Baudelaire

The coach ride to the castle was long and bumpy, I remember sitting across from Uncle Antoine, he looked like he was thinking of what to say, his eyes showed his sympathy for me. I was silently fiddling with a white chrysanthemum that had been given to me at my parents' funeral, being careful so I wouldn't move my left arm too much and undo the bandage. Occasionally, I'd look out the window and look at the scenery, it was the middle of summer so all I could see was the green grass and leaves.

"Uncle Antoine?" I spoke in my thick French accent.

"Yes Dianne?" he responded.

"Are we almost there?"

He checked his golden pocket watch my father had given him years ago, "We shall be there in an hour," he looked up from his watch, "why don't you try to sleep? It has been a long day for you."

I gave a slight nod as I yawned from exhaustion. I rested my head on the velvet armrest of the carriage and closed my eyes.

I heard blood-curdling screams as the flames engulfed everything surrounding me, blood running down my arm. I try calling out to my parents but with no response. All I heard was people screaming my name.

"DIANNA, WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"DIANNA, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!"

"DIANNA!"

"Dianna!" Uncle Antoine shook me awake, "are you alright?"

I slowly sat up. I came to the realization that I had been dreaming. As I was processing the dream I felt salty tears run down my cheek.

"I am alright Uncle, why do you ask?"

"You started to scream as soon as you had fallen asleep." I opened my mouth to tell my uncle about the nightmare, but before I could speak I noticed Uncle Antonie was outside of the carriage. Next to him was a bird I had only seen in books, a Galapagos penguin. Amazed that the creature was there, I hopped out of the carriage and stood next to it. I closely examined the color of the penguin to see that it read Royal Sorcerer's Pet, Victor. The little bird -startled by the newcomer- waddled to Uncle Antonie.

Uncle Antonie started walking towards the large gates and gestured that I follow. I scurried next to him, Victor waddling on the other side. The castle gateway was golden and slowly opened when a guard hollered that the royal sorcerer had returned. I stepped off the bridge and walked through the golden gates to see a fantastic courtyard. The floor was brick and along the walls, you could see red and white roses, and at the end of the courtyard was an arch leading to the inside of the castle. Uncle Antoine stopped in his tracks, then turned to his left to see that Victor had gotten distracted looking through the cracks in the walls.

"Victor, come here." Uncle Antoine demanded. (Victor quickly went back to Uncle's side.) He took me to the throne room.

The room was long and wide, with a red carpet leading up to two golden thrones one small one average sized, along the walls were portraits of the royal family, however I never saw any portrait of past royals. Standing in front of the larger throne was a woman in a big ballgown talking to a young boy who was dressed for tea. After a minute the young boy ran past me. The woman told Uncle Antoine and I to come closer to her.

"You must be Dianna! Antoine has told me a lot about you," the woman exclaimed with a warm smile "I am Queen Medea Baudelaire, it's so nice to meet you. I must say, you don't look much like your uncle."

That is something many people tell me. It makes sense thinking that way because I am black with dark wavy hair and emerald green eyes, just like my mother. However, Uncle Antoine was much older than my father so his hair was grayish-black hair, some wrinkles were on his face, his eyes were always squinted so I never knew the color of them, all I knew was that whenever my uncle would use magic, his eyes would glow red and black.