thing to her.

"Eliza, as I was telling everyone, the diplomats from the Vampire Presidency are coming today, and I want you to be on your best behavior, alright?" Queen Catherine, Eliza's mother, addressed her.

"Yes, Mother," Eliza nodded politely and began to eat her omelet.

The room was eerily silent. There was no conversation at the table, everyone just sat and ate. The deafening quiet ate away at Eliza.

'What would be the harm,' Eliza thought to herself, 'If I were to sneak away and find someone to talk to?' Someone who would listen to her because she was a person, not because she was royalty or ignore her because she was young - why, that sounded positively perfect!

The real issue with this train of thought was that Eliza could find no downsides this time, everyone was busy today with either lessons or flying practice or getting ready for the diplomats - except Eliza.

Eliza made up her mind to slip away after breakfast, which wasn't hard. Once breakfast was done, she just said she was headed back up to her room to read for a while and left, and no-one was the wiser of her real plans.

Back in her room and slightly more awake, Eliza threw open her closet doors. Her closet, about the size of a normal bedroom, was filled with clothes - there were so many special occasions she had to attend as a princess, and it was unacceptable to wear the same dress to two functions - but not much of the clothing in here would she consider wearing to sneak away from the castle.

This issue was showcased by the fact it took her nearly half an hour to find something even mildly acceptable. The closet was so full of old ball gowns and party dresses she was never going to wear again, dating all the way back to when she was three, she couldn't find anything that resembled what she perceived as normal. There was the gown she had wore the year before at the holiday ball, ice blue with white accents, which had made Eliza feel invisible. And over there was the party dress from her last birthday… um… event… with a box underneath it full of useless expensive trinkets the attendees had given her.

Being in here made Eliza feel sad. She hated the useless build-up, but how was she to get rid of it? She didn't know anyone she could give it to, didn't know anyone who would benefit from it, after all, it was mostly old and dusty dresses and trinkets. Who would want that but the slightly creepy boys who were raised from birth to attempt to woo the princesses?

After a long while of digging, Eliza found the outfit she had worn for flying lessons the year before - a pair of ice blue sweatshorts and a simple but nearly translucent white silk backless top. While it wasn't perfect, Eliza figured she was unlikely to find anything better, so she hurriedly tugged them on, wanting to get out.

Her new outfit on, Eliza cast a simple charm she had learned recently from her magic tutor to change the color of something. Her baby blue wings would temporarily be the color of the wine her mother served at events - a deep purple-red. While making it such a dark color could cause some suspition, she thought it a pretty color regardless, and in the mind of a twelve-year-old that was reason enough.

Certain all the things needed for her disguise - which wasn't really even a disguise, she just didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb - were now in place, Eliza slipped out of her room into the long hallway and made her way with ease to one of the many doors to the large rear courtyard. There, she ran into a spot of trouble.

Her mother was in the courtyard, directing a couple of servants from the air, laying out a gigantic croquet set, perhaps to play with the Vampire Diplomats when they arrived. The problem this presented was that Eliza was well aware she could not sneak past her mother's sharp eyes, so her only real course of action was to hide.

Eliza slipped behind a large white rosebush near the door and tried her hardest to do another spot of magic. This was the easiest magic a Fae could learn, but the real issue would be sustaining it. Eliza was going to shrink herself.

With a flash of magic, Eliza was the size of a child's fist, glowing bright red. She knew that while shrunk, her glow could easily give her away, so she hurriedly dove into the rosebush and cuddled up close to the main stem-trunk-thing. She vaugely wondered what it was called, but pushed the thought out of her mind, dismissing it as unimportant.

She wasn't sure how long she stayed hidden in the rosebush, but it felt like forever. Queen Catherine fussed over every detail, muttering things Eliza didn't much care about, although she caught her mother saying something like, "Not a inch off, no Martha won't like it…" Which made no sense, because Eliza didn't know any Marthas, so she must have misheard.

Finally, the Fae Queen headed back inside, trailed by the servants, who looked harried and harassed. Eliza vaguely wondered if she could not have servants when she was grown up - she didn't much care for seeing such a distressed look on another's face, much less being the cause of it.

With the courtyard finally empty, Eliza let herself revert back to full size - unfortunately forgetting to exit the rosebush before doing so. She fell over, with the rosebush falling on top of her. She managed to quickly extract herself and run off through one of the outer exits to the courtyard, but she tore her clothes and twigs caught in her hair.

