Ashes to Cinders
Chapter Two: Ethan's New Friend
NONE of the characters reflect my opinion on any topic that may or may not offend you- the reader!
-Ethan-
Alright….So back to where we left off when the authoress (cough, cough, RAEROOCHELLA, cough, cough) so rudely left off with a horribly developed cliff hanger!
So…yeah, I know, I am going to go off on a random subject. I honestly hope that you readers like me! I know that was random, and I'm not your beloved Disney princess (guys stop drooling and fantasizing! Disney princesses are not for sale! And Santa called, he asked for you all to stop tryin' to wish for posters of them either!)…but hell it is the truth…okay so I added some false parts to my little story but then it'd be boring!!
I'm just trying to be interesting! I can see my readers dropping off like flies...
So moving on.…like I said I was riding through the woods and then I looked at the castle and swore that it'd be mine….da, da, da…!
Alright so now I have heard about this princess, you know the average things. Absolutely beautiful… (sorry, drifted off like you guys fantasizing about Disney's creations! But you got to give the guy his props! They are hot! Yeah, okay i lie!) smart, can dance (sounds like my mom(biological one) -snicker-), musical, artistic. All of that.
Now, I'm gussin' that the only thing about this princess is that she is pretty! And other than that a complete and total ditz…which is no wonder, I mean look at all of the other princesses!
They could have waited for us men to save them!
It is our job after all…and no I do not think guys are better than girls, I'm not sexist!… alright, now back on the original subject!!
Okay riding through the woods…castle…mine.
Okay, so I had to see the princess first, without her knowing that it was me! 'Cause, ya never know when there is gonna be a ball that I can easily sneak into.
I'm good lookin' in my opinion, but I'm no guy that makes girls fall off their horses when I ride past or make them all croon and do the little domino affect thing in all the cartoons.
So I had right now two options, option 1.) dress up as a prince from somewhere far away and claim to be the man of her dreams.
But that wouldn't work for a couple of reasons, a.) I'm not necessarily a man, not yet (but I sure can act as one! At least all eligible girls could know I knew how to run a household, clean, and what girl doesn't like a man that can cook?) b.) I don't have the things I need to pull it off and c.)Aladin had already done it…
(I know this cause he's my friend!! I love that little monkey! And he got lucky! He had the genie to help him! What do I got? Option two that's what I got!!)
option 2.) I could storm the castle. But 'd get killed or thrown in jail, and that is not on my agenda this year... but if the princess liked a bad boy... nah, long shot.
Oh! And then I had a third option.
Option 3.) tell Helga and Olga (icky stepbrothers that make me clean their icky rooms and make them their icky breakfast!) that the princess wanted them to help her go through all of her old dresses!
Then I'd have to go and I could sneak into the servants quarter, hell I look like one!
It was absolutely perfect! I reared my horse around and headed back to Mildred's house, perfecting my plan along the way.
(look ,a switch up! A different point of view! Sorry that it doesn't go with my prologue... My bad...)
Princess Ella
I sighed and looked into the mirror, I hate castle life, it is soooo boring. And everyone calling you princess or highness! It aggravates me sometimes!(ha-ha, I know big words! Take that Ethan! He always did have a kinda "princess aren't smart" attitude! He used to say "all they do is sit and look pretty and get knocked up so that the kingdom would have an heir to the thrown. I have to do the real work!(that is not suggestive in any way…I think))
The frilly pink dress with white lace edging that I had been forced into was incredibly itchy!
I fidgeted with it, trying to itch my back, but of course…
"Princess!"…told you!…Katrina yelled at me, the old fart who put me into this torture devise!
"Stop fidgeting! I need to make sure that this dress looks good on you for when you meet your next suitor tomorrow!"
"Katrina! I hate all of these suitors! They are all butts and old farts or young farts and talk to me like I have no brain! I could care less! I wished that I could marry whom I want! And this dress won't get any better! It wouldn't look good on a goddess of beauty no matter how many world-renound fashion designers working on it!"
"Yes, and I pity the man that catches your eye…" she muttered.
"I will pretend I didn't hear that!" I said. She muttered something else, this time I couldn't hear it.
She took out a needled and started to sew up the fringe near my butt.
"DAMN! " I yelled when she pricked my ass. See princess can use bad words too, we're just not allowed to yell them (Yet again another misconception of Ethan...).
"Princess!" Katrina gasped.
I tore at the dress, wriggling out of it, slowly of course because stupid me didn't undo the zipper.
I finally got out of it and faced Katrina in just my undergarments, for lack of a better word.
I picked up the dress and threw it at Katrina.
"Get rid of it…now! I will decide what to wear tomorrow." she nodded her head mutely and left the room. Muttering something about an afternoon tea.
I undid my corset and slipped out of the undergarments. I pulled on a shorter pair of the contraptions and then pulled on a plain brown dress and apron over it. I combed out my hair and tangled it up, and then securing a hat on my head. I left for the kitchens…
-Ethan-
(Before I start talking again, I have to tell you something. It's not just a coincidence that my wife's name is like Cinderella! Oh no! Disney wanted the whole affect of the story and wanted all the details to match, at least similarly.)
