GrayM&M
February 19th, 2002, 03:55 AM
It took five hours to get ready, but the final result was nothing short of stunning. Liquid brown eyes shone under a black brow, and a perfect pout played on rose-tinted skin. She grinned. Her silhouette, although thin, was graceful and lithe. Loose ringlets spilled upon her shoulders. She wore a rich dusky green that complimented her coloring and brought out the twinkle in her dewy eyes. Definitely the beauty of a princess, she affirmed.
Her sister was equally stunning after careful preparation. Her gold tresses framed her beautifully pale visage, highlighted by sapphire eyes. She was joyfully plump, so the corset was snug, but the effect was brilliant. She wore baby blue cut in the latest fashion. Pearls lightly swung at her earlobes as she laughed; she knew that she would be the ultimate belle of the ball.
Singularly, the sisters would have been a treasure to behold, but together - no beauty had ever before been concentrated in one place; surely it would be a chore to decide which was more lovely.
Their ride was right on time. They mounted, set themselves lightly on the velvet, and arranged the flowing gowns to prevent wrinkling. The carriage swept them away into the twilight, and the sisters giggled all the way to the banquet hall as they envisioned how different life would be after this one pivotal night.
Of course, the food was mouth-watering, the orchestra talented, the ladies polished, but the main attraction this evening was Gregory. After all, the hidden motive tonight for each woman was to ensnare his majesty in hopes of gaining the throne and living happily ever after.
The sister in green was first to score a dance partner. As she dipped past her sister in blue, she shot a smug glance to the obviously envious potential princess. Even though the man she waltzed with wasn’t the prince, perhaps this small win would be a foreshadowing of the rest of the evening. Hopefully, she thought.
Jealously flowed through the hall like water. With so much was at stake, it was getting hard to maintain composure when some wench in red kept monopolizing Gregory’s attention… The sister in blue had torn her handkerchief into small shreds on the table.
As the great clock struck nine, the tall hall doors silently opened, and an elegant latecomer slipped in nearly unnoticed. She didn’t remain so unnoticed, however. She quickly caught every eye because she was clad in white-hot silver. The gown draped softly around her sculpted shoulders, met at her waist, and fell gracefully to the floor in a stylish train. At every seam were sewn tiny diamonds. She sparkled like the night sky, and was just as silent. Her hair was between gold and milky brown and was arranged to set off a diamond tiara that circled her forehead. Her green, inquisitive doe-eyes floated around the hall, taking in her surroundings as if she had never been to a party in her life. Odd to say the least, but that didn’t detract from her innate attractiveness.
Her mouth, shaped into a cute cupid’s bow, whispered to the servant at the door. He nodded respectfully and left, probably to attend to her carriage outside. There was something strange about this girl, no doubt. She was competition. Tough competition.
Gregory was intrigued by this stranger. He approached the sister in green, asking her if she knew this goddess.
“She might as well be a servant, I do not know her name,” the green sister replied, with a covert attempt to sabotage her competitor.
It didn’t work.
“She’s magic,” Gregory whispered.
The sister in green snorted. She made one last attempt to deter him, “She looks like my maid. Typical servant girl, wouldn’t you agree?”
But Gregory had already departed, and was slowly making his way across the dance floor towards her.
“By the king’s beard! Didn’t he even look at me?”
It was time for drastic action; the sisters engaged in an elaborate attempt to figure out the strange girl’s identity. No one seemed to know her, and all hated her for her graceful beauty.
What was this? Gregory left the dance floor? And where was the mysterious lady? It was worse than they thought. The sister in blue swore – most unladylike! But something had to be done. They followed him to the gardens.
“…I cannot tell you my name” they overheard, “It’s a difficult question.”
“Surely, you mush have some name I may call you! What shall I whisper in my dreams if I do not know your name?”
“Call me Lady then, if you must.”
“Then Lady it is. Lady is my destiny. Lady owns the stars in the sky; Lady owns my very heart!”
“You flatter me!”
“Hardly does you justice! You protest, love?”
“You call me ‘love’ so soon? Would you throw around that word as if it were wine? Matters of the heart are not to be taken lightly. Do not call me ‘love’ yet, for I am but your acquaintance.”
The sisters, hidden in the shadows, breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she did not know that he was to chose his bride tonight – Maybe she did not know that the ladies, themselves included, would die to be called ‘love’ by the crown prince… If she would reject him, then they would have a chance still.