Eliza didn't really know where she was going, as she'd never been outside the palace without an extensive escort, but she took careful note of what she passed and which direction she turned.

She didn't know how long she walked, but eventually the false color drained from her wings and the baby blue with large cream-colored spots she normally sprouted took their place. At that point she might should turn back, but -

"Excuse me, do you know anywhere I could find a place to sleep around here?" a voice said as someone tapped her on the shoulder. "I heard it's supposed to rain tonight, and I finally have enough money to maybe sleep somewhere dry…"

Eliza slowly turned around to face the new voice, and was slightly surprised to discover that it belonged to a young boy, about her age perhaps, with slit pupils and red eyes - a vampire. He was carrying two backpacks and wearing the most filthy clothing she'd ever seen, tattered and torn with odd stains she didn't want to know the origin of. Behind him floated a ghost wearing a… sundress, maybe? It would have been knee-length if not for the floaty flare. The dress was paired with a pair of knee-high boots and a jacket-like thing with no real way to close and a high collar. She seemed to be looking at her with mild suspicion… but the boy was talking to her.

"Um…" great way to start, genius. "I mean, hi, yes, probably? My name's Eliza, what's yours?" Wow, Eliza. What a great way to introduce yourself to your first normal friend. Not.

The boy looked slightly startled for a moment, then smiled. "My name's Alexander, it's nice to meet you, Eliza!"

"Alexander… w-well… I mean, the - my house has pl- uh, a spare bedroom, if you wanted to stay at my house while it's raining?" Eliza mentally facepalmed. Worst. First. Meeting. Ever.

The ghost behind Alexander tilted her head and gave Eliza a look. "Is this some kind of trap?"

"Wh-what?" Eliza startled, turning to look at the ghost woman in complete confusion. Why would she do a thing like that? And how? And why again?

"Maman! That's what you said about the merpeople too, and they were nice!" Alexander glanced over his shoulder to address the ghost woman. Oh. She was his mother. Well, that explained why she was there, at the very least.

"I can assure you, this is no trap," Eliza attempted to placate the floating woman, "And besides, how would I set up such a thing? You approached me, after all."

To Eliza's surprise, the woman became to laugh, "Well reasoned! Alright. I trust you. Alexander, if you really want the fae girl's help, I think she is a trustworthy person."

Alexander smiled at Eliza, and then, as if just then noticing, said, "You've got a twig in your hair, Eliza," and pulled it out, frowning in concentration.

Eliza blinked. She shook her head to clear it. Was this what having a friend that wasn't your sister or brother was like? It was nice.

"My house is this way!" Eliza pointed and began to lead her new friend back towards the palace. What would happen when they got there, she was unsure, but at least she could help her new friend - and she was dirty and hardly dressed like a princess, so it was unlikely that he had approached her to take advantage of the royal family, which was the reason her mother used to explain why Eliza wasn't allowed to have commoner friends.

"Thanks!" Alexander trotted along after her, "So I gotta ask - why do your wings only have two colors, and only a really simple pattern? When I see pictures of Fae, usually your wings are really elaborate and colorful."

"Well, because I'm only twelve!" Eliza giggled. "Fae wings grow in when a fairy reaches five years of age, and the color reflects the fae's personality since birth. Then, every five years after, a fae's wings gain a new pattern and color based on their personality over the past five years."

"Really?" Alexander asked, "Is that how it works?"

"Yep!" Eliza chirped in reply, "It's why we put so much stock in wing colors - although we can't actually tell you which personality traits make which exact shade of a color, we know that pure white is ethereal, or 'purity', to the point where it is nearly unattainable, and pitch black is lacking in morals, so it is important that the Fae Queen have pale wings - the royal line can actually be challenged if someone has paler wings than the Queen, but because people with pale wings are pure, they generally don't want to be Queen. A-at least, that's the way I understand it."

"That's really cool!" Alexander grinned, showing off his fangs. "So the Queen has really pale wings?"

"Uh… yeah…" Eliza shrugged, a little uncomfortable discussing her mother in this manner. "Yeah, the Queen has pretty pale green wings. She's the fifth queen in her line, but they are still really pale, considering that."

"So the royal line's wings become darker as generations pass?" Alexander looked very curious.

"Usually a royal line only lasts a few generations, yeah, because the princesses become entitled and snobby, so their wings begin to darken," Eliza shrugged. "Once a challenger queen had pale as snow wings until she took the throne, but from that point forward her wings were tainted darker and darker, starting with a wine-red and then darker from there until a section was black - she was only on the throne for twenty years before a challenger threw her off the throne."

