Well, I've only had two reviewers. But I'm going to update anyway, because
my reviewers both begged for a new chapter. ( Thanks you two! Review again!
And to the newcomers. review please!
Chapter 4: The Palace
Katie sat beside the driver in her pink dress, gazing up. They passed by the white marble walls, through the black iron gates. Inside was a large circling driveway with a round patch of grass in the center. A large, marble fountain mostly covered the grass. The black coach rolled up to the grand palace doors. The gate was lifted and the thick wooden doors swung open. As Katie and the driver jumped down from their seats, three handsome men clad in black and red escorted Starina, Arena, and Brenda from the coach. Callista, Fayre, Gale, Loreen, and Katie trailed behind them.
Inside the palace, servants, all dressed in black and red, were bustling about. Maids carrying cleaned linen and chamber pots and various objects made from silver and gold and iron ran this way and that. The three men nodded to and left Starina, Arena, and Brenda as a slightly plump woman with graying red hair peeking from beneath a white mob cap hurried up to them.
"Your name, miss?" asked the woman to Starina in a high voice.
"Duchess Starina of Shon," stated the duchess.
"Right this way, milady," said the woman, turning and leading the group to a small room. The room was decorated in black, gold, and red and three large thrones hid the far wall.
Upon the first throne sat King Derek. The second throne held Queen Louise. And Prince Kenneth was perched upon the third throne.
The King broke into a handsome smile and stood up. "Welcome, Duchess Starina, welcome to the Palace of Garia! I am, of course, King Derek and this is my wife and Queen, Louise." Queen Louise, with wavy red hair that settled nicely on her shoulders, and piercing gray eyes, stood and nodded. "And my son, Prince Kenneth." The Prince rose. His hair was wavy like his mother's, but rich brown like his father's. His eyes were gray like the Queen's, but soft like the King's. "Feel free to explore the palace," the King said. "And remember the number one rule; have fun!" The King held up his arm and escorted the Queen from the room. The Prince followed.
Katie took off from the room just as Starina was about to open her mouth to speak to the girls. She wasn't listening to Starina's lectures today or tomorrow or the two days after that. It was four days all to herself.
Katie wandered about the whitewashed walls of the palace. The doors were all around ten feet tall and made of thick, dark, stained wood with elegant gold handles and matching frames. Carved into every left-hand door was the name of the room, such as "Ballroom," "Queen's Bedroom," and "Dining Room."
The Great Hall was Katie's first stop - and it was named appropriately. The tall room was the entrance to the palace. The front had five huge marble steps, leading up to carved wooden doors taller than any others. These doors had handles and frames of silver and little bits of gold carved in with the fancy wood. The floor in the Hall was made of big square marble slabs, in a black-and-white-checkerboard pattern. When you entered the Hall, you faced a great staircase - known as just that, the Great Staircase - with railings made of white marble. Katie assumed the steps were of white marble, too, but the steps were mostly hidden by a great red carpet.
From the hall were two halls, one to the left, one to the right. Under the hallway that could be seen from the top of the Great Staircase was one door to the left-hand side of the stairs and one to the right. Katie chose the right-hand hall and started down it, but soon discovered it held servants' quarters. She snuck a glance into one of the rooms and saw they were furnished much better than her room. There were three grand wardrobes and three sets of bunks. From the nightshirts thrown on top of the bunks and the pair of pants dropped on the floor, Katie guessed it was a teenage boys' room and quickly shut the door. Down the hall she found a teenage girls' room, which was furnished exactly the same. She took a risk and stepped inside the girls' room and opened one of the wardrobes. Inside the wardrobe door was a mirror and hanging on the rod were around eight dresses. Assuming two girls shared a wardrobe and the girls were all wearing a dress, they each had five dresses. Much better than me, Katie thought. I only get one, not including this pink one.
