Destiny Love

chapter 5

"Prince, you're in danger. The King, Queen, Prince and your parents all had to flee. The palace is being guarded now, all the staff had to leave. The men who took over the palace are ruthless and your parents did not have enough time to go back to your room to get you. On their way out of the palace they told me to take care of you." I listened to all these things without saying a word.
"What am I supposed to do? How do I find them? How do I get out of the palace?" I finally asked.
"Don't try getting out of the palace, especially not if you look like this. The guards do not let anybody out who does not have permission from Prince James, the head of the men who took over the palace. I don't know where your parents are, they might be outside the country or they might be in a prison somewhere. I think that your best chance of survival is if you work here as a butler, you might get some inside information." The old man answered.
"Wouldn't they recognize me?" This was never going to work out.
"If you can cut hair a bit shorter, wear something different, they might actually believe it."
I had to cut my hair? That was my only pride and I wasn't going to give them up that easily.
"Fine, I'll wear something different."
"Color you hair." He ordered. I felt like I was having the peace talk all over again, with compromises and arguments.
"All right." It wasn't such a bad idea, if I colored my hair no one would notice. "But how do we get out of the palace? And how do I become a staff member here?" I was lost. I had no idea what to do.
"First you could ask James for permission to leave the palace but I'm pretty sure that he will never let a pretty boy like you go. I suppose you could go up to the guards and seduce them." The old man said, out of the blue.
"Seduce the guards? What if that doesn't work? I am a guy.. I will be taken prisoner! And I have never been very good at seducing people."
"Don't worry, it'll work, you're pretty enough. And the guards stand there all day, they are tired and like a change in the evening, your gender won't matter" This was completely against everything I had learned and I wasn't sure if I was happy doing this.
"We first have to color my hair though." I said, hoping that he would change his mind about the seducing thing and come up with a better idea.

I was standing in the stables, ready to dip my hair in a bucket of charcoal mixed with water. I had never done anything so disgusting in my life and I had hoped never to have to do anything like it. But the man had warned me that I would have to do this routine everyday if I wanted my hair to stay black and remain unrecognizable. I closed my eyes and leaned backwards until my hair was in the bucket. I had to sit there for a few minutes to let the charcoal sink in and then afterwards I had to keep a towel around my hair until it dried, which would take forever. I felt the cool water run over my forehead and I desperately felt like crying. I had no idea how to get out of here, a stranger was my only friend, or rather, he was my only acquaintance, and I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do to get out of here.
After sitting with my hair in the bucket for a few minutes, I stood up and took a towel from the table. I was used to everything being handed to me before I could even ask and now I had to take everything myself. I didn't mind this though; it would toughen me and help me in my future life as a queen. If I ever became a queen. I wished I could just get out of the palace and go to Penn to live in peace and harmony. But for that I first needed to get out of the palace and find my family.

I was lying on the straw in the barn, planning out my technique how I would become a maid in the palace when I heard footsteps coming towards me. I could hear they were soldiers because they were wearing boots and were marching as if they owned the place. I sat up quickly, looking around for a place to hide when I remembered that I was supposed to be noticed so that they could use me as a maid or something of the sort. My heart was pounding in my chest when I saw the first soldier march into the barn. He was tall with black hair and a very pointy nose. He looked into every stable and examined the horses. Suddenly he kicked one of them hard, so that it whinnied and became nervous. I had to pinch myself to keep from standing up and shouting at him. How could he be so mean? The horse hadn't even done anything! At the same time I realized that if he was that mean to the horses, he would probably act the same to me. I wanted desperately to whimper in distress at the thought of what he might do to me. With every step he took my heart started beating faster and I tried to make myself as small as possible. He was observing the second to last horse now and he opened its mouth harshly to look at its teeth. I prayed for a miracle to happen at that moment. The man stepped out of the stable and then walked to the last one. I knew he would see me even before he got to the horse. I was too afraid to look up at him and I just sat there, covering my head with my arms so that if he would kick or hit me at least my head would be spared.
"What on earth are you doing here?" The voice suddenly boomed. I made myself as small as possible but forced myself to look up at him. He was hovering over me; the way he stood he looked around 3 meters tall. His nose looked even pointier from up close and I could see that his mustache was perfectly combed, something I knew only mean and harsh people did.
"What are you, some little spy who can't talk?" He kicked me with his boot and I lost my balance.
"Don't be so mean to him, he might actually be useful." I heard another voice. Could this possibly be my savior? I wondered. Or was it the other type of useful they were referring to?