"That's so cool!" Alexander grinned. "How that must affect everyday life…"

Eliza gave him a half-hearted grin. Sure, it was a slightly uncomfortable line of questioning, but Alexander hadn't known that and he honestly seemed very interested…

A car rolled passed them on the road. It was a limousine, black as night with shaped rear-view mirrors - bat wings. Eliza's eyes flew wide, Alexander's narrowed, and his mother quite frankly just looked confused.

The Vampire Diplomats.

Eliza shrieked and grabbed Alexander's hand. "I gotta get home now!" She yelled as she pulled him along.

"What's going on?" Alexander yelled back, his other hand securely holding the straps on his two backpacks.

His mother seemed to also desire answers, since she was flying after them very fast and screeching with anger at her ineffectual attempts to hit Eliza and make her let go of Alexander, since she was, you know, incorporeal.

This bizarre display continued as Eliza carefully navigated them towards the palace, only getting them lost about three times, which was pretty good, all things considered, but the other two didn't really think about where Eliza was going until she burst into the palace rear courtyard - and ran right into her mother, who was attempting to host tea with two highly unimpressed-looking vampires.

"Eliza?!" her mother, shocked, rose from her seat quickly and stared down the young princess. "What is the meaning of this? Where have you been? And who is that?" She gestured at Alexander as though he were some sort of insect she wanted to squish.

Eliza gulped, and glanced around. The vampires looked interested in her appearance, but Eliza wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Her mother was mad, definitely not good, and Alexander was looking at her mother and taking in her appearance - crown, pale green wings, and all. This could only go downhill.

"I- I'm sorry mother…" Eliza muttered, looking down at her toes.

"Wait…" Alexander said, stunned, "That's the Fae Queen Catherine. And you just called her mother… You're a princess?"

"You should be! Sneaking out like that and returning with this ragamuffin! He looks like he hasn't bathed in months!" Queen Catherine snapped.

"Well, where exactly was he supposed to bathe?" Alexander's mother piped up, drawing Queen Catherine's attention for the first time, "The Witch King burned down our house months ago, and we haven't stopped moving since."

"Rachel Faucette?" the male vampire diplomat stood up and looked at Alexander's mother. "The Rachel Faucette of Cetten?"

"Yes… that's me, but how do you know my name?" Rachel asked, tilting her head and giving the man a look. "Wait - you're George Washington!"

"Yes I am. Your body was the first one recovered from the Cetten Town Massacre," apparently George Washington continued without answering Rachel's question, "Over one hundred vampires were killed, and fifty more have vanished."

"He went on to kill ninety-nine innocents?! The monster!" Rachel screeched, flailing her limbs like an angry windmill.

"Forty-Nine," Alexander interjected. "You said fifty were missing, and I'm here and not there, so therefore forty-nine are still missing."

"This boy… is a displaced victim of the Cetten Town Massacre?" Catherine looked stunned. "How did he end up all the way out here in the Fae Capital?"

"I walked," Alexander deadpanned, causing his mother to start laughing instead of flailing.

"George," The female diplomat said, smiling, "He doesn't have a place to go, and we have so many empty rooms in the house… Besides, I know Gilbert would love to have a friend when we're off doing things like this..."

"While that's a great idea Martha, we just met him and he doesn't know us, surely -"

"You would give me a place to stay?" Alexander looked excited. "Like, really stay and not books-and-fish-and-off-again?"

"Books and fish?" Martha - oh, so that's who her mother had been talking about, Eliza thought - looked confused, but smiled. "Well, regardless, yes. What do you say?"

Alexander looked at his mother, who looked the diplomats up and down and studied their faces carefully, tilting her head this way and that like she was deep in thought, before turning back to Alexander and nodding. Alexander looked back at Martha and said, "Yes."

A couple hours later, George and Martha left, with Alexander and Rachel in tow (those two hours had been great fun getting to know each-other, or at least that was Eliza's opinion. Her mother said she was going to ban Mary Poppins so she never had to hear about it again.), and Eliza was left to bear the consequences of sneaking out - she wasn't allowed to go to the next royal function her mother hosted. After her mother left the room, Eliza rolled her eyes and wondered why she was being rewarded for breaking the rules.

She looked out the window and thought to herself that life might move on, but she wasn't going to forget today, the day she made her first friend - a vampire boy named Alexander.