Upon emerging from the servants' quarters, Katie marched straight across the Hall and found various places - the breakfast room, with a wall full of windows facing east, and colored with pale pinks and greens and yellows. The lunchroom, with regular windows also facing east, and decorated with blues and purples, was found next to the breakfast room. And the supper room, done up in red, black, white, and gold - of course - was located across from the dining room. Also found in the hall was the kitchen, a huge place with cupboards and tables and ovens, all painted white and all the cooks, most women, but a few were men, were dressed in big white dresses and white aprons and white hats covering their hair - although, a few had some red curls or black waves sticking out here and there. And one thing Katie noticed was none of them were especially thin. The place was full of smoky air (which Katie assumed was flour) and bread being tossed from person to person and the sounds of people shouting and chattering away and the smells of baked goods and stews and soups - Katie slipped in and back out with no one noticing. There were a few other rooms down the hall, but Katie failed to recognize their purpose.
After that hall, Katie took the door to the right-hand side of the Stairs. Inside this door was a ballroom three stories tall. The floor was gold marble with red and black veins and one of the walls was curved and made of many panes of glass, showing off the garden outside.
"'Scuse me, miss," said a maid, hurrying in with a rag and a bucket full of soap and water. She couldn't have been much older than twelve. "I just have to clean these windows." She set down the rag and bucket by a window and dragged a ladder out, which had been leaning against a wall, unnoticed by Katie. "You can stay if you'd like, miss."
"That's all right," Katie said, starting towards the door. "I know what its like, and I know you don't really want to be watched. Thanks anyway." Katie smiled at the girl, who gave a thankful smiled back. Katie started to leave, but was stopped by the young girl's voice.
"Miss? If you'd like to see where the balls are normally held, it's in the middle of the gardens. This place is only used for private balls consisting only of the royal family and their relations, like birthday balls and Christmas balls."
"Thank you," Katie said, smiling a wider smile. This place sounded interesting and she would visit it right after the place on the other side of the Staircase.
Which was a museum full of strange objects Kings and knights and Princes had brought back from quests. An apple was first. It was sliced in two, one half white, one half red. Each half had a bite taken from it. The gold plaque read, "Queen Snow-white's apple, poisoned by Queen Dahlia." That must have been over a hundred years ago! Katie went on to the next object, a red cloak. "Queen Red's cloak. Queen Red married King Forest when he saved her from the belly of a wolf." On and on it went, with things such as a bean of King Jack's, hair from Queen Rapunzel, and the necklace and ring Queen Marigold had traded to the troll Rumpelstiltskin.
But the last object was the one that fascinated Katie the most - a small ball made from red marble with a gold griffin's claw clamped around it. The ball had black veins and the plaque read, "Found by our first King, Draco. Gave our kingdom its colors."
Katie left through the back door of the museum and found herself in the gardens. Following the signs made of gold with carved letters, she found her way to the place normally used for balls. It was surrounded by bushes and was on a platform three steps above the ground. She walked up the steps and looked around. The platform was made of great gray stones. Over here was a grassy area between the dance floor and the bushes, which Katie presumed the orchestra pit. It was lovely, with ivy growing along the six inch wall all the way around the floor and big, stone pots holding bushes shaped as different animals in each of the four corners.
A brown mouse scurried across the floor, chased by three others. The three were faster than the one and they ran over him, beating him to the pot with the giraffe-shaped bush. Katie ran over and picked up the mouse. "Are you hurt?" she asked it.
"There's something wrong with my leg," the mouse squeaked. He was a boy and sounded young. "But find Lizzia. This has happened before and she knows what to do. Lizzia is a lizard, by the way."
Katie nodded and turned. Speaking in lizard tongue, she cried, "Lizzia! Lizzia are you nearby? There'sss a brown moussse here who needsss your help! Lizza?"
"What'sss the brown moussse'sss name?" Came a reply as a large, green lizard crawled up the ivy and onto the platform.
Katie switched to the mouse language and asked the mouse his name. "Rolly," he moaned in reply.
"Rolly," hissed Katie. "Hisss name isss Rolly!"
"Ah, I will help." The lizard half-slithered, half-walked over to where Katie had set Rolly down and did something to his leg. "There, Rolly, isss that better?"
"Yes, thank you, Lizzia."
