As soon I walked in the door, Victoria was waiting. Giselle was on the balcony looking at the town. Victoria jerked her head in her sister's direction. I sighed and joined Giselle on the balcony. I laid the small bottle of perfume on the railing between us and gave her the speech I had prepared on the way home. Victoria was sure to be listening so I had to say exactly what she wanted. "I am very sorry for my behavior these past few days; I should not have lured the prince away from you like I did. I promise that I will not do that anymore because I know how important he is to you."

I was careful that I did not say I would not see him again because that I wouldn't do. Giselle examined her gift and looked at me. "Thank you; make sure it doesn't happen again" Was all she said before flouncing off inside to her room. Victoria seemed appeased because she too went into her room. I sighed and went back inside.

I read one of the books I had brought while the sun made its slow decent below the horizon and it was time for bed. I wondered what other things were in store for me on this trip. It was only the fifth day and I had already made enemies of my stepsisters and made friends with a prince.

The following weeks were very dull with Giselle and Victoria always at the castle. They took the carriage so I could not go very far from the Gilded Leopard and it did not take long for me to become bored with the surrounding area. It was mostly other luxurious hotels and government buildings with a few shops in between. They had also convinced the princess that she needed to have both her brothers at the castle at all times to bond with them before her wedding so I didn't even get to see Christian. It was the first day of the seventh month when things started changing from dull to exciting. Since the celebrations began on the sixth day of this month, the town was packed with people from all over the kingdom who had come. The city was overflowing into the outer city beyond the walls. The gates had been closed for a week because every inn and spare room in Pharyss had been filled with guests and the streets were filled with vendors and entertainment carts that no more people could possibly stay inside the city walls. Even though it had not officially started, people were still in the streets laughing and dancing in anticipation for everything that was to come. Every street and avenue and lane in the city was decorated for the occasion with colorful streamers and flowers. The city was starting to come alive with the excited spirit of all the people. Wandering the streets was no longer a mundane activity because everyone was preparing for the festival. Shop owners were putting their best wares in their front windows. I particularly enjoyed walking by the bakery because they had large, intricate cakes sitting in their window. It was impossible to not share in everyone's excitement; everywhere people were smiling and waving at each other. Some people were even singing as they worked. One of the workers helping hang banners had a lovely baritone voice when he sang.

There was only five days left until the first day of celebration, music filled the streets and rainbows of color were everywhere that I dared venture farther into the city. Before I had only gone two or three streets away from the inn so I wouldn't get lost, but now I decided I wanted an adventure. Giselle and Victoria were off at the castle making friends with royalty, and I was alone in the greatest city in the kingdom. I did not want to stay confined to anywhere so today I set out towards where the zoo was supposed to be. The precious day I had heard some workers talking about how they had seen the large cages with the exotic animals being trundled up to the large, open field and I was going to go see them. I remembered the way from my day with Christian. I had tried to remember the routes to all the places he showed me so I could go to all of them when everything was underway.

It took nearly two hours to get to my destination. It had seemed a much shorter distance when I was on a horse with Christian showing me the way. The field was no longer open; it was crowded with large and small cages holding all manner of creatures with burly men walking about between them. There were dragons, centaurs, phoenixes, elephants, huge colorful birds, tiny will-o-the-wisps, mermaids, tigers, nyads, dryads, sprites, monstrous insects, trolls, and so many more it made my head spin. Most of the animals I had never even seen or heard of before. I walked through the workers and the other townspeople who had also come to get the first look at the zoo. One creature was in something that looked like a house with large barred windows. I almost walked by until I looked again and saw myself staring at me from behind the bars. I gasped and stumbled backwards. The creature looked exactly like me and I could not look away. It was perfect down to the three freckles lined up along the left side of my jaw. Once I was over my initial shock I stepped closer to get a better look.

I felt a hefty hand on my shoulder. "Don't get close to that one, miss. They have a nasty temper."

I turned to face the man. It was one of the workers. Then I looked back to whatever was in the house. "What is it?" I asked. "It looks like me."

