[Discontinued*] The Darling Princess [A Twisted Wonderland Fanfic]

Chapter 14

The metal was hot beneath her fingers, the gloves hardly doing anything to protect her hands from the heat of the forge. The pump of the bellows sang a rough tune, along with the crackling of the fireplace. She lifted a gloved wrist to her brow, wiping away the sweat that was pooling there and cooking her forehead like lava.

"Princess," a voice asked, coming to the door of the forge. 

"Hello, Your Highness," she replied, pulling a long strip of black metal from the forge and bringing it over to the anvil where her hammer lay, ready to pound the metal into the correct shape.

"I thought I told you not to call me that."

"And yet you still call me princess." There was no disguising the joking tone in her voice. It was as obvious as day that he only called her that as a nickname. Any other time, he would use her actual name, unless they were in the presence of their families. 

"Your mother and father have asked me to come and retrieve you from the forge."

She sighed, picking up the hammer with one hand and turning the handle over a few times. Her parents had never approved of her hammering away her days in the forge, listening to the crash of stone against metal, and the sound of the sizzling water. It was no secret that her parents would much rather her take up tasks such as penmanship or embroidery like they thought all of her lady friends did. Little did they know, that in the dark shadows around the castle, her friends also sought out their hobbies such as swordplay and archery. She also enjoyed things such as these, but as the Princess of the kingdom, she had no choice but to lay down that which she enjoyed and succumb to the lifestyle that her parents wished for her to follow.

"Of course they sent you," she sighed. With a bang, the hammer came down upon the metal, leaving a dent in the side. Another bang came almost straight after, making another identical dent on the side of the metal. "Please tell my mother that I have been requested to complete this by House Crow so that they may have a proper chandelier for their dining room. I will not be able to leave this forge until I have finished my task. It is to be finished by tonight."

The prince sighed, but chuckled good-naturedly, and shrugged off the snow-white cloak that he had been wearing. He cast it aside onto one of the fences near the front of the forge, and hopped over, rolling up his sleeves and pulling on one of the many leather aprons.

"Oh? Is the prince wishing to soil his hands with something other than wooing the many ladies of the court?"

He smirked and elbowed the princess in the side as he approached, taking another long strip of metal in his hands and placing it into the forge.

"You know that I love the forge as much as you do, Princess. I am not afraid of the soot and ash that may stain my clothes."

The princess chuckled and swung the hammer again. "Nor, does it seem, that you are frightened of what your parents, or my parents for that matter, might say when we return home much past what they expected of us."

The prince cast a boyish smirk over his shoulder. "No, Princess. I am not afraid of them."

As he turned back to his place by the fire, the princess let out a small sigh. 'You are something else, Prince Merid.' But, she quickly resumed her work and continued pounding away at the chandelier's arm.

. . . 

Y/N fell back in shock, the shards of crystal flying away from her hands and scattering across the ground in front of her. Her chest was heaving, and a thousand strands of hair had fallen in front of her eyes, concealing the twisted metal figure of the chandelier. Who was that in the forge? Was it the master craftsman that Crowley had spoken of? Was it the creation of this chandelier?