The gathering area in the castle would've been dead silent – IF it wasn't for Derek and Bromley making jokes and just all around goofing off.
Odette analysed them from across the small table she was sitting at, her hands resting on the wood, her eyes steady and quick-witted in her sight.
"She will NEVER beat YOU, Derek!" Bromley said, cheering his friend on as Derek nudged Bromley away playfully, "Women don't think with their minds!" He looked over at Odette as he announced this, "They think with their EMOTIONS,"
"Really, now?" Odette said simply. A small grin began to edge up one side of her mouth and Derek took the deck of cards, shuffling them up before dealing them out.
"So the rules for this game are-"
"I think I know the rules..." Odette responded to him gently and both Derek and Bromley blinked their eyes surprised, "I've played this before," She continued before yawning, almost bored, as she placed her head on her hands and added, "The game that ACTUALLY needs technique and skill is chess." She grinned again back at Derek as she continued, "You DO know how to place chess, right, Prince Derek?"
Derek felt a twinge of anger as he watched Odette act all superior, and he handed her her hand of cards, finally replying, "Let's just stick to cards for now."
"As you wish,"
"As you wish," Derek repeated her words in annoyance, under his breath but of course Odette heard and her stare tightened as she glared at him before down to her hand.
A perfect hand – and if it wasn't perfect SHE WOULD MAKE IT PERFECT.
"Two sevens, and two eights."
"Oh," Odette replied to him as Derek placed his open hand of cards on the wood of the table, "I just have a straight."
The moment she said this, both Bromley and Derek gawked at her hand, and Derek gulped nervously as he picked up the cards again and shuffled the deck once more.
The second round was even worse than the first.
"Three Queens,"
"Four Kings," Odette replied, smiling a quick sly but silently confident grin, "Beginner's luck?"
"Yeah..." Derek grumbled back at her and this time when he shuffled he was almost tempted to look at the cards when he dealt them out. But he would not fall to that low. He was A PRINCE, for goodness sake! He was meant to be a positive example to his subjects and his peers.
"A flush!" He yelled in delight and looked eagerly at Odette, waiting to hear her proclaim her loss!
"I think I win again," Is all she said with a smirk. Bromley and Derek glanced quickly at each other before at Odette again. She laid out her hand and said with a small chuckle, "A royal flush."
"Oh..." Derek said, sighing out sadly in defeat.
"I can't believe you got beaten by a girl!"
"A princess, to be more correct," Odette chimed, holding in her laughter, "Shall we play again tomorrow?"
"Sure..." Derek said with a defeated tone to his voice. She smiled back at him sweetly, but it was all put on. Inside she was dancing at her victory, one-upping Prince Derek was always so awarding.
She slowly pushed her chair back, standing up and making a small curtsy before turning to leave.
"And," She finally added, glancing at them as she walked towards the hall and exit, "If you really want a challenge, chess is definitely more my foray,"
"Okay, Odette..." Derek only droned bitterly and she left the two young men.
The second she was out of hearing distance Bromley shoved Derek hard on his shoulders, saying, "How could you let yourself LOSE to a girl?!"
"Poker may be half-skill..." Derek said coldly back to his best friend, "But it is also half LUCK."
"So you think she got lucky?"
"I BET she tampered with the deck!"
"But how could she?" Bromley went on even more confused, "You were the one shuffling and dealing."
"Enough about this already!" Derek snapped then angrily, as he got up and left the cards in a deck on the table, "She won't beat me again next time."
"I hope not!" Bromley said, nodding his head sharply in agreement, "Or you won't hear the end of it!"
"From who?" Derek asked confused and Bromley just laughed, shaking Derek's shoulders, answering him.
"From me!"
~x~
While the two young men were in discourse to plan the next poker game with Odette, the princess was in her boarding room, sitting before a big chess board that she had put out on her table to play.
With who? You may ask?
With herself.
She had no one to play with normally... so she would turn the board around and just take turns against herself.
She paused, however, when her father knocked on her door and she sighed saying, "Who is it?"
King William came in, tapping his fingertips together expectantly as he approached his daughter and sat on the other side of the chess table.
"I was told you were playing poker with Prince Derek."
"I was."
"And that YOU didn't let him win...?"
"Why would I?"
"For good sportsmanship!"
She looked straight at her father, her expression confused, but also disgusted.
"And why would I do that? HE needs to EARN his win!"
"Oh, Odette," The king only lamented, fixing up the chess board now so that a new match could be had.
"Oh, father..." Odette only sighed in return pettily and he smiled back at her with paternal love.
He moved his first pawn and she moved her next one.
The two traced out their game plan in their heads, trying to figure out the other's strategy.
"Check," Odette said confidently after twenty minutes and King William only grinned at her, as he moved his queen in such a way that before Odette knew it, she had lost the game.
"Check mate, Odette," Her father said gently and the princess was so tensed up in anger at losing. Her cheeks flushed red in rage, "You're not the best at everything yet."
"Yes, well..." She replied, packing up the game and board and King William got up, about to go but said to her with a soft beam.
"So, next time... let Derek win one."
She looked at him shocked as he said on.
"Because you know yourself how much losing hurts."
Her gaze shook for a moment as his words hit her hard and she meditated on them for a second, before saying bitterly back to the king, "Yes, father."
He nodded in response, leaving her and Odette only grabbed a light dress from her bed, twisting the fabric tightly around in tense rage before throwing it away and only slamming her hands to the table.
She was not in a good mood anymore.
And she had no one to talk to and converse about her feelings and how much they sometimes hurt her inside.
