━━ ⦗the swan princess! ⦘
❝ you're beautiful!
thank you, but what else?
... what else is there? ... ❞
███████████ 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝
the courageous odette teaches the
once and future king a less...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter nine! 009. cursed river
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃
ODETTE TRIEDnot to cry. But in the end, as she saw her best friend behind the dungeon bars, locked in chains and preparing to be executed, she couldn't stop the sobs that raked through her body. The young girl sat, leant up against the iron grating with her fingers clutched around the bars, as if trying her hardest to pull them away. But it was albeit useless. The King wouldn't change his mind, Odette didn't have the power to destroy the bars and Guinevere▬the kindest and most caring soul any of them would ever know, would be killed for a crime she never committed.
"It's okay," mumbled Gwen from inside the dungeon. She sat forward as far as she could, but she couldn't make it to the door, tugged back by the iron cladded around her wrists.
Odette shook her head miserably, "No," she said in the same broken tone, "no, it's not..."
Guinevere pursed her lips, her own cheeks blotched from tears that had long dried away▬she held no more tears left to cry. And now she looked defeated and miserable, not at all the same bright and happy girl she has always been. "It will be okay," she said. "You'll be okay. You ... there's no need to cry about it."
The young handmaiden faced the girl who had found her there, under the castle shadow and gave her a second chance▬who went out of her way to persuade Morgana to take her under her wing, to pass over food most mornings and make sure she had clothes to keep her warm in the winter; an older sister Odette never realised she had until she faced the reality of her death.
Hitching back another sob, Odette said: "There is every need ..."
Guinevere sniffled back the lump in her throat. She fiddled with her fingers, playing with her chipped nails and her calloused tips. "Can you please promise me, Odette," she then muttered and the young girl shook her head. Gwen quickly added, "Y▬you don't have to, but I want you to promise me that ..." she took a deep breath and Odette glanced up, more tears flowing down her forlorn cheeks, "... that you'll keep living. That▬that you won't give up."
She didn't receive the reaction she wanted. Gwen noticed the way Odette's face lit up▬brightening with a determination that she knew where exactly it would lead her. Her tears stopped for a moment and the young handmaiden breathlessly sighed out a plan that might just be her last hope.
Scrambling to her feet, Odette turned to her best friend behind the bars and promised something else: "I won't give up▬I refuse to sit here and watch you die, Guinevere. I am going to get you out of here▬or▬or I'll find someone who can."
And as she rushed off, Guinevere couldn't follow. She struggled at the chains, but could not move an inch to tell her that she was going to disappoint herself▬that Odette only saw naive hope where there should be logic. But yet, part of Gwen couldn't help but want to feel the same; want to think that perhaps, Odette might just prove her wrong.
