Serpent's throne

Chapter 4

The morning sun cast a warm glow over the windows in their house when Vivian woke up to the sound of knocking.

Vivian rubbed her eyes. "Someone's downstairs." She grumbled, as she turned around and realised Nolan had already woken up and was sitting on the bed. Nolan opened the door to their bedroom and went downstairs to check who it was.

Vivian heard muffled sounds of the voice of Nolan and another woman. She wanted to go downstairs and check who it was but she remembered she was still in her pajamas so she locked the door and quickly changed into something more presentable, then went down.

As she walked down the steps with her hair still a little messy as it had only been a few minutes since she woke up, the sound of the female voice got clearer.

"Oh, there you are, Princess Vivian. It's nice to meet you." The lady stood up to greet Vivian when she spotted her walking down. The lady and Nolan were sitting at the common table in the living room. Nolan didn't look like he was very tensed up so Vivian felt more calm about this lady. "I'm Mathilda. I am going to be your housekeeper for how ever long you are staying here." Mathilda said, smiling at Vivian.

"Who are you..? Why do I have a housekeeper?" Vivian asked. Nolan decided to jump into the conversation and told Vivian that Mathilda was hired by her mother. After Vivian heard that, she was intrigued.

"Do you know anything about the necklace of youth?" Vivian asked while sitting down on the chair next to Nolan.

Mathilda cleared her throat. "In sorry, Princess Vivian, I'm not allowed to disclose any information according to your mother. I am just here to clean the house, that's all." Vivian's excitement got lost as she leaned back on the chair and dropped her head back. "I'm sorry, Princess Vivian." Mathilda stood up, bowed, and went around the house to do her job.

"Ugh, what should we do now? I don't even know where to start." Vivian turned her head to the left, facing Nolan. "Well, we can go explore the town we're in for now. Maybe make some new friends?" Nolan suggested. After a minute of staring at the ceiling, Vivian finally agreed.

They left the house and explored the town a little. To be honest, yes, Vivian lived in a kingdom and who doesn't want to? But she was a little jealous. Over there in Navia, no one was kind. It was like even though someone is in the same town as you, your neighbour, even your family, it felt like they were your enemies and everyone was in an unspoken competition to be better but here? This place felt so warm and cozy. The smell of fresh bread wafting through the air, the fact that everyone was friends, no one was staring each other down, just existing will get you welcoming waves and hellos.

Stalls were overcrowded with colourful fruits, spices, and hand-crafted items. As they walked more into the center of town, they realised that there was a crowd, cheering for someone or something. The more they walked through the crowd, they heard this lively tune that caught their attention. A group of musicians were performing near a fountain, playing a melody that seemed to enchant the crowd. It was a band of four. Two guys and two girls. Vivian and Nolan seemed to have been enchanted by the music too, so they decided to stay and listen, even though they were the odd ones out as they were the only ones who weren't singing along.

After the performance, one of the girls among the four approached Vivian and Nolan right before they were about to leave.

"Hi, I can't help but notice you two in the crowd as you guys were the only one without the ring. It's rare seeing foreign- Oh my god, wait, are you... Princess Vivian? Oh gosh. I'm so sorry." The girl, with long red hair that made her stuck out to the crowd. Vivian was shocked, so many things were happening at once. A girl from a band noticed her, then she approached her and started talking about how they were not wearing a ring, then she realised she was a princess, then she started apologising. It was too much for Vivian to take in at once. But the moment Vivian looked at the people around her, she noticed that everyone was wearing a ring. How did she not notice that before?

"No, it's okay." Vivian shook her hand while doing that awkward chuckle-laugh. Now that she remembered she was a princess, she was kind of happy that no one had recognised her other than this girl from a band so far. This all happened while Nolan was just standing beside Vivian, too, shocked at what was happening. "By the way, what do you mean by ring?" Vivian asked the girl.

"Oh, you don't know?" The girl said as a crowd started to form again, trying to talk to her. "Do you want to follow me and my friends, the ones I was singing with just now, to our apartment? I swear we mean no harm, I'm just interested and I'm sure my friends would love to talk to you guys too. Oh and by the way, I'm Elera." Vivian glanced at Nolan, and Nolan glanced at Vivian. They looked skeptical at first, but ended up agreeing to follow them because, what else more do they have to lose, right?