𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕠𝕝𝕕𝕖𝕟 𝔸𝕘𝕖 - ᵖᵉᵗᵉʳ ᵖᵉᵛᵉⁿˢⁱᵉ

꧁Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 2 - Tᴇʟᴍᴀʀ꧂

Katherine had spent a while in the bathtub, soaking in the vanilla scented bath milk that Telmar was famous for. She had eventually gotten out when Dana had complained that she was taking too long. Once she had gotten out of the bath she had toweled herself off and taken down her hair which she had pinned up in a bun.

Her hair fell down in voluptuous curling waves and she sighed in relief whilst brushing her hair. Whenever Katherine was anxious or bored or angry or in literally any mood she calmed herself down by brushing her hair. Somewhere in her distant past she had a memory of a woman running a brush through her hair before she went to bed. She could not remember who the woman was but the calming sense it left when her hair brushed had always stayed with her.

In fact Katherine really could not remember anything before her time in Narnia, she remembered she had come from the Lantern Waste. However any memories from before then seemed to be veiled from her sight. She hummed a quiet lullaby under her breath. There always seemed to be bits and pieces of her memories that floated back to her. Old lullabies in foreign languages, small habits that she didn't recall ever not having and this intense feeling that sometime in her life Peter had absolutely despised her.

She put the brush down immediately turning to look at the mirror, she had to stop herself from getting distracted like this, it nearly always upset her anyway. She moved out of the bathroom to see Dana had already changed into a burnt orange dress, rich in color, that complemented her complexion and upheld her county's national colors.

Katherine herself had picked out an emerald green dress to represent Narnia's flag and her role as ambassador. The silky material itself had been a present to her from King Stefan and King Luka who ruled Comoară together, they had also given her red silks that had been made into another stunning evening gown by some of Qíngbào's best seamstresses.

She took a moment to look in the floor length, gold-gilded mirror. She watched as Dana's reflection neared hers in the mirror. Katherine smiled softly as her best friend weaved an arm around her. Dana looked up to meet Katherine's eyes in the mirror.

"Has something been bothering you? You seem a little down lately, is it about going back?" Dana asked her friend with worry in her tone.

"No, no" Katherine let out in a breathy laugh, "Just been spacing out that's all, now I think it's time to style hair, don't you?"

Dana didn't protest as Katherine pulled her away from the mirror and to a second room where assistants were waiting to finish getting the two ready for the ball. Katherine fluffed down her skirts as the women began to pull at her hair. Eventually they had finished by pulling it into a popular Telmarine hairdo.

Half of her hair had gone into two dutch braids which had been pulled into a bun at the top of her head whilst the other half had been curled and left to fall down her back. It was not her favorite hairstyle but she knew it would look good to wear it tonight so she did. The dutch braids also emphasized the honey golden streaks, bleached by the sun, that were easily lost in her dark cocoa hair.

Dana herself had two french braids pulled into lower buns by the nape of her neck. Her shiny black tresses looked beautiful in the style but she knew Dana hated having the weight of her thick hair by her neck. She said it gave her struggles whilst dancing.

After a long time of tugging and pulling and sighing and straightening of backs the two managed to claw their way out of the women's grasps. Slightly panting from the stuffiness of the room they stepped out onto a small balcony that overlooked the back of the castle, for some fresh air.

"I've always hated that part" Dana sighed as a cool breeze reached out to touch their faces.

"Agreed, however, we must not complain for surely their are greater troubles than ours out there somewhere in the great wide world" Katherine spoke with gentle tones.