A Pearl Of Wisdom (#Wattys2016)

Chapter: 10 Mysterious Encounter

"Who are you and what do you want" I ask terrified.

"Well you should know who I am! I am your prince and what I want is you" He answers, as he grabs my chin and holds me there. "You sure are the prettiest among all the girls I have seen so far! I think I am going to mark you as my own."

"Please stop! this is a mistake I just want to go home" I plead. He starts laughing as if I told him a funny joke.

"I don't think so girlie!" He replies and then slaps my face with his hand. It was not too hard of a slap but the rings on fingers scratched my face. He then licks my cheek where he scratched and slowly moves his mouth closer to mine and and gently presses his lips against mine. I thought it would be more rough but I am surprised with the gentleness of it and feel myself melting and the need to catch my breath. "I do not think I will be able to get enough of you" he says. I struggle to break free from his grasp, he relents and I feel my arms getting loose and I push myself away from him.

We hear some noise and he disappears. I run back to my room, I do not even care about my ankle at this point. I jump into the covers and try to calm down. I touch my cheek and find the scratches on my face bleeding. I am too scared to leave my room to find Jack so I stay under the covers. I touched my lips and realized that he had stolen my first real kiss. It was a scary and intriguing sensation to have someone attracted to me and wanted to kiss me. I have never had such attention before, it was different, but I am not sure if I liked it. If he is actually the Prince, I may be in some trouble since I pushed him away. I eventually fell asleep with all these unsettling thoughts running through my head.

By the time I woke up the sun was shining through my window, for a minute I thought I was at home and could hear my brothers running around. The dream quickly dissipated and I realized where I was and remembered the happenings of the night. I hear a knock on the door and a young woman comes in,

"I am here to get you dressed" she says.

"Okay, thank you" I reply. She picks out a dress from the wardrobe. It is a beautiful blue that would make my complexion lovely. I guess I will have to wear dresses now I realize, since I always wore pants before this. She helps me fasten everything. She then does my hair and makeup.

"Wow, miss you are really pretty, probably the prettiest girl I have dressed" she says.

"I really doubt that, but thank you" I mumble.

"Come with me I will show you to the dining room all the girls are to gather there" she tells me. I follow her, and she leads me through the maze of the halls to the large dining room. There is about 20 girls that are all in the dining room. There were all types of beautiful women I felt very out of place. I see Holly sitting and I quickly hurry over to her.

"What happened to your face?" Holly asks.

"Oh I just ran into something in the dark" I reply, I mean it was not a lie. The maid did clean it for me and suggested not to put any makeup over it to help it heal and I agreed.

"Okay, well today I hear after breakfast we are going to meet Prince Ren."

"Really? I am not sure things can get any worse." I mutter to myself.

Breakfast is served and we seem to all eat nervously like we had no appetite. Jack comes into the room and other officials come with to their different provinces.

"Well girls, we as a province are going to be the last to talk with Prince Ren. We will go in as a province and he will single out any girls he wants to talk to alone. I just want to make sure that you understand that when we go in you will all stand next to each other in a line. When we get close you will all curtsey starting from the right side and state your name and age" Jack explains.

We all sit down and wait, realizing that we will have the longest wait. We seemed to relax and talked about each of our rooms and everything we have seen in the palace so far. The Tyrian girls were able to go in first. They all seemed to know how things worked and understood the palace fashion better, they all looked refined. When they came out they seemed to be pretty happy and content with themselves. Next went the Viridians and they looked like they were nervous like ourselves, but yet seemed very graceful and reminded me of fawns in a forest. When they came out they looked like they were deers in head lights.

"Okay girls it is our turn, get in line." We all got in line and I decided that I wanted to be last and waited at the back. I really wasn't ready to face him again, I just wanted to hide my head in a hole. But maybe he won't recognize my face, I mean it was pretty dark. We all walk in, line up, and all the girls say their names. When it got to me I could barely look at him but I managed to say my name and age.

"Well welcome girls from Cerulean, I have to say that I have been to your province and I absolutely loved spending time there!" Prince Ren says.

I finally look up and see him and the first thought I had was that his voice sure sounded soft and gentle. He really looks like the person from last night, but he doesn't talk so sharp or angry like yesterday. I guess anyone can put on a show. I still do not feel at ease. The prince motions Jack forwards and they whisper a bit and he announces that the prince wants to talk alone to three girls; Holly, Celine and Anise. Oh shoot that is even worse! I start to panic.