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Chapter 1 - In the Fire-lands |
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With piercing eyes, she narrowed it down to the final colors that the ladies-at-hands were pestering about. “Why not do a half and half? Two always is better than one…” She sighed heavily as they rushed off with a pair of giggles. “Why me?” She sighed again, plopping onto her chair. Her waist length brown hair spilled around her [and do not tell us it looks like ‘spilled milk’].
A small golden bell tingled behind her back as the silver bells attached to her ears wavered at the moment. Someone was at the door. She sat up and figured it was best not to keep the laughing man waiting. She was practically the laughing stock of the whole castle right about now. She refused to hide what she was, although she was trying to overrule to ‘no Halflings allowed’ rule for her country.
“Considering they are mostly Halflings, it just makes you wonder all the more why they overruled them out of here…” she murmured to herself in thought. The door was pushed open and she met the general at her door. “Yes, sir general?” She asked politely, giving a curtsy. He bowed in return.
“Evening, Milady. How are things?” He replied. She fumbled with the ruffles on her dress. She hated the things, but she did proclaim to put up with them certain days of the week. “I take it everything is being taken to your liking?” She was in fact new at the whole ‘ladyship’ thing. She was a princess at birth, and she would die a princess. That was how it worked around these parts.
“Yes, things are very likable thanks to you and the others.” She could feel her inner selves flowing to a halt at the sight of the General. Fire-star, a fellow friend of MJ was known throughout her soul even though she hardly knew him. Looking sharp general-sama…Koneko chided inside her head. Shut up would you? I hardly know him…MJ suddenly realized that she wasn’t paying any attention to the man in front of her.
“Is something the matter? You seem a bit…off these days.” MJ shook her head in a silent remark.
“No, its nothing…just…thinking.” She sighed and looked away with a sad look on her face. He wanted to help, honestly, he just didn’t know how exactly. It was hard to help someone who was on such a high standard. She always seemed like she wasn’t with them when she really was. She always looked far away…like her soul was traveling to someplace far away.
"I figured I would just pop in to see if you were all right. Carry on…” Fire-star bowed again and left her standing in the doorway. She stared after him, watching him carefully. She truly didn’t like men of the sort, but she knew Fire-star was a guy who wouldn’t sabotage anything she wished to carry out on her own; he was on her side unlike everyone else.
“Right…back to work then…” She sighed once more and closed the oaken doors behind her. She sat down at her usual table. She decided it was her time to shine throughout the world in the best way she could. She was to draw her usual art of demons and dragons. Her only true friend was really her pencil and her paper. She wouldn’t be able to do anything without them.
She went to work quickly and quietly, making sure that no one saw her work until she was done. The sound of the pencil scratching the paper was all she needed to sooth her jumping heart. When the had each line sketched, she set the heavier and darker lines on the details and major outlines, letting her dragon take shape in both her mind and her paper.
Once finished, she set the pencil down and found her other pencils. Her soft 2B pencils went to work on the outline of the wings and tail. “Every dragon has its day, and this my friend, is yours.” She whispered to her paper. “Now, where did I set the case of chalks and color pencils?” She looked around for a while before finding the small black box filled to the top with art utensils she had been stocking up on since she left the castle.
A small girl ran through the halls, skidding to a stop when she had to and turning on the balls of her heels for a sharp turn. Each hall was surrounded by the padding of shoe-less feet as she ran, her green eyes searching for a way out of this place.
“Halt!” voices from all over made her want to shut them all out. “Cease and desist!” Everywhere she turned, someone was trying to hurt her and she had no way of getting out alive unless she made it to the bottom floor in the basement and make a run for it through the back way.
MJ scoffed at herself. She was threatened to leave this place and yet she ended up back where she started. “A tad ironic, isn’t it…?” She asked herself. “I always seem to end up back where I started.” She shook the thoughts from her head softly, letting her hair flail around her face in small curls. Her hair wasn’t naturally curly; it just sat that way like the waves of the ocean curled coming in through the shore.
