Once Upon A Princess

24: Fairy Tales

The library, of all places?, The Crown Prince of Gell thought as he watched the Princess of Avenor. He wasn't one for leering, usually, but he found that approaching the young girl seemed, well, complicated.

It had been a week since the first ball of the season, and with so many plans in place for the rest of the year, Castiel found that he had little free time. So little, in fact, he'd barely spoken to their guest. When he'd finally found some time, he'd found her harder to track down than he'd anticipated. Apparently, the palace guards were having a hard time doing their job, as they didn't seem to bother guarding her.

And it took too long to find someone who knew where she spent her time. Was no one in his family spending time with the princess? His mother had mentioned she'd had a few hallway conversations with her, and they all made small talk at meals, but was that it? They were doing a poor job of hosting a royal guest. Especially a guest of their friendliest country.

It turned out that servants were his best way to track her patterns. His valet had talked to a couple of maids who said they often saw the princess in the library, and that's exactly where she was.

She sat at a table amongst the dark wood shelves, picking a more uncomfortable place than the cushioned alcoves sitting in the large bay windows. It had been a sunny day, and the library was warm and pleasantly quiet. The sunlight, just now descending, was shining in through the windows. The whole room was awash with light, nearly too bright to see anything. It was easy to see Amelia though, with her hair like fire. Her dress was simple, a muddled brown with only one accent: a small, dark blue gem set by her throat. She was barefoot, her knees pressed to her chest and hands hugging her legs. It was not the proper way to sit, but Castiel got the impression she didn't care. One of her guards, the woman, was standing just behind her, looking watchful.

When the prince entered, taking care to make his presence known, the princess didn't look up from the book she had sitting on the table. Her guard acknowledged his presence with a formal bow. She didn't call his entrance to her charge's attention. Perhaps not to disturb her? Well, it didn't matter. He could do the disturbing.

He sat down at the table across from her, careful to scrape the chair across the floor to call attention to himself again. At first Princess Amelia did nothing, still staring down at her book. When she finally looked up and saw just who it was, she unwrapped herself slowly, almost lazily. Once she was finally in a normal sitting position (back straight, feet touching the floor) she greeted him.

"Evening, Prince Castiel."

He set an arm around the back of his chair, waving her off. "There's no need to call me 'prince' anymore. Just Castiel is fine."

She shrugged. "If you say so."

He leaned over, eyes cast down at the pages. The words were big, the pages weathered. "What are you reading?"

She furrowed her brows together, looking down at the pages herself. "It's a fairytale. A Gellish one."

"Oh," he said, because he hadn't expected her to be reading something so childish. It reminded him starkly just how young she really was, though sometimes she seemed mature beyond her years.

He couldn't quite wrap his head around why she'd be reading fairy tales. Perhaps it was to learn more about the culture? If so, then his family was really doing a poor job teaching her. She shouldn't have to turn to childhood myths to learn about the country.

That could be the reason for her spending so much time in the library. Maybe she had spent much of her time there in Avenor, and it was a familiar place in a foreign land. And she could teach herself about Gell. Yeesh.