Ambition - Official Story (WIP)

Chapter 9.

     The next few days passed quietly and uneventfully. Nikki got promoted to nearly full-time kitchen duty, and her apron was always coated with flour or smears of colorful batter.

     She would still sit at the dining table with the King, though she didn't understand why if she was a servant like everyone else.

     The other hybrid maids would peek around the corner of the dining hall, whispering to each other in jealousy and confusion. They wondered why she always sat with him.

     They would do anything to have a chance with him. They didn't understand why he seemed so interested in Nikki and everything she did.

     When she wasn't baking or washing the never-ending flow of dishes, she was dusting.

Always dusting.

     The castle had hundreds of rooms, maybe even thousands. They each needed a brief hour of thorough dusting, tidying, and airing. Nikki suspected that some of these rooms might have not even been entered since they were furnished.

     She often found quite strange rooms that seemed out of place. Nikki would find rooms with strange wallpapers or intimidating scientific equipment in the corners. Such things that seemed odd to find in a fancy castle.

      As she was scouring down the floor of a particularly cluttered room filled with boxes-- probably used for storage, she thought,-- her foot bumped something. Twisting around, she saw a small... cat tree?

     This struck Nikki as surprising, as she had never suspected any indications that pets lived in the castle. No fur, no smells, no anything.

     She remembered wistfully the cat tree that she used to play on when she was younger. Once, when she was a kitten and didn't understand the difference between falling and flying, she'd launch herself from the top of the tree and would have broken every bone in her body if there hadn't been a pile of pillows near the tree her littermates had built to sleep on later. 

     She still got some considerable bruises, though, and from then on, her parents always kept a few pillows under the cat tree in case some of her siblings decided to try the same stunt.

     As most younger siblings follow the example of their eldest sibling, they all too tried to 'fly'.

The cat tree went away shortly after that.                                                                                 

     Snapping out of her reverie, Nikki picked up the miniature cat tree, set it by the door, and continued her work.

                                                                                           ~~~

      That night, Nikki flopped on her bed and stared at the ceiling, toying with her souvenir from the storage room. It had been a long day, but she felt wonderful. After lying there for a moment longer, she reluctantly got up, set the tree on her nightstand, and fetched her notebook and writing set. 

      She'd done some experimental sketches and notes with her quills, using a bit of each color of ink.

     Nibbling on the tip of the quill she'd selected, she racked her mind for something to fill the next blank page. She stared at the pale pink wall-

     And it came to her.

     Scribbling madly, Nikki illustrated her flash of genius with black ink.