“Beautiful, intelligent… Lady, I grow more fond of you each second. I - ”
“Are those bells I hear?”
“Lady, I ask you, no, I beg, please - ”
“Midnight! Alas!” and Lady took off into the night, lightly raising the front of her gown as she ran directly towards the sisters’ hiding place. An evil thought came to the girl in green, and her foot sprang out to meet the fleeing woman. Clumsy! She spilled to the stone walkway. So much for grace and tact!
Lady pulled herself up again, limping away into the darkness.
“What an impudent little thing! She didn’t just run from you, did she?”
Gregory seemed close to tears. “She did.” He picked up the diamond and silver shoe left behind on the walk.
“And to think, she would have been queen a moment ago.” The girl in blue laughed. “What a poor choice for royalty!”
Gregory was livid. “…You eavesdrop?”
“Er, no, your majesty, we were out for air and - ”
His sadness sprung to anger. “You spy on the prince? How dare you! Leave immediately, you… you vermin, before I send the guards to remove you from my sight permanently!”
“Y-your highness…”
“OUT!”
Gregory sunk into a depression for days. He had always been accustomed to strict, unquestioning obedience, but he barely got a name from the girl before she left him.
…She left him.
He couldn’t quite comprehend that. In the middle of a proposal, of all things, she jumps up and leaves him alone with nothing but a shoe. He fingered it lightly now. It was made of silver fabric and, how remarkable, it had a diamond heel so clear that he saw his own palm beneath it, slightly distorted. Distorted was how he felt just then, his emotions stretched all out of proportion and turned upside down.
He resolved to find her; his only joy was in the hope that she would reappear as magically as she appeared at the banquet.
Elle returned home of foot, and the snares, brambles and sharp stones that paved the road back to her home cut her feet horribly. Her dress, all but ruined now, was bought off of an old lady on e-bay for a handful of cursed beans. It was worn only once before by a girl who, although less than alive, still found a prince to wed. If this dress was that lucky, who knows, maybe scarfoot Elle might be able to find herself a good pig herder. She laughed.
Her shoes were a lucky find, though. She found them in a dungeon-sale last spring. Apparently, the princess had fallen asleep for a hundred years, woken back up, and realized that her shoes were out of fashion, so she sold them. A pity they were too small to be comfortable. But Elle loved shoes! She collected them in scores. Too bad she didn’t have a pair with her for the long walk home.
When Elle finally reached her house, she collapsed. What a day! If it wasn’t enough to have to dress her snotty relatives up as if they were queens, clean the floors until they shone, and then get herself ready, to be forced to beg a ride on a cart, to arrive late, and then to not be able to remember her own *name* when the prince asked her to dance alone beneath the stars… Then, oh, that horrible fall!
It’d be better to forget the whole day.
Dawn came too swiftly for Elle, but took an eternity for his highness.
“I hereby announce that there shall be a race… in my kingdom tomorrow evening. Whichever lady complete a hundred yards cobblestone in heels quickest becomes my bride!” he shouted to the masses gathered below.
It was met with mixed opinion. Men cheered, the women threw putrid fruit.
“Gregory, are you right of mind?” his mother asked him as he turned around to come back indoors.
“Quite,” he answered. “It’s simple. My love ran faster in heels than I can run myself, so naturally…”
“Mother, I know what I am doing,” he reassured her.
Less than a dozen women of the kingdom arrived for the footrace, and half of them actually wanted to break their ankles. Arrainged marriages the next day can make girls do silly things...
Elle, actually, happened to be walking past the castle on an errand. Limping, more like when she spotted the mound of pumps prepared and set at the finish line for the "thousands of eager participants" of the day's competition.
"Shoes!" she cried, and ran to the scene. She had barely been able to put them on and admire herself then Gregory came running.
"You! You there!"
"...I steal nothing!" she pleaded, and tried to expalin her interest in the footwear.
"No, calm yourself, you are my solemate!"
"Soulmate?" Elle whispered. Could it be true? Did he recognize her?
"You heard me, 'SOLE-mate!' That's what I said."
Elle blinked.
"Bounded by the same shoe..." he held up the diamond-heeled pump.
"My... my shoe!"
"Then the wedding is tonight!"
Overcome with confusion, Elle tried to pace to figure out what had just happened, but her cut feet hurt her.
"You're injured?!"
"Not at all," she tried to cover, "it's... always been so."
Gregory fumed. "CHEAT! Did you or did you not just race?"
