Edited and rewritten, 2014
Chapter Two
"Six months to decide who you're going to spend the rest of your life with?" Amanda gawked as they walked barefoot along the Gold Coast. Alex had just told her closest friend the news after putting it off for as long as she could, and Amanda couldn't be more confused. "But then what will happen? No more university? No more band? No more...me?"
"I will always find a way to keep in touch with you, Amanda, you know I will. But I'm not so sure about everything else right now. Once I am married, my life will be in Manjipour." Alex explained calmly. It was hard for her to grasp herself, but it was her duty by birth. She could not reject it and she could not put it off. She had to take care of her people and her kingdom. It'd proved to be in her instincts, something she could not ignore or uninstall. She'd tried before and it only ate away at her until there was hardly anything left of her. She was a princess, an identity she could not deny. Above everything, that came first. She felt a pang in her stomach when she thought about giving up on her life here, her music and her friends and being young and wild and free, but those things seemed childish and petty when compared to the responsibility she had to her kingdom. She was a princess. She was going to be a queen. As much as she wanted to be some world-famous rock star and as much as she sometimes wanted to be nothing more than Alex Wilson, that was not her destiny. "I suppose you and Taylor could be a duo." she forced a smile, hoping to lighten the mood, swinging her sandals in her hands at her sides. "There are plenty of songwriters out there looking for a break. You don't really need me." she said, feeling a stinging sensation from somewhere behind her eyes. She hoped the waves rolling in from the ocean would be enough to keep Amanda from hearing how her voice threatened to break.
"But it will not be the same!" Amanda threw her head back, her blond bob tangling and flying around her face with the salty sea wind. It'd been years since she'd found out her best friend was a magical princess and even that was still hard to understand, now she was to be married and move to another world? Amanda wasn't even sure if Manjipour was on Earth. It looked like Earth, but you could not find it by walking the planet, so really, it could be anywhere and that thought troubled her greatly.
"Nothing will be the same, Amanda, but I guess that's just life. Things have to change." Alex shrugged. She hoped that her confidence would help to settle Amanda's nerves and her own, but she kept taking these deep breaths and releasing them slowly, making it clear that the thought of what lie ahead alone was enough to tire her.
"I guess you're right." Amanda sighed and looked down, realizing that there was no fighting this. Her friend had always been stubborn as could be. Four years ago, Amanda could've never imagined her making this kind of sacrifice, but it was obvious that she'd developed quite an attachment to this foreign land now. Alex was no longer just Alex. She stood tall, her head held high and her back straight. She sat with her hands resting gracefully in her lap and even sometimes with her ankles crossed. Her eyes had a different glow and this intense gaze when she was deep in thought. Yes, she held her head high, but never her nose and she'd matured to be patient and slow to anger and to listen more than she spoke. So Alex was no longer just Alex. She'd crawled into a cocoon and soon she'd reemerge a queen. "Have you got anyone in mind for your future husband?" Amanda asked, truly curious. They wouldn't be able to have these girly boy-crazed moments for much longer and Amanda, not having had to grow up as rapidly as Alex, preferred these moments to thinking about when her friend would be the queen of a world far away. "Will he be from here or Manjipourian?"
"I don't know." Alex released that sigh again. "Honestly, when I try to figure it out, I almost think I should let the elders pick a husband for me, you know? I've already dated both an Aussie boy and a Manjipourian. Both of which crashed and burned. One of them never even knew I was the princess—and it's not just me I have to think about. I have to think about my people, too." she looked to the sky and squinted, as if trying to spot the answers in the clouds. "I suppose it's not much different from when a woman has children and she has to be careful of the men that she brings into her life."
"What about Kuru?" Amanda asked, a sly grin spreading across her face. She took any opportunity she could to tease Alex about the former "exchange student" that her parents had offered to house years ago. Of course, he was really sent to bring home the princess, but her parents would never understand that. Kind of like how Alex would never understand the little crush Kuru had quickly developed on Alex. Amanda had found it to be painfully obvious, but Alex refused to accept the idea. Besides, she would say, Kuru was considered to be beneath her in the order of things. She could not have him even if she wanted—until now, Amanda thought. It would seem the elders were willing to let many of the old rules bend in their desperation to see the princess married.
