Chapter 25
The Rebellion had a lot of preparations to do before they departed for Salineas, which meant Adora spent her time training with Light Hope or sitting with Entrapta as a kind of test subject. Occasionally, she hung out with the other princesses, they could be kinda funny from time to time.
When Adora woke that morning, she had planned to do several things, however she found herself in extreme pain in her lower abdomen. It felt like she had been stabbed with a serrated knife over and over again. When she threw back the sheets her bed was soaked in dark, crimson blood. She sighed heavily, her time of the month had arrived, wonderful. She picked up her tired and painful body and dragged it into the bathroom where she cleaned herself up. Thankfully, guards had left her several sanitary pads. In the Horde, those were hard to come by. Most of the time, Shadow Weaver just left them to bleed through their clothes.
Ensnared in a headache, nausea and lightheadedness, Adora exited her room, calling for a maid to change the bed. She rubbed her eyes as she walked down the bright hall, on her way to Entrapa's little lab piled high with junk. Well, Adora called it junk, Entrapta called it treasure. She never made it to the lab, instead she heard noise coming from the hanging gardens and went to seek out the source. Apparently, Glimmer and Bow were excited about something.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Adora asked as she trudged down the golden steps onto the stone pathway.
"Morning, sleepy head," Bow had said, smirking. "We're heading into town today, there's a big festival happening. Some sort of sun worshipping festival. There was a moon festival not that long ago and in a couple months will be the Solar Eclipse. All of Etheria, or well, lands not controlled by the Horde, will be celebrating the Solar Eclipse."
"Wow, you lot are big on your suns and moons."
Glimmer indicated with her hands a pinch. "Just a little. You coming?"
Adora's heart hammered. "Oh, uh, no, it's okay. You guys go. I don't even know what a festival is, that sounds painful."
Glimmer chuckled. "No! It's fun and exciting. Come on, you'll love it." Without waiting for her permission, sparkles grabbed her hand and teleported the three of them to the entrance of a quaint village, a festival in full swing.
It was a bright and warm day, only a gentle breeze whispering between bodies. The first thing Adora noticed was loud folk music playing, there was a live band on a wooden stage. Then she saw all the confetti on the ground and streamers and banners between posts and homes. It was all very colourful. Children were running around, people were dancing, there were stalls set up with games and so much more happening. There was so much going on that Adora didn't know where to look.
Glimmer gasped. "Bow! Look!" She grabbed his arm, pointing at something nearby. "I wanna see if Adora can beat you on that."
"On what?" Adora asked, following her line of sight. There was an odd contraption set up. Like a tiny punching bag hanging from a metal frame with some numbers flashing on a digital facing, much like a clock.
"Doubtful," Bow laughed. "But let's try it."
"You say doubtful but She-Ra has bigger muscles than you," Glimmer teased him.
Bow grinned. "You seem like your quite into She-Ra."
"Am not," she playfully pushed him. She then blushed.
"Look who's blushing," he teased her.
Adora followed the two of them, dodging children and side stepping dancing people. At the machine was a young man taking money in turn for shots. There was a leader board nearby with prizes listed.
"Oh, I want that," Glimmer said, pointing to the top prize. It was a giant pink owl with the most ridiculous sized ears Adora had ever seen. Kowl was its name, according to the prize board. When she looked upon the real prize, it was a fuzzy teddy that smelled like lavender.
"We can try to get that for you," Bow promised and handed over some money to play the game.
"Uh, how do we play?" Adora asked, staring at the weird thing.
"So, you punch this as hard as you can," she pointed to the tiny punching bag, "then this thing gives you a score," she gestured to the digital clock. "Bow will go first to demonstrate." The young man pressed a button to reset the score. Adora stood back and carefully observed him. Bow took up his place, drew in some deep breaths and then reeled back. In one swift, and powerful punch, he knocked the little bag up into its holder. The clock scrambled to give a final number. When it rested upon three digits, it was found that he came in second. At the moment, no one was able to sit in first place because to sit in first place, you needed a score higher than the target score on the board.
Bow got the second place prize which was a galaxy rose. A rose on a golden stem with a rose head painted like a galaxy. It was a fake rose, of course, but delightful nonetheless. The rose head was black and blue and purple, little stars dotted all over the soft petals. Apparently, it glows in the dark too.
All romantic light, Bow dipped low and presented said rose to Glimmer, who blushed a little too hard. "For my dearest, princess," he said.
"Oh, knock it off," she said, hiding her reddening cheeks, subtly accepting the gift. He rose from his bow, smirking mischievously. Adora even cracked a smile at their silliness, remembering how daft her and Catra used to get, teasing, annoying, joking, the lot.
Bow turned to her, deep brown eyes softened with warmth. A warmth, she's realised, that only comes from kindness. "Would you like to try, Adora?" Hm, the rules of the game seemed easy enough.
