Fur

Christopher

"So, you're my mini-me?" a plump woman with a heavy Cockney accent strutted up to Armelle as she entered the kitchen. The kitchen was rather small for the amount of pots and pans making up most of its content.

"Yes, miss," Armelle smiled meekly, ducking under a few pans hanging from the ceiling.

"Well, at least your manners make up for your physical appearance."

Armelle took that as a compliment.

"Well, don't just stand there. Fetch some vegetables from the orchard for tonight's soup! Move along, child!"

Armelle suspected that the woman rather enjoyed bossing her around.

A little while later, Armelle burst through the kitchen door with baskets of hard tomatoes. Shaking off her father's frosty coat, she picked up an apple and was about to take a bite when a hand reached out and suddenly grabbed the shiny fruit.

Armelle was shocked to see someone already there. More like two.

"You must be Chef Lucille's apprentice," one of the two girls smirked, leaning against the kitchen countertop.

These must be the twins thought Armelle.

They were most certainly identical, except one had strawberry blonde curls while the other had dark red curls.

"Yes, miss." Armelle found it easier to call someone else "miss" than to be called "miss".

The girl went on. "Ellie and I have some strict rules when it comes to our meals."

The girl with the apple, Ellie, took a deep bite into Armelle's meal. She snickered at Armelle's drooling expression.

"Yes we do, Vanessa," Ellie nodded as bits of the apple flew out of her mouth.

Vanessa held up a finger. "One: It's never too late for second helpings, even if that means cooking more." She took the finger and poked Armelle. Armelle began to backup.

Ellie piped in. "Two: Never contradict our orders." She noticed Armelle gazing at the half eaten apple. She immediately bit into it again. "Understand??"

Armelle nodded, avoiding the flying apple bits.

"And three," Vanessa continued. She looked down at Armelle's basket of juicy red spheres. "No tomatoes!"

"But Chef Lucille's recipe-" Armelle began.

"No contradicting!!" Vanessa barked, grabbing a perfectly good tomato and throwing it towards Armelle. It hit her square in the heart.

Ellie snorted uncontrollably, and grabbed some tomatoes herself to throw at poor Armelle.

One after the other the arrows kept coming, and all Armelle could do was cower like a stricken beast.

The sisters left after the tomatoes had disappeared from the basket, leaving her on the floor drenched in tomato juice. Armelle's eyes watered, but she couldn't cry. She was too strong to do such a thing. With shaking hands, she took the remnants of Ellie's apple (which was originally hers) and scraped the rest of the fruit off with her teeth.

She crawled up to the door the girls had slammed shut, leaning up against it. Suddenly the door burst open, shoving her forward as someone leapt over her and tumbled to the ground.

Armelle scrambled to her feet. "Oh my -are you alright?"

The person also jumped up, looking around. "Where did they go?"

It was a boy around the same age as Armelle, covered in mud.

He rushed up to Armelle. "Gosh, did they hurt you? I heard them laughing and I knew it wasn't a good sign. But-" He stopped and looked at Armelle's messy face. "How dare they?! Gosh, you must be new! My sisters always do this to newcomers."

Armelle froze. "You're the prince!" she cried, bowing at his feet.

"Oh gosh, come on," he sighed, pulling her back up with his cold clammy hands. "Gosh, don't you know us royalty get uncomfortable when people do that?"

More than you know, thought Armelle.

"Here. Let me fix you up." The prince brushed some tomato juice off her cheek only to replace it with streaks of cool mud.

"Gosh," he laughed.

Armelle touched her cheek and looked at her hand. "What were you doing in the mud anyway? It's freezing out there!"

"I was sitting by the little stream nearby when it started to rain. Not only that, but I heard my sisters in the kitchen. I had been reciting my favorite scenes from Huckleberry Finn. Gosh, you wouldn't know such stories."

"Actually, I do," Armelle murmured. "I do the exact same thing. I've memorized all of the Secret Garden, Little Women, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and more."

"Gosh! What's your name?"

"Armelle. And you?"

"Christopher."