TRIAL AND ERROR | short stories + snippets

Best Friend Fantasy Adventure: Pirates and Princesses, pt 2

And what about her mum? She has just got to a good place with her mum. Disappearing without a word probably won't help.

"It will be easy," Dorcas says, noticing that Diwa has changed her mind before she gets to announce it. That only makes Diwa hate this stupid pirate more. "The King and the Prince are too arrogant to believe that anyone would attempt to steal a piece from their collection right in front of their eyes. They will want to show it off."

"What do we need to get?" Diwa asks, crossing her arms again so that there's no room for doubt about her reluctance to do this.

"Within their collection of rare artefacts, you will find a music box. That is all I need."

"A music box? All this for a music box?"

Dorcas nods. "They say it is magic. There's a ball tonight. It will allow you access to the castle."

She waves Roger over and he hands her a fake invitation. Dorcas unrolls it, looks at Diwa, looks at the invitation, looks at Cece, looks at the invitation.

"We'll have to change the name." She looks them over again, eyebrows pinching. "And your clothes."

"You lot don't exactly look like royalty."

Dorcas presses a palm to her chest. "My heart."

Despite her joke, her frustration is obvious. Dorcas pinches the bridge of her nose. "We'll need my godfather..."

Whoever this godfather is, Dorcas clearly doesn't want to see him. Diwa grimaces. The man must be cruel and dangerous to rouse up such a reaction from family.

Dorcas shuts her eyes. "I wish..."

She doesn't finish her sentence. She wouldn't have time to finish it even if she planned to do so because, at the word 'wish', a flurry of glimmers wink into existence.

More and more sparkles appear until they condense into a shape—a silhouette. The glow becomes so blinding that Diwa has to look away and when she turns back, a man is standing in their place.

The sparkles have settled into the sheer shawl draped over his shoulder. Even his brown skin is veneered with glitter. Looks like one of Nicolás's friends.

If Diwa didn't know better, she would call this man a fairy.

The fairy looks at Dorcas and beams. "Darling, it's so wonderful to see you again. Why do you never visit me?"

Dorcas looks at her hands. "I've been busy."

"Oh, yes, I know, you're travelling the world and being independent and all that. And finally you've returned–"

Dorcas rushes to interrupt. "I need your help. Please." She gestures at Diwa and Cece. "There is a ball tonight. My friends here, they will need to blend better into the crowd so that they can get into the castle undetected."

"Oh, I see." The fairy purses his lips, apparently not entirely on board with being an accessory to theft. He gets over it pretty quickly, throwing glitter into the air. "Makeover!"

"You may call Madhukar," he introduces himself, bowing. "Clothes for the ball, eh?"

He scans Diwa, eyebrows pinching. She's wearing a pink plaid miniskirt, fishnet tights, her pink platform boots, and a torn jumper under her jacket. She must look completely insane in this world. She wouldn't be surprised if she got arrested for wearing a skirt that short.

Madhukar pulls a wand out of his sleeve and taps it on his chin in thought. Getting an idea, he flicks it.

Diwa's clothes are lost in the shine of sparkles, and when they fade, she's dressed in a gown. It's still pink, though more pastel than what her own clothes had been.

The gown has long sleeves and a high neckline, but the corset bodice ensures she doesn't look like she's been swallowed up in a mountain of fabric. There's a sheer layer over the skirt that adds a subtle hint of glitter where the light catches from the right angle.

It's actually... really cute. It would cost like five million in the real world. It takes a lot of restraint for her not to get too giddy in front of Dorcas. But it really does sate every fairytale fantasy she had as a kid.

"It's beautiful."

"You're very welcome, darling." Madhukar bows again, then turns to Cece.

They step back. "You put me in sparkles and I will set this ship on fire. Or in those stupid knee-high socks with tiny shoes and cropped trousers. I am not wearing that."

"You want to blend in, don't you?"

"Not if it means looking stupid. I can be her fool or summat and just wear my own clothes."

Lips flattened, Madhukar flicks his wand. There are no sparkles this time, the clothes just change. Just as he kept the pink for Diwa, Cece's clothes remain entirely black.

Still, they scowl and demand that Madhukar change the trousers to be normal length, to which Madhukar says that they are normal length. Madhukar says that nobody wears trousers like that.

They continue bickering until Madhukar changes the weird medieval cropped trousers into a floor-length skirt. Cece's still not happy. They'll have to have at least one chain or spike or something.

Diwa tugs her attention from them to Dorcas and finds the captain in an expected moment of stillness. No smirk, no dramatics. She watches the horizon, a thread of worry obvious on her face.

"You have no qualms stealing from your king?" Diwa asks.

Dorcas keeps her focus on the sea as she speaks. "He is a cruel man. Rotten, the whole lot of them. They would sooner watch hundreds starve than sacrifice even a fraction of their own comfort."

"Average royalty, innit," Cece says, finally in an outfit they'll accept. They've decided to go undercover as Diwa's bodyguard, so Madhukar agreed to add some spikes and a chain belt.

Dorcas hands the forged invitation to Madhukar to change the name.

"It is not how anyone should lead a country," she continues. "And besides, all those artefacts they collect have uses beyond being displayed like they're nought but pretty treasures."