The Princess and the Writer

CHAPTER NINE

Lupa and Chelle sat in Seph's house and waited for Anne to join them. It had taken a while for them to convince Anne that hiding her identity as the writer was the best thing for her to do. She had begrudgingly agreed to carry herself around as the princess, at least until everything was sorted out. Now she was in the underground room undergoing the transformation, not that it was much of a transformation anyway for Anne did look exactly like Nena.

After a few minutes, Anne emerged from the room and slowly approached them, feeling strangely at home in the new attire. She was wearing a patterned dress and sandals, a welcome change from her pyjamas and slippers. It was impossible for her to deny that she felt good in Nena's clothes. It seemed almost unreal to her how fantastic this whole experience was.

Chelle and Lupa were staring at her open mouthed. Lupa was standing and Chelle seated, but both looked frozen on the spot. Anne shrugged.

"Well, what do you think?"

"You look just like Nena," came the unison reply.

Anne shrugged again. "You keep saying that."

Chelle shook her head and went to her to inspect her closely. "No, you don't understand. Before you looked like her, but now you are her. You're the princess."

"Only for a while," Anne reminded them. "Don't get used to this."

"Too late," Lupa gawked.

"If I didn't know you were the writer, I'd think you're the princess come back from the dead," Chelle said as she shook her head in awe.

"Any more of that staring and I will be a bundle of nerves." Anne shuffled her feet. "Shall we go?"

Lupa snapped out of it and nodded. "Yes. Remember, you are Nena, not Anne; the princess, not the Writer."

Anne made a face. "I would feel much better if I had the book of spells with me."

"Nonesense," Chelle countered. "You're the Writer. You don't need it."

"Nena did."

"Yes but not as much as people thought she did. Nena didn't need to carry it with her wherever she went. All she did was read it whenever she could. She said she carried it with her in her heart."

Anne did not feel better. "If only I knew what that book is. Maybe then I would know what to do."

Chelle and Lupa arched their brows.

"You don't know what it is?"

"I thought you wrote it."

Anne shrugged. "Yes, I wrote that Nena had a special book, but I never said what it was or what it could do."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't have an exciting story for that, okay?" Anne flung her arms out in exasperation. "If I knew that one day I would need it, I would have forced an explanation for it."

Her friends did what they did best. They shrugged as if they did not have a care in the world.

"Okay," said Chelle.

"Shall we go then?" asked Lupa.

Anne rolled her eyes and followed them out of the house. It was a dark night. Neither the moon nor stars could be seen. A fire cackled in the middle of the village, its warm glow inviting her to enjoy its warmth. On the other side of the fire stood the villagers, waiting for her to show herself to them. They looked excited and eager, like it was difficult for a lot of them to stand still.

Anne slowly approached them. She found herself smiling; a smile that grew broader with each step she took towards them. The air was silent when she came to a stop before them. The looks on the people's faces showed that they could not believe that their princess was finally back. For a moment, Anne was unsure of what to do. But then a song came to her mind; a song she and Michelle had composed to cheer Paul up a while back when he was going through a tough time. Before she knew it, she was singing the song out loud, her voice breaking the silence.