Chapter 4/Week One/Thirteen Months Left
Only one week and her daring guest has turned the castle upside down with his presence. Not that it was his intention or desire. It certainly wasn't his fault that every resident decided to forgo common decency and swarm him almost every moment of the day.
She had to create an edict that forbade anyone to disturb him during the night unless it was an emergency just to let him get some sleep.
Dawn was the worst of the whole group. Their poor father was becoming ragged trying to keep pace with his youngest daughter as she fawned over their guest. She can only be grateful that Bog always slowed his walk whenever he noticed the king father trailing behind as the curse was not kind to him. Though the former king consort was taller than the others of the cursed castle, coming up to her hip, the large spiky plating covering his entire reptilian-like body weighed heavily on him, forcing him to walk slowly on the knuckles of his elongated arms and his shortened back legs. It made him as grumpy as the dragon he kind of resembled and it was only fortunate for both daughters that his elongated snout did not retain the gift of speech.
Some days, Marianne wished the same cursed silence had befallen her little sister.
"But, Marianne, surely you see the possibility!" Dawn cries, flying in front of her sister's face. "Boggy could be the one to break the curse!"
It wasn't often that her gift had trouble discerning someone's true motives. This time, it was easy to guess the reason. On one hand, her younger sister truly did wish for her elder sister to have someone who lo...cared about her. At the same time, though, it was also about having the curse be broken and getting herself turned back to normal. Motives both selfless and selfish.
"No, Dawn, there is no possibility," Marianne denies.
"But Boggy is so cute! And smart and kind and all those other important things, too. Who cares if he's a peasant!" Dawn argues.
"It has nothing to do with him being a peasant or with him being unqualified. There is just no possibility," Marianne states.
"Ugh! Why are you being like this?!" Dawn groans, her limbs flailing in all directions.
"Dawn! You are the crown princess. Act with dignity befitting your station," Marianne scolds.
"Says the queen who refuses all chance at love even though it's the only way to break Sugar Plum's spell," Dawn points out sourly. "You're not even taking this curse or how to break it seriously!"
"I'm more aware than anyone what that witch has done," Marianne growls quietly. "I know what will happen, and I'm not going to drag a man as honorable as Bog into it."
"Now you're just being impossible," Dawn sighs before humphing. "I'm gonna find Boggy. He'll have more sense."
Marianne resists the urge to sigh as she watches her tiny sister fly away, no doubt going to fulfill her word of pestering their forced guest. A grunt from beside her draws her attention and she raises her eyebrow at her father.
"Annoyed with me as well?" Marianne questions.
Her father's green eyes do show annoyance before softening into a pleading expression.
"There's nothing to be done for it. I already explained to you my reasons, even before that witch came to the castle," Marianne comments.
The responding groan and shake of her father's reptilian head convey his disappointment in her answer. He gives her one last pleading look before following his youngest daughter's path down another corridor.