━━ ⦗the swan princess! ⦘
❝ you're beautiful!
thank you, but what else?
... what else is there? ... ❞
███████████ 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝
the courageous odette teaches the
once and future king a less...
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chapter twenty-nine! 029. the moment of truth
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THAT NIGHT,Odette ate Arthur's dinner▬again. She gritted her teeth and kept her mouth shut; her tongue silent as she refused to waste the food this town was scarce for, but she could feel her frustration growing. She found it so strange, how a man could infuriate her so much▬make her pull at her hair, stamp her feet and want to shout up at the heavens ... and yet be the same man who made her smile with pride, dream for a better future and leave her rosy at the cheeks by just a glance. She understood that despite his flaws, she had been lucky enough to know everything great about Arthur from a young age▬so much she understood helped make all the worst parts of him somehow tolerable enough for the good parts to shine the most.
But she supposed what made her the most angry, this time, was that after he promised her that he would always listen to her, today, he did not. He had chuckled at her, and rolled his eyes▬he had seen Odette, little, innocent Odette who used to run after him when she was four-years-old, and he did not listen to that little girl. Constantly, she had to keep reminding him that after her mother died, there were a few years when all she had was herself; where their friendship had burnt away▬where she had no choice but to grow up enough to keep herself alive. That girl who she became▬she was someone who he listened to when he decided to suddenly see her only to forget about her, and once again, she was albeit a young child.
She didn't know how to snap him out of it▬how to prove that she knew what she was talking about. Odette has always tried to impress Arthur enough for him to notice her▬and despite how it irked her how childish it was, that irony was true still to this day. She didn't know whether she was still desperately trying to prove it to herself.
But she just wanted him to listen to her. She just wanted him to see her as something more than little, naive and troublesome Odette. And it kept her awake that night, because for so long, Odette was just a spec of dust left in the shadows, forgotten by everyone▬and she had accepted that ... she had come to terms with it. Until their friendship rekindled, and now, Odette felt an unrest▬the dust had become unsettled and she flew up with it into the air; enough for her to want something from somebody else rather than want something for someone else, how little and insignificant it might be▬to her, for some reason, it meant everything.
Odette shifted underneath the blanket, squeezed in between Morgana and Guinevere on the dirt floor of Hunith's home. She sighed, looking up at the ceiling with a heavy chest filled with disappointment. She heard light snores across the room from the boys (mostly Arthur), and saw the blanket shift on the far right as Adelynn turned to sleep on her side.
Despite being so tired after today, she could not sleep at all.
Next to her, she heard Guinevere sigh as well▬and realised she was not the only one. She glanced at her, and saw her dark eyes glinting back at her in the night; on her left, she felt Morgana shift against her shoulder ... and quickly found out that both of them were awake, as well.