Not bad, Migoto-jin…I mean, for a con-” Koneko stopped short of her sentence when MJ threw up a wall of security. I told you I don’t like to be considered that! She scolded the cat within her. It just wasn’t fair that she was branded at birth, and the fact she doesn’t know anything of her past made it even more painful.
A small sparkle glinted MJ’s pendant. Something was going down in town, she could feel it, but she wasn’t in the mood to scramble all the soldiers at this time. It just never was worth it when they had so many in the streets already.
“I’ve told them at least a hundred times that war is just stupid…” She snapped to herself. She always had a reason for speaking to herself, and when she ranted, she had good reason behind it each time. “But do they listen to me…no because I’m a girl who doesn’t know anything and I haven’t a clue as to what they’re talking about!” She unclenched her fist as best she could, but no good came out of it. Each time she thought about war, something inside her heart said something was wrong with it.
“MJ?” a small voice rang through her room and it was coming through the door. “MJ, are you in here?” MJ stood from her place. Being royalty meant that if you didn’t answer the door, they’d break it down to find you sleeping peacefully. The oaken doors opened before MJ even got there.
“You know I don’t like that Isabella,” she chided without turning around. “It annoys me beyond comparison and you know that…” MJ turned her head and let the icy stare graze on Isabella, her maid.
“Yes, but there is a meeting taking place in the dinning hall in a few moments. You should change into something more proper. This is a meeting with the General…”
“I’ve already seen him today, and I don’t think he cares what it is I wear.” She snapped. “On the plus side, it’s not like my suitor or something will be there…” she sniffled down a giggle as she heard a cold-hearted laugh behind her. “You mean to tell me that I have a suitor at the age of nineteen?”
“Twenty, MJ…twenty years have passed.” Isabella reminded her softly. MJ knew very well how old she was, she just didn’t refer to the ‘hypothetical’ terms.
“My birthday isn’t until February of the New Year, Isabella…It’s the middle of July…” She eyed her maid to find she was a bit nervous. “Isabella…what did you do?” She had no idea what it was, but the only thing she knew wasn’t going to like it. It was impossible to read her maids thoughts any more. It was just how it worked with the two; MJ never knew what was going through the foreign girls mind and Isabella did things MJ didn’t approve of. This is why she hated being royalty. She never would have a real life until everyone died and she was left for the earth to find out what to do with her.
“Well, I sort of got something for you as a, uh…early birthday gift…” MJ sighed.
“Now why the hell would you do that? I told you…there’s no point in it any how…” MJ strode across her room to the door and opened it to find the young maids listening at the crack of it. “And what did I tell you about listening in on my conversations?” The girls looked away. MJ was their motherly figure in a way. Even though she was still in her teen years, they still saw her as a non-punishing mother to them. It was only natural for them to feel that way.
“MJ, do be careful with them. They’re only girls.” Isabella warned. Her eyes seemed to flash with some sort of indignity that seemed horribly horrid that MJ looked away from her and back at the girls.
“Girls, retire to your rooms: I shall be there in a minute to tuck you both in…” The girls giggled. Their mother (They’re sisters) died in the fire that had happened a few years ago; that left MJ to become their motherly figure because she was the kindest to them.
“Amazing…” Isabella left and Fire-star was stalking the halls again. “How’d you manage to get those girls up to their room on time? Everyone has tried and all failed…”
“What, those two girls?” MJ looked after the small children as they ran up the circling staircase and giggled the whole way up. “Their just obedient I guess…” MJ turned to face the general.
“Yes, but how odd is it that they only listen to you, Milady?” Fire-star asked. “I mean, honestly. Do you have some sort of hypnotism going on here?” MJ shook her head.
“No, they just listen to what I tell them. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a promise to keep…” She briskly walked by him and headed towards the girls’ bed chambers, leaving Fire-star there to watch.
 MJ_Huwaine · Sat Aug 02, 2008 @ 05:05pm · 0 Comments |
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