Anniya 8

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" Hattie! Hattie, dear!" cried out a light voice.

Hattie's face snapped around, then spotted the girl who had been calling her name.

" Mariah! How FABULOUS it is to see you today." Hattie bubbled, moving toward the brunette. Niece of the Queen, Mariah was a courtier and hopefully a future friend of Hattie.

" Who is your friend? We haven't seen her around." Mariah told Hattie, indicating Anniya, who to no surprise, was dancing with some Knight.

" Oh, her? A trouble making orphan. She threw herself on Char, and now he feels that he must look after her until an orphanage can be found." Mariah clucked her tongue, as did Hattie's friends.

" Why ever do you ask, Mariah?" Hattie asked the Courtier. Hattie would simply die if Mariah wanted to make friends with scum like Anna, or whatever her name was.

At this Mariah frowned.

" I keep on trying to talk to the Prince of Kellia, but he keeps on talking to her, the minx. You don't suppose that he's engaged to her, do you?" Hattie laughed a honey coated laugh.

" I severely doubt. Her name is Anna, or something of that sort. She doesn't even speak Kyrrian, or Kellian! She thinks she's a greenie. Besides, he's engaged to an Ayorthorian Princess." Hattie rolled her eyes. Mariah eyed the girl.

" Little trouble maker. Is she not even of noble birth?" Hattie shook her head, and the other girls gasped.

" She's pushing her way into court! Perhaps we should have a word with her." Mariah began. Hattie shook her head, and smiled.

" No, I have a better idea."

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As far as Anniya was concerned, if she had to dance one more time she'd scream. Did these men actually think that she cared about all of their battle triumphs? Or the men that couldn't even speak Elfin. They blabbered on in Kyrrian, some how expecting her to learn Kyrrian in a matter of seconds. All these people! It was making her head spin. Another young Lord came up to her/ " Care to dance, Milady?" he asked her.

" No, thank you. I'm sitting this one out." Anniya told him politely.

Getting up, she went to get some wine. There so many foods, Anniya couldn't decide which to choose. There were gooseberry tarts and quail eggs and spice cake and deer legs and rice and so many more. Anniya looked at them all, debating which one to choose. She frowned at the deer meat, but then saw an absolutely delicious looking treat.

" Robert; what is that?" she asked him.

" That, Anniya," Robert picked one up, " is chocolate, the singly most delicious treat known to this world. Have one." Anniya picked one up, along with a gooseberry tart.

Perhaps it was just her imagination, but lately Robert had seemed-- nicer, almost. His swearing had stopped, or at least had gone down. He didn't tease Anniya anymore, and if he did, it was in a nice way. He no longer made chauvinistic comments, like he used to. In fact, Robert was downright charming now. Better and nicer then the Robert she had met in the Forest. Back then if Robert and an Ogre had been in the same camp, she might of had a hard time telling them apart. Anniya laughed to herself. Maybe not that bad. She reached over to get some wine just when it splashed over her dress. Anniya whipped around to see Madame Olga jr., gushing apologies.

" Oh Anniya, I am So sorry." Hattie said in Elfin, smirked until she realized that it had been her dress that Nancy had altered, and her face completely changed.

" Why are you wearing my dress?" she demanded.

" Nancy-your maid--she altered it for me. She said that you'd outgrown it." Anniya could tell by the look on Hattie's face that she wanted to do nothing more then kill Anniya at that moment.

But then her face cleared and returned to Hattie's normal, rabbit like look.

" If you don't mind, your highness, could I borrow Anniya for a moment? I simply must introduce her to my friends."

Without really waiting for an answer, she grabbed Anniya's arm and dragged her away to a group of girls.

" This is Anniya." Hattie told them all.

Immediately, the girls began looking her over, searching for a split end, or better yet, a pimple. To their dismay, they didn't find any but decided that Anniya was a little too skinny and probably had an eating disorder. A dark haired girl with fair skin spoke up first.

" I'm Mariah of Frell, niece to the Queen Daria." she told Anniya, smiling at her.

Anniya smiled back uncertainly.

" Where are you from?" Another girl piped up.

" Uh..... The Elve's forest." Anniya told them.

It was close enough. Within moments she was bombarded by more questions.

" How old are you?"

" Who were your parents?"

" Do you like dancing?"

" Where are you staying?"

" Are you engaged?"

Anniya answered them all best she could. Hattie's friends were much nicer then Hattie herself, and even Hattie seemed to be nicer to Anniya.. A man came up to ask Anniya to dance, and she excused herself from them.

