Little Princess

Contract

*Nymeria's P.O.V*

I didn't regret going swimming with Queen Ordelia when I was doing it but now that I was sitting in my room trying to dry my hair off I did have some regret. I had to take my hair down to dry it and that caused it to tangle. Now that it was tangled, I was having a hard time getting those tangles out even with a fine tooth comb.

A knock on my door distracted me from what I was doing. I sighed as I walked over to the door, opening it only just slightly so that I could peak out of the crack. I smiled slightly when I saw Queen Elvira. I opened my door wider and stepped back, letting her step inside.

"Can you help me untangle my hair?" I asked quietly as she studied me. A small smile crossed her lips as she nodded her head.

"Of course," she said as she followed me over to my vanity. She picked up the comb as I sat down, getting to work detangling it. She held my hair above where the tangles were as she started to work the comb through them. I was quite thankful for that as I had a tender scalp.

I stayed still as she worked the comb through the tangles. It took quite a bit but she managed to get all the tangles out with minimal pulling so I would take that as a win. Once she was done with the tangles she grabbed my hair brush to brush through my stringy, wet hair. I leaned my head back slightly as she brushed my hair, staring up at her with half lidded eyes. I was nearly asleep by the time she stopped brushing my hair.

"Do you want me to braid your hair?" Queen Elvira asked softly. I nodded as I moved to rub my eyes with the back of my hand, huffing softly when she grabbed my hand to stop me. "You're going to hurt your eyes doing that," she said simply.

Queen Elvira left for a moment before coming back with a warm washrag. I whined softly when she wiped my eyes with it, trying to push her hand away with a small huff. She finished wiping my eyes with washrag and I huffed as I sat up, a small pout on my lips. Sure I felt more awake but I didn't need her to do that.

If Queen Elvira cared about my childish behavior she didn't show it. Instead she just got to work braiding my hair. She had parted my hair and then tied it into two pigtails which she then braided. Her braids were much neater then when I braided my own hair.

"How come you never braid your hair? You're quite good at it," I said as I admired the two braids. They were both tied at the end with two ribbons bows that perfectly matched my light blue dress.

"I like to keep my hair pinned up and out of the way," Queen Elvira said simply as she adjusted one of the bows that seemed crooked.  She studied her handiwork, seeming quite pleased as she smiled softly.

A feeling of warmth settled in my chest at the action. I found that simple actions like that seemed to make me feel very happy lately. No one else had ever taken the time to do anything like that so I wasn't really surprised that I became enamored with having one of the queens help me with something.

"Perhaps I should leave you to get to whatever you need to do, I'm sure you still have quite a bit of work to do," Queen Elvira said. I whined at the reminder of all the paperwork that would be sitting on my desk and crossed my arms with a small huff escaping me.

"Why must you remind me? Do you enjoy torturing me?" I asked as I slid down in my seat. Queen Elvira chuckled softly and rolled her eyes at my childishness.

"Yes, I look forward to torturing you everyday," she said sarcastically as she shook her head. She leaned down, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of my head. "I'll leave you to pout," she said before she left my room. I pouted even more at the fact that she left before forcing myself to sit up.

As much as I hated to admit it, she was right and I did have paperwork that I needed to get to. I also was going to go look at the contract again, see if I could actually sign it now. I perked up at the idea and hurried out of my room. I had never made it to my study quite so quickly but then again this was the first time I was actually excited to be there.

I picked up the contract off my desk, moving over to the window. I sat on the edge of it as I allowed the sunlight to bring in light into my study. I started on the first page of the contract as I carefully read through the paragraphs. Thankfully the words in the contract were simple ones because I did not have enough brain power to struggle through big words today.

The contract was quite simple as far as things go. It stated that as long as I was being mentored then my kingdom would be required to stay neutral or side with their kingdom. In return for being mentored by them then I would seek an alliance with them first before I went to anyone else. There was a lot more to it but that seemed to be the gist of it as it all related to them helping me or me helping them in the long run.

The part of the contract that amused me was the one that said it could be broken by any party at any time within reason. It listed that someone not getting their way was not a reason to break the contract. I had a feeling that it was a jab at one of my ancestors but it was still amusing nonetheless.

Once I finished reading the contract, I brought it to my desk. I sat it down as I grabbed my quill, signing my neat scrawl on the appropriate lines. Once I signed the last line, the contract seemed to glow before it duplicated itself twice. The original and one of the copies disappeared after that and left me with a copy of the contract that had bound itself into a book.

"Well I'll be damned," I muttered as I sat in my chair, picking up the book.  It was quite astonishing what magic could do. I shook my head as I put the book in one of my desk drawers. It would only be a matter of time before Queen Elvira realized that I signed the contract so I may as well try and get some work done before then.