She missed her maids back at her father's kingdom. They would often talk to her, almost like good friends if they weren't so low in the hierarchy of the royal system. And they would ALWAYS agree with her... something she didn't get from her equal peers.
It was kinda narcissistic in a way. Being told you're perfect all the time means you start to believe it. And when you're literally treated like a god... well, that was enough to mess up any person, let alone herself.
In Odette's head, she felt she held herself and her stature very well... she DID have empathy for others to a degree. But one thing she always had to remember... she and her subjects were not the same.
They never would be.
Which made her question why Derek hung around with Bromley. Bromley himself had no royal blood in him, but she digressed.
~x~
The next day Derek was back out in the royal hunting grounds, his bow and arrow in his grip as he knelt behind a large rock, watching a stag deer in the distance, his arrow pulled back before he suddenly released it and it missed the large male deer. ONLY BY INCHES!
The stag kicked up its front legs surprised from the forest ground, kicking the air in defence at that attack, before it bleated heavily and all the deer looked at him alerted. The herd galloped off.
"DAMN IT!" Derek yelled at himself in anger at his misfire. He quickly pulled out another arrow but seconds before he shot it, he heard a soft voice say to him.
"No luck today, Derek?"
He spun around, seeing Odette there, dressed in a white feminine garment, her long blonde hair in a plat and he put down his bow and arrow, glaring at her annoyed.
"What are you doing here?"
"Your mother insisted I join you."
"This is NO place for a woman."
Odette cocked her eyebrow up, surprised at this statement, "Oh?"
"Go back to the castle and let ME HUNT."
Odette was shocked at his reply and only folded her arms in a heavy humph. She then decided her next move. She walked in tight annoyed steps right in front of Derek and his bow, standing in his way and saying with hot fiery eyes.
"Shoot then." Derek watched her, so surprised, "HUNT me."
Derek only glared at her silently, before lowering his weapon and she smirked hard at her win and his defeat.
"If YOU weren't a princess..." Derek continued, and Odette stared back at him, waiting for him to voice his opinion, "Never mind..." He grumbled at her.
"You don't think I can't hunt?"
"No." He told her quickly, a sharpness to his words, "You have to have experience to hunt."
She looked at him then, before reaching her hand forward and taking his bow. He held it tightly before finally surrendering it to her and she felt its weight in her hand.
She reached out her other empty hand, waving at him to hand her an arrow and Derek only scuffed, taking one from his back arrow bag and when he reached it to her she snagged it off of him, placing the arrow to the bow.
Odette believed herself to be able to do anything anyone else could. Her silent confidence often gave her a slight superiority complex and she began to pull the arrow back on the bow before releasing it and the arrow went flying off into a bush.
Derek smirked at this.
"That was just a practice shot," Odette said fast, snapping at Derek for his rude teasing. She reached her hand back out to him and he gave her another arrow.
"Try hit the bull's eye," Derek told her confidently, and she glared at him, asking.
"WHAT bull's eye?!"
He went over to a tree a far enough distance away and marked it with a rock, etching a white mark in the tree's bark.
He pointed his finger at it and she frowned heavily. She began to pull her arrow back far now on the thick string of the bow. And in that second, the arrow went flying through the air, ending up high in the tree's branches.
"THIS IS SO STUPID!" She yelled in frustration, about to toss the bow to the ground in fury but Derek took it off her and quickly did a spin, firing a sudden arrow out of nowhere and hitting the tree's target sketched mark with ease.
Odette's shoulders edged up in deep anger. Her eyes glared at him but she was without words and turned around, stomping off.
"See you tonight, Princess!" Derek called to her, laughing at her failure, "Let's see if your winning streak lasts now!"
"Oh, it will..." She muttered under her breath, heading back to the castle but bumped into Bromley while on her way, "What are you doing here?" She snapped at the boy.
"Just going to Derek for bow and arrow practice."
"Yeah?" Odette said coldly.
"Yeah," Bromley replied and she only growled as she uttered full of hate.
"You two NEED it."
She shoved passed him then and went back to the castle and its quarters. Bromley only blinked his eyes wide in watching her go. He only shrugged before he walked on and found Derek in the woods.
"Princess Odette seemed a bit miffed,"
"I know," Derek said in delight of this and tossed a bow and arrow into Bromley's hands, "And it makes me SO happy!"
"Are you going to play her again tonight with cards?"
"I am." Derek proclaimed, "But this time..."
"This time..?" Bromley asked him, intrigued and Derek grinned devilishly.
"This time," He continued, a spark in his eyes and glee in his soul, "We're going to cheat..."
Bromley looked at him surprised in that second, before nervously muttering, "Isn't that a bad idea?"
"No." Derek denied, shaking his head hard and replying, "Because NO girl should be able to beat me at a MAN'S game."
"She isn't NO girl, but Derek," Bromley chimed in a giddy laugh, singing the remainder of his teasing words, "She's YOUR future GIRLFRIEND!"
Derek almost gagged at his words.
"Not if I can't help it..."
"You can't though, unless you change your mother's mind."
That, Derek knew inside... was impossible.
He looked angrily at the path that Odette had taken to leave him, and he uttered in heated rage.
"I know..." He threw his weapon down furiously, before shutting his eyes in despair, "All this power... and my mother still has the last word."
"At least Odette is hot now?"
"Not to me..." He said coldly, in denial, "At least, not yet..."
"But one day?"
"Kill me that day,"
How much the young princess and prince had in common that the two never even realized.
How much in common, indeed.