In Her Waking [Formerly Breathe . . .]

Chapter 9

Theadoress smacked a huge puff of powder on her face. "It is sad that you can't come with us."

I shrugged. "Who is this lion king anyway?" I asked.

Theadoress winced. "Trust me,that is not his real name and he is not important. He's just one of those foreign country lads that are coming to ask Mañana for help. Asides that,nobody would be coming to the soiree."

I tossed my hair side to side. "This princess,do you know what she is like?"

"Well,based on my last encounter with her I think I do."

"What is she like?"

"She's a clueless little thing."

I twinged. "Why would you say that?"
"You'll be with her this evening,you'll find out."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elmonde ushered me to a little house at the outskirts of the castle.

"This is princess Araya 's dwelling."
It looked small and comfortable . Though almost everything was the colour I had now grown used to.

Despise that, was still very pretty.

At the front were some grey roses. The walls were white but had little shabby drawings of grey flowers.

Elmonde and I got into the house. It had a majority of grey walls and grey flowers.

Hanging at the top was a beautiful chandelier which ofcourse was white with little grey patterns.

Elmonde and I went further into the tiny,comfortable castle and she knocked a huge door.

If I said I wasn't sick of huge doors I would be lying to myself.

A petite young girl made her way infront.

She had wavy white hair that was carefully laced with streaks of grey and clear blue eyes that did not say anything much about her.

"I thought you were not coming this evening." She said.

Elmonde replied. "Well actually Hanna here will be of your assistance"

Araya almost winced. "No,actually I thought I could come for the soiree. "

"Araya your mother didn't say anything about you coming." Elmonde said.

Araya stared disappointedly and asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Elmonde politely remarked.

Araya shifted her gaze to mine. "Hello Hanna, nice to... meet you."

I couldn't help but feel pity for Mañana 's fifteen year old.
"Okay!" Elmonde stated as she left the room.

Araya smiled at me. "Okay,we probably know each other but I'd still like to introduce myself. I'm Araya."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Hanna."

Araya 's room was huge and most of it was grey. On the ceiling hung a swing that looked like a very comfortable chair.

It was a very distinguishing feature.

Araya made her way to the ceiling chair as I would prefer to call it.

"So princess,what do you like to do for fun?"

"I collect colored flowers." She said.

I was impressed. I wanted so hard to see a coloured flower.

"Show me!"

Araya gracefully slid down from the ceiling chair and landed with a small thump.

I was excited that I would see colour again and what surprised me the most was that the person showing me this was her majesty's daughter.

Of all people.

From the back of the room she pushed a curtain open. Behind that curtain was a wooden wardrobe.

"See,so much color!" She exclaimed pulling open the wardrobe.

I raised my brow in a questionable manner.

Color?
What color?

All that was in there included nothing but grey flowers.
"They're all grey roses." I edified.

Araya laughed. "Don't you see,this one is a darker shade." She pointed. "And this one is more or less white."

I winced.

This girl needed help.

As she continued to bore me with weird grey facts a transparent Bobby pin fell from her head and dropped on the ground.

"How did you get down there,huh?" She asked as she pulled it back in and chuckled. "I have like sixty three of them in there."

What?

"Araya have you...ever been out of the castle?" I asked truly concerned.

"No." She replied. "Am I meant to?"

"Yes. Yes because you need to." I said.

"Mother doesn't let me. I have never asked why. It's probably for the better."

An idea creeped into my mind. "Why don't we go out? "

"Out? Leave the palace gates? "She asked as if I had just said something criminal.

"Trust me,you need to." I said trying as much as possible to not let the night stay long in her room. She did look boring.

"Mother wouldn't like that very much." She said face down.

"Who said mother will have to know. She'll be too busy attending to Simba to notice we've gone missing."

"Simba?" She asked.

She probably didn't get the joke.

"Come on." I said.

We creeped out the palace hoping all in good faith we would not be caught and after an hour of feeding our eyes with colour we ran back to meet the biggest surprise of my life.