Hey everyone! Its been a long time since I've updated and I'm very sorry for that. I've had a pretty bad year and I haven't had the time to really sit down and write. Here's a new chapter, hope that everyone likes it! Shaina

The streets bustled with life. The inn was a few blocks away from the shops that they were going to, and so they walked through the bustling traffic that swept through the cities. Horses hooves clattered along with the shouts of small children chased by adults. Merchants shouted out the quality of their goods, while people begged for food. This whole world was alive, and I was still getting used to it. The quiet calm that had once found in my old home, up far away in the mountains, did not exist here. Mira hummed happily next to me as we walked, and as soon as we reached the shops she grabbed my hand. She tugged me in to a few stores, both of them high class shops, filled with old treasures and new things, and we stared at the beautiful beaded silks and feathered dresses that we would always be wearing in our dreams, but never be able to afford. We chatted happily, changing topics with every shop, we skipped around and danced like little girls, buying little trinkets from the small stands in-between the shops. We stopped and glanced in the shoemakers shop, laughing at some of the colors and designs of the shoes in the window.

"Can you imagine a lady of the court wearing that?" Mira laughed out, while pointing at a pair of blue shoes that had a point on the end with strings of beads and feathers hanging out.

"I can just see her talking to the prince, and he is falling in love with her, until she sits in to a chair and he sees her shoes." I said, and then whispered with a laugh, "He would walk away, disgusted, never to speak to her again!"

"Maybe he would feel sorry for her and marry her out of pity," Mira suggested. We both thought about that for a minute, and then erupted in short bursts of laughter. Mira leaned back against the wall, and pulled up her skirts, pretending that she was wearing the shoes. She stuck her head up, like a lady, and stepped lightly around in a circle. She then looked at her feet, and pretended to be shocked. She jumped back as if she was wearing a snake. We then both began to come up with all kinds of different stories for people wearing the ugly shoes.

"The king would make a proclamation that anyone caught wearing those shoes would have to walk barefoot."

"Until he caught the queen wearing them." I was laughing so hard that it was hard to stay standing.

"The shoes would be banned, and people would have to buy them in secret." Mira let out a snort, and a couple of boys who were walking past us stared.

After a few minutes, the two of us were able to hold in our laughter, and started towards the dressmakers shop. We walked in silence, enjoying the sounds of the world around us. We passed the bakery, and the bakers son gave us both a half-grin, which was really for Mira.

"He likes you." I whispered to Mira, and was replied with a gentle smack on my shoulder. Even though Mira was almost a year older than me, I still towered over her by a few inches.

"Do you like him?" I teased her after a few minutes of silence. We began to walk again.

She gave me one of her blushing-with-out-turning-red-looks, "No, never. I- well, its just that, he's- umm, not my type." She picked up her skirts and walked a little bit faster, and didn't notice me stifle a grin. We made it to the dressmakers shop on bland gossipy conversation. Even though Mira wasn't vain, she still knew almost everything about everyone, and would repeat everything she had heard in the bar to everyone who would listen.

The light chiming of a bell was heard as we entered the shop. The dressmaker's shop was a fairy tale of its own, filled with willowy curtains of soft gold and silky blue. The dresses, in all shapes and sizes hung on thin strings that were strung through out the store. Mira and I slipped off our shoes, and relaxed our toes for a moment in the soft carpet. It was the same as the floors in parts of the royal castle. I closed my eyes and imagined what it would be like to wake up and be able to walk on a floor like this, be able to linger in the soft warmth of the ground, instead of the ice-cold floors of the inn.

I heard a bit of chatter and realized that Mira was already sorting through dresses, picking out some to try on. In the back of the store the clerk (who was also the owner) Mister Nauto Le Peau- everyone just called him Lee though, was talking to an angry customer. He seemed happy to end their conversation and come to greet us.

"My sweet children," he said with a twinkle in his eyes, "I have been waiting for you both to come. I have a beautiful dress that just came in from up north that would match your eyes dear Mira-" a loud cough came from the back of the shop, and I noticed that the lady he had been arguing with before we came in, was still standing in the same place. Her eyes were shooting daggers at both of us and I bent my head to avoid her gaze. Mira paused her sorting for a moment, and then shrugged and started up again.

"Mister Peau, I am not satisfied and demand that you fix this." Her voice was like paper, thin and lacking emotion. Her face was young, but her eyes looked old. Her lips were curled in a bitter smile, and she stood like she was royalty. I doubted she was.

Lee sighed, and frowned as he walked slowly towards her.

She mumbled, "When I become Queen-" Lee cut her off with a raised eyebrow and a semi-hidden grin. "Yes, yes, my dear. When you become Queen you shall ruin my business. Very well. I shall wait for the day. But until then..." His voice trailed off with both of his eyes on the door.

She glared at him, then with a small huff she turned and brushed passed me and slammed out the door.

"Very unlady like." Lee mumbled, "the kingdom would be ruined if the prince chooses her."

"Is the prince finally choosing a bride?" I asked, not really caring, it was just for the sake of conversation. I was too young in my opinion to be interested in the thought of boys let alone marriage. Lee told me all about the balls that the prince was having in the near future as I began to search for my dress, I had hidden in an assortment of fabric scraps the weekend before, I hadn't wanted anyone to take it.

"Searching for that dress of yours?" Lee asked, and I nodded. "Well its not there. If you hadn't wanted anyone else to buy it you should have told me. I'm sorry dear, someone else found it and bought it."

I felt the air rush out of my lungs, all that saving and waiting! All for nothing! Even though I couldn't rationally think of a reason that I would need the dress, it was too large and too frilly for working at the inn, something deep inside me had wanted it so badly.

A single tear slipped from my eye, I couldn't believe I was crying over a dress! Lee stood above me with a small white handkerchief. "My dear," he said to me, "I did not know that the dress meant so much to you. If I had only known-" He paused for a second to think, "well, I do have a beautiful dress that is the lightest of blues with a fine beautiful lace..." He described the dress for a few more minutes and then showed it to me.

It was beautiful, and was made of a thin fabric that seemed like soft sand under my fingertips. But it wasn't what I had come for. Oh well, I thought and gave up. I sat and watched Mira find a dress for herself. She was quite entertaining and I watched her as she tried the dresses, it was almost like she was becoming a new person with each dress she tried on. She spoke with a new accent for each one, and even though some of them were so bad I barely recognized them. She made Lee laugh a couple of times, but he didn't pay much attention to us after a while, people came in desperate, in need of last minute alterations. Apparently the second ball for the prince was tomorrow. Girls of all shapes and sizes came in, their mothers following them, fretting over every ruffle, every bead. I felt a slight dip in my heart, because I almost wished that I had a mother like that. Even though they were demanding and forcing their daughters to marry someone because he would one day be king.

Mira tried on quite a few dresses, before she finally found one that she wanted. It was all white, and it looked good with her red curls. I found a nice plain serving dress. We paid for our dresses and with a small sigh, I put my shoes back on. We walked mostly in silence, there was only an occasional remark or whisper, as we walked back to the inn.

Back to tending to the drunks who had grown used to their headaches, and waking up early in the morning to press my feet on the ice-cold floor.