Charlotte and the Kingdom of Starsha

Chapter 18

              Charlotte felt relief even though she had no idea what she was getting into. She felt like she had become numb to the confusion and questions that attacked her brain every few seconds. She placed the necklace back around her neck wondering why it was so important to the queen. She noticed the dress was itchy around the arms and her waist felt like it was being squeezed. The length seemed to trip her each time she took a big step like she normally walked at school. She felt dirty and her head was itching from the oils that were built up on her scalp. She had never noticed these things this entire times. She was probably too nervous to even tell. Now that all was said and done, she couldn't wait to go to her room. Her eyes felt droopy and the sun wasn't even high enough in the sky just yet. She assumed she had a couple more hours until Prince Castan came to give her the tour, which she was not looking forward to for five hours with him. 

             Prince Castan had set off with a long sigh after the main doors to the throne room closed. He was walking so fast that Charlotte had to jog in tiny steps just to keep up with his long strides. They walked up the steps towards the second balcony and continued walking up steps until they were at the fifth balcony. At this point, Charlotte was huffing anf puffing in her stupid green dress. The prince seemed like this trip hadn't fazed him an inch and continued on through the door to the left. 

           "Are you trying to kill me right now? Because if you are, you are doing a marvelous job."

           Charlotte gripped the railing and tried to catch her breath as Prince Castan stopped and turned to face her for the first time since the throne room. He looked at her in disgust as if he had just got a scent of something awful. "It's not my fault you have no lungs. Let me guess? You have never encountered stairs before have you?" he smirked.

           "I have, but not to this extent. And my bad that where I'm from, we have this invention called elevators that make life much more simpler in these situations. Plus it doesn't help that you're walking to fast. I mean gosh, do you know how hard it is in this dress to walk." 

           He walked up to her and replied." Tis because you have it tied to tight you dim-witted girl. I'm not the only one that's trying to kill you it seems." he went behind her and pulled on a string towards the bottom and instantly she could feel her crammed insides sighing in relief. She herself gave a sigh of relief. 

          "Fine, how long do we have anyway?" she asked.

           He laughed maliciously and continued to the door without hesitation. Charlotte gathered up her dress and followed him with more air in her lungs.

          Beyond the door was a long walkway that have windows on one side and more doors on the other. The dark purple curtains were drawn to reveal a little part of the castle outside along with the castle wall. Beyond it was a drop that she could not see the bottom from where she was. There was only more cliffs and land surrounding the huge drop.

         They went through the set of doors at the end of the hall and saw stairs that spiraled up the tower. Prince Castan took the spiraled staircase and the trudged upwards. Charlotte kept her hand on the railing the entire time until the came to a door close to the top. The door led into another hallway that had both sides filled with more doors to rooms. There were pictures and paintings of people, places, castles, all sorts of paintings. 

         They came to the door on the left and Prince Castan said, "This is your room. I will be back up here at noon so be ready when the time comes. I barely have patience for this tour, let alone waiting for a woman to get ready." 

        He rolled his eyes as he briskly walked away without giving Charlotte a chance to say anything.

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