Darelle

2

Gian, the capital of Mae Kingdom
Autumn 1880

". . . Is it Rumpelstiltskin?' she say with a smile. And his face turned bright red and struggled to answer her, he stamped his foot hard against the floor and broke it, falling into a hole and ran away, never to be seen, again. The end."

Darelle sighed as she watched the kingdom from her window, seeing the townfolk as ants or dolls so little from far and thought of her mother, who would point to a certain place and say: That's the baker's shop. There's Uncle Ricky's liquor store.

But her mother was no more, she remembered her two nights ago in her bed, pale and lean with a heavy smile fixed on her face as Darelle nursed her and held her arms.

"You will be alright, mother. The doctor said you will be alright." she patted her mother's hand in her hold.

"Tell him, Queen Olivia is paying the price of many things she has done and it's time to meet her king." Her mother coughed hard, her chest rattled with it. "I know, you will be a good queen and never forget to stay away from the woods. And—"

"Rumpelstiltskin." Darelle finished.

"I pray you forgive me for that and—" her mother's eyes lowered and her hand felled from her grip.

"Mother. Mother . . ."

And that was the last time she saw her mother alive.

As a tradition of the royal family, her mother was embalmed with the fragrant oil a tree woman, handed to her family for protecting their home the forest that surrounded the kingdom of Mae today.

The bottle content was always replaced after being used, as a way to preserve the body and for the tree spirits to guard the royal family home.

"My princess." Her lady in charge said, breaking her train of thought.

"What's it?" she said, jumping to her feet.

"My lady, you mustn't!"

Darelle shrugged. "A lil sport can help." she earned a gasp.

"What must I do to—"

"Leave me alone." she pleaded with a wry smile as she realized she had no one close to her in the world, again.

"My lady, the kingdom needs you." The fair lady, who was her best friend said.

She and her words had great clouds of steam coming out of Darelle's nostrils into the chill morning air, while the sound of gong that signified the palace's gate were to be open was heard in the silence.

The princess snapped.

"It needs me? For what? To be sold of to pay the debt of the kingdom!?" Any and all thoughts to think about her life had vanished from the moment it came out of Marisa's mouth.

Dressed in her finery, she was nothing than a possession to sold and she couldn't even mourn for her mother. Before they has pushed her into a forceful position, all in the name of princely duty to the kingdom.

And then, they expected her to live like she was happy and excited to be married a man she had no interest to spend an hour with, to talk less of an eternity.

Now, her world was threatened, and about to come to an end.

"It doesn't . . . know it yet. It will be written in history that you sacrificed yourself for your people—"

"Enough. I have had enough of that distraction." Darelle couldn't care less of the sympathy in her friend's voice.

"But it does, if not the kingdom will crumble."