"Princess, Princess, Princess please it's time to get up." A deep voice yelled, get closer to the room.
A man opened the door to a bedroom with a futon out in the center of the room. He looked at the futon and saw a girl with blondish hair trying to keep the covers over her head. The man pulled the covers from the girl to see a girl who was about seventeen years old with long hair in a night kimono.
"Please princess you know that your father is planning a gathering for tonight." the man said while folding the futon.
"I know, I know." The girl said walking over to the closet. "I just wish he would let me have more of a say into the directions regarding my future."
Three women then entered the room and immediately stopped the princess from going through her clothes.
"You may not like it my princess, but it is important you remember that you are the second princess of the kingdom." The man explained leaving the room.
The princess allowed the attendants to change her out of her nightwear and into a light blue kimono that had dark blue trim and a purple obi.
"You are ready for the day our princess." one of the attendants said. "And as beautiful as always."
The princess sighed then said, "I told you all to call me by my name."
"Oh no princess the law clearly states that those of royal blood should never have their name spoken by commoners till they are married to another." another attendant quickly stated.
"My princess are you ready?" the man asked through the door.
"Yes, let's get this over with already." The princess said walking to the door.
As the princess opened the door she saw the man from earlier flipping through a tiny book.
"So what do I have to deal with today?" The princess asked. walking past the man
The man stopped flipping through the book then said, "You have your studies first, then your to practice your archery next for about two hours, your tutor for dance had to cancel so you can add an hour to archery or to your music lesson, then comes the start of your bridle training and final your unveiling."
"Add the hour to archery, I can at least have some fun today." The princess said walking towards the library.
"Right away." the man said following the princess.
When they got to the library the princess saw a stack of books on one of the tables and a woman with black in a ponytail that went to her hips wearing a reddish kimono standing next to it. As the princess got closer to the table you could tell that the woman was taller out of the two.
"Good evening Ms. Liz." The princess greeted.
"You're late and your speech when talking to those older than you needs work." Ms. Liz complained glaring at the princess with her cold brown eyes.
"I'm only late by a minute." The princess thought to herself as she rolled her eyes.
As she took her seat at the table with the books the man went off to the corner of the room and began going through his book again.
"For today's lesion we will be practicing your writing and the proper way of addressing those around you." Ms. Liz said placing a book in front of the princess and a blank piece of paper.
The rest of the time with the princess's study made her more and more annoyed as her tutor kept complaining about every little thing she did wrong. As the lesson ended Ms. Liz reminded the princess that she should work hard on her studies or find a husband will be a challenge. The princess had to curly hold back her urge to yell at the top of her lungs at Ms. Liz to got back to hell and stay there.
"Hey Amaki is there a way I can cancel the rest of my studies today and just do archery?" the princess asked.
"I'm sorry princess but it is impossible for me to cancel everything that was planned today so you can have more time for archery," Amaki answered. "But I might be able to convince the music teacher to let you skip just this once but you will have to be on time for your bridle train and unveiling."
The princess smiled at Amaki agreeing to try and give her more time to cool down, then went into the changing area of the archery field they had built near the palaces. As she came out again she now wore what looked like a priestess outfit but she wore a glove on her right hand. The princess picked up one of the bows that was hanging near the door and grabbed a quiver full of arrows.
"So tell me, are any of my sisters going to be joining me in shooting arrows?" the princess asked, walking past Amaki to the target lines.
"Yes, I believe the third princess will be starting her lesson with a bow today as she requested.
"Okay, at least I can talk to one of them after so long." the princess said stopping in front of a white line on the ground.
The princess then hosted the quiver of arrows on her hope and looked forward to see targets that were about 25 feet away. The princess pulled out an arrow and took aim while thinking of the one person she wanted to shoot the arm at. As the princess released the arrow she heard a small voice calling her.
"Sister, are you doing archery at the moment too?" a voice shouted as the arrow hit the center of the target.