"Did Frank or Tubby or Rattail do thisss to you?"
"All three," was Rolly's reply.
The three brown mice came scurrying out of the potted giraffe. At first they were all the same - then Katie saw the differences. Frank was thinner, Rolly was fatter, Tubby had a darker brown spot on his back, and Rattail's tail was pink.
"Sorry, Rolly, we just wanted to beat you," said Tubby.
"It's fine," said Rolly, getting up.
"No, it'sss not! Never do that again!" hissed the lizard.
"We wouldn't if we had an owner!" Rattail argued.
"Ah, all of us in the animal kingdom wisssh for an owner."
"I'll be your owner!" cried Katie. "You can live with me!"
Rattail and Lizzia exchanged a look, but then nodded. "All right," said Frank. "We'll come with you."
"I don't have my bedchamber yet, otherwise I'd say meet me there tonight. how about I meet you outside the kitchen after dinner?"
"Sssoundsss good."
"We'll be there!" said Rolly, smiling. The four mice, squeaking and chatting about the thought of having an owner, scurried away and Lizzia crawled off in the opposite direction. Katie smiled, watching them go. Turning around, she was startled to find a man of about thirty watching her.
"Ya talk t' animals, d'ya?"
Nervously standing in the man's stare, Katie nodded. "Y-yes sir."
"Would ya like a job, 'ere at da palace? I've got a boy 'elpin' the 'orses, an' a gal fer da cats. 'Ow 'bout walkin' a' feedin' da dogs?"
Anything, anything at all, to be away from her stepmother! "Yes sir! I would love a job here!"
"M'name's Jordan, but ya can call m' Jordie. An' I'm da Keepeh of da Animals."
"All right, Jordie. When do I start?"
"Yer here with dat duchess, aren'tcha? 'Ow bout ya jus' stay when she leaves a' ya start den?"
"Yes sir!"
After dinner, when Katie had found the lizard and mice, Katie had been taken to her bedchamber. Now, the four mice had taken one of the many, many pillows from the bed and fluffed it into a giant nest for them to sleep in. Lizzia had dragged a rug under the nightstand beside the bed and had curled up under it. All five animals were sleeping soundly.
Katie examined the bedchamber. Her room with her mother and father hadn't been this grand, and of course, neither was her room with Starina. There was a huge canopy bed and a large wardrobe and rugs on the floor and an empty bookshelf and a large window with floor-length, gauzy curtains. If you crawled out the window, you would find yourself on a small balcony.
Katie peeked into the wardrobe. Empty. Not even a mirror. Except there was one thing, hanging on the rod - clean, white linen nightgown. Katie pulled it out and found it trimmed with pale blue ribbons. She changed into the nightgown and left the door open a crack, in case one of the mice or Lizzia needed to leave the room for something.
Katie carefully unlocked the window and opened it. A light breeze blew the curtains and Katie's hair. The sky was dark, streaked with pink and orange from the disappearing sunset. She stepped over the windowsill and stood on the balcony. It was small but railed and Katie felt like she was flying.
Then from the shadows below stepped a figure. From the little light from the moon, Katie could see it was a woman and she was dressed in purple. Katie ducked and half-hid herself behind the railing.
"Don't hide, I won't kill you," laughed the woman. Katie stood cautiously and stared at the woman. Her voice sounded not much older than Katie herself. "I suppose you're here with Duchess Starina? I'm Lady Jane, cousin to the Prince. What's your name?"
"Katherine," Katie whispered, "but call me Katie. And aren't you talking a little loud for this late at night?"
"Yes, I suppose I am," said Lady Jane, lowering her voice. "Oh, by the way, call me Janie."
"Whatever you say, as long as you're royalty." Janie giggled. "Excuse me, Janie, but I really must go. I have five pets in here to tend to."
"Ah, I see. Well, good-night then."
"Good-night."
Janie's figure disappeared and Katie stepped back inside her room.
Five new pets, two new friends, and a new job. Life, again, was changing fast.
END CHAPTER FOUR
Now its time for Zoom Reviews: Katie the Beautiful. Sorry, you'll only understand that if you watch the TV show "ZOOM." Well, anyway, review please!! No flames!
