Little Princess

Pictures

Characters in this chapter-
Queen Belladonna- Werewolf Queen

*Nymeria's P.O.V*

I decided to go on a walk around the garden shortly after, if only to have a reason as to why my cheeks were so red. The sun was almost blinding with how bright it was. I ended up sitting under one of the willow trees that littered the grounds, curled up in the shade.

My head was resting against the trunk of the tree, my eyes closed as I drummed my fingers on my legs. I was admittedly not in the best mood at the moment, I don't think anyone would be when they were cramping and bleeding. My periods were rather irregular so I hadn't been able to predict when it would happen so I was rather caught off guard when I went to the bathroom earlier.

"Nymeria," I was drawn out of my thoughts by the familiar voice of Queen Belladonna and it took all my willpower to not startle. My cheeks immediately darkened with a blush as I opened my eyes, trying to ignore the fact that she knew I had an accident.

"Why do you all insist on startling me?" I jokingly asked as I stood up, noticing that she was holding a strange device in her hands. It was a boxy device that I had never seen before in my life. Queen Belladonna noticed where I was looking and looked down at the device with a small smile.

"This is a camera, I figured you might want to see one," she said simply. It took a moment before I remembered what a camera was.

"The thing that can take sketches with color?" I asked, just to clarify. She nodded and certainly had my attention now.

"Would you like me to show you how it works?" Queen Belladonna asked. I nodded my head fervently which made her laugh at my excitement. "You are absolutely adorable darling," she said before she showed me the camera, letting me look at the back of it. "So you look through this little square to see what you are looking at and click this button on top to take the photo. A little card type thing will come out of the bottom of it and will develop into a picture if you shake it for a couple minutes," she explained. It sounded kind of complicated to me.

"Can you show me?" I asked, the excitement obvious in my voice. She nodded as she lifted the camera up to her face and there was a soft click before a little card thing slid out of the bottom of the camera. She grabbed it and shook it for a couple minutes before handing it to me. I looked at it curiously, still kind of surprised to see myself standing in the picture.

"Would you like to try it now?" Queen Belladonna offered me the camera. I took it carefully, letting her adjust my hold before I brought the camera up to my eye. "Close the eye that isn't looking through the little square," she instructed. I did as she said and I was surprised when the camera focused on her in front of me. I clicked the button, hearing the little picture slide out. I grabbed the picture and shook it, noticing that it was rather tiring to do repeatedly.

"I did it," I said proudly when I looked at the picture. It wasn't as good as the one she took, it was kind of blurry but it was the first photo I had ever taken.

"You did a very good job," Queen Belladonna praised, making my heart flutter happily. "You know that you stick your tongue out when you are focusing?" she questioned and I nodded my head slightly.

"I always have, Castien teases me about it all the time," I answered honestly.

"Well it's very cute," Queen Belladonna said. "There should be enough film in the camera if you would like to take a few more pictures," she informed me before she went to leave.

"Would you like to accompany me around the garden?" I asked suddenly, making her turn to face me. Her eyebrow was raised slightly at my sudden question and I flushed under her gaze. "Just in case I need help taking pictures," I clarified as I looked down at the ground.

"I would love to accompany you," Queen Belladonna answered. I smiled slightly as I led her to the gardens, watching her reaction. The gardens were mine, I had planted them all when I was younger and spent a lot of time watching them grow so I really wanted her to like them for some reason.

"Your gardens are beautiful," Queen Belladonna said when I paused to take a picture. I had taken two already and she had offered to hold onto them for me.

"Thank you, I try to make sure they remain in top shape," I answered after I took the picture. "They're my favorite place within the castle walls, the dog kennels are after it," I stated.

"You have dogs?" Queen Belladonna asked, sounding mildly intrigued. I only just remembered that she was a werewolf so I wondered how she felt about dogs.

"They are technically the castle's guard dogs but I also have some stray mutts that wander the ground since we feed them scraps," I informed her. "You'll probably hear them tonight, the guards usually play with them at night since it helps keep them awake," I said.

"I will keep an eye out for them then," Queen Belladonna said. Whatever else she was going to say was cut off by the church bell ringing. It always rang each day on the hour and the fact it rang six times in a row meant that it was now dinnertime.

"It's six o'clock, that means dinner is going to be served shortly," I informed her.

"Would you like to accompany me?" Queen Belladonna asked, making my eyes widen. Technically if she hadn't invited me to accompany her, I would have to let her head back in the castle first and would only be allowed to follow her inside after a couple minutes had passed. Now that she had invited me to accompany her, I was to walk next to her and keep her company. I thought the etiquette of it all was stupid but I would never tell anyone that.

"I would love to," I answered quickly, a small smile on my lips.

"Lovely," Queen Belladonna replied as she held out her hand slightly. I looked at her in confusion for a moment before handing over her camera, making her lips quirk up into a small smile as she switched it to her other hand which was still carefully holding the pictures I took. "I'm trying to hold your hand sweet girl," she said.

My cheeks flushed at the nickname and I looked away quickly, trying to hide the blush on my cheeks. I hesitantly took her hand, her fingers interlacing my gently. She rubbed small circles on the back of my hand with her thumb as we walked back to the castle.