"What are you getting on about, Amanda?" Alex questioned, automatically irritated. Even she did not know why the question made her feel defensive. Likely to protect her from herself, she thought when she was being honest. When Amanda looked at her like that and spoke in that teasing tone and accused her of such ridiculous things, she would find herself in a fit of giggles, which Amanda would take as some sort of symptom that the princess had feelings for the elephant boy, but the princess knew very well that she would never admit that, not even if it were true. "He will continue to live in the palace as my advisor and friend and he will help me take care of the kingdom—all that paperwork and stuff that I should be doing but instead puts me to sleep.
"Oh, don't play dumb, Alex!" Amanda danced around her friend, stopping in front of her so that she was forced to stand still and look her friend in her blue eyes. "As if you've never thought Kuru was just a little bit cute." she held up her hand with a tiny amount of space between her index finger and thumb to illustrate. "And what about when you turned yourself into a frog and your true love had to kiss you in order for you to turn back into yourself?"
"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about." Alex pushed Amanda's hand down and then walked past her, refusing to dwell on those thoughts. "Besides," the princess began to reason. "True love can exist in a friendly way, surely."
"Oh, so you're suggesting to me that it would've worked if I'd kissed you? Or JB or your parents?" Amanda pursued her, picking up her pace to catch up.
"I suppose it might have, but we'll never know, will we?" Alex refused to meet her eyes. She truly was a stubborn thing. One might say she were stubborn as a mule, but a mule could not do her justice. The pride of a mule had nothing on her. She was, in fact, as stubborn as a queen. "And I don't have time to think about Kuru at this point or any other boy. In addition to the whole finding-the-love-of-my-life thing, I need to wrap up everything I have here. I have to make up some kind of story to tell my parents, I have to drop my classes. Moving to a magical world is a big deal."
"Well you've got to do something. You can't just sit around. You've only got six months to find your soul mate." Amanda reminded her. "That's hardly enough time, even for someone who isn't a magical princess."
Alex looked ahead, trying to figure out how she was going to pull this off. "Honestly, Amanda, I don't even know where to start."
"You could start with Kuru." It turned out Amanda was almost as stubborn as the princess. She also thought she was some sort of matchmaker, apparently.
"Amanda," Alex rolled her eyes so hard it actually caused her pain. "Give it up, would you? You know the order of things." she reminded her, as if that excuse were still valid.
"The order of things? The order of things?" Amanda exasperated, looking as if she could pull her hair out of her head. "Alex Wilson, you know very well the 'order of things' doesn't matter anymore. I'm sure your elders would be relieved to see you with someone as responsible as Kuru. This whole mess could be over with tomorrow!"
Alex just laughed, her nose wrinkling and sparks lighting in her eyes. "Oh, but Amanda, you know I'm far too stubborn for that."
"Princess, wait!" Alex heard Kuru calling from behind her as she walked along the forest path, heading for the palace. She was back in Manjipour for a meeting with the elders. Not about her marriage, but on new laws, taxes, upcoming celebrations and things like that. Things that bored her to tears, but that she had to deal with. Anala was not far behind her, having chosen to transport her to her favorite place to eat the forest greens around her rather than somewhere convenient and close to town for Alex. Despite her orneriness, Alex couldn't help but adore the elephant. She had an attitude and although she was technically Alex's, she somehow belonged to no one. Alex admired that. She liked to think that despite all of these duties and responsibilities, she was the same.
"Kuru? What are you doing here?" she asked, stopping to let him catch up.
"I have been coming here to wait for you daily for weeks now. I have been wanting to talk to you. I knew Anala would eventually bring you here." he explained, leaning against a tree to catch his breath.
"What was so important?" she questioned, looking up at him with worry.
"I have been concerned for you, Princess. As your friend. It has been nearly a month since the elders told you of what you must do." he said, shaking his head so that his nearly-black hair whipped around his face ever so slightly before falling back into place. Amanda had once said she envied him for having such "great hair" to which the princess had not replied. For some reason Alex found that she liked to observe little movements of his like that, to watch his hair fall into place and his dark eyes light up. Usually he kept his hair tied back on sweltering days like this, but she had more important things on her mind than figuring out why a servant had left his hair down and she refused to ponder on that thought. Personally, she liked his hair better when it was short and shaggy, as he'd kept it when they'd first met, but she liked the way he looked now as well. 'It makes him look like more of a man than a boy,' she thought to herself. The thought was immediately followed with a disgusted expression and a, 'Wait, what?'
Luckily, Kuru didn't' ask about her sudden change of expression. "I know, Kuru. I just don't know where to start. I mean, I really haven't dated that much and I'm already so tired of boys from here and boys from home." she shrugged. She wanted to push that thought away as well, not think about it, but she knew there was no time for that. She had to deal with it. It'd been a month and no one had caught her eye. She was figuring out that she could not wait for him to find her, at this point, she needed to go out and find him.
