Before a Once Upon A Time

The 'Princess' and the Assassin...Er...Pea - The Princess and The 'Princess'

Story 4: The ‘Princess’ and the Assassin…Er…Pea.

Part 1 - The Princess and The ‘Princess’

Yeah. That title’s okay. Yeah. Perfectly normal. Nothing wrong with it in the least bit. Okay. Moving on.

In this world there is a certain nation that is full of warriors. Of course, everyone has normal jobs like being a chef or a farmer or a doctor but everyone-young and old, weak and strong, rich and poor-everyone can fight. The country has no army because they never feel the need to invade any other country (They are self sustaining) and no one ever dares invade them because well, everyone can fight.

The only problem was, well, there was a giant army from a far away land that was coming to kill them. Because they thought it was fun to take over small countries and enslave them. This didn’t sound fun to the people of this country, understandably. So they needed an alliance. A powerful alliance. An alliance that would make those creepy enslaving foreigners think twice about enslaving them, or even trying to.

 Not that they couldn’t withstand the attack. They could. But they didn’t want to. If everyone’s a soldier, anyone can be a casualty- including children. In fact, especially children. And the people wanted to prevent the loss of friends and family on home soil as much as possible.

The only way to secure an alliance strong enough that the mystery country threatening them (I say mystery country but that’s really because there are so many countries in so many worlds that my head would pop if I remembered them all. So, call it whatever you want. I don’t care. View mystery country as insert name here and put what ever country name you want there. Go ahead. I give you permission. I’m just not going to.) was to enter a marriage alliance with a country the mystery country would respect.  This home country (Let’s call it Rain, since I don’t know it’s name either.), Rain, had only one heir to the throne, a girl named Laurel (They didn’t have more children because if everyone can fight then and everyone can earn a living, boy and girl children are equally valuable and in fact, girls are more so because they can easily be used to form marriage alliances with other countries because even if they already have a love, the girl goes to live in the country of her husband so she will not see them again and the parents no longer have to support her. Because of this, they didn’t need another child, even if it was male. Not that they didn’t try. But they only got one. And they are thankful for what they have.)

Since the princess was the only princess, they couldn’t really afford to endanger her life-after all, if she died, who would take her place? The royal family had been stewing on this problem since the moment that their daughter was born and the answer was very convenient and easy-another baby girl was born the next day, one with similar features to the baby Laurel, even if she wasn’t exactly the same and came from a servant family. So the two were raised together and when the pressing time came that they needed an alliance, they sent this body-double, this fill-in princess to take her place and form the alliance.

*So really, this story isn’t the princess’s at all. It’s the ‘princess’s’. But we’re not going to be that literal. Maybe. I don’t know. I haven’t told the rest of the story yet and I don’t know my own future-another thing to ponder… what will my future be in just a second…I know! I get back on track and finish telling the story!

The eyes looking back at Marie from the mirror were not her own. That was to be expected after all- the fairies were very good at what they did. Still, it was a little freaky to see the eyes she had always seen growing up moving and responding when she moved and looked. They were even a different color than her actual eyes-green instead of the aquamarine color of her own.

Even though Marie had often stepped into Laurel’s skin before it was always more imperfect, showing more of herself through the magic-because it was to be viewed at a distance. This makeup, this spell was meant to be viewed close up, at any time of night or day, any time she might be seen for weeks. It had to withstand water and rain and fire and ice because any of those might touch her and it would be bad if her face fell off because of it. She was, in effect, not herself as long as this makeup was on.

All of this for a stupid marriage. A stupid marriage that the princess was perfectly happy with and Marie was not. What was wrong with her princess? Did she not care that her life was going to be forever in danger in this country? That this country was so far from home she would probably visit every ten years if that? That Marie would still be enlisted as a member of the protective services of the country of Rain and not be allowed to stay in the country of Trine (Another made up name, so you can change this one when you read it too. Like one of those fill in the blank books, this story has become. I sound old. Or like Yoda. Do you know who Yoda is? I don’t know what world you’re from. Ugh.) Marie was sad and happy, terrified and thrilled. Her friend was leaving her so she was sad. But Laurel was her friend so she should be happy for her fortune. Terrified because it was her job to capture that fortune for the princess-they couldn’t send their princess to a foreign country where at any point she could easily be assassinated could they? Of course not! And of course thrilled-this would be her  first journey outside of Rain in years-ever since she was taken on a royal visit to another country as Laurel’s double since she had been sick that day.

Marie sighed, then batted her lashes at herself, folded her arms, tapped her foot, sat in a lady like way and generally acted as though she were going about a normal day without moving from the room. She needed to be so used to her appearance that she would not stare at herself if presented with the opportunity for it was very unladylike to do so. And since she was the ‘princess’ and the members of the other country would not know she was not the real thing, she could not be unladylike. Marie almost wished she had paid more attention to the lessons they had both been given that were geared more towards Laurel with proper etiquette and grammar and what was ladylike and not, all easily spelled out.

Marie sighed, blinked at herself (Good, she was thinking of it as herself. That would help her act) and turned towards the door before the minister had even touched it. When he entered, she stood still so he could walk around her and check the fairies handiwork.

“Good, actually. This hair color is a little too brown but it could work. The people probably won’t notice the difference, honestly.”

She twirled in the skirt-highly hindering and irritating, if she did say so herself. How did normal girls where these things? They were so…Ugh! (Though twirling them is fun no matter who you are) She sat down on it with a sigh.

“Are you rethinking agreeing, Mar- ah…princess?”

She shook her head. She knew it was her duty to do this but why did it have to be so darn boring? She hated dresses and court intrigue and well-everything about the life of a royal, if she was honest. It was so irritating! Who wanted to do this? Who wanted to memorize all the place setting and polite ways of greeting people and ways of sighing and sipping and nibbling and munching and crying and sighing and laughing, no, giggling and smiling and waving and trying to survive desperately without the ability to show it?

She made an annoyed noise through her nose and sighed again. Well. She guessed that person was about to be her. Or, at least she was going to act like that person was her. Because for the next few weeks there would be no happiness of her own-it would be the princess’s happiness. All her troubles would be the princess’s troubles so she must be careful not to create any. Anything and everything she did was to become the princess’s in this time period that Marie was Laurel. And so, Marie must strive for perfection so that the princess’s name is not sullied.

And due to this, Marie’s main thought was-Life sucks sometimes. A lot. It sucks a lot sometimes.  And this became her mantra as she started off that day, ambassador guiding a princess to a foreign country, not uncommon but still strange for a warrior country.