( it ended at a point in the distance )

Title: Strange Places
Theme: Makoto/Sailor Jupiter/Lost –Day 10, sm_monthly
Genre: General
Rating: PG

Mesmerized, the princess stared down the hallway, until it ended at a point in the distance. Soldiers lined her view, glancing at her warily. Despite that, she sat calmly, eventually turning her attention to the conversation she wasn't supposed to be hearing.

"You'll have a few months to make your decision."

"You're not giving us a choice. There is no decision to be made."

"So, then you're agreeing?" The voice seemed mean to the princess, like a teacher allowing a student's challenge.

There were a few more mumbled words. If the princess had been one, she would have snuck up to the door and tried to listen. But she was, so she knew better, so she didn't.

Her mother exited after a long stretch of silence. The princess knew enough to know that her mother was furious, so she stood silently. When Queen Serenity came to the door, she curtseyed. Before she could fully come upright, her mother took her arm and pulled her along the long hall.

Distantly, Queen Serenity called out, "A few months. That is all."

The little girl was pulled along, past whispering servants, evading pointed looks. Her mother seemed to know where she was going, though she did not. Right, at that statue of Selene. Left where the hall ended. Up the stairs, but make a left before you get to the top.

Large paintings of people hung on the walls. Vases of flowers abundantly decorated each pillar. The walls stretched high for people to small, but they were solid and beautiful with moon-shaped carvings and inscriptions the princess could not read.

Resentfully, the princess whisked past all this, wishing she had more time to explore it all. But she did not dare slow down. Stumbling slightly, the princess quickened her steps to keep up. It was the first time she'd ever been here. As beautiful as it all was and though she knew her own castle well enough, she could not imagine ever knowing this strange place well enough to find her way through it.

end