She shrugged. "Sure, why not?" Bow gave the boy some coins and he reset the machine. Adora came to stand before the object dangling from above, focusing intensely. She followed Bow's movements from before, taking up her stance and reeling back. Her eyes closed for a moment, focusing on her breathing, reaching for a light deep within her. There she was, She-Ra, illuminating the dark. When her eyes opened, she caught her reflection in the black metal behind the punching bag, she wasn't transformed into She-Ra, but she was glowing, her eyes turned bright blue.
She drew in a deep breath and on the release of the breath, she hit the bag. It flew up into the machine and the number counter went berserk. Bow whistled and Glimmer sucked in air as if she'd burned herself. When the counter finally stopped, it gave the highest number it would go to. Triple nine, which was far higher than needed to get the top prize.
"Holy shit," the guy had whispered when he handed Adora the Kowl bear thing. Adora squished it, amazed at how it bounced back to life without losing shape. It was soft and warm, not something she was ever familiar with so she gave it to Glimmer.
"Here you go," Adora said cheerfully. Glimmer eyes sparkled and then she squeezed the Kowl tightly.
"Are you sure I can have this?" Glimmer asked, eyebrows raised.
"Of course," she said with a soft smile. "I have no use for it and I know you wanted it."
"Thank you, Adora. I love it." She grinned from ear to ear.
"Come on, let's get some food," Bow said, leading them away to an area with rows and rows of natural wood tables piled high with plates full of various foods. From fruit, to deserts, to savoury dishes and so much more.
Adora scanned the tables, stomach rumbling like a great beast's roar echoing from deep within a maze like cavern. "What is all this?" There were so many foods here she had never seen before.
"Party food, different things thrown together in little bundles. Have whatever you like," Glimmer said, picking up a meat skewer and a tiny cupcake with a snowflake on the top. Adora, curious about the snowflake, picked up the cupcake. Her blonde eyebrow raised, her mind internally analysing it. How on earth did they get a real snowflake? Why hasn't it melted? So many questions within her mind swirling like dead leaves caught in the wind.
Ever since she'd left the Horde, she was finding new and exciting things every day. Bow and Glimmer watched her micro analyse a cupcake with strange curiosity and also mild amusement. Gently, Adora nudged the snowflake on top.
"It's not real," Bow said.
"Not real?" Adora said slowly. She'd never seen snow before meeting Frosta so she couldn't tell the difference.
"Nope," Glimmer said, face stuffed with food. "It's paper."
"Edible paper," Bow added. "It's sweet, try it." Adora threw the snowflake in her mouth, a tiny bit cautious over the fact she was eating paper, but quickly got over it. It was sweet, it melted in her mouth, leaving behind no trace, no evidence it ever existed. She ate the rest of the cupcake, gleefully. Glimmer had Adora try many things, slowly sussing out what kind of food she liked. Adora seemed to like mostly anything, except for some vegetables. They were a bit too bitter for her liking.
They were on their way finally to play more games, Glimmer loved them, but after travelling around the village, something caught Adora's attention. Near the edge of the forest, a male, part goat by the looks of it, was telling fairy tales to young children.
Adora stood nearby, hiding behind a tree, listening with such fascination. The tales were beautiful, heartfelt and filled with joy. All the tales told within the Fright Zone were made to scare them, they were haunting, gory and death covered. They were always about princesses too, conveying how evil and destructive they were. Shadow Weaver always told tales that would shine a gold light on the Horde, implying Hordak was the rightful ruler. But, after spending time with the princesses, Adora finally realised how wrong they are.
The princesses are cruel to Horde soldiers, to their enemies, however, they were just as cruel to them. What goes around comes around.
The children were laughing, smiling, waiting with baited breath to find out the ending to the delightful tale. In the Fright Zone, Adora remembered being too terrified to breath, shaking as she hid in the darkness, clinging to Catra. She always tried to put a brave face on, to protect the two of them from harm and for the most part, she did play the hero. But it was just that, a face, a front, a masquerade. Deep down, she was afraid, afraid of failing.
Now, with the responsibility heightened, with so much pressure on her shoulder, that fear was growing. The longer she left it to grow and flourish, the lonelier she felt.
"Adora?" Bow asked, a hand resting gently upon her shoulder. "You okay?"
"Fine," she said, turning to face him.
Concern was laced within his eyes but he didn't press her. "Come on, let's go have some fun." Fun, yes, that sounded like a great thing to do. Adora smiled and followed the two around all day, trying different things and games. By the end of it, the three of them had their arms full of prizes and food and anything else they could carry.
As nice of a distraction as it was, that responsibility weighed on her shoulders. Glimmer liked to say 'Heavy is the head that wears the crown,' it was an old saying or something like that.
To Adora, it felt like 'Heavy is the body that carries the fate of the world.'