The creature's shape shimmered around the edges for a moment. Now it looked like the worker who stood next to me. The impersonation in the cage spoke. Even its voice matched the man's. "I am a mockery. I am a noble creature from the southern jungles of Conan. These cruel men captured me and took me from my home to be put on display like a trophy. I am very frightened and I just want to go home. Please, gentle lady, release me and I can go on my way."

I the middle of its answer it shimmered back to look like me and it was my voice that finished. I looked at the man and he shook his head. "Mockeries have no conscience, if left in the wild they cause devastation wherever they go. As you can imagine it is easy for them to disguise themselves and go on murdering sprees in some unsuspecting village."

"And you brought one here?" I said. I was astounded that they would bring something so dangerous into the heart of the city. If mockeries could impersonate anyone than if it escaped it would destroy the town.

The man smiled. "Don't you worry, that beast is kept locked up good and tight in that prison. The walls and bars are coated in pure silver. Mockeries can't touch silver. It's something to do with the heat conductivity; it burns their skin like a hot poker would burn yours."

The man walked away to do his work, but I was still unsure about the mockery so quickly left it behind as I went to see the other animals. There was a commotion and I saw a small dragon fly into the air before the men pulled it back down by a chain tied around its neck. The roars could be heard all over the field. I looked at other animals and after not too long I felt as though I was being followed, but when I looked behind me no one was there. I sped up and took more turns through the maze of animals but I could not shake the feeling of someone behind me. Then I heard laughing, it was more like giggling from behind me. I spun around and was face to face with a boy and a girl. The boy was a few years older than the girl and she could not have been more than thirteen annuals.

"Why are you following me?" I demanded.

The girl giggled and the boy stuck his tongue out at me. "Why shouldn't we follow you?"

It was obvious that they came from a very wealthy family for their clothes, though a bit dirty, were of the finest fabric. They also had the haughty air of children raised in a home where they had all the privilege that money had to offer. I would not stand for their nonsense no matter their rank. "It is not in good taste to stalk people and you two should be more considerate."

The boy stuck out his chin indignantly. Obviously, they were not used to getting told off by strangers. "We were not stalking you. We were only trying to get a better look at you to see what you looked like."

I tapped my foot impatiently. "That's the same thing. Don't you have someone looking after you?"

They looked at each other. "No," They said in unison.

They were obviously lying. Two children of such breeding would not be allowed to wander alone. "Don't lie to me, where are your parents?"

The girl giggled. "Mommy and daddy aren't here."

"You know, I think it is her. I didn't think she would be so bossy though." The boy crossed his arms and examined me. It made me uncomfortable.

"What are you two talking about?"

The boy began trying to circle me, but I backed up and kept an eye on him. The pair of them looked too shifty. "You just look like someone Ian mentioned a couple of times."

"Yeah, our brother talks about you all the time. I mean, I'm guessing it's you. Don't you think it's her, Curt? You look just like what he described. What if you aren't the girl that my brother was talking about? How funny for you then. So do you like our brother, he's completely in love with you. He goes on and on all day about how he misses you and how he wants to see you again. He of course is stuck at home again cause they practically have him bolted to our sister, she's getting married you know. I don't know if I like her fiancée though but I guess he's decent enough…" The girl spoke quickly and seemingly in one long sentence until the boy hit her with his elbow.

"Shush, Clover," He said. It was then that I noticed a royal signet ring on each of their fingers. What the girl had been saying made sense now. They were Prince Curtis and Princess Clover. Once I had that figured out I began to think about what she said, Christian was talking about me?

Princess Clover hit her brother back, "Don't tell me to shush, you need to shush."

It looked as if they were going to get in a fight when a small red light flew around one of the animal cages and straight to them. It was a red fairy and about the size of my thumb, but it had a big voice when it began scolding the two. "Now you listen here, your mother said that you could come out here and see the animals if you behaved. That means that you stay with me and not go running off. You will be severely punished for tricking me to going into that lion's cage when we get home. These workers don't need you two running around causing trouble and leave this poor girl alone."

"We do not cause trouble!" Curtis and Clover said at the exact same time.

The little fairy became even redder. "Don't you dare back talk me, you terrors. Just wait until your father hears about this."

