"Can you stop? I thought you were a princess, so why are you plodding around like an ogre?"
Darling glares at Duchess, who is strewn across the bed "in despair," pillow shielding her face from the sunlight. She bites back a snark reply. One of them has to be civil. "I'm trying to find us some food. If I don't, we will starve." She makes sure to carefully enunciate the last part in case its severity otherwise goes other Duchess's head.
Over the past few hours, Darling has become very aware that Duchess is not an easy person to be nice to. She is stubborn, rude, and hypocritical. How can she critique Darling's mannerisms (she had NOT been plodding around, her movements were dainty and quiet, thank you very much) when she herself is lacking in the etiquette department.
Duchess pushes herself upward and her pillow falls. She turns her head to meet Darling's eyes. "You have already looked all over for food twice! Two very loud times of scrounging around. If there was food here, you would have found it by now. So let me die in peace." She collapses back onto the bed with a hmpf and resettles the pillow.
Darling rolls her eyes.
She will never understand how the other princesses can be satisfied with their helplessness. Especially Duchess. If you knew no one was coming to save you, why wouldn't you learn how to save yourself?
She rises with the graceful air of a princess. She dusts herself off soundlessly with a practiced ease. She snatches Duchess's pillow.
"Hey!" she squawks.
"You need to climb out of the window and get us some food and water."
Duchess stares at her like she has grown two heads. Darling doesn't know what part of what she said was hard to understand. She had spoken calmly and clearly. It wasn't a hard concept to grasp, either. After a moment, Duchess's expression hardens.
"I'm serious, Duchess. You need to use your hair to-"
"No, you're trying to trick me. You're trying to get the prince all to yourself! Well, it's not happening. How would I get back up here anyway?"
Darling frowns. She hadn't thought about that.
"See, I've discovered your little scheme and now you have nothing to say!" she crows.
"I don't care about some stupid prince!" Darling yells in frustration. She freezes. She shouldn't have said that. No princess would say that. She'd messed up, misstepped. She can only hope Duchess doesn't consider the statement with too much scrutiny.
Duchess eyes her suspiciously. "You're lying."
Darling wants to scream. She wants to tell her she's never cared about any stupid princes except her brothers. She wants to yell about how she trained herself and built her strength while other princesses fawned over the princes. She wants to tell her that she would never resign herself to waiting for whichever came first, a prince or death.
No, she tells herself, there is a better way to handle this. She can't let her anger win. She refocuses on the problem. If Duchess lowers her down, she could go, but then she risks exposing herself. The problem isn't getting down, either girl can do that easily. But how would she get Duchess back up? If she went, would Duchess help her back up? She doubts it. She can't risk another climb up the tower again, either. There is only one alternative.
"How about we go down together?"
"Didn't you hear me, Darling? I'm not missing my prince—"
Darling has to stop listening, or she's going to say something she'll regret. 'There is no prince' dangles on the tip of her tongue, but she holds it back and lets Duchess ramble. She wants food. She wants Duchess to stop yelling. She wants to leave this place. She wants to go home. She doesn't know what she's supposed to do. She doesn't know what she's supposed to think. What would a hero do?
Heroes make sacrifices. Heroes compromise. Heroes concede.
It hits her with mind-boggling clarity. This is what she had wanted, right? A chance to be the hero. She needs to get out of the tower and gather food. And if Duchess won't help her, she'll climb back up to help Duchess. Because that's what a hero does. If she can't even risk someone finding out she is a hero, does she even deserve to be called one?
"Lower me down with your hair. I'll go."
Duchess looks like she wants to continue arguing. Instead, she sniffs and says, "Fine."