Innocence and Audacity
AN: Sorry it's taken so long... I've been really quite busy with life and other annoying technicalities that keep me from writing fan fiction. And I've also had writer's block in a big way! In fact, I still do! So, let's just jump right into this and see what happens!
Ha Ha!
(Please excuse that last little bit of insanity. Continue on with your lives now...or, if you'd prefer, just continue wasting time reading fan fics.)
Oh, yeah. (Insert mindless, pointless, unnecessarily witty almost to the point of being maddening disclaimer here.)
AAN(Another Author's Note): I actually wrote this about a week ago. It was supposed to be longer. As time permits, I'll continue to update, but hey, might as well get this part up while I have it. Sorry!
Chapter 4
Contrary to popular belief, we palace girls aren't really in the best shape ever. Sure, our restraining corsets and even-more-restraining diets keep us sleek and svelte(perfect for the enticement of many a sniveling pig of a suitor), but our muscle definition...well, it's too much of a joke to even dwell on. So by the time I got back to the palace, I was bushed. It didn't help matters that I had taken a path that could politely be described as being off the beaten trail, and full of woodsy scenery and natural splendor. You see, although I had no reason to believe that anyone in the palace even knew I was gone, me appearing at the palace gates would give the guards a bit of an inclination to believe that I wasn't inside anymore. So, yep, I was beat. However, my less than tiptop physical condition did nothing to quell the pounding of my heart. Why was I so intrigued by this roguish, unruly ignoramus? He wasn't even that handsome! But his eyes... I could still feel their intense presence, full of strength as they bored into my mind. And then...there he was. I rounded the last bend of woods and saw him, his features almost completely obstructed by shadow. He appeared to have come in much the same way as I had: unobtrusively, purposely trying to avoid discovery. What was his purpose here? Why was he trying so hard to avoid being noticed? I crouched behind a bush at the edge of the nearby forest and watched him work.
He pulled from beneath the folds of his (admittedly lovely) scarlet, satiny kimono a gardener's trowel and shovel and walked over where the rear chimney began, jutting out of the wall. Counting under his breath, he began to walk backwards. Once he reached 15, he halted, crouched and began to dig. I watched all of this with increasing incredulity; what exactly was he thinking? His methods were much too meticulous for him to be just another crackpot, unless of course the aliens had told him to behave this way for some inexplicable reason. Then, to my astonishment, he unearthed something that made his extraordinary actions unnervingly lucid. It was a trapdoor; dusty, but with its fine, stainless steel hinges and fresh coat of varnish, it was evidently new, and perhaps installed recently for...what purpose? He struggled for a moment to open it. With a resounding creak, the hinges gave, and he was in, vanishing just as soundlessly as he had appeared in the marketplace earlier on.
What next? Let's recap: I'd broken out of the castle, gotten my first-ever taste of 'civilian life', met a hunk, and watched him break into the castle...all in one morning. All I really wanted to do was take a nap. However... I knew that that was no longer an option. I was involved now, and there was no way I could rest easy knowing that some guy was scurrying around like a common cockroach in the shadows of my home. But...I couldn't just turn him in, could I? I had a feeling that he could cause infinitely more trouble than any bug ever could, but yet...maybe I could handle him on my own. I'd just need to find out exactly what he was doing here, and what he wanted. Strangely, I didn't feel that he was any real danger to me personally. His mannerisms- and eyes- told me that he wasn't afraid to...eliminate...any noted threats, but somehow, I sensed an innate gentleness to his character. There was no way he could hurt me. I just needed to find out what his plan was. So, I crept over to the trap door as unobtrusively as possible and proceeded to enter. I was breaking into my own home...what breed of fool was I?
I didn't have time to worry about that right then. Pulling the trap door shut behind me, I groped blindly through the narrow entrance, struggling to squeeze myself through the opening. And there I was. It wasn't so bad, really. I found myself peering down a long corridor, lit by several wooden torches on its barren, rocky walls. It branched off into 2 other seemingly identical tunnels, although these weren't lit. This passageway had actually not been used for quite a while; the torches were burned down to practically nothing and rocks were strewn haphazardly around the entrance and throughout the tunnels. How had something like this gone unnoticed for so long? Would it continue to remain that way? I definitely did not want to be followed down here, but the trap door was now completely unearthed. It would be all too easy to find, once the wedding was over and the guards returned to their normal posts.
I would utilize the rocks and buy myself some time. I selected a particularly bulky one from a pile of about a half dozen rocks and hefted it, panting heavily as I went, over to the door. And, it wasn't so hard! I could do this! I proceeded to remove more rocks, until the entrance was almost completely barred. Take that, all you palace lords and ladies who told me that true princesses didn't have the strength of a gnat! Hauling up the final one, I started towards the entrance, but was hindered by a sudden blast of fire and sound. Kaboom...and I fell into darkness...
