Banished

Chapter 3

I ran for what felt like days.

For once I didn't care
about soiling my dress.

Or ruining my hair,
which was the reason I had to sleep with
my head on a wooden board that night,
so I wouldn't undo the curls.

I was very tired that morning.

But all that I was thinking of,
was running fast
and running far.

After I entered the forest,
my uncomfortable shoes came off.
And I was trudging barefoot in the growing
mass of mud on the ground.

I had then taken off my heavy, silk
outer dress, leaving myself
in the simple white dress I was
wearing underneath,
untying the tight corset,
and sucking in deep breaths of
sweet oxygen.

At one point, when I was
considerably far into the forest,
I stopped from lack of breath,
and sat under a tree, and
every once in a while,
the branches would sway
and a new gathering of
water droplets would fall
onto my head.

All through this time,
there was saltier water
trickling down my cheeks,
but I doubt you could tell
from the pouring rain
that so well captivated the aura of
my sadness.

And then, mostly because of the
fatigue from my sobbing,
I fell asleep.

But I did not wake up to
a pleasant chirp of a robin.
Nor to an echoing blast of
thunder in the distance.

"Please wake up."

I woke to the nearby voice
of my fiancé.

But I didn't know that he was.

Horrified and outwardly
showing my disgust,
I found the voice, and stumbled away.

"H-how dare you?!"

"Ah, I see that you have awakened. Are you feeling alright?"

I recognized him at once; he was the prince of the 4th nation; the nation of the harvest.
Peter.
He was sitting near my father that day.
He wore a dark green suit,
simple, with no pattern.
the regular and humble attire
of the 4th nation.

While he didn't seem elated
about my consciousness,
he could not have felt more hatred than I.

Not knowing the right way to respond,
I went for a typical answer that only
my past self would have said so naturally.

"You dare address me while refraining from using my full name of status? And while I am now in the process of mourning? That is Princess Cassandra Alexandra Grace of the 9 Nations, father of Joshua Grace, Great King, to you."

"I am afraid that you do not understa-"

"Leave me at once! Can't you see I'm not in the right mood now?"

The morning fog was cold and made me shiver,
but I still knew that I couldn't bear
to step into the castle without
know my father was inside.
The cold forest would have to do.
His grey horse would not be
carrying two people on its back,
but one.
For I told myself I would not go.

He sighed, his annoyance now
more visible to me.
But this only made mine worse.
I could see his eyes were shadowed
from no rest that night.
He was probably searching for
the most of it.

I could also see
in his face that
he had something special in his mind.
Something in there
that I wouldn't approve of.

And there was.
When he opened his mouth,
the words that came out shocked me
from retorting.

"I am the new Great King, because you are the
one I am marrying."

That day,
My father died.
I met my fiancé for the first time, Peter,
who was also now the King.
And I became Queen.

But the third of those things
did not last very long.
No, my reign was not for long at all.

On that day, I was also banished.

But, Peter didn't know that. And more importantly, neither did I.

And so I agreed to ride Peter's horse
with him back to the kingdom
which I was not prepared to claim,
but I believed I was.

But there was still a stab in my heart.
Where my father had been
and then I knew even then
that things would never be the same.