Chapter 4: An audience with her highness.
A.N: Ah here it is! After a few days of impossible writers block here is the next installment of "Stranger Things Have (Never) Happened" Thank you to all those who read and review my story, I am very grateful. Stay wonderful and read on!
From the moment Felicity awoke her mind was buzzing with thoughts. "I'm still here. I fell back asleep but here I am still." This was certainly an interesting development.
Throwing off her bed covers Felicity sat upright, taking in the state of her body. All along her arms and legs bruises bloomed like ugly purple flowers. And judging from the tenderness she felt along her ribs a few more painted her skin there. All in all she was doing pretty well for someone whom had just fallen from the sky.
Once done with that task her eyes drifted up to the double doors that marked the exit of her room. If she just walked through them... "No" Felicity shook her head rapidly "I will not be leaving this bed. Not only do I have no idea where exactly I am, but rest would be better for my body."
These where all very rational thoughts. But like it often has through out her life, her actions betrayed her better judgment. Before she was aware of what she was doing, she found that her long elegant fingers had curled themselves around the chilly metal of the door handle.
"Well as long as I'm up... I might as well explore a little bit." With that she quietly opened the door slipping out into the hallway beyond it, ready to go and explore this new and frankly quite strange place.
She did not know how long she had been exploring the halls of this grand palace. She had been lucky, the hall outside her room had been clear of any people (faceless or otherwise). From there she had taken off in no particular direction, she just let her feet take her where they wanted to go.
It was grand fun, for there was plenty to look at. The floors where polished so brightly that Felicity could see herself reflected in them, there where breath taking paintings and ornate candelabras, this was a palace straight out of a fairy tale... It was almost to beautiful to be real.
The real fun however came from the revile of a game she had invented in the lonesome years of her youth. From the time she was little she had to find ways to entertain herself, even if it was at the expense of those who looked after her (for most of the time her mother was to busy to watch Felicity herself). Now these games where of an innocent nature, as soon as one of her caregivers turned their backs Felicity would take off and hide somewhere in the manor. She would spend joyous hours evading capture, letting little glimpses be caught of her before she vanished again seemingly into thin air (Much to the dismay of the servants). Only to turn up at the very last possible second to keep them out of trouble with her mother. She did love them, but hey a girl has to have fun somehow, right?
That is what she did now as she explored the maze of hallways. Her ears where tuned to any sound of approach, her bare feet allowing her to move silently along. Any time she heard someone coming she would stand waiting for the last possible second before she turned and bolted away. Leaving most with only just a quick glimpse of her auburn hair.
In fact it was just after one of these daring escapes, as she leaned against the wall her hand covering her mouth to stifle her giggles, that she felt someone lightly tap her shoulder.
Felicity spun around quickly, golden eyes wide with her hand now clamped firmly over her mouth to silence her startled yelp. Behind her stood the same maid who she had startled that morning... well at least she thought it had been that morning. (she had no idea exactly how long she had been out for.)
The maid looked as if she expected Felicity to break out screaming again, this fact was only proven by her quickly spoken words. "Please Miss, don't scream. I don't mean you any harm, I just thought I would help you.." She trailed off "I thought you might have been a little lost."
Felicity did not scream, though the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Upon closer inspection the "faceless" maid did not appear to be completely faceless... she had a mouth, a nose and even eyebrows. All she was missing was the eyes. Suddenly Felicity burst out laughing.
She was laughing so hard that tears began to roll hotly down her cheeks. This seemed to startle the maid worse than if Felicity had started to scream, in fact at the moment she looked as if she would prefer her to be screaming. "U-um miss?" The maid asked nervously taking a few steps away from Felicity. Seeing the effect she was having on the maid, Felicity started to pull herself together.
"I-I'm sorry." Felicity giggled out "Forgive me for laughing, I just can't help but think how lost I must look right now." It was true, here she was standing in the middle of a hallway far from her room barefoot and clad only in the blue night gown she had woken up in, her hair hung messily lose down to her hips.