Chapter 4: The Palace
Katie sat beside the driver in her pink dress, gazing up. They passed by the white marble walls, through the black iron gates. Inside was a large circling driveway with a round patch of grass in the center. A large, marble fountain mostly covered the grass. The black coach rolled up to the grand palace doors. The gate was lifted and the thick wooden doors swung open. As Katie and the driver jumped down from their seats, three handsome men clad in black and red escorted Starina, Arena, and Brenda from the coach. Callista, Fayre, Gale, Loreen, and Katie trailed behind them.
Inside the palace, servants, all dressed in black and red, were bustling about. Maids carrying cleaned linen and chamber pots and various objects made from silver and gold and iron ran this way and that. The three men nodded to and left Starina, Arena, and Brenda as a slightly plump woman with graying red hair peeking from beneath a white mob cap hurried up to them.
"Your name, miss?" asked the woman to Starina in a high voice.
"Duchess Starina of Shon," stated the duchess.
"Right this way, milady," said the woman, turning and leading the group to a small room. The room was decorated in black, gold, and red and three large thrones hid the far wall.
Upon the first throne sat King Derek. The second throne held Queen Louise. And Prince Kenneth was perched upon the third throne.
The King broke into a handsome smile and stood up. "Welcome, Duchess Starina, welcome to the Palace of Garia! I am, of course, King Derek and this is my wife and Queen, Louise." Queen Louise, with wavy red hair that settled nicely on her shoulders, and piercing gray eyes, stood and nodded. "And my son, Prince Kenneth." The Prince rose. His hair was wavy like his mother's, but rich brown like his father's. His eyes were gray like the Queen's, but soft like the King's. "Feel free to explore the palace," the King said. "And remember the number one rule; have fun!" The King held up his arm and escorted the Queen from the room. The Prince followed.
Katie took off from the room just as Starina was about to open her mouth to speak to the girls. She wasn't listening to Starina's lectures today or tomorrow or the two days after that. It was four days all to herself.
Katie wandered about the whitewashed walls of the palace. The doors were all around ten feet tall and made of thick, dark, stained wood with elegant gold handles and matching frames. Carved into every left-hand door was the name of the room, such as "Ballroom," "Queen's Bedroom," and "Dining Room."
The Great Hall was Katie's first stop - and it was named appropriately. The tall room was the entrance to the palace. The front had five huge marble steps, leading up to carved wooden doors taller than any others. These doors had handles and frames of silver and little bits of gold carved in with the fancy wood. The floor in the Hall was made of big square marble slabs, in a black-and-white-checkerboard pattern. When you entered the Hall, you faced a great staircase - known as just that, the Great Staircase - with railings made of white marble. Katie assumed the steps were of white marble, too, but the steps were mostly hidden by a great red carpet.
From the hall were two halls, one to the left, one to the right. Under the hallway that could be seen from the top of the Great Staircase was one door to the left-hand side of the stairs and one to the right. Katie chose the right-hand hall and started down it, but soon discovered it held servants' quarters. She snuck a glance into one of the rooms and saw they were furnished much better than her room. There were three grand wardrobes and three sets of bunks. From the nightshirts thrown on top of the bunks and the pair of pants dropped on the floor, Katie guessed it was a teenage boys' room and quickly shut the door. Down the hall she found a teenage girls' room, which was furnished exactly the same. She took a risk and stepped inside the girls' room and opened one of the wardrobes. Inside the wardrobe door was a mirror and hanging on the rod were around eight dresses. Assuming two girls shared a wardrobe and the girls were all wearing a dress, they each had five dresses. Much better than me, Katie thought. I only get one, not including this pink one.
