What I'm working on

This is what I'm working on fiction wise at the moment.

thrice

Cassandra climbed upon her steer hitching her rucksack around her waist, taking Patrick's reigns into her hands, snapping them tight and leading her caramel colored horse out of the back of the stable and down the dark dusty path that lead to the back exit of the castle grounds.

The path was familiar despite the darkness, its one she's taken many times before. Patrick's hooves beat down quickly on the dirt path that stretched down past the woods, winding down grassy hills till it gave way to the flat open land of the town.

small shacks and simple shops litter the simple little village. At this time of night the only thing alive is the pub, windows glowling and piano roaring out from inside. The princess slows her steed before slipping off of him and binding him to one of the many wooden poles in front of the pub.

"I won't be long." The girl tells the steed as she fluffs her now free flowing hair and heads inside the pub. It's dark enough here, the people are drunk enough here, that she is not easily recognized.

snip part deux

"Since when have I been betrothed to Spencer Smith?" Cassandra asks, staring at her father with wide blue eyes. Her father's smile falters for a moment before it returns.

"It's always been an idea. His father and I just needed to iron out some facts." Her father tells her. Cassandra stares on with wide eyes. It wasn't like she had never heard of these arranged marriages, hell, other girls she knew, daughters of royality that had long since married into famlies more powerful than their own. There were girls younger than her who were already had husbands and children.

"Father, you didn't even ask me if I wanted this."Cassandra starts, worry etching her pretty face. "I barely even know Spencer anymore."

"Cassandra," The king starts, his arms crossing and a grim look on his face. "Of all my riches, of everything I own in this world, you are my most treasured possession." Her father tells her. "I need to know that you'll be cared for once I am beyond this world. If you marry Spencer, I know that it will happen."

"Father," What is she supposed to do with this information? Somehow she had believed that her father was more advanced than the other kings of the region and would let her marry who she loved, who she wanted to be with, like she had heard about in the stories from America.

*****

Ryan works down in the kitchen despite being only two years older than the princess. The girl moves through the solid wooden door and into the spacious kitchen area. The main cooks have retired for the night back to the servants quaters. Ryan's still in the kitchens though, cleaning.

The boy lifts his head at the sound of the girl coming into the room. "Princess, good evening." He tells her, stopping his sweeping to look up at her though his shaggy brown bangs. Despite how frequently the two of them talk, how often she comes to see him, he still holds a bit of a reservation around her, nervous, as if he's always one step away from getting punished.

"Good evening, Ryan. You know I told you to call me Cassandra." The girl points out, smiling at the dark haired boy. Ryan shrugs, squares his shoulders.

"You're royalty, not a commoner, not like me."

Ryan had been brought to work at the castle after the death of his father when he was just thirteen years old. His father had been a loyalist to the king, before he had been killed in one of the many missions he took for Cassandra's father, it was only natural that her father would take the young man in.

sometime around midnight [snippet]

The girl sat up in her lavish bedroom. She was doing nothing in paticular, just sitting in front of the intricately carved vanity beside the window, staring out at the large expanse of land that surrounds her family's home. It was all too stereotypical, the life of a princess.

Cassandra, she had all the best things, anything and everything she wanted her father would somehow fight to obtain it for her. She wasn't spoiled persay,just privilaged. Besides, there was nothing that the girl found herself wanting as of late.

The princess brushes her long wave of dark brown curls and stares boredly into the mirror. Dinner isn't for twenty minutes so she needs not be all dolled up quite yet. There's a knock on her chamber door and she turns at the sound.

"You may enter." The girl says and the door is pushed open, a chambermaid sweeping inside. The woman, the same woman whose been caring for the girl since her youth, has come to get the young princess ready for dinner. Another woman, one whose not much older than the princess herself follows the older into the bedroom. The younger girl is being trained, taught the way to take care of the princess.

"Is it time already?" Cassandra asks and the older woman nods.

"Your father was very adament about you being on time for dinner."

The woman steps up behind the princess and pulls her hair up. The younger girl steps up too, handing off pins and ribbons. Cassandra watches in the mirror as her hair is put up in cascading curls, white ribbons interlacing through her hair.

"I believe he has important business to annouce tonight." The younger girl adds with a smile. The older turns to the younger.

"Stop your gossiping! It's a nasty habit."

Twenty or so minutes later; once she's dressed in her dining clothes and her hair done up. The girl is down in the large dining hall seated to the right of her father, the king. He was a loving father and she was his only child, considered a miracle.