Coffeh's G/t Short Stories

Royalty Part 1 (#52.Royalty)

The queen sat beside Estelle at her bed, tears cascading from her face, as she also could not contain her own cries. She lifted her crying child and gently held her into her arms.

" My dearest. My most precious star... I am so sorry, please forgive me..."

Estelle held her mother in a tight embrace, as if the queen would disappear at any instant. Her mother cupped the princess's face in her palms and gazed at her distraught daughter.

"You will be able to get through this, my little girl. I know you will. You are a princess, the future ruler of this nation. I raised you to be so, and I know you are strong. You are brave."

Estelle did not believe in the words the queen said, but she nodded, for her mother's sake.

For her own sake.

The queen and king waited with dread on the highest perch of their castle. The rain poured violently, but giants waited not for it to pass, as two silhouettes could be seen from the distance, their steps so loud, it could be misheard as thunder.

Estelle walked up the stairs to her room to pick her luggage. The corridor shook as the giants approached. Her heart stopping at each step she took. The little princess did not know whether she was breathing. A part of her daydreamed about jumping through the window, being carried by the wind, flying to someplace safe, where she played and danced to the lyres of the court musicians, and a crown of flowers adorned her head.

A place where she knew peace.

She opened the door as it creaked and groaned under the movement. The fireplace crackled and illuminated her dark bedroom. Only her numb footsteps could be heard over the wooden ground. She glanced at the window with empty eyes as the rain scurried through it, the moonlight illuminating her luggage, as if telling her there was nowhere else to go to.

She hunched over to pick her belongings.

And a shadow covered the lit-up spot.

She widened her eyes in realization. Her heartbeat pounding through her ribcage. She shivered, but not from the cold. She lifted her head up, and fell into her knees, a cry from help threatening to escape from her throat.

On the other side of the window, a giant eye peered attentively at her.

Estelle scrambled up, hurrying to the door as she heard the ground jolt and tremble, the window shaking at the sound, dust falling to the floor from the impact of a heavy object over the ceiling. The frightened girl rushed to the nearest servant by the castle grounds, who took her to where her parents were, high up on the balcony of their tallest tower. She rushed and opened the door to the porch, just in time of her departure.

And thus, her destiny was sealed.

Before the railing, standing higher than the towers, were the giant king and his son.

Compared to the imposing, broad figure of the king, his son, prince Alaric, looked feeble and fragile. Barely half as tall as his dad, his thin and dainty appearance contrasted that of the king. He wore a dark navy-blue suit and a robe over it to cover from the rain, black, straight locks of hair covering his forehead. His large, honey brown eyes stared curiously at the princess.

She held her breath. He was the one who looked at her from the window.

If prince Alaric was human like Estelle, she wondered if he would be an interesting suitor.

But towering over her palace, all she could think about was the shiver running down her spine or her heart threatening to escape from her chest.

The king spoke in a thunderous, deafening voice, loud enough to ring through hers and the human couple's ears.

"We came here upon request. Now, to the point. The princess."

The king stared at his son, who extend his hand towards the humans. They flinched at the approaching limb. A loud clank on the porch revealed the shape of a glass cage, big enough to hold the princess inside it.

The queen whimpered, holding tightly to Estelle's hand. The king gulped down the knot on his throat. Estelle's widened her eyes with dread, squeezing her mother's hand tighter.

That was it.

The king and queen gave their daughter the warmest embrace. Tears threatened to escape from her eyes.

She might never see them again.

Holding back her tears and picking up her luggage, Estelle stepped inside of the cage.

And the door was closed.

Under an instant, the giant prince lifted the cage away from Estelle's parents, and with a short curtsy both giants left, shaking the earth as they stepped away.

Away from the king and queen. Away with their daughter.

The queen crumbled and fell on her knees, not bothering that her dress was soaking from the wet floor. Not bothering if there was an umbrella over her head or not. She buried her face in her hands, and let out strangled, pained sobs. Her husband crouched down by her side and held her with shaky hands, tears cascading down his face and mixing with the rain.

Just like that, their only daughter was taken away forever from their grasp.

Estelle held her urge to vomit from the hard jostling and being thrown left and right by gravity. The giant prince carried the cage she was in by a handle on top of it, and each step made her stomach plummet and twist in pain. She could not even cry or think about her situation, for all that mattered to her at that point was not faint from the sudden and nauseating movements.

All was in vain, however, as during a rather harsh movement from her captor, she was tossed head-first to a corner, getting knocked out in the process.