" Oh, but wait Anniya. We're going on a little outing tomorrow. Would you like to come with us?"

" I'd love to."

" We'll come and get you when we go, alright?" Mariah told her.

Anniya smiled, and went off to dance with the young Lord. After Anniya was safely off dancing, Mariah smirked.

" Oh, I come from the Elves forest!' 'No, no, The Prince and I are just friends'. Please, what a greenie! Honestly, Hattie, how did you deal with her?"

" I know Hattie! It must of been awful!" Blossom told Hattie.

Hattie smiled, glad that some people finally understood how horrid the little wannabe greenie was. " How long do you think it will take to get her out of here?" Blossom asked.

" Soon! Lord Jeocke was on the verge of proposing yesterday, but now he hasn't asked me to dance with him once since I got here! All because he's been lusting after that little Elf!" Mariah stamped her foot, her patient front gone.

Most of the girls felt as Mariah did, in fact. The unmarried bachelors had been circling around Anniya, and she paid no mind to them, which upset the maidens even more. They couldn't go about spreading rumors about her stealing their men when Anniya didn't want to steal their men.

" I know! Lord Kryse can't even speak Elfin, and he's done nothing but hang over her the entire time! We need to get rid of the little Minx soon." Hattie smiled. " She'll be gone soon. As soon as she's certain that were her friends, we'll carry out the plan. In the mean time, we need to salvage what we can from the Enchantress's greedy little palms." With the flick of her Honey colored locks, she waltzed over from the toward the Prince of Kellia. Oh yes, the little half bred greenie would be sorry that she crossed paths with Hattie.



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" Anniya, no, your pronouncing your E's wrong. The word is Hello, not Haelo."

" Heelo?"

" Repeat after me, Haelo.... you have me doing it now!" Char laughed at Robert's frustration.

He shook his head, and moved closer to Anniya.

" Ok, I'm going to say some words, and your going to write them down, ok?" Anniya nodded. She was getting good enough at Kyrrian to listen to what Char had to say, and understand the most of it. Robert still talked to her in Elfin though, thank goodness.

" My name is Char. The weather is fine today. Do you like gooseberry tarts? See how the unicorn's coat gleams in the sun."

Char rambled off more sentences, sounding mechanical and completely unlike him. Anniya laughed, but scribbled down what she thought he was saying. Robert picked up the paper and read it.

" I name is Char. Your weather is today. Does you guess gooseberry cakes? Look how the man's gown gleams in the dark."

Both of the men laughed, and told Anniya what she had just written. In her frustration, she picked up the quill and speared it into the wall.

" Stupid Kyrrian! Why can't everyone just speak a decent language? I've been working on this for so long, and still no progress!"

" Don't be so hard on yourself. You're making a lot of progress for someone who's not even familiar with the language." Char told her gently.

" Thank you, Char, but it still doesn't make me feel any better. I'm sick of not knowing what everyone's saying, I'm sick of it!" The great clock bonged, the noise echoing throughout the hall. Char stood up.

" Father will want to be starting. The trip to Ayorthora isn't a short one. Come as soon as you can, Anniya." Char told her. Until Anniya could grasp Kyrrian and Ayorthorian, they wanted her to stay in Kyrria.

The royal household wasn't exactly what Anniya was doing in the castle anyhow---- all that they frankly knew was that she spoke Elfin and was a friend of both Princes.

" You'll be invited to all the cotillions, if you want." Char told her as he stepped into the carriage. Robert grinned at her.

" Learn Kyrrian fast, 'Niya. Come to Ayorthora soon, and try to keep Gleex's fire danger low." Anniya smiled back at him.

" I'll see you soon." she promised, and she waved goodbye to both of them as the carriage went out of sight. She now faced a problem: her life. The royal household had no clue why she was there, and now that Char and Robert were gone, Anniya felt completely out of place. Gleex was down in the royal zoo, making friends with their baby dragon for the time being. In her week in Kyrria, her life had been a whirlwind. She took baths every night, she had gone to one wedding, and was constantly bombarded with questions. In fact, she was invited to a cotillion that very night, at some house. She didn't really care. More so, she didn't want to go. But at least she was to go somewhere with Mariah, Hattie and the other girls. It would only be a few weeks or so before she could go to Ayorthora.. And Anniya would see Robert and Char soon. Reluctantly, she picked up her incredibly heavy and annoying skirts, and went back inside.

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