AN: Sorry it's taken so long... I've been really quite busy with life and other annoying technicalities that keep me from writing fan fiction. And I've also had writer's block in a big way! In fact, I still do! So, let's just jump right into this and see what happens!
Ha Ha!
(Please excuse that last little bit of insanity. Continue on with your lives now...or, if you'd prefer, just continue wasting time reading fan fics.)
Oh, yeah. (Insert mindless, pointless, unnecessarily witty almost to the point of being maddening disclaimer here.)
AAN(Another Author's Note): I actually wrote this about a week ago. It was supposed to be longer. As time permits, I'll continue to update, but hey, might as well get this part up while I have it. Sorry!
Chapter 4
Contrary to popular belief, we palace girls aren't really in the best shape ever. Sure, our restraining corsets and even-more-restraining diets keep us sleek and svelte(perfect for the enticement of many a sniveling pig of a suitor), but our muscle definition...well, it's too much of a joke to even dwell on. So by the time I got back to the palace, I was bushed. It didn't help matters that I had taken a path that could politely be described as being off the beaten trail, and full of woodsy scenery and natural splendor. You see, although I had no reason to believe that anyone in the palace even knew I was gone, me appearing at the palace gates would give the guards a bit of an inclination to believe that I wasn't inside anymore. So, yep, I was beat. However, my less than tiptop physical condition did nothing to quell the pounding of my heart. Why was I so intrigued by this roguish, unruly ignoramus? He wasn't even that handsome! But his eyes... I could still feel their intense presence, full of strength as they bored into my mind. And then...there he was. I rounded the last bend of woods and saw him, his features almost completely obstructed by shadow. He appeared to have come in much the same way as I had: unobtrusively, purposely trying to avoid discovery. What was his purpose here? Why was he trying so hard to avoid being noticed? I crouched behind a bush at the edge of the nearby forest and watched him work.
He pulled from beneath the folds of his (admittedly lovely) scarlet, satiny kimono a gardener's trowel and shovel and walked over where the rear chimney began, jutting out of the wall. Counting under his breath, he began to walk backwards. Once he reached 15, he halted, crouched and began to dig. I watched all of this with increasing incredulity; what exactly was he thinking? His methods were much too meticulous for him to be just another crackpot, unless of course the aliens had told him to behave this way for some inexplicable reason. Then, to my astonishment, he unearthed something that made his extraordinary actions unnervingly lucid. It was a trapdoor; dusty, but with its fine, stainless steel hinges and fresh coat of varnish, it was evidently new, and perhaps installed recently for...what purpose? He struggled for a moment to open it. With a resounding creak, the hinges gave, and he was in, vanishing just as soundlessly as he had appeared in the marketplace earlier on.
What next? Let's recap: I'd broken out of the castle, gotten my first-ever taste of 'civilian life', met a hunk, and watched him break into the castle...all in one morning. All I really wanted to do was take a nap. However... I knew that that was no longer an option. I was involved now, and there was no way I could rest easy knowing that some guy was scurrying around like a common cockroach in the shadows of my home. But...I couldn't just turn him in, could I? I had a feeling that he could cause infinitely more trouble than any bug ever could, but yet...maybe I could handle him on my own. I'd just need to find out exactly what he was doing here, and what he wanted. Strangely, I didn't feel that he was any real danger to me personally. His mannerisms- and eyes- told me that he wasn't afraid to...eliminate...any noted threats, but somehow, I sensed an innate gentleness to his character. There was no way he could hurt me. I just needed to find out what his plan was. So, I crept over to the trap door as unobtrusively as possible and proceeded to enter. I was breaking into my own home...what breed of fool was I?
I didn't have time to worry about that right then. Pulling the trap door shut behind me, I groped blindly through the narrow entrance, struggling to squeeze myself through the opening. And there I was. It wasn't so bad, really. I found myself peering down a long corridor, lit by several wooden torches on its barren, rocky walls. It branched off into 2 other seemingly identical tunnels, although these weren't lit. This passageway had actually not been used for quite a while; the torches were burned down to practically nothing and rocks were strewn haphazardly around the entrance and throughout the tunnels. How had something like this gone unnoticed for so long? Would it continue to remain that way? I definitely did not want to be followed down here, but the trap door was now completely unearthed. It would be all too easy to find, once the wedding was over and the guards returned to their normal posts.
I would utilize the rocks and buy myself some time. I selected a particularly bulky one from a pile of about a half dozen rocks and hefted it, panting heavily as I went, over to the door. And, it wasn't so hard! I could do this! I proceeded to remove more rocks, until the entrance was almost completely barred. Take that, all you palace lords and ladies who told me that true princesses didn't have the strength of a gnat! Hauling up the final one, I started towards the entrance, but was hindered by a sudden blast of fire and sound. Kaboom...and I fell into darkness...