At this explanation the nervous little maid actually cracked a small smile, giggling softly. "You are indeed quite the site at the moment miss, perhaps you would like to return to your room to get properly dressed?"
Felicity smiled sheepishly a little color rising into her cheeks. "Well I would... If I actually KNEW where my room was."
"I can take you back if you want me to miss." The maid offered kindly. When she looked like that it was very easy to ignore the fact that she had no eyes, all the shocked tension drained from Felicity's body.
"That would be wonderful thank you, please lead the way." Felicity followed the maid through the halls, walking silently behind her. Feeling the need to break the silence Felicity spoke up.
"I'm sorry for reacting the way I did when we first met. I was just startled, you see where I come from all the people have faces." She was indeed very sorry for almost getting the maid in trouble with that Peter guy, she had seemed so frightened.
"It's alright," She responded softly "I can understand what a shock it must have been for you. Waking up in a room you are not used to and all." She stopped in front of the same double doors Felicity had escaped through not that long before . "This is your room miss , if you would like to get dressed you will find an array of clothes in the dresser." She smiled opening the doors for Felicity.
"Thank you very much, I think I will get dressed. Can't go running around all day in this, eh?" Felicity giggled and stepped through the doors "Have a nice day and thanks again." With that she gently closed the door before turning and quickly heading for the dresser.
As soon as she opened the doors she was impressed by what she saw, hung inside the dresser where dresses. Not like the long ones her mother made her wear to be "proper" though, these dresses must have only fallen to knee length, some where filled out with lacy crinoline and others just fell naturally down at with no added body. This was love at first site.
Her eager hands pulled the first dress that caught her eye, a little white dress with red hearts and diamonds decorating the very bottom of its full knee length skirt. The top was filly is the nicest of ways, laced up the front with red ribbon tied into three separate bows, one atop of the other.
In a hurry to get dressed she pushed the straps of her nightgown down her shoulders, allowing the slick blue material to slip off of her body only to pool at her feet.
No sooner had she put on her dress did she hear a knock at her door. Smoothing down her new outfit she ran to go and answer it. Opening the door she took in the man who stood in front of her with a friendly smile.
"Hello again Peter, may I help you?" She was slightly puzzled as to why he was here, she was just minding her own business. What could he possibly want from her?
He seemed to be strictly business this time and in quite a hurry at that, for his eyes kept flicking down to his watch. "Hello miss, I have come to inform you that the queen requests your presence in the thrown room. In exactly five minutes." He really did seem miffed but whatever for? Shrugging it off she responded "The queen? Well this is going to be something, I will be right back out just let me grab my shoes and stockings."
Felicity quickly ran back into her room to the foot of the bed where someone (most likely the maid) had neatly placed both items. In a minute flat she was back outside of her room with Peter.
"Sorry about that, please lead the way." Felicity clasped her hands in front of her offering Peter a friendly enough smile. He just turned on his heels and walked on down the hall, leaving felicity to take that as her cue to follow him.
The walk was a silent one, the only sound the clicking of their heels as they walked along the polished floor. She wanted to as him what was wrong but the frigid aura he was giving off made her hold her tongue. Now was most certainly not the time to be asking emotional questions of someone you hardly knew.
It was a relief when they at last reached the grand double doors that must lead to the thrown room. She did not know how much longer she could take that tense pregnant silence, any destination was better than repeating that trip. She only had time to smooth out her dress before Peter opened the door announcing "The outsider girl you requested is here your majesty."
From the time Felicity stepped into that room her breath was stolen away from her. The room was positively the grandest one she had seen yet. Along the polished floor laid a red velvet carpet that ran from the door to the throne. The throne was set up higher from the ground upon a plat form with three steps leading up to it, behind the throne stood two large windows, which allowed sunlight to come in and bathe the room in an almost heavenly light.