Upon emerging from the servants' quarters, Katie marched straight across the Hall and found various places - the breakfast room, with a wall full of windows facing east, and colored with pale pinks and greens and yellows. The lunchroom, with regular windows also facing east, and decorated with blues and purples, was found next to the breakfast room. And the supper room, done up in red, black, white, and gold - of course - was located across from the dining room. Also found in the hall was the kitchen, a huge place with cupboards and tables and ovens, all painted white and all the cooks, most women, but a few were men, were dressed in big white dresses and white aprons and white hats covering their hair - although, a few had some red curls or black waves sticking out here and there. And one thing Katie noticed was none of them were especially thin. The place was full of smoky air (which Katie assumed was flour) and bread being tossed from person to person and the sounds of people shouting and chattering away and the smells of baked goods and stews and soups - Katie slipped in and back out with no one noticing. There were a few other rooms down the hall, but Katie failed to recognize their purpose.
After that hall, Katie took the door to the right-hand side of the Stairs. Inside this door was a ballroom three stories tall. The floor was gold marble with red and black veins and one of the walls was curved and made of many panes of glass, showing off the garden outside.
"'Scuse me, miss," said a maid, hurrying in with a rag and a bucket full of soap and water. She couldn't have been much older than twelve. "I just have to clean these windows." She set down the rag and bucket by a window and dragged a ladder out, which had been leaning against a wall, unnoticed by Katie. "You can stay if you'd like, miss."
"That's all right," Katie said, starting towards the door. "I know what its like, and I know you don't really want to be watched. Thanks anyway." Katie smiled at the girl, who gave a thankful smiled back. Katie started to leave, but was stopped by the young girl's voice.
"Miss? If you'd like to see where the balls are normally held, it's in the middle of the gardens. This place is only used for private balls consisting only of the royal family and their relations, like birthday balls and Christmas balls."
"Thank you," Katie said, smiling a wider smile. This place sounded interesting and she would visit it right after the place on the other side of the Staircase.
Which was a museum full of strange objects Kings and knights and Princes had brought back from quests. An apple was first. It was sliced in two, one half white, one half red. Each half had a bite taken from it. The gold plaque read, "Queen Snow-white's apple, poisoned by Queen Dahlia." That must have been over a hundred years ago! Katie went on to the next object, a red cloak. "Queen Red's cloak. Queen Red married King Forest when he saved her from the belly of a wolf." On and on it went, with things such as a bean of King Jack's, hair from Queen Rapunzel, and the necklace and ring Queen Marigold had traded to the troll Rumpelstiltskin.
But the last object was the one that fascinated Katie the most - a small ball made from red marble with a gold griffin's claw clamped around it. The ball had black veins and the plaque read, "Found by our first King, Draco. Gave our kingdom its colors."
Katie left through the back door of the museum and found herself in the gardens. Following the signs made of gold with carved letters, she found her way to the place normally used for balls. It was surrounded by bushes and was on a platform three steps above the ground. She walked up the steps and looked around. The platform was made of great gray stones. Over here was a grassy area between the dance floor and the bushes, which Katie presumed the orchestra pit. It was lovely, with ivy growing along the six inch wall all the way around the floor and big, stone pots holding bushes shaped as different animals in each of the four corners.
A brown mouse scurried across the floor, chased by three others. The three were faster than the one and they ran over him, beating him to the pot with the giraffe-shaped bush. Katie ran over and picked up the mouse. "Are you hurt?" she asked it.
"There's something wrong with my leg," the mouse squeaked. He was a boy and sounded young. "But find Lizzia. This has happened before and she knows what to do. Lizzia is a lizard, by the way."
Katie nodded and turned. Speaking in lizard tongue, she cried, "Lizzia! Lizzia are you nearby? There'sss a brown moussse here who needsss your help! Lizza?"
"What'sss the brown moussse'sss name?" Came a reply as a large, green lizard crawled up the ivy and onto the platform.
Katie switched to the mouse language and asked the mouse his name. "Rolly," he moaned in reply.
"Rolly," hissed Katie. "Hisss name isss Rolly!"
"Ah, I will help." The lizard half-slithered, half-walked over to where Katie had set Rolly down and did something to his leg. "There, Rolly, isss that better?"
"Yes, thank you, Lizzia."
"Did Frank or Tubby or Rattail do thisss to you?"
"All three," was Rolly's reply.
