The tale of Appendix

Minerals

I finally entered the salon door and then I knocked. The door opened and a red headed young woman appeared. Her hair is in a crown braid and her eyes emerald green. Her skin is fair with freckles across her small, upturned nose.

"How delightful it is to have you here, Luna!" Emerald said. "Come on in, darling!" She added. She showed me my chair and I sat down. She put her fingers through my hair and kept on touching it. "We want something formal, but not too extreme." She was talking to herself. She is weird like that, but she is a sweetheart and beautiful as well. I can't imagine growing up without her. She is the closest thing I have to a mom even though she is only 23 years old.

"What about half up half down? Too basic. What if we add curls to the bottom half? Yes, and diamonds and glitter in your hair! Real or fake diamonds? Will it be too heavy for her beautiful neck? Probably not. What do you think Luna?"

It took me a while to process everything she had just said. "Um, yeah, sure." I answered. "Remember the please and thank you rule! You must not forget it at the dinner party, with alphas from other packs you never know what might offend them." She lectured. It is her job to do so. It was assigned to her at birth, first my brother and now me. Since my brother is a man now and not a little boy, he needs another man to lecture him about fighting, war and tolerance. When father turns ill, he is going to start learning about ruling the pack as well because although we are the royal alpha family, we still need to be the strongest, fastest, smartest and the most beautiful. If anyone were to challenge us from our pack they have all right to take on the crown from us if we were to be defeated.

"Yes please, loyal servant Emerald of Atlas." I corrected. "Excellent, shall we?" I nodded and she started doing my hair. "You should know that you are pretty fortunate to decide to whom you shall marry." She said, breaking the silence. Emerald has a pretty complex vocabulary. She uses the "right" terms only.

"Well what makes you think I'll find the one before I'm 16?" She thought about it for a while. "He will always be there, and you just have to find him." She said with her soft and high pitched voice. She has one of those voices that makes you sound excited all the time. Especially when you talk like Emerald, I barely notice when she's sad because of it. We are super close so I do manage to do it anyway, but others won't.

"I guess you're right." Emerald is always right, and it is kind of therapeutic to talk to her. "You see, when I was your age my greatest desire was to walk down the aisle with prince charming. It will not ever happen because I'm not valuable enough for marriage. You have the chance at true love, embrace it!" She said, motivating.

In our culture, servants and other workers for the royal alpha family are not supposed to marry anyone because they are married to their job. They are loyal to their job and serve only their job. That is how it is and how it always has been. They cannot change it because even before their birth they were assigned these tasks by the alpha king himself.

"We are all done with your hair and makeup! Now, I will be doing Dawn's hair and then I shall decide some clothing options for him to bring you afterwards. Does that sound good?" She asked. "Yes, thank you!" She smiled and gave me a hug, then she walked me out of the room.

Dawn was standing outside waiting. "Prince lady magnet, you're up!" I told him, sarcastically. "Your hair looks great, but I think it would look better on me, especially the glitter and diamonds, should we match tonight?" He said, throwing some sarcasm back at me. "Of course it does, but this hairstyle is all mine. Can't have the prince of Methone fall in love with you instead of me, I'm the one possibly marrying him. Are you trying to steal him from me?" The sarcasm went on max. It is our thing, although some find sarcasm annoying, we find it hilarious. He burst out laughing. He honestly laughs like a donkey, especially when he tries to catch his breath. He inhales while laughing which makes a squealing sound, like a donkey.

"I would never! How dare you think so low of me?!" He finally responded, but to no use because I was already on the floor laughing, like a donkey. I guess it runs in the family.

"Sir Dawn, prince of Atlas and alpha king to be, it is your turn, darling." Emerald interrupted. He held his laugh in and made out a full sentence without laughing. It was quite impressive actually. "Yes, I'm coming." He then lost control of it, and laughed his way into the salon.

What do I do now? I thought to myself. Both Dawn and Emerald are busy with Dawn's hair, and I have nothing I have to do so I decided to find my best friend, Gemini.

Almost everyone from the land Appendix has a name connected to the sky, if not then you have a Gracian name which are names connected to the goddess of war, Grace. It could be something from war or a mineral, like Emerald for instance. Cave minerals are said to be Grace's gift to us. They hold no value except for their religious and rarity value.

Gemini is a zodiac sign, my name means the moon in Latin, Dawn is when the sun rises, Nova is from Supernova, which is the process of a star dying. There are many more, but that was some of them and their meaning. My name is both a sky name and a Gracian name since it is Luna Grace.

Gemini doesn't live in the palace like the royal alpha family and their workers, but she takes fighting classes here. Only the strongest warriors from their schools are allowed to train here, and those who do train here train for war and will fight if war were to occur. I believe we are a part of indirect war with Prometheus that no one knows about, but I do for some weird reason. "The gods have other plans for you" I remember my father saying. Could this have anything to do about the "other plans"?