Crown of Faeries

23 | Fête

When I arrived to my room, a woman with a tall and lengthy body was standing in the middle of my room holding a gown across her arm.

"You're late." She said as she turned her unnaturally vibrant baby blue eyes on me. Her long eyelashes were dusted in a silver dust, along with her elaborate eyebrows. Shimmer in a light shade of pink outlined her high cheeks and her lips were painted in an unruly color of purple.

"Late for what?" I asked cautiously as I viewed her from my door. I stood in the doorway looking at her long blonde locks that were braided in a high extravagant crown. Her sharp pointed ears stuck up a little higher than mine and I realized that she was showing her half faerie side. But she must have had more faerie in her.

She turned her eyes on me with an arrogant stare. "I've been standing here waiting for you. Dinner is almost ready and the prince wants you to be the first to arrive."

"What? Why?" My eyes grew in size as I looked at her.

She rolled those vibrant eyes and settled my dress against the bed. "Why do you have so many questions?" She sighed with exasperation. "Come along, we have to get you all cleaned up before I place you in my dress."

"Your dress?" I asked yet another question.

"Again. So many questions." Was all she gave me before walking over to me and wrenching me towards the adjoining bathroom.

A bath was already drawn and before I could protest about anything, the women tore my clothes off with her long nails, shredding my sweater and jeans until they were a pile of rags left on the floor.

"Dear God!" I shouted once the cool air kissed my skin. I went to cover my intimate parts but she slapped my hands away.

"Stop worrying about that, silly girl. Get into the tub and wash yourself, I'll be right back." And she left in a swirl of draping fabrics and billowing hair as she spun on her heels and left the bathroom.

I glanced at the rather large tub and sighed. I hadn't had a proper soak in a long time, but I was probably so dirty that a bath wouldn't do me any good.

But despite all that, I walked towards the edge of the tub and settled in. The water was so warm that I felt all my tense muscles from before loosen just from dipping my toes in. Sinking deeper into the water, I let the slick water consume me.

She must have placed some type of clear scented rich oil into the water because the mix of flowers and aged musk hit my nose and I found the aroma intoxicating.

I hadn't even been in the tub for less than twenty minutes when the woman came storming back in with two other stouter women walking in her wake.

"Get her out of the tub." The woman barked the order as she set her basket down on the sink's countertop. Her blue eyes scanned over her shoulder with a silent command and the other two women scrambled to the side of my tub.

"Time to get out." One of the stout ladies said to me as she waved her hands.

The other lady got a towel and unraveled it quickly. "Why is this all such a big rush?" I asked to the half fae women.

"Apparently this is a big ball." Was all the woman offered me but at least it was more information than she'd given me before.

"A ball? I thought it was just going to be a dinner of some type of fight for our lives." The stout women picked me up by my arm pits and lifted me out of the tub while the one with the towel wrapped me up tightly in it.

The half fae snorted and I raised an eyebrow at her. "You will never have to fight anymore. You've been--well I'm not allowed to say, that all will be announced tonight." She kept her hands in the basket and from where I stood, I could see her fingers moving at top speed.