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| St_Winterheart
Posts: 2,225 Status: Lord Karma: 0 [+1] [-1]   |
Subject: CHAPTER 2. Infanta. | |||||
| I sat on top of the east watchtower, watching the last of the day's light vanish behind Oakenber Lake. The reflection of purple and orange clouds shimmered across the undisturbed water, until a lone hawk skimmed the surface and pulled out a fish. I could hear the bird’s sharp cry as it flew away with its catch, done with its last hunt before nightfall. Silence. I sighed. "What do you want, brat?" She jumped back, surprised that she was detected. Hesitating, the princess walked over to where I was, and for a while we stared silently at the lake. "Hey, back there--" the princess began. "You're welcome. " "I--I wasn't going to thank you!" "Then why are you here?" She looked away, indignant. “You are SUCH a wussy.” “…You came all this way just to tell me that?” She stared at the lake again. I sighed. She spoke slowly. "The other infantas we've had, they would usually tell mom that I was a pain in the ass. You were kinda different. So this... feels weird. That's all." I stayed silent. "You know, Nanny says you seem nice, but the chambermaids say you're scary with your swords and all." "Are you scared of me?" I asked. "No." "You should be. I’m a vampire." "That's what you told mom so I'd be scared of you." "Oh really." She nodded. "I bet Mom told everyone to play along." The Queen found me half-dead after a battle with King Blade. She took me in and nursed me back to health, and in the process learned everything about me and what happened to my family. I told them my name. She and her husband, the King WildSaint, could hardly believe me. They said the Winterheart clan was wiped out hundreds of years ago, no survivors. I explained that I escaped with my mother, who eventually died as well. I told them I was a vampire, and I wanted to seek revenge for my family. I don't think they were listening, because the next thing they did was to offer to take me in, no questions asked, to be an Infanta of their daughter. Tired of being alone for 200 years and intrigued by a human couple who were willing to trust a vampire, I accepted the offer. But they set a strange condition: if I ever decide to pursue revenge, I’ll have to leave them. So they were listening after all. I agreed. To avoid potential problems about me being able to go out only at night and not eating human food on a regular basis, the Queen jokingly informed everyone in the castle that she has hired a vampire for an Infanta. Although the Queen's word is never supposed to be taken lightly, nobody believed that she would seriously consider letting such a dangerous creature near her own child. So yes, in a way it was true... everyone was playing along. I realized that the Princess hasn’t pulled off any prank for the past 10 minutes, so that must be a good sign. But she was still noisy as ever. "The last Infanta I had, she tried to scare me saying she was a werewolf. So I took a basin of holy water from the castle chapel and made water balloons. I waited for a full moon and dumped it over her head from my room while she was walking down the garden. It was hysterical. But mom didn’t find it funny." She reminded me of my younger sister of 200 years ago. She does exactly the same thing to our house help, and my mother would be furious AT ME. Of course, It doesn't help that she caught me throwing water balloons as well, and she would lecture the two of us all night about how we should set an example as princesses and future rulers of the Winterheart manor... Our manor, now an empty, burned out shell of what used to be my home... and my sister... she... “You don't know who I am." I replied absent-mindedly. "I know you." She waved the contract in her hand. "I read everything there." She placed it on my lap. "How can you be so sure that what I wrote here weren't lies?" She shrugged. "Why would you lie?" We were silent again. "Why don't you know how to cook?" "I thought my job interview was over." "Mom taught me how to cook noodles when I was eight. I'm ten, so I'm already too grownup for that. I can bake cookies and cakes now. Didn't your mom teach you?" "Why would you care?" "Well—you care about me, so I need to care about you, too." I looked at her, stunned, but quickly looked away. "I don't care about you." I sneered. "You do. You covered for me back there.” For the first time since we met, she wasn’t smirking or raspberrying at me. She was smiling, a no-princessy-frills, earnest smile that can only come from innocent children. “Thank you.” She offered her hand. I forgot I was speaking to the brat I wanted to kill just a few hours ago. I accepted her tiny hand. “You’re welcome.” My life as an Infanta has begun. |
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