"As long as you find someone who treats you the way a princess should be treated, I will be satisfied." he nodded, looking ahead.
"Thank you for your concern, Kuru." The princess sighed, letting her chest rise and fall, pushing her dark brown bangs aside so that her forehead was exposed to the summer breeze that graced the trees with its presence. Her brown waves felt heavy on her back in the suffocating humidity. "This whole marriage thing is kind of frustrating, you know?" she looked up at Kuru as she began walking and he walked alongside her. "And the whole being-a-magical-princess-thing doesn't make it much easier. Boys back in Australia think I'm a freak or insane and boys here only see me as their princess or they're afraid of me."
"Any man would be lucky to call you his queen, Princess. Do not worry. You will find him where you least expect." he smiled and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but he realized his mistake as soon as he did so and pulled away awkwardly, remembering the order of things. His eyes grew wide and he looked at her as if to apologize. The princess found it humorous that he looked almost frightened, like she would send him to the dungeon for touching the royal shoulder.
She gave him a soft smile as if to say, "It's alright." He had a way of calming her nerves and reminding her of a place in her imagination where there was nothing but wildflowers and sunshine. She supposed one day he'd have to get married and she'd have to let him go—as her advisor, of course—and let him live his life. She did not look forward to that day. What would she do without her friend to stand by her side? After all, he was her only close friend in Manjipour. "Thank you, Kuru. I, um…I've decided to drop my classes on Monday." she cleared her throat and the smile faded from her face. She did not want to sit in silence, letting his kind words hang in the air, so she moved onto the next subject that came into her head. Not a pleasant one, but one that needed to be discussed at some point either way. "And I'll come up with something to tell my parents, like I'm going on a trip to Africa to help the orphans or something admirable like that. Just so they know that I'm okay and they don't wonder where I've gone. And they have a reason for why they can't reach me." she explained, trying to ignore the sadness that was building up inside her as she thought about the day she'd say goodbye to her parents forever. She'd already moved out of their house and her hometown, but soon she'd have to say goodbye to them and they wouldn't know that it might as well be forever. Yes, she'd return for brief visits. She might even bring her king, her husband to meet them, and tell them a story of how they met while she was abroad and fell madly in love and eloped, but they would never truly know her. They hadn't truly known her since she turned sixteen.
"I hate to see you hurting, Princess." Kuru said. She tried to look away, but he took her chin in his hand so that she had to look at him with her hazel eyes filled with pain. It would seem in that moment he'd forgotten the seemingly-sacred order of things. "I am sure you will find a way to see your family without going without for too long."
Fearing she might stare for too long, she tore her gaze away. "I suppose I could say that I'm moving out of the country. It's not really a lie. And then I could say that I've married someone from that foreign country." she tried to think of a story to tell her parents, the lie she'd tell for the rest of her life.
"And surely you could visit them once a year or so. Perhaps on one of your earthly holidays." he tried to cheer her up with positive thoughts.
The thought did very little comfort her, but she smiled a real smile for the first time that day, just for his efforts. "What would I do without you, Kuru?"
He smiled back at her and gave her a simple answer, "You would still be Princess Liliuokalani, daughter of Nefari, and the beautiful future queen of Manjipour." She gave him a grin of gratitude and he went on to tease her, "Just a bit more ignorant to your own customs." The princess replied with a slap to his arm. He was stronger than she and the blow was probably comparable to kicking a horse, but he immediately gripped his arm as if he'd felt the slightest bit of pain, "Quite an arm you've got, princess!" he said rather loudly, for anyone who might hear as they came to the market's edge. Then he leaned closer and said just low enough for her to hear, "I'm afraid I must apologize, Princess. I've told an untruth, but it was only to protect your royal ego. Please forgive me." he spoke with a generous amount of sarcasm for Kuru, something she couldn't blame him for. She'd probably taught it to him herself, after all.
"An untruth?" Alex pretended to ponder this deeply. "I'm afraid I'll have to have you sent to the royal dungeon."
"But, Princess, I am your closest advisor." he mock pled with her.
"Alright, then. For the sake of our friendship, I will have you tortured rather than beheaded immediately." she spoke as if this alternative would be a relief to a prisoner in the slightest.
Kuru continued to walk alongside her through the market toward the path that led to the palace, where they would surely banter back and forth until they were in the presence of the elders, "Thank you, Princess. You are much too kind."