The princess looked over to her left to see a little girl about ten years old with long brown hair in a pony tail wearing the same clothes as the princess. Next to the girl was a woman that looked to be in her twenties with coal black hair that was in a bread that went to the women's hips, she also had one green eye and the other was a light brown.
"Hey Millie," The princess greeted. "You chose to do archery as your exercise."
"You bet, I want to be just like you big sis." Millie answered hugging her sister.
The princess then looked at the woman then said, "Well if Kana is your teacher like she was for me then you get there in no time, you might even surpass me some day."
"Really, you think I could be better than you." Millie said.
"You might, but to make it reality you're going to need to practice." Kana said, holding out a bow and quiver for someone with smaller arms.
"Okay." Millie said, taking the bow and quiver.
Millie placed the quiver down next to her being unable to carry it yet and pulled an arrow out. Kana then began to couch Millie from the sidelines about firing the bow. As the two princess practiced their archery the time seemed to fly by for Amaki stopped her from grabbing another quiver of arrows with a saddened look on he's face. The prince then handed Amaki her bow and went to get change back into her kimono so that she could finish the rest of her lessons for the day. Once the princess said her goodbyes to her former teacher and her little sister she followed Amaki back to the house hating that her fun was over. After her bridal train was over the princess wanted nothing more than to scream at the top of her lungs. Once she got to her room her three attendants started getting her ready for the party in her honor.
"Princess please hold still or I won't be able to tie this the right way." one of the attendants said.
"This is your unveiling, you have to look your best." Another attendant said tying the obi carefully so that it doesn't become loose.
"Yay my unveiling, the greatest day of my life." the princess, weakening cheered.
"It truly is, the seventeenth birthday of the women of the house to be shown to the world and for them to find a husband to take care of them." The attendant styling the princess hair said. "We just know that you'll find a great prince to look after you."
The attendants then placed a gold crown onto the princesses head then brought a mirror over so that she could see her reflection. The princess now wore a dark blue kimono that had red trim along the bottom and sleeves, her face bora white powder with ruby red lipstick and light blue eyeshadow, plus her forehead bora a dark blue teardrop. Her hair was in a bread that went down her back with a sea blue hair pin at the end. The crown was a circle that had one point towards the sky that was barely as long as a pinky finger, and rested on her head but didn't go past the teardrop on her forehead.
"Got to say little sis you clean up nicely." a voice said.
The princess turned around to see her older sister and said, "Ellie, you came."
"What you think I would miss your unveiling," Ellie said, moving out of the way so her sister could walk past. "I tried to see you when you had archery practice but you had left before I got there."
"I won't lie I thought you wouldn't come," The princess said leaving the room. "You are married now."
"Maybe so, but you're still my little sister and it is your birthday." Ellie quickly said.
"At least you remembered that." The princess said sadly.
"What do you mean?" Ellie asked, concerned.
"My unveiling and me getting married off is all anyone is talking about, but todays also my birthday and I'm scared." the princess said. "Plus this entire day not a single person has said my name like it's a curse if they do."
Ellie signed and was about to say something but Amaki interrupted telling them it was almost time. The princess walked away feeling even sadder than before.
"Don't worry so much everything's going to be fine. Just trust me okay." Ellie shouted as her sister walked away. "And happy birthday Anna!"
As Anna heard the sound of her name being called by someone made a small smile appear on Anna's face. Anna continued to walk down the hallway until she got to a pair of giant doors that looked to be too big for a normal person. As Anna stud there waiting for the doors to open, another person walked up beside her quietly and waited without a word. Anna looked over at the person and saw they wore a light brown samurai kimono that had black trim on the bottom and a straw hat that covered their face and hair, but Anna could at least tell that it was a boy around her age for there wasn't much difference in their heights. The boy had two swords at his waist but was caught Anna's attention was the red bead necklace with a white stone claw in the center double wrapped around the boys neck.
"A Shaman!" Anna softly whispered so that the boy wouldn't hear her.