Box of Dreams

Exploring

Melody woke with birdsong ringing in her ears. She sat up slowly and smiled, listening to their joyous tunes. The soft silk sheets rustled as she stood. She walked across the cold stone floor to stand in front of a full length polished mirror. She grinned at herself, taking in her wavy waist length ebony hair, her refreshed periwinkle eyes, her pale face offset with full pink lips; stretched to reveal small straight white teeth, the way her cotton nightgown hugged her body; smooth and soft against her skin.

A small knock sounded outside the door. Melody continued to look at herself as the door slowly swung open and closed behind a young maid. "Good morning June," Melody greeted and June smiled. "Good morning, your highness," she replied and the princess frowned condescendingly. "Now June," she chastened the other girl playfully, "I told you not to call me that. How are we ever going to be best of friends with all of these stiff formalities?"

June laughed; this was a daily argument, with Melody insisting her to drop formality and speak as equals, and she in return arguing that it was important to name her superiors with the respect they deserved. "But Milady," she started, pausing as Melody rolled her eyes at the title, "It's the proper thing to do." The princess sighed, "I suppose you're right, it's just that these titles are so stuffy, like I am being categorized as a certain type of person." She looked over at June who was standing in front of her large wooden wardrobe, "Do you know what I mean?"

June nodded, she had been catagorized in such a fashon many times. "Do you want to wear the pink one or the blue one?" she asked nodding at the dresses in the closet. Melody came over and looked at all of the fabrics in the wardrobe, and smiled an evil smile. June cast her gaze heavenward, "You want to wear the black one don't you?" she asked rhetorically, and then giggled at the innocent expression on Melody's face. She reached in and pulled out a long black dress.

This too had been a standing argument. Black was the color for mourning, not a color for a soon-to-be queen to wear daily around the castle. But it was for that reason that they couldn't stop her from wearing it; she was going to be queen one day, a day that was quickly approaching. Many argued that it was improper to wear balck daily, and others dismissed the argument saying that they had better things to do with their time than fight about black dresses. Melody agreed with the second group, but probably loved the black dress all the more due to the fuss it had caused. After that, the princess had insisted that all her clothes had to be altered to acomidate some article of the dark color, claiming it was her favorote.

The dress's dark colors realy did look stunning against the stark white contrast of her skin though. It was an ankle length gown, tailored to mold to the body and hang loose from the waist, where it was tied with a blue ribbon to match her eyes. The front of the midnight dress was white, with ribbons crisscrossing down to her feet. The sleeves hung loosely off the shoulders and white lace gloves connected to the dress extended to the base of each of her fingers.

Melody stood in front of the mirror as June dressed her, carefully sliding the delicate fabric onto her body. After the dress was on, Melody went and sat at the dressing table and began to brush her hair and June made her bed. "So my dear friend," she started with exaggerated sweetness and June rolled her eyes, "what's today's gossip? Who is the poor subject of the kitchen maid's whispers? Who is the fairest maiden in this kingdom destined to win the handsome knight's love? What are the rumors about which of the many court scandals and secret affairs?"

June giggled at her dramatic casting of the castle's daily life. "Well, there isn't much going on at the moment," she paused, trying to remember if she had heard anything interesting, "There's the Trinity Scandal, but that's old news. Sir Rupert just got back this morning, he's completed another quest, so you'll have to deal with that." Both girls groaned in mock horror; Sir Rupert was very arrogant and cocky. "And there's your sister," June trailed off slowly and Melody immediately piqued up. "Oh?"