The Darling and Brave Princess

Chapter 8: Destiny?

A/N: Hello, everyone! I, CheriKeys, am back from Spring Break. That means I will now continue writing. To compensate everyone about my weeklong leave, I wrote this extra long chapter. It's about 1000 words, so please enjoy. I'm pretty sure a lot of you will enjoy the ending. Take care everyone!

Dexter's P.O.V

Chase came for dinner at 5:30 PM, but since dinner was not yet ready father decided to give him a tour of the house. Personally, I believed it was to show off, but I decided to keep quiet. "And here's the rose garden," boasted father.

Chase compliments the roses' colors and continuously states that we have a beautiful home. Mother stayed behind father and kept saying how Chase was such a nice boy. I looked at Darling, she seemed happy that father was treating Chase nicely. To be honest, I wished Chase never existed. He was dating my little sister, my sister! (We're twins, but Darling is younger)

"Don't forget tomorrow is spring cleaning," reminded mother after Chase left.

Daring grinned, "Mother, nothing in my room is dirty."

"What about all the burnt stuff?" Darling teased, "Your smile burns it."

Father gave Darling a glare, "Darling, apologize now."

Darling looked down and mumbled out a, "Sorry."

It was obvious our parents favored Daring. It got annoying most of the times, so Darling and I teased Daring for fun. It always ended with us apologizing, but we got a good laugh out of it.

Darling's P.O.V.

Spring cleaning, great, am I right? I disliked spring cleaning a lot. That meant whatever knight-ish stuff I hid would be discovered. After almost being caught with Dexter's golden dagger under my mattress, I started burying my things a week in advance. That way the soil would look normal and I would seem like a perfect Charming. Maids started vacuuming as soon as breakfast, Daring returned to his room and started discarding his burnt items. Dexter organized his many book. Father could not join us because he had to organize a gala that was happening in two days. Mother was with maids creating a keep and toss bin. I walked into her room finding my mother handing a maid a large box labeled, "Ever After High". Her fiery red hair was in a tight bun, and she wore a teal gown with swirling gold accents all around. "Get rid of this immediately," she ordered at Petra, a maid.

Petra nods, "Yes, my queen."

"Lupe! There's another box!" yelled my mother and Lupe came rushing in.

Lupe answers, "On it."

I followed the maids and quickly stopped them at a corridor. "May I see the boxes please?"

Lupe said, "I am sorry, Princess Darling, but Her Majesty told us to dispose of these two boxes as soon as possible."

I smile, "There are probably more boxes, I'll take these."

"Princess, we can not possibly let you carry such objects," Petra says with a worried tone.

"Oh, do not worry about me. I'll take a trolley and get rid of them for you. Princesses must be kind and helpful after all," I reasoned.

Lupe and Petra sigh and finally give in. They bring a trolley with the boxes and hands them to me. "You truly are kind," Lupe sighs.

Petra adds, "And helpful. Thank you, princess."

"No, thank you. You've been great helpers for my princess practice."

The maids hurry off and I quickly push the trolley to my room, and lock the door. I remove the lid of the first box and find a Charmed Yearbook. I rapidly flip through the pages. My mother wouldn't want to get rid of this stuff. It carved destiny, something she supported, so why throw it all away? I flip through the pages of students' pictures. They were all categorized by their destiny stories.

Finally, I reach it, "The Charming Princess." I scour through the pictures trying to find my mother's. Instead of finding Meri Dunbroch, I see Breathtaking Charming, my aunt. She smiled in the picture with her blonde hair tied back in a fishtail braid. She wore a dark blue skirt with a golden belt and a dark blue top with a white strip in the center. Inside the stripe seemed to be light gray branches and flowers. She also had on a golden tiara with flowers made of jewels. "It can't be," I say to myself, "If my mother isn't the Charming Princess, then what's her destiny?"

I started flipping through the pages until I find her. Since the story categories are ordered by popularity, my mother's story was in the back. I was shocked to see my mother's teenage self. She looked so different. Instead of her usually tight bun, my mother had fiery red curls. She wore a teal dress with small embroidered arrows, and she slung a leather arrow sling (where you put your arrows) over her shoulders. In her arms was a wooden bow that princes used. The jewelry she wore was a silver bear pendant and a silver barrette with an arrow. Her final piece of jewelry was silver bear head earrings. This could not be the queen I knew, she looked just like her, yet everything about her was different. She looked wild and adventurous, somewhat like me. The look in her eyes matched mine, a confident, secretive and adventurous person who longed to change the norm about women. I looked at the story's title, "The Brave Princess";

Questions floated through my mine, they overwhelmed me, so I threw the yearbook away from me. After recovering from the shock, I took another look at the yearbook. Instead of saying, "Meri Dunbroch" it read, "Merida Dunbroch";

What was going on? What other secrets did my mother hide? How could I not have heard of this story? Why did was it gone from the public? Was it a lost tale that ceased to be read? Is this my destiny?