I had just sent Helga and Olga to go and talk to the "good lookin' men" according to Olga (I guess a man in uniform is just irresistible to all women... and men...)
He was going to let them in to talk to the princess about their dresses.
They both argued over who would talk to them (all they wanted to do was flirt with them!) until they came to an agreement and walked over to confront the guards. I watched Helga and Olga from a distance, no way those two were men! They were arguing with the guards, both parties had red faces.
As much as I wanted to watch more, I had to get going.
I found the servants entrance fairly easily.
I picked up a bag of grain and walked in.
I expected some kind of confrontation, but not the one I got.
A girl about a half a head shorter than me in a brown dress and white apron walked up to me. She had long curly black hair and sparkling cool emerald green eyes, but I was guessing that it was from anger, and they did not usually sparkle.
I walked past her. Only to find her in my path again.
"What?" I snapped, in no mood to be funny or flirty, which I usually would have done (I'm just a normal 17-year old! Mood swings and depression was goin' on in my time to!)
"You don't work here." she said.
"Do pigs fly?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow, my voiced laced through with heavy sarcasm.
Her eyebrows raised in shock and her eyes went wide while her full lips formed a little O of surprise.
"You fly?" she asked me in an awed voice layered with hard sarcasm and a little giggle to top it off.
I gritted my teeth.
"Well either you or I has to be the one that flies and I know it isn't me, so good-day Miss Piggy." I said with a shallow bow and then stepping around her again.
Her hand jerked my shoulder back. I turned around, ready to tell her to leave me alone. A sharp sound echoed across the tiny courtyard as she slapped my face.
I put my hand where she slapped me, the sting of it was starting to come, making my eyes smart.
I put the grains down and folded my hands together, restraining myself.
"Are you of any importance?" I asked her with a slight smile. She looked at me funny.
"No."
"Would anyone care if you got hurt?"
"Not that I know of." her eyes flicked right, she was lying… Now I needed to just find out why...
"So, what do you think I should do to you because you slapped me?" I asked, still slightly calm.
"Nothing, you deserved it."
"Ah yes, but as I recall you called me a pig and I called you one…so we where even until you slapped me…"
"Your point.?"
"Are you afraid of men?" I asked her, raising my eye-brow.
Her eyes flicked to the right again.
"Not at all, I have many chasing after me." I took her shoulders, they went tense under me.
"I won't hurt you." I whispered. I still hadn't decided what I was going to do to her, and then a brilliant idea flashed in my head, I think there might have been a light bulb above my head.
"I know that." she mumbled.
"Good." I smiled.
I moved my hands to her waist and then picked her up and through her over my shoulder.
"Oh my flippin' god! Put me down you bastard!" I laughed.
"Ladies shouldn't curse!"
Her hands hammered on my back."Put me down this instant! You dirty little field worker!"
"Can't do that dirty little kitchen maid!" I stopped down quickly and picked up my sack of wheat. I didn't hold her, hell, I could care less if she feel off my shoulder!
She whimpered and her arms gripped around my throat.
"Oh, c'mon! this has got to be the most fun you have had in a while." I told her.
"Yes, actually." she said, not relaxing her choke hold on my neck.
"Are you trying to choke me?" I asked her.
"I wasn't, but now that you mention it!" her grip tightened farther.
I coughed and then poked her side.
She screamed and let go of her hold, slipping down my back her arms grabbed onto my waist to keep from falling.
We must have been a odd sight, me walking and a kitchen maid thrown over my shoulder and halfway down my back, while griping onto my waist for dear life.
"How you holding up back there? Sure feels like your enjoyin' yourself! Could your grip around my waist be any tighter?" I asked her. She growled or laughed and then, I think, bit me.
"OW! Did you just bite me?!" I asked/yelled.
"Maybe…"
"You are a fricken' demon child! Or either your just really frisky..." I told her, snickering and gripping onto her ankle, I could flip her over, and then she'd fall, probably get hurt too, such a satisfying thought, but I was raised a little better than that, I think….
"Let go of my ankle!" she said. We were halfway across the courtyard, going slower than I wanted, but I was holding a sack of grain in one arm and a girl was slung over my back while I was holding onto her ankle deciding whether or not to flip her to the ground (betcha Disney never mentioned this part of my life! Well they never mention me either…tear...)
I moved my thumb for a better grip on her ankle she whimpered.
"What? Are you all right?" I asked her, I could stand hurting her bum, but not really anything important, like her ankle which she needed to walk.
"Yes, I'm fine, just a sprained ankle." she said, her voice laced with pain.
"Alright." I said, I could help, but then again did I want to? Not really, but seeing as how we both just broke about every rule of etiquette…
I rubbed small circles on the sprained part, and then on her Achilles heel, funny how maids were those little slipper things, almost like a princess' shoe…something caught my eye, a pearl, on her shoe…was that weird or do house maids now and days wear pearls on their slippers?