"I did not, my lord," she mumbled through tears, too stunned to be rejected such a cute guy to even tell him that it was she who danced with him the night before. "But what does it matter?"
"It matters all," he shot back at her, "you liar."
(more to come)
Her sister was equally stunning after careful preparation. Her gold tresses framed her beautifully pale visage, highlighted by sapphire eyes. She was joyfully plump, so the corset was snug, but the effect was brilliant. She wore baby blue cut in the latest fashion. Pearls lightly swung at her earlobes as she laughed; she knew that she would be the ultimate belle of the ball.
Singularly, the sisters would have been a treasure to behold, but together - no beauty had ever before been concentrated in one place; surely it would be a chore to decide which was more lovely.
Their ride was right on time. They mounted, set themselves lightly on the velvet, and arranged the flowing gowns to prevent wrinkling. The carriage swept them away into the twilight, and the sisters giggled all the way to the banquet hall as they envisioned how different life would be after this one pivotal night.
Of course, the food was mouth-watering, the orchestra talented, the ladies polished, but the main attraction this evening was Gregory. After all, the hidden motive tonight for each woman was to ensnare his majesty in hopes of gaining the throne and living happily ever after.
The sister in green was first to score a dance partner. As she dipped past her sister in blue, she shot a smug glance to the obviously envious potential princess. Even though the man she waltzed with wasn’t the prince, perhaps this small win would be a foreshadowing of the rest of the evening. Hopefully, she thought.
Jealously flowed through the hall like water. With so much was at stake, it was getting hard to maintain composure when some wench in red kept monopolizing Gregory’s attention… The sister in blue had torn her handkerchief into small shreds on the table.
As the great clock struck nine, the tall hall doors silently opened, and an elegant latecomer slipped in nearly unnoticed. She didn’t remain so unnoticed, however. She quickly caught every eye because she was clad in white-hot silver. The gown draped softly around her sculpted shoulders, met at her waist, and fell gracefully to the floor in a stylish train. At every seam were sewn tiny diamonds. She sparkled like the night sky, and was just as silent. Her hair was between gold and milky brown and was arranged to set off a diamond tiara that circled her forehead. Her green, inquisitive doe-eyes floated around the hall, taking in her surroundings as if she had never been to a party in her life. Odd to say the least, but that didn’t detract from her innate attractiveness.
Her mouth, shaped into a cute cupid’s bow, whispered to the servant at the door. He nodded respectfully and left, probably to attend to her carriage outside. There was something strange about this girl, no doubt. She was competition. Tough competition.
Gregory was intrigued by this stranger. He approached the sister in green, asking her if she knew this goddess.
“She might as well be a servant, I do not know her name,” the green sister replied, with a covert attempt to sabotage her competitor.
It didn’t work.
“She’s magic,” Gregory whispered.
The sister in green snorted. She made one last attempt to deter him, “She looks like my maid. Typical servant girl, wouldn’t you agree?”
But Gregory had already departed, and was slowly making his way across the dance floor towards her.
“By the king’s beard! Didn’t he even look at me?”
It was time for drastic action; the sisters engaged in an elaborate attempt to figure out the strange girl’s identity. No one seemed to know her, and all hated her for her graceful beauty.
What was this? Gregory left the dance floor? And where was the mysterious lady? It was worse than they thought. The sister in blue swore – most unladylike! But something had to be done. They followed him to the gardens.
“…I cannot tell you my name” they overheard, “It’s a difficult question.”
“Surely, you mush have some name I may call you! What shall I whisper in my dreams if I do not know your name?”
“Call me Lady then, if you must.”
“Then Lady it is. Lady is my destiny. Lady owns the stars in the sky; Lady owns my very heart!”
“You flatter me!”
“Hardly does you justice! You protest, love?”
“You call me ‘love’ so soon? Would you throw around that word as if it were wine? Matters of the heart are not to be taken lightly. Do not call me ‘love’ yet, for I am but your acquaintance.”
The sisters, hidden in the shadows, breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she did not know that he was to chose his bride tonight – Maybe she did not know that the ladies, themselves included, would die to be called ‘love’ by the crown prince… If she would reject him, then they would have a chance still.
“Beautiful, intelligent… Lady, I grow more fond of you each second. I - ”
“Are those bells I hear?”
