Over the Wall: A Collection of Short Stories (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Day 8: Reunions

Note: So this is part two of the story from "Day 7." Hope you enjoy the rest of it! Also, this is dedicated to majo01 for all her help during NaNoWriMo :)

Recap:

She led me up to my tower once again. I couldn’t help but notice that there were more guards. And not just in my little hallway, but everywhere. What had been going on? What had she done?

She practically pushed me through the door and stood in the doorway, glaring at me. I smiled. Finally, she was dropping the whole “darling” act. She was showing her true colors and that’s all I needed to finally get rid of her, once and for all.

........................

“Now you stay here.” She said, trying to be commanding but just coming off as desperate.

“Why would I want to stay here? I’m not doing the whole ‘damsel in distress’ thing again. I’ve been there, done that and I need to get out of here and mingle with my people.”

“Oh yes because mingling is exactly what you were doing when you were out among the people. I don’t believe acting like a little slut counts at mingling.”

“I didn’t ask for your input.”

“It doesn’t matter. You aren’t leaving the room until I tell you to.”

“When will that be your majesty.” I said sarcastically.

“Soon.” Then she was gone.

I walked around my room and got reaquainted with being in the small area. I had spent the last months sleeping outside and in abandoned buildings, I believed they’re called barns, from the old days so obviously I was used to having a lot of, albeit empty, space around me. Not that my room was small. It was much larger than the rooms, and even some houses, of the kind peasants I had encountered while I was away. The only difference was that they could leave those small spaces if not to just go outside, which I could not do.

The room itself was round at the end of the palace, hence the tower reference. But it was actually more of a turret, since the building went sideways from the room, not down or above. But from the outside I suppose it looks very tower-like. Not that I had had much time to examine my room from the outside.

There had been a balcony where I would be able to at least get some fresh air but my stepmother closed off my access to it under the ruse of wanting to fix some structural damage. I had never seen any problems with the balcony and have never seen anyone working on it but yet I am still blocked from even that.

The doors to the balcony are not glass so I can’t even see out that way but there is a window that looks out onto the sea. I wish it looked out onto the palace square so I could see people coming and going but the sea is very pretty also. I sit down at the bench I long ago situated there and gazed at the view since there didn’t seem to be anything else to do.

Like the maze, I had a lot of good memories on this bench. There was a painting of my mother holding me while sitting on this bench when I was a baby. The painting was hidden somewhere by my father after he married my stepmother. He gave me the bench for my room so my stepmother wouldn’t know where it was from. She was, is, very jealous of my mother.

But not only that, since it doesn’t really count as a memory since I was only a baby. My father used to sit here with me and tell me stories about my mother and the kingdom and the kingdoms beyond the sea. I doubted those kingdom’s very existence due to the sea’s appearance of endlessness but I never tried to argue with my father. He was my idol and I loved him dearly.

I also used to sit here during my previous captivity with some of my loyal servant friends. Iris, my ladies maid before my stepmother officially confined me to my “tower,” was also my best friend and we sat many a day sitting here and gossiping. Due to her role as a servant she knew all the new gossip well before I did which made me believe in one truth wholeheartedly: the servants know everything. They may not be as well-educated as royalty but, in my opinion, they know everything that is worth knowing.