The three brown mice came scurrying out of the potted giraffe. At first they were all the same - then Katie saw the differences. Frank was thinner, Rolly was fatter, Tubby had a darker brown spot on his back, and Rattail's tail was pink.
"Sorry, Rolly, we just wanted to beat you," said Tubby.
"It's fine," said Rolly, getting up.
"No, it'sss not! Never do that again!" hissed the lizard.
"We wouldn't if we had an owner!" Rattail argued.
"Ah, all of us in the animal kingdom wisssh for an owner."
"I'll be your owner!" cried Katie. "You can live with me!"
Rattail and Lizzia exchanged a look, but then nodded. "All right," said Frank. "We'll come with you."
"I don't have my bedchamber yet, otherwise I'd say meet me there tonight. how about I meet you outside the kitchen after dinner?"
"Sssoundsss good."
"We'll be there!" said Rolly, smiling. The four mice, squeaking and chatting about the thought of having an owner, scurried away and Lizzia crawled off in the opposite direction. Katie smiled, watching them go. Turning around, she was startled to find a man of about thirty watching her.
"Ya talk t' animals, d'ya?"
Nervously standing in the man's stare, Katie nodded. "Y-yes sir."
"Would ya like a job, 'ere at da palace? I've got a boy 'elpin' the 'orses, an' a gal fer da cats. 'Ow 'bout walkin' a' feedin' da dogs?"
Anything, anything at all, to be away from her stepmother! "Yes sir! I would love a job here!"
"M'name's Jordan, but ya can call m' Jordie. An' I'm da Keepeh of da Animals."
"All right, Jordie. When do I start?"
"Yer here with dat duchess, aren'tcha? 'Ow bout ya jus' stay when she leaves a' ya start den?"
"Yes sir!"
After dinner, when Katie had found the lizard and mice, Katie had been taken to her bedchamber. Now, the four mice had taken one of the many, many pillows from the bed and fluffed it into a giant nest for them to sleep in. Lizzia had dragged a rug under the nightstand beside the bed and had curled up under it. All five animals were sleeping soundly.
Katie examined the bedchamber. Her room with her mother and father hadn't been this grand, and of course, neither was her room with Starina. There was a huge canopy bed and a large wardrobe and rugs on the floor and an empty bookshelf and a large window with floor-length, gauzy curtains. If you crawled out the window, you would find yourself on a small balcony.
Katie peeked into the wardrobe. Empty. Not even a mirror. Except there was one thing, hanging on the rod - clean, white linen nightgown. Katie pulled it out and found it trimmed with pale blue ribbons. She changed into the nightgown and left the door open a crack, in case one of the mice or Lizzia needed to leave the room for something.
Katie carefully unlocked the window and opened it. A light breeze blew the curtains and Katie's hair. The sky was dark, streaked with pink and orange from the disappearing sunset. She stepped over the windowsill and stood on the balcony. It was small but railed and Katie felt like she was flying.
Then from the shadows below stepped a figure. From the little light from the moon, Katie could see it was a woman and she was dressed in purple. Katie ducked and half-hid herself behind the railing.
"Don't hide, I won't kill you," laughed the woman. Katie stood cautiously and stared at the woman. Her voice sounded not much older than Katie herself. "I suppose you're here with Duchess Starina? I'm Lady Jane, cousin to the Prince. What's your name?"
"Katherine," Katie whispered, "but call me Katie. And aren't you talking a little loud for this late at night?"
"Yes, I suppose I am," said Lady Jane, lowering her voice. "Oh, by the way, call me Janie."
"Whatever you say, as long as you're royalty." Janie giggled. "Excuse me, Janie, but I really must go. I have five pets in here to tend to."
"Ah, I see. Well, good-night then."
"Good-night."
Janie's figure disappeared and Katie stepped back inside her room.
Five new pets, two new friends, and a new job. Life, again, was changing fast.
END CHAPTER FOUR
Now its time for Zoom Reviews: Katie the Beautiful. Sorry, you'll only understand that if you watch the TV show "ZOOM." Well, anyway, review please!! No flames!