"You don't have to tell daddy!" Clover exclaimed and her brother chimed in with his pleas to not let the king know of their doings.

I didn't want to interrupt their scolding or argument, whichever it was, but I wanted to know how Christian was doing and when I would be able to see him again. "Excuse me," They all stopped shouting and looked at me. "You are Prince Christian's brother and sister, correct?"

Princess Clover hit her brother. "See I told you it was the right girl."

The young prince in turn stuck out his tongue at his sister. The little fairy hovered in front of my face. "This is Prince Curtis and Princess Clover. I am Crimson, their nurse fairy. I apologize for any bother they may have caused you."

"Oh, it's no bother at all. I was actually wondering," I stumbled on my words a bit before asking my question. "I was wondering how Prince Christian was doing. I have not seen him in quite some time."

Clover crowed at Curtis, "Ha, I told you they were in love, now pay up!"

"She didn't say they were in love!" Curtis retorted.

"Hush, you two," Crimson said sharply. It seemed like the little fairy had her hands full keeping an eye on these two. "Now, my dear, Christian is doing quite well; he is helping his sister prepare for her wedding as you surely know. She has found two very kind women who are helping her with it all. If you are Ebony, he is missing you too. Poor boy cannot get away from Joslynn now that she has decided he will be part of the ceremony. I'm sure whenever he gets a spare moment he will want to visit you. Now we must be returning to the castle, these two have had enough of an outing for today."

Curtis and Clover immediately started protesting that they had not seen all the animals yet, but Crimson was having none of it. She flitted around their heads as they walked back in the direction of the castle. I assumed there was a carriage waiting to take them back. I walked on and reflected on my brief but strange meeting with the two youngest of the royal family. First Clover asking me if I loved her brother then Crimson scolding them and taking them home. It was very strange. After the short conversation, my mind was on Christian. I had only spent little more than a day with him but I still wished I could have seen him more. His sister was keeping him in the castle and my stepsisters would never permit me to accompany them to the castle for a day. I just hoped that once the celebration began that he would be allowed to leave the castle once in awhile; surely they would let him then. Imagine, me spending time with a prince; I smiled at the thought.

I continued my aimless stroll through the garden of animals when a beautiful bird crossed my path. I noticed that the area that I was in was filled with the creatures just wandering as aimlessly as I was. They looked like peacocks except they all had varying degrees of snowy white feathers mixed with the blues and the greens. Some where almost all white while others looked almost normal. One that was almost half white and half normal strolled right in front of me, his long tail feathers brushing my feet. They did not seem to be afraid of people so I slowly crouched down and held my hand out to the bird. It turned to look at me for a moment but then continued on its way. I lowered my arm but stayed crouched down. I had caught the attention of another one of the birds and it was slowly making its way over to me. The bird was one that was half white; it almost looked as if it had been splashed with paint. It came right up to my hand and started nudging his head against my fingers.

"Hey," Someone shouted. "Don't touch the animals!"

I jumped, startled, and the bird nipped my finger with its beak. A single drop of red blood appeared from the small wound. I stood up and the bird flapped noisily away. It must have been one of the workers who had shouted at me because there was a group of three that were glaring at me. It appeared as if they might have been the bird keepers. I could even feel their glares as I hurried away. There were so many strange creatures here. I had barely seen half of them all before the time I had to start walking back to the hotel. I wanted to return before dark to avoid whatever might lurk in the streets at nighttime. The walk back was just as long as the walk there, maybe longer due to my entire day of walking. Despite the distance I did make it back before the sun sank completely below the horizon. A few minutes after the sun set, I could hear the fireworks going off. There were five more days until the city would come alive with parties and entertainment.

Yay, new characters! What do you all think of the youngest prince and princess? I think I will have a lot of fun with them as the story progresses because I foresee them causing trouble and pulling pranks.

It has been a dreadfully long time since I have updated this story, or even written any of it for that matter. I have been a wretched author and have not even been responding to my PMs! Hopefully that will all change now that I seem to have gotten out of my only-watch-tv-all-the-time stint and back into reading fanfiction which makes me want to write fanfiction.