The Deck of Destiny - A Caraval Oneshot Collection

The Life of A Royal ~ Chapter 1

Setting: pre-Caraval, before Paloma/Paradise disappeared, this is an alternate universe!
Inspiration: I wanted to do a mini-series about Scarlett and Tella if they had grown up royalty. I have a feeling this may be longer than five parts, maybe not, but I have many ideas for this.

Chapter 1
7 years ago...

The Dragna estate was quite large. To young Scarlett and Tella, it seemed like a castle that was just waiting to be explored. The sisters raced each other down the hallways, each trying to find a room worth exploring. Scarlett had noticed her sister had stopped in front of a black door that seemed freshly painted. Curious blue waved around Scarlett as she too stopped at the door.

"This room looks mysterious, Scar," Tella pointed out, studying the plain door with only a small peephole for decoration. "We should go in!"

Scarlett agreed, fidgeting with the doorknob until it opened.

The room before them held many barrels filled with illegal alcohol, the room smelling like foul play and drunken mistakes.

Sparks of warning red flickered in Scarlett's vision as she took in the room around her, "I don't think we should be in here, Tella."

"But I wanna explore!"

Yellow caution filled Scarlett as she looked around her wearily, "Five minutes, then we should get out of here."

The two sisters peeked around the large, dim-lit room searching for some type of treasure.

"Who's in here?" Marcello Dragna's voice boomed.

Scarlett's face paled as she reached for her sister, "Hide," she whispered.

Tella did as she was told and the two girls hid behind a large barrel of alcohol. Scarlett peered around the corner of the barrel, watching as her father searched the room. She carefully led her sister to a different barrel to keep themselves out of view.

"Sir? I think I've found the culprits," a guard said, sneaking up behind Scarlett and Tella.

"Ugh," Tella sighed as the guard helped the girls to their feet.

"What were you two doing in here without permission?" Marcello's voice sneered.

"We're sorry, papa. We just wanted to explore. We didn't know this room was off-limits," Scarlett explained while fiddling nervously with her hands.

"Lies," Marcello hissed, accusing green swirled around Marcello, and Scarlett had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. But the green remained, and her eyebrows furrowed.

"You dare make such faces at me?"

The action was quick and unexpected. Marcello raised his hand and struck Scarlett across the cheek, causing Scarlett to let a cry of pain.

"Marcello!" Paloma screeched with equal parts of anger and surprise, walking into the forbidden room. She quickly rushed over to her daughters, inspecting Scarlett's cheek. "How could you?"

"I- they were- were doing things they weren't supposed to," Marcello tried to defend himself.

"That gives you no right to hurt my children," she seethed, her fingers gently brushing over Scarlett's wound. "Are you okay, my love?"

"I'm okay, mama," Scarlett nodded, but still flinched when Paloma made contact with her skin.

Scarlett shifted her gaze to her father with red anger and a hint of purple fear. She clenched her jaw as she watched the green around him shift and shift into a painful orange.