I finally came up with a real chapter title [not just a funny one]
Lila could hear people speaking, their voices hollow and distant. Something took hold of her arm and touched her face. Her Prince! She turned her face in his direction. She tried to open her eyes, but they were full of sand and salt and pain from last night and the sun from this morning. Her head felt heavy, more so than it ever had before.
"She's alive!" a voice called out, a voice that was not her prince. She heard a loud horn go off, and her head fell back as two large men picked her up out of the tide pool. The horn blew again. She was being carried up the sandy beach into the gardens she had only gazed at from afar. Lila's heart started racing. Her tail! What if she wasn't done, what if they found out? She ripped her eyes open wide and lifted her head up. Looking around, trying to find an escape almost caused the men to drop her. "Calm down miss, we will have you inside soon."
Lila stiffened with fear, she did not know what they meant by that. A ways into the garden the men stopped and sat her down in a cart, like the ones she had seen at the docks with the fishermen. Oh my, this is ever so bad. She started crying, her tears moving the sand in her eyes. She curled up in a ball and reached out to feel for her source of worry. She could not tell if she should stay worried or not, the dress was soaked and weighed her body down, so she stayed worried. She was taken in the cart up to a side door of the palace, and a group of women came out to them. The men who had brought her up and the women at the door began to talk amongst themselves.
"Well, where do you suppose she came from?"
"I do not know milady, but she appears noble."
"That she does, 'tis a shame about that dress though. The ocean will have ruined the silk." The woman speaking turned to Lila, "dear, what is your name? Who were you with before you were found?" Lila just stared back with large sorrowful eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but no sound came from her lips, though a tear streaked down her cheek. "Oh, the poor dear must have had a shock. Thank you, gentlemen, please go about your duties, we will take her from here." She turned to the women behind her, "Ladies, let us get this poor girl inside. I am sure she would love a bath and some dry clothes." Two of the girls came over to Lila and each took a hand, two more fluffed out her sopping skirt as best they could, and together helped her out of the cart. With the skirt held up, Lila was able to tell that she did in fact have legs and she smiled at the fact.
Everything turned red.
The second Lila stood on her feet, she crumpled to the ground. Pain shot up both legs, pain so intense it was as though her brain had melted, blinding her and turning her legs to jelly. She forgot. The witch's words came back to her, "beware – every step you take, will feel as though you are running upon sharp knives and broken glass." The girls cried out and were fanning her face. Lila opened her eyes and let them help her back up.
Lila walked inside the palace with the women; they were all following the main woman who had spoken to her out front with the two who had helped her up walking behind her. As they walked, the woman in front would say things to the girls and then they would walk off in twos in different directions. Eventually, there were just four girls surrounding Lila. The woman stopped in front of a door, opened it and told the two in front to get the bath ready. As she was speaking to them, two more girls who had walked away earlier showed up with a large gilded cart carrying a large brass drum. The last two who had been behind Lila led her into a beautiful room. The entire room, the floors, the walls and ceiling were all made of marble. There were two large windows on one wall, each with a gilded swan on either side. In the center of the room was a large round raised tub. It reminded Lila of a large tide pool; but this was much deeper, and this too was made of marble and had a gilded rim around the top. The girls who had brought in the cart were filling the tub with hot water, while the others were putting in some potions. Those smell ever so delightful. I do hope that they don't do anything to me like last night; I do not think I could go through that again.
Lila did not get a chance to think anything else on the subject, for the last two girls were pulling and pawing at her. They got the wet dress off of her and led her to the tub. Lila though it was like a beautiful dance, all the girls moving to and fro, each knowing the other is doing their part. Once Lila was at the tub, she saw the foam and heard the witch again, "if you do not win the love of this prince- your heart will be broken, the first sunrise after he marries another, and you will turn to sea foam anyway." Lila lowered her body into the tub, the hot water easing the pain in her limbs from her transmogrification the night before. Two of the girls absconded with her gown and the woman brought back a selection of garments and began hanging them in a row on a bar against one wall before leaving again. The four girls remaining washed Lila with more foam. Foam in her hair, foam on her arms and her legs, foam on her back. Lila saw the sea sponges they were using to wash her with, and she shed a tear for them. She was sad for them, but had never felt anything as beautiful as that in all her life. The girl washing her hair made Lila want to melt from joy.
"You really are lucky," one of the girls spoke. "You were smart to take your hoops off in the water. I don't think I'd have managed it, but you lived because of it."
"Tip your head back, please," said another, and as Lila put her head back, the girls poured warm clean water down her hair. "Alright, now up," and the girls helped Lila stand up and they rinsed her entire body off. She was in agony; but kept a polite smile on, even if her eyes were still sad. Lila was helped out of the tub and the girls began toweling her off and dressing her in white garments.
"I don't believe she needs a corset." One said.
"True, she was not wearing one already. Look at her, she is so dainty already, I wouldn't," another girl replied.
The two girls continued to choose suitable items for her, and the other two powdered her body and did her hair. The girl doing her hair seemed to remember how Lila had been wearing it, and put it back into two perfect plaits on either side of her face. One of the girls came back with a beautiful green dress. "I was thinking this day dress for her. It is fancy enough to sit with the family, but not as stuffy as the full ball gown she showed up in," she held the dress up. It was light mint muslin with emerald silk trim and applique. The girls finished dressing her and walked her back to the main room.