"The enemy will always cheat, Isla, you need to be prepared for anything."
Isla and her siblings have lived in a cave for as long as they can remember with no memory of how they got there or who they were before. They only remembered two things...
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Another picture from my Spanish Holiday! Beautiful!
We are taken back to Aspen's palace and are quickly changed out of our clothing and into new dresses. My new dress is the same shade of red as my lips and is two piece. The top is off the shoulder with long lace sleeves. It stops above my belly button. The skirt also sits above my belly button, showing only a narrow strip of skin. It flows around loosely with slits on either side so I can move easily. I am then given a masquerade mask. The mask looks like dragon wings around my eyes and running down my nose is the dragon's body. Long ribbons and strings of black beads hang down in front and around my ears. Aspen walks into my room.
"Come on Isla, the city are celebrating!" she beams, taking hold of my hand. I laugh and let her pull me from the room. All the shifters are wearing loose-fitting dresses and masks that are the same as their animals. It is early evening and already the city is loud with music from violins, accordions and other instruments. The streets are decorated with colourful flags that have our flower on and ribbons and cloths are hung from the houses. Fire flickers from torches.
"That was a beautiful speech," Aspen says, wrapping her arm around me. "I'm so proud of you," she kisses my cheek.
"Thank you," I smile looking up at her and she hugs me tighter.
"Come on, we've got lots of dancing to do." We enter a large square where lots of shifters already dance to the music being played. I smile, hearing all the laughing and happiness. I let out a squeak as a random shifter grabs my arm and pulls me into a dance. I skip around the square with all the other shifters. The other royals join us all wearing masks of their animals.
"Isla!" Oliver shouts. I let out a shriek as he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder.
"Oliver put me down!" I shout as he spins me around.
"Come on Oliver, put the poor girl down!" Maryanne shouts.
"and you kind of have to, she's a queen. You have to do what she says," Andrea adds.
"Oh your majesty," he jokes, not caring about what Andrea just said. "I can not have your royal feet touching the ground of mere commoners," he speaks overdramatically. With a laugh, I press my hands against he back and begin to freeze his skin. He drops me as he does this weird shimmy, dance, shudder movement.
"That's it, you may be queen but I can still..."
"I think that's quite enough you two," the High Queen sweeps in as she walks toward us. Oliver has a sheepish smile on his face and I chuckle again.
"I know you two are competitive, but I really don't think now is very appropriate, do you?"
"Yeah, Isla's first act as queen is destroying the city," Tanya jokes as she walks past. I poke my tongue out at her as the others all join us.