The room however could not hold a candle to the beauty of the woman whom sat in the throne. She was young but older still than Felicity, her skin was pale but her lips as red as blood. Her hair was a color that a raven would die for and her eyes where serious but curious as they landed on Felicity who still stood just at the door, though Peter had already moved to stand to the left of the throne.
"Come closer if you would, you need not worry no one here will harm you." At the sudden sound of the queens voice Felicity gave a little jump, but all the same she moved closer to where the queen sat. Giving a deep curtsy Felicity spoke.
"I would like to thank you your majesty, for letting my stay here. Its very kind of you to do so." She kept her eyes low. Not even daring to look up and meet the queens gaze for fear she would lose her nerve and say something stupid.
"Its not a problem, your kind interest us greatly, it is not trouble to have you here." The queen said with a genuine smile. At this Felicity did look up a perplexed look clear on her face."My kind your majesty?"
The queen laughed at her obvious confusion "You will understand shortly but for now lets start with the questions. What is your name dear?"
"My name is Felicity Evans your majesty" She said giving another low curtsy. The queen answered in turn "A very lovely name indeed. My name is Vivaldi, you may call me as such."
"Thank you your maj- I mean Vivaldi." Felicity laughed sheepishly. Vivaldi was relaxed in her throne simply taking in the girl in front of her. "Not that we are not glad to have you Felicity, but how exactly did you get here?" There was an honest light of confusion present in Vivaldi's voice.
Felicity thought hard on this question before responding " I truthfully I can not tell you exactly how... it seems one moment I was just running through the woods and the next I was falling." Vivaldi had leaned a little further forward in her seat, clearly intrigued by this story. "After that it was just all black and next thing I know I wake up here. Goodness I still don't know exactly where here even is." It was Felicity's turn to be confused as she looked toward the queen with imploring eyes, hoping she would give an explanation clearer than the one Peter had given her.
When the queen did next speak she seemed mystified "Only one other person has come here like that before, the other was kidnapped." Here Vivaldi cast a cold glare down to Peter who shifted uncomfortably under her gaze "The heart wants what the heart wants your majesty." Was his only response .
Felicity was about to pose a question when the queen spoke up again. "Well no matter how you came to be here you are more than welcome to stay, outsiders are always welcome." She smiled happily. "My only request is that you come and see me from time to time I would love to get to know you better. Other than that you are welcome to come and go from the palace as you please, no one in this country will hurt you, outsiders are to rare to be anything but rare."
"That is very kind of you Vivaldi" Felicity said thankfully "But I'm afraid I can't stay long.. my mother will be worrying about me."
Vivaldi's eyes widened in surprise. "If you wanted to leave why did you ever drink the potion of hearts." Felicity paled visibly "why did I drink the what?" she stuttered.
"The potion of hearts" Vivaldi repeated. "It comes in a little crystal vile topped with a heart? By drinking it you become part of the game, and thus can not leave till its done." Vivaldi paused resting her head upon her hand thoughtfully gazing down at Peter. "That's odd, I could have sworn I sent Peter down with it so you could make your choice."
Felicity stood hands closed into fists at her sides "T-thats what he had me drink..." she muttered clearly twitching. The queen looked up with interest "What's that you said Felicity?"
A dark aura seemed to radiate from the young girl "Its nothing your majesty, I just simply remembered where I come from its rabbit hunting season!" With this said she started for a slightly shocked Peter, he was helpless here. He could never shot an outsider, at least not in front of the queen. Speaking of the queen she would be of no help, she looked rather amused at the whole situation.
"Just you wait!" Felicity hollered "When I get my hands on you, you'll be bunny slippers!"
Before Felicity could reach Peter and make good on her threat, the double doors banged open. "Oh all this work I'm so glad to be back... Wait this is not my room."
TO Be Continued
A.N : Hehe I have done it! This started to get to long so I figured I would half it. Who exactly saved our good friend Peter from our rabbit hunting Felicity? Take a guess and find out in the next update! Review with any comments you have. Read on my friends!