. Chapter #17: Daffodil's Petunia
However, the girl quickly masked her fear at the sight of Orion, and she began speaking to me cheerfully, and she tried to stare at me instead of Orion so that she could at least attempt to mask her fear that she showed truly to me before.
“Oh. Hello!” She spoke cheerfully. “Are you the princess?” She asked with a small amount of fear showing through her mask. She was most likely wondering why a princess would wear the rags that currently clothed me.
Then, she finally concluded that I was truly Princess Andriana. She smiled, but I could sense that the smile was forced. She nodded curtly, and I hoped that she was not one of Jean’s spies. Wow, was I getting paranoid.
“Well, sweetie, Daffodil sent me to pick you up. You see, I am her BFFAE, Petunia. She would follow me to the ends of the earth, which I would do as well for her.” She must have seen my confused look at her acronym, as she said, “Best Friend Forever And Ever. Seriously, you people above ground must not ever have cool acronyms for things anymore".
I stared down at her dress, slowly drawing in it’s extreme cuteness and detailing. I noticed that her dress was exactly like Daffodil’s, because her dress was similar to what her name was. She wore a short, spaghetti-strapped dress with purple and pink petals.
“But enough about me, darling. We need to get you to the shops in town! But not to shop, of course. Who does that? Designer clothes are so much more in.” I stared at her, confused.
“Why would I want to go to shops besides shopping? That makes no sense at all! Are you insane? I am so, not going with you wherever you want to go,” I asked her, truly befuddled by her statement.
Somehow Petunia got me to the town square of a remote village named Obis. Then she pulled me into a tailor shop. The inside of the shop was just how I imagined the inside of a tailor’s shop would be.
Bolts of cloth covered up three out of four of the walls. On the side not consumed by materials necessary for dressmaking: needles, thread, border fabrics, and many other tools that I was unable to recognize.
Wondering why in the world I was here, I walked over to the bolts of cloth to look, but Petunia did not. Instead, the girl walked over to the front counter.
“I am looking for something more..... I don’t know, maybe magical than these items. Would you happen to have something?” Petunia asked in a very secretive voice.
“No, I do not believe that we do,” the young girl behind the counter stated. The girl looked confused, and I guessed that it was one of her first days on the job.
“Ugh,” Petunia stated. “You are new on the job, aren’t you?” She looked frustrated that her plans had been momentarily disturbed.
When she heard this, the girl blushed, and lowered her eyes. She looked almost ashamed of her status. Then, she looked up at Petunia hopefully.
“Can you tell me what you are looking for? Then, when other customers ask the same question, I can actually help them.” She pleaded, “please?”
Petunia sighed, tapping her foot impatiently on the bamboo floor. I could tell that she was very frustrated with the employee’s ignorance. “Fine. Well, this company has a secret. So, when people ask you ‘do you have anything more.... Magical?’ like I did, you tell them that you do, and then you press this button.”
The girl squealed in delight at being able to help (a little overeager if you ask me), and then she slammed her fist down on the button happily, probably thinking how much she enjoyed helping people. I missed being part of a world where everything was as simple as pleasing new customers in a new job at a new shop. A door appeared in the middle of the fabrics, which surprisingly the other customers seemed not to notice as they went about feeling the fabrics and choosing tools.
Petunia pulled me through the door, and as she was doing that I tried to study the door that had appeared in the middle of the wall.
The door was pulsing purple and orange glitter. Through the portal I could see hundred of people. Then I realized that they were all people that I knew! All of my country’s court, the Marks, and everyone else that I had been on my journey. Even Jean and the masked men were in the picture! I found that I could not resist stepping through the portal to meet my parents again.
Then I noticed something. Everyone in the picture was doing something. Jerusha Johnson was baking bread with her mother, the king and queen were going about Royal Business, even the masked men were doing something.
I looked closer, and I noticed that the masked men were walking towards a tailor shop. One of them reached to open the door, and suddenly I could hear a bell ring behind me. The bell signified the entrance of a new customer.
I did not stick around to see if it was truly the masked men at the door. I ran through the door. I heard Petunia trying to warn me and pull me back, yet as she was doing that, I had already entered through the portal.
Then, I saw that I was not in the tailor shop anymore. I had moved through the portal to a whole new world. Now I was floating in the air, suspended as if by magic.
Suddenly I was falling. I fell down, screaming, and scared out of my wits. I suddenly realized what Daffodil had been trying to warn me of.
Fairies have wings. They can fly, so this steep drop-off was to make sure that only fairies could get across to whatever waited for them on the other side of the cavern.
I wondered what the mystery at the other side must be. Was it a castle, sunken into the ground like the ancient tale of Atlantis? Or perhaps it was a dungeon for the fairy’s enemies? Maybe the Fountain of Youth? Okay, so know I was just being silly, because even though I knew that those possibilities were unlikely and unrealistic, but I wanted to think about something else besides dying, as I was still falling.
I could vaguely remember being lifted up by a pair of arms. I looked up, and I saw Petunia, with her face scrunched up in pain. I could hear voices screaming from above me.
I saw the masked men above me, standing on a small sliver of rock protruding from the entrance.
The men were swinging their axes, swords, spears, and other things not meant to be weapons. They were yelling down threats of revenge at me.
Then I was who was leading them. Jean. I saw then, that in fact he was not leading them, but fighting them! Orion, who had luckily not fallen, was at the same time fighting with Jean.
I could not help myself. A small “Jean!” escaped from my mouth. When he heard me call his name, Jean turned to me and smirked slightly; he had to turn back as an axe attempted to hit his head.
My mind was racing. Maybe the Jean that I had thought had been in my dreams had not been real! Could if have been a figment of my imagination possibly? Perhaps the other Jean had been an impostor in my dreams, a new way I imagined him because I was so homesick and missed him! I knew in the depths of my heart that this idea was crazy, yet I realized that I would forgive Jean for doing anything.
I suddenly realized something. I loved Jean! I loved him with all of my heart, and I would sacrifice my life for him.
I didn’t understand myself. How could I love a man that wanted me dead? Love is incredibly blind, I realized distastefully. My parents must have really made a mistake to make this man mad at them. He seemed like one of those people that never stopped fighting for revenge on his enemies, no matter how trivial the matter.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& short chapter..... sorry! I hope you like it, though! Thank you for reading! By the way, this chapter is dedicated to my friend that I just figured out made a wattpad account: @sandiegocean and I am SO EXCITED! *squeals for who knows how long* OK, so check her out, she has not written any books yet, but I am trying to peer pressure her into doing it, and SHE WILL POST SOMETHING!
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~Hannah