Not Me | Aarmau AU

O N E

I have nightmares a lot. My mother died to Dryads, as they ate her alive. . . I'm glad I never saw that, but I wish I had been able to say goodbye.

An old family friend had seen it and my mother told her to tell me that she had passed. I was young, and it took me years to find out that she. . . Suffered a slow and painful death.

My mother was a queen.

I was the princess, my father was the king.

A year or 2 after my mother passed, my father was poisoned and he died - his heart stopped as if it were an attack (which he never had before). Right after he had finally accepted her death.

The same close family friend that I grew up with like an aunt, taught me how to hide.

Ironic how my hiding only led me back right to where I began - the castle.

I'm a maid, a servant. I hide myself in my hair, my head down; never crying because that's one of the things that can reveal who I am. My tears are liquid gold and silver.

It's difficult, but I get by with friends. Some know about me, and some don't. Those who do know about me, found out by accident.

There's always rumors of people seeing "the missing princess," because. . . well, they're true. I escape my job sometimes, go in the city and help people out. I give money to those who need it with the money left for me.

But~. . .

I'm not very secret. A lot see my face and blabber to their friends.

"Wake up."

I did, sweating like a pig. Which a lot of naiads don't know.

I also escape the water altogether sometimes. I don't go on land, but I'll listen in on a boat or dock and hear what's going on, understand their land and cultures more.

I've only done it about 5 times though. Just enough that I know a few animals, pigs, chickens, lizards. Of course I know fish, whales, sharks. . . Dryads.

I don't know much, but it's more than the rest of the kingdom and small villages.

I wiped my brow, and the small oils separate from the water. When they were apart from my skin they melted into the sea water, vanishing.

"Sorry, Lucinda." I mumbled. She was a friend, a coworker. She knew my identity as princess, the first to know. She works part-time in the castle here, and the rest she works on potions and such, keeping us hidden and safe with her mother from the dryads.

"Don't apologize, I know you were having another nightmare, Aphmau. It's not a worry. I woke you up early so you could get ready before they - we - serve brunch."

With a nod, I swam up from the fine silks on the seabed.

I sleep in a closet of the castle under the stairs of a back room used for storage. The other workers here have homes outside the castle, in the smaller suburbs of the kingdom.

It's at least cozy and I don't lose my job being so close to my work. Basically in it.

My tail flicked and I opened the door to the room, scattered with seaweed and coral baskets with blankets and such. My uniform sat on the far wall, and I picked it up.

Hair blocked my vision, both black and orange, making me giggle.

"Luce!" She laughed from above me, her head against mine and her tail at the ceiling. It was midnight black, dark as my hair, but with a red tint when in the light - matching her eyes. There was also a natural scaly silk at the base of her fin. The silk was red, her fin was entirely black.