The Girls of Once Upon a Time *long updates and chapters*

Scarlett

Dedicated to haztendencia
Sorry it took me so long to write, I just wanted to dedicate you to a chapter I knew you'd like :).

   ONCE UPON A TIME, there was a young maid in a mirror. She tugged her flaming locks of fire-wine hair with streaks of sunlight into a bun and pulled her white lace gloves over the doodles on her hands. A cough in the doorway caught her attention. Lingering on the threshold, stood her friend and fellow maid, Tundra. Matching pale gloves covered Tundra's slim, dark, fingers as she played with the fringe on her apron.

   "Scar- are you ready? Her highness requires our help."

   Scarlett nodded. Slipping out of her chair, she followed Tundra out of her room from under the castle staircase. "What is it this time?"

   "Princess Crystal is preparing for a visit with the king and queen. She has called on us to help her pack for the trip."

   Scar nodded again as she made her way through the winding hallways that she had memorized as a child. She tried to think back to a time before memorizing hallways and schedules, washing clothes and making meals, waking early and going to sleep late. Nothing came but the scent of smoke and wildflowers.

   When they arrived at the princess's chambers, Scar took a deep breath in. Same as every other day. She gave three short taps on the door. A few moments later, a voice called out, "Come in!"

   Pushing open the door, Scar and Tundra stepped into the room to find Princess Crystal fixing her thick dark brown waves into an intricate hairstyle. Tundra quickly stepped in to help pin another wave into place. "You called for us Your Highness?"

   "Yes. Please pack my bags for the trip. I'll need 4 formal dresses, 6 informal dresses, riding clothes for two days, 5 things of sleepwear, and shoes and accessories to match each outfit. And I suppose I should pack my cosmetics for formal events," the princess said passing Tundra another bejeweled pin.

   Scar curtsied and walked over to the princess's closet. Folding the dresses and placing them carefully inside the luggage bag that the princess would be taking, she listened to Crystal complain about how she'd have to 'act proper' around her cousins. "They're just so boring. All they care about is makeup and clothes and boys and I just wish that they'd try to find something more interesting to talk about."

   "Well Your Highness, I suppose you could say that you don't have the same interests as them since you will be placed in a different position once older," Tundra said softly. "As next in line for the throne, you must focus on what you determine to be the more important aspects of life such as building new trade posts or keeping a stable economy."

   "Indeed. But the people also want a ruler who can look a part as well as play it. Thankfully I have you, Scarlett, and April to help me. Speaking of Scarlett, do you believe that you'd be able to decorate my face again today? Just something simple."

   "Of course Your Highness," she said, a smile coming to her face. She loved it when the princess asked her to do her makeup. She had such high-quality materials. Scar sat across from Crystal in a plush chair and set the princess's pallet of colored dust on her lap. "What would you like today?"

   "Whatever you want. You're the artist here."

   The first thing that came to her mind was flowers. Roses? Sakuras? Or should she do a pattern of gems and wyvern scales? Maybe simple swirls? Perhaps sparkles to transform the princess into a fairy like girl? And what colors? Blue, red, green, purple? There were so many options to choose from!

   Scar settled on wildflowers. Starting with a green powder, she made short strokes to form a field of grass along the princess's cheek. From the grass grew dark green stems with red and dark pink flowers sprouting from the ends. A light, shimmery purple was used to coat one of the girl's eyelids along with a thin black pencil to bring out the deep blue of the princess's eyes. After touching up her art with a few setting sparkles to help keep the drawings in place and shading techniques, Scar sat back to admire her work. Her drawings stood out against one half of the tanned, heart shaped face of the princess. The other half she left free of any drawing.