To Be a Princess

→chapter seven

When the train arrived at the Autumn Town station, the first thing Ophelia noticed was how many people there were.

"Are there always this many people here?" she asked, trying to not have her small suitcase trampled by all the people there were walking around on the platform.

"Well duh, why do you think it's only ever open to tourism in the autumn? If they leave it open all year it would be crazy, and the residents want to have a peaceful majority of the year. That's why you have to get a special permit with a valid reason for needing to go there outside the autumn. Otherwise, they don't let you pass the gate. Besides, there aren't even any trains that go here outside of autumn so no one even bothers." May replied, steering her own suitcase towards the doors that led inside the station.

When their teacher had made sure that everyone was there, they were free to go past the gate and roam the town to their heart's content for a few hours. However, the first thing May and Ophelia decided to do was check themselves into the hotel and leave their luggage there. It wasn't until they had gone outside again that she finally took in the scenery and realised where the town got its name from.

"Wow, this place is literally the epitome of autumn," May said, mirroring Opi's own thoughts.

The leaves scattered around the ground all had a similar, warm ochre hue, and she could hear them all crunching under the shoes of passers-by. A few pumpkins were growing near the trees, and she swore she could smell the faint scent of pumpkin pie wafting from a nearby café.

"So do you want to go check out the fountain? We should probably hurry though because that gets packed in the late afternoons for some reason," her friend asked.

"There's a fountain here?"

"Oh my god, you don't know about the fountain. What boulder have you been living under? Now we're definitely going to see it." Without having any say in it, Ophelia was quickly dragged by May. They passed multiple bakeries and cafés before they reached what seemed to be a corner of the town.

Sure enough, there stood a large, aged stone fountain. On top of it stood a girl holding a long staff. Her eyes were closed and her hair was slightly messy, or as messy as hair made of stone could look, but the crown on her head was the most noticeable part of the sculpture.

"This is the fountain of the lost princess of Divinia. It's the only one of its kind and was built in 1760. No one really knows who ordered it to be built, but no one ever complained about it, so it stayed and became a famous part of the town."

"I'm a bit lost. Who's this lost princess person?" Ophelia questioned.

"I forgot that you weren't raised in a part of Divinia that widely knows this story. Fine, let me explain it in a nutshell. Although it's not actual history, there's this story that's been written in some books about magic fairytales. According to the story, during the Great War in the mid-1700s, all the countries supposedly had magic. Fantasia and Divinia used all the magic weaponry they could to fight against each other. Until one day, the magic just disappeared. All of it. And the weird part of the story is, the day the magic disappeared, the only heir to the throne and princess at the time vanished too. I can't believe you've never heard of it, it was my favourite bedtime story growing up!"

"That's kinda strange. Don't fairytales usually have happy endings?"

"That's what makes it such a good story. The mysterious ending makes people curious-"

"You do realise that mystery around the fountain is all a bunch of lies, right?" a voice interjected. Ophelia turned around and recognised the familiar black-haired boy, followed closely by his brother.