Princess Pupa (REWRITTEN)

Two

Hours later, Pupa sat in the garden, gazing at the mountains that acted as a wall around the kingdom. This wall had restricted her from exploring the outside world her whole life. Her entire universe was based in this one place.

This was the same spot where she had repeatedly asked her mother why she could never leave her home. "The outside doesn't welcome us," was her answer every time. Then, Chrysalis would smile and say, "Besides, we have all we need right here. What more could you want?"

Pupa would be satisfied with that answer for about a week, but she always came back for more.

Now, here she was, gazing off into the distance, watching Changelings wander around the bustling suburbs of Shift-Shape City. She longed to have a friend to talk to, besides her cousin. Buzzy was nice at times, but she was, well, Buzzy. Cousins could only do so much for her.

Pupa wanted to see sights, to have crazy adventures, to find love, though she would never admit so out loud. Buzzy would never let her live it down if she wished for a man like some dumb, pink princess in a Disney movie; more teasing from her would certainly give Pupa the motivation to take someone's head off.

Pupa longed to have an equal, and even though she knew it wasn't very likely, she hoped she could someday find someone who was kind, caring and truly loved her as much as she loved them. She let out a forlorn sigh, knowing her future lay here in the kingdom. She was fated to marry a man she didn't love, and she knew she would never be allowed to leave her walls.

Looking out past the mountain ranges bordering her home, she could see the green dome that covered the valley, and shielding it from unwanted attention. Hexed with a simple distraction spell, anybody who approached it would immediately think it was dangerous and would turn back. Nobody came in, nobody went out.

After a while, Pupa heard the growing sound of gentle wings whirring from behind her. Ugh. Sometimes she wished she had a protective dome that warded off people. So far that day, everybody wanted to talk to her. First her parents, then some of the dukes, now what? Venom?

"You have three seconds to go away before I chop off the protruding parts of your body," she snapped, still facing the horizon.
"Wow. You must really be pissed about that toothbrush," came the melodic noise of her cousin's voice.

Pupa whipped her head around to face Buzzy, who was leaning against a dark grey gazebo railing. "Oh, it's just you," Pupa sighed with relief. She was one of the few people she trusted enough to speak freely with. Buzzy flew towards Pupa, then stopped around 5 feet away from her, hovering. The vibrating sound her wings made when she flew was what earned her the nickname Buzzy.

Her real name was Buzzina, but after years of begging her mother to change it, it was shortened to Buzzy and the nickname stuck. Buzzy looked from side to side, checking if someone was eavesdropping. It wouldn't be the first time a nosy servant tried to listen in on the royal's conversations.

Once satisfied that there was nobody watching her, she lowered herself to the ground, and toed the dirt with her shoe. She opened her mouth to speak, to comfort her cousin, but she closed it after a few minutes. Pupa snapped, "If you want to say something, just spit it out."
"Sorry," Buzzy mumbled. "I just didn't know what to say." Pupa turned to her cousin, embracing her in a hug. Buzzy hugged back, squeezing her slightly.

Ever since her parents, Queen Chrysalis's little sister Princess Honeycomb, and her husband, General Thorax, died from a sudden outbreak of Mirage Pox, Buzzy had found an older sister in Pupa.

Mirage Pox made the sick person violently ill, with usual bad flu symptoms in the beginning. The next stage was plaguing them with wild illusions and hallucinations that made them go insane, hence the name of the illness.

Then, just before death, the people would shake so horribly they became distorted and hazy, like a mirage, before fading out of existence entirely, not even leaving a body to bury. Once caught, no one could survive it.

The plague had spread through the kingdom quickly, and the castle staff soon became infected. Pupa and Buzzy had avoided it, luckily, but Buzzy's parents weren't so lucky. They eventually had to be locked away in an asylum when they boiled a servant to death in the kitchen, and they died there.

That was when Queen Chrysalis had issued the ban on leaving the valley. She didn't want anything that happened to her dear sister to happen to her family, or any of her subject's families.

"Pupa?" asked Buzzy quietly. "Yeah? What is it," Pupa answered softly. "What's going to happen when your dad picks a suitor?" Pupa sighed, putting a hand on her shorter cousin's head. "I honestly don't know," she whispered.