Embellished With Lies

Chapter Nine

Cinderella's castle was like nothing I had ever seen before. Its towers reached up into the sky, and its moat plummeted deeply into Earth (or whatever planet we were on)'s surface. I was amazed at how much detail was in the castle. The grey brick looked carefully cleaned, and the solid gold gate looked like it was perfected beyond belief.

It honestly looked like it was taken off of a storybook page and set in this remote, beautiful hillside.

Great. Now I was starting to talk like a girl. My man card would definitely be revoked if anyone else knew about this.

I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that that would never happen.

"Oh, Emma!" Cinderella waved over a girl with sandy brown hair and muddy brown eyes as the carriage came to a halt. "Please, can you come over here?"

The brunette nodded and approached the queen. "Yes, Your Highness?"

"I would like you to meet our guests, Tessa and Matthew," she introduced us. "They're going to be spending the next couple days with us."

"It's nice to meet you." Emma grinned widely.

I nodded. "You too."

"Emma is one of the maids," Cinderella explained. "She's about your age, Matthew, and she would be delighted to show you two to your room and help you get dressed for dinner tonight."

"But, Cinderella," Emma began, "I still have to mop the floors in the dining hall."

"Don't be silly, dear," Cinderella chuckled. "I can have someone else do that for you. Please, just show our guests to a guest room." She turned her body to face us once again. "Dinner is at eight in the grand dining hall. Does that sound alright?"

"Perfect," I replied, looking down at my sister. "Right Tessa?"

"I get to be up past my bedtime!" Tessa exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "Alright!"

We all laughed, and Emma led us into the castle. Upon our entrance, I noticed that everything in sight was utterly extravagant. Gold staircases, crystal chandeliers, marble floors, delicate and detailed furniture. There were even guards in gold armor standing in front of every room in my view.

"Don't worry about the guards," Emma said calmly when she noticed Tessa looking around with a terrified expression on her face. "They're really sweet, actually. Nice guys. As long as you're where you're supposed to be with who and what you're supposed to be there with, they won't bother you."

"Oh," Tessa said quietly. "Okay "

Emma led us up a long, windy staircase for multiple minutes before she stopped in front of a large, golden door. "Here we are."

"Thanks," I told her, "but I have a question."

"And that would be?"

"What now?"

She chuckled. "Now you get dressed for dinner, silly!" She paused. "Speaking of getting dressed, you look like you got only halfway done."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I guess so." I was silent for a couple seconds before I spoke up again. "Do you have a shirt or something I could just, like, throw on?"

She crinkled her nose. "Oh, no, this won't do."

"Why?" I asked, looking down at myself. "What won't do?"

She shot me a small smile. "See, when you meet with the queen, you have to dress nicely. It shows respect towards the royal family... She just recently passed a law about that. Where are you from?"