“Lady, I ask you, no, I beg, please - ”
“Midnight! Alas!” and Lady took off into the night, lightly raising the front of her gown as she ran directly towards the sisters’ hiding place. An evil thought came to the girl in green, and her foot sprang out to meet the fleeing woman. Clumsy! She spilled to the stone walkway. So much for grace and tact!
Lady pulled herself up again, limping away into the darkness.
“What an impudent little thing! She didn’t just run from you, did she?”
Gregory seemed close to tears. “She did.” He picked up the diamond and silver shoe left behind on the walk.
“And to think, she would have been queen a moment ago.” The girl in blue laughed. “What a poor choice for royalty!”
Gregory was livid. “…You eavesdrop?”
“Er, no, your majesty, we were out for air and - ”
His sadness sprung to anger. “You spy on the prince? How dare you! Leave immediately, you… you vermin, before I send the guards to remove you from my sight permanently!”
“Y-your highness…”
“OUT!”
Gregory sunk into a depression for days. He had always been accustomed to strict, unquestioning obedience, but he barely got a name from the girl before she left him.
…She left him.
He couldn’t quite comprehend that. In the middle of a proposal, of all things, she jumps up and leaves him alone with nothing but a shoe. He fingered it lightly now. It was made of silver fabric and, how remarkable, it had a diamond heel so clear that he saw his own palm beneath it, slightly distorted. Distorted was how he felt just then, his emotions stretched all out of proportion and turned upside down.
He resolved to find her; his only joy was in the hope that she would reappear as magically as she appeared at the banquet.
Elle returned home of foot, and the snares, brambles and sharp stones that paved the road back to her home cut her feet horribly. Her dress, all but ruined now, was bought off of an old lady on e-bay for a handful of cursed beans. It was worn only once before by a girl who, although less than alive, still found a prince to wed. If this dress was that lucky, who knows, maybe scarfoot Elle might be able to find herself a good pig herder. She laughed.
Her shoes were a lucky find, though. She found them in a dungeon-sale last spring. Apparently, the princess had fallen asleep for a hundred years, woken back up, and realized that her shoes were out of fashion, so she sold them. A pity they were too small to be comfortable. But Elle loved shoes! She collected them in scores. Too bad she didn’t have a pair with her for the long walk home.
When Elle finally reached her house, she collapsed. What a day! If it wasn’t enough to have to dress her snotty relatives up as if they were queens, clean the floors until they shone, and then get herself ready, to be forced to beg a ride on a cart, to arrive late, and then to not be able to remember her own *name* when the prince asked her to dance alone beneath the stars… Then, oh, that horrible fall!
It’d be better to forget the whole day.
Dawn came too swiftly for Elle, but took an eternity for his highness.
“I hereby announce that there shall be a race… in my kingdom tomorrow evening. Whichever lady complete a hundred yards cobblestone in heels quickest becomes my bride!” he shouted to the masses gathered below.
It was met with mixed opinion. Men cheered, the women threw putrid fruit.
“Gregory, are you right of mind?” his mother asked him as he turned around to come back indoors.
“Quite,” he answered. “It’s simple. My love ran faster in heels than I can run myself, so naturally…”
“Mother, I know what I am doing,” he reassured her.
Less than a dozen women of the kingdom arrived for the footrace, and half of them actually wanted to break their ankles. Arrainged marriages the next day can make girls do silly things...
Elle, actually, happened to be walking past the castle on an errand. Limping, more like when she spotted the mound of pumps prepared and set at the finish line for the "thousands of eager participants" of the day's competition.
"Shoes!" she cried, and ran to the scene. She had barely been able to put them on and admire herself then Gregory came running.
"You! You there!"
"...I steal nothing!" she pleaded, and tried to expalin her interest in the footwear.
"No, calm yourself, you are my solemate!"
"Soulmate?" Elle whispered. Could it be true? Did he recognize her?
"You heard me, 'SOLE-mate!' That's what I said."
Elle blinked.
"Bounded by the same shoe..." he held up the diamond-heeled pump.
"My... my shoe!"
"Then the wedding is tonight!"
Overcome with confusion, Elle tried to pace to figure out what had just happened, but her cut feet hurt her.
"You're injured?!"
"Not at all," she tried to cover, "it's... always been so."
Gregory fumed. "CHEAT! Did you or did you not just race?"
"I did not, my lord," she mumbled through tears, too stunned to be rejected such a cute guy to even tell him that it was she who danced with him the night before. "But what does it matter?"
"It matters all," he shot back at her, "you liar."
(more to come)