"What are you doing?" she asked me. Her voice had a hidden smile in it, or it could have been a frown, you never know with this girl.
"Fixing you." I said simply. She laughed, a loud and clear laugh.
"What?"
"Nothing." she said.
I thought about it.
"OH! You pervert!" I said, a little louder than necessary.
She thumped my stomach.
I pinched the spot where he ankle had hurt.
"What are you doing?"
"Does that hurt?"
"No! Oh! It is better! Thank you, thank you!" her arms tightened around my waist in what was unmistakably a hug.
We reached the kitchens.
"Put me down!" she said. Servants turned to look at us, most of them looked shocked, some looked angry and others laughed.
"Where does the grain go?" I whispered.
"Go straight, take a right and then a left." she whispered back but I had seen a pile of grain, that told me she was lying…again.
I walked over to it and dumped the grain down and then I pried her arms from around my waist and dropped her with the grain too.
"To hell with you!" she said, crossing her arms.
I laughed.
"You don't impose a very angry figure." I said. She stuck her tongue out at me.
"I only tell the truth!" I said. She turned her face away from me
."Here." I said, offering my hand. She eyed it warily and then grabbed it. I pulled her up.
"Melanie," someone called.
"Just a sec!" she called back. The old woman tapped her foot impatiently and tapped her wrist. She sighed and turned to face me.
"Sorry, I have to go so soon. Hey, why are you even here?" she asked me.
I bowed, "For the same reason every one else is, to get work and see the beautiful princess." she playfully hit me,
"You know she has suitors lined up for miles."
"True."
"Would you like to meet her? I could ask, she and I are…friends…" she said hesitantly.
"No, not today, I'll bide my time." I said with a dismissive wave of my hand.
"Oh, alright."
"Well, since you must be going, I shall go too, after all I am a dirty field hand." I said with another wink.
"At least let me see you to the gate, I don't want you ruining any of our hard work." she said, hitting me for real this time.
"If you insist." I said with a mocking bow.
"I do."
The walk out to the gate was awfully quiet…I wish she hadn't come because I was actually going to follow her after she thought I left and see what she was up to, after all ordinary kitchen maids do not have pearls on their shoes... i think
"Well, thank you for the entertaining hour." I said, exaggerating the time, because in my world, I wanted it to be an hour…less time at "home". No you guys... I didn't want it to be an hour cause she was pretty and I liked carrying a pretty lady across a courtyard.
"Oh, it was nothing." she said. I gave her a quick hug, purely impulse and on impulse again, I kissed her cheek, quickly, not lingeringly. She wasn't the princess, and that is who I had my heart set on. She blushed lightly.
"I don't give those out very often, enjoy. And maybe I'll se you around, but don't hold you breath, no more kisses for the lire…" I said.
"Yes, that'd be interesting." she replied, her hand wandering up to her cheek.
"Bye." I walked away, laughing quietly to myself, I have an effect on women, who would have thought?
"Hey! What's you name?" she called back.
I turned around and walked backwards.
"Ethan!" I shouted. I turned around and ran to where my horse was.
I had to do something fancy to make her croon and wonder about me.
I attempted a jump up off the ground and land onto my horse. The horse wasn't THAT tall and I had some height on me, neither of those aspects helped me.
I got off the ground and was right back on it in seconds, only this time I was on my face.
I immediately turned to the girl.
She giggled, turned, started to walk away, and yelled while waving, "Bye Ethan!"
Then she stopped, stiffened for a moment as if remembering something, turned, and said, "Oh, and lay off the high jumps!" S
he laughed at her own dis and started to walk away.
I stared after her and then after she had gone out of my sight sighed and slammed my head on the ground.
I started thinking without bothering to get up. Horse wasn't goin' anywhere. Probably laughing at me too.
Maybe I could wait to see the princess, and besides her friend would certainly give me the information I needed.
Princess Ella
I laid down in my bed, thinking over the days events. I could hardly remember the pompous prince's name that I met today for tea, but I could remember the courtyard this morning, the servants courtyard, my escape…
I blushed lightly, thinking of the events that had taken place there. My ankle did feel better, much better in fact that I could wear heels with out grimacing. And it was Ethan's fault.
"Ethan..." I said it quietly, but so that I could enjoy the feel of the name on my tongue… I wonder when he would be coming back…? Wonder if he would do something funny again...? Hope I could think of a good come back again... Stupid boys... And yet... I drifted into sleep. Ethan…
OxOxOxOxOxOxOxOxOxOxOx
A/N So welcome back my lovely readers! I am glad that you like this story enough to come back! And also thank you Nicole, my awesome beta! Okay, as always, anything that you think can be improved or you think of something totally hilarious that could happen or they say? Shoot it to me in a review or e-mail and I'll put it in! thanks y'all!