Valorous

(talented)

artists in all of the kingdom. I walked past my family’s portraits, each of whom, whether it be a man or a woman, had an elaborate crown painted upon their head. Little red chairs next to massive bookcases lined the walls, too.

The perks of being a princess.

I was not actually a princess, though. I was not the first born. My older sister, Lisette, was the heir to the thrown, and I was to be shunted to the side for the rest of my life. But that was okay. If I was queen, I would not be having my little midnight adventure right now. If one of the guards or servants saw me out of bed, I would definitely be punished, but if I was my sister, I would probably be shut away in a room for two days. She has to uphold the ‘honor’ of our family.

I stopped

(because)

I heard some scuffling behind me. I turned around to see nothing. Suddenly, a soft

hand covered my mouth and

someone 

jabbed me hard in the side.

I gave out a muffled shriek, only to find myself hearing the jeering quiet-laughter of Layla and her twin sister Mae. Mae removed her hand from my mouth, still laughing, as Layla crouched down on the ground, doubled up with laughter.

“That was not funny!” I whispered, angrily.

“Oh, yes it was!” Layla whispered.

“You should have seen your face!” Mae giggled.

I put my hands on my hips and glared at them sternly. This did not seem to calm them down, but they just erupted into a new round of giggles. I rolled my eyes and walked away, but my ears heard a shriek escape Mae’s mouth. I turned around to see Layla covering her sister’s mouth, not unlike Mae had done to me. Yet, both of them had stopped laughing. They looked quite bizarre, both beautifully dressed, one laying on the ground while the other crouched over her, her hand on her mouth. They looked exactly alike, too, except Layla’s hair was a shade darker than Mae’s, and her eyes were a dark green instead of brown.

They both gasped and got up, and ran down my corridor, towards the stairwell that led to the roof. I wheeled around to see one of the maids, a batty old woman who barely could see two feet in front of her named Sal. I ran to join my friends, who were now climbing the spiral staircase. Sal held her lantern up closer to her eyes, perhaps thinking that the light would help her see.

“Lady Speira?” She said. She turned to her left, and then to her right, and then went back down the stairs, as us three girls continued upwards, giggling madly.

“You can not speak of this, Speira!” Layla warned me, as she pushed open the trapdoor to the roof. “If someone finds out that we are out this late, we will be thrown out of the village!” I nodded, smiling. Layla smiled back at me. “Now let’s go before Sal gets back!”

She pushed open the large wooden door and we climbed up onto the flat roof. For anybody but us three, the view would have been breathtaking, but we go on these adventures very often. We were standing on top of one of the towers, turrets enclosing us. Right now, I was facing the tallest tower on the castle. I looked up to see the powder-blue conical spire, that is, the pointy roof. The huge tower in front of me had many windows and balconies. Right beside it were two more towers, not as large, though.  Where we were standing now was considered the “Open Gorge Tower”, but we just referred to it as “The Roof”, since nobody but us ever came up here. If I turned to my left, I would see another “Roof”, the one that belonged to my sister’s corridor. As you could probably tell, our castle was quite large. It took more than a century to build it.