𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃 | ❝Hope is good, Hope will never disgrace, but make no mistake, Hope will hit you in the face!❞
In which the Just King becomes betrothed to a princess from a neighboring kingdom, only to fall in love with the prin...
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FOR THE HOURS THAT followed Hope and Edmund's early-morning chat, Wysteria bustled with chaos. The preparations for the royal family's travels to Narnia were finalized long ago, and still, there was so much excitement amongst the Wysterians that chaos was unavoidable.
Compared to Edmund's travels, this voyage was different. This time, the entire Wysterian royal family would travel to Narnia instead of only Odette. This was because, unlike her fiancé, Odette was still learning the politics of ruling. For now, her parents would supervise her until her wedding in June.
Narnia was a mere four hours away by ship, which didn't sound terrible in theory; however, Hope felt sick thinking about it. She had never been on a ship before, but she despised them. After all, the last time she saw her father, he was waving her goodbye before traveling overseas two years ago.
Her original plan was to suppress her discomfort by keeping herself occupied. Unfortunately, there wasn't much for her to do. All she could do, realistically, was chat with the others and lounge around until they arrived in Narnia. Hope tried to seek Odette for entertainment, but then her parents stole her away to discuss their schedule in Narnia privately — as in no servants allowed.
So, there went Hope's lame attempts at distracting herself. But it wasn't too bad, not at first.
The day was cool, which was odd for the first day of May. She assumed it was because they were sailing through the seas. The breeze was strong, overpowering the day's warmth and bringing goosebumps to her skin. Seasalt was rich on her face from the droplets of the ocean splashing her face. The first hour abroad was filled with so much excited chatter that she managed to forget why she felt so uneasy in the first place.
But eventually, Hope found herself standing alone for the second time that day, and she didn't mind it initially. She usually tried to enjoy the few moments she got alone. It wasn't until she looked past the vessel's railing and saw the ocean wave at her when she realized that for the past hour, despite everyone's contagious excitement, she'd been undeniably tense.
There wasn't a day where she didn't think about her father, and today was worse than usual. Hope knew he died from an illness he caught overseas, so she technically lacked a proper reason to dislike ships. But the last time Hope saw him, he was standing aboard a ship, and that felt like a good enough reason to hate water vessels altogether. Of course, no one knew that, not even Odette.
Hope was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice someone join her side. This time, she knew who it was and she didn't let that intimidate her.
