“Lenaia, my dear princess, how do you expect to rule the land if you can’t even traverse it?” I say teasing the princess. Today I decided that we should go for a walk. Being cooped up in her chambers all day is bad for her health. She usually stays in her bed and has me read to her. She only has a few windows in her room, so I sit on the windowsill nearest her bed. I can get a nice view of the courtyard.
“Well, if you didn’t walk so fast, I wouldn’t have a problem,” she retorts. I do walk rather fast I suppose, but I can’t help it. Having long legs helps, but I also got drafted for the military once, which requires fast walking. I had the opportunity to become a high ranking general, but I turned it down for a more diplomatic position.
“I am going at a reasonable pace, you are too slow. You need to go faster,” I jest. She is actually walking at a reasonable pace, but it is fun to watch her struggle up the hill. Her tiny nose scrunches up, and her plump cheeks protrude even further than they normally do. She raises her shoulders whenever she is upset, covering her slender neck. She usually stares at me with her marble like eyes, but she is too focused on the hill.
“This hill is too steep, my tiny legs aren’t for climbing. Remind me why we couldn’t take the horses?” Its a valid question. Normally we go out on rides to get some fresh air. We take the horses down the creek and rest at a fork in the river. She sometimes takes a dip in the chilled river, letting her silver hair soak up the water. It dries on the ride back to the castle, so it usually looks rather fluffy and sits on her shoulders comfortably.
“The horses needed their shoes refitted. Besides, walking is good for your health,” I lie. The horses do need their shoes refitted soon, but they didn’t need it done today. I like taking walks, because it means that I get to hear her harp-like voice more. I usually talk a lot to her, but she only ever answers me in short sentences. It is a shame, because if I didn’t know better, I would think that her voice could bring peace to the lands.
“Cecelia, I am your princess, and you are my advisor. You are supposed to make my life easier!” she makes a valid point. I am assigned to be her speaker and diplomatic council, but that only encompases her public life. I don’t have any reason to make her personal life any easier. Besides, she owes me for all the meetings I go to in her place.
“I am also your girlfriend, and thus I am allowed to make your life harder than it need be,” I mention. Did I forget to say that? We are dating, but it usually slips my mind since I spend a great amount of my time doing her work, so I am not able to see her that much. The only times I get to see her in private is when I read to her, and when we go to sleep.
“Not so loud! Nobody else is supposed to know about that yet!” she nearly shouts. It is supposed to be a secret I suppose. It would start quite a disruption with the king to find out his only daughter is in love with another woman, and her own advisor none the less. It is not unusual. Lots of queendoms have two queens. Currently half of the castles in our territory are that way. They happen to be the most powerful estates as well.
“Relax Lenaia, nobody walks along this path ever. Watch out for that rock by the way,” I advise her. No one ever comes along this path. They have no need to. It is in the middle of a forest and it only goes to the cliff overseeing the ocean. You can see the entire castle from there. It is beautiful to see in the middle of winter. Covered in snow next to the frozen shore. Lenaia likes to see it too, but she gets cold too easily. So I normally bring a blanket for her.
“I see it, I’m not a complete...” she trips. She is rather clumsy. At least when she is outside of the castle. On the inside she moves around gracefully, like an angel. And when she dances, dear lord, she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I’m not one for dancing, but I love to watch her when she is at balls. She normally has many male suitors that she has to dance with, but they can never compare to her grace.
“You tripped. Here, let me help you,” I reach out a hand. She grabs it with her petite fingers. They are soft like silk, and are as light as doves. She is also very nimble with them. When I read to her, she likes to knit things for me. She is a master of yarn. But her skills don’t stop there. She is also a fantastic fiddle player. Usually when others play, I hear terrible screeching and harsh notes. Lenaia on the other hand, plays it as though she played the harps at the gates of heaven.
“Thanks. Aw, the lace on my skirt is torn,” she whines. It is a shame. She was wearing one of her best outfits. It was a yellow skirt with intricate flower designs. It was covered in white lace that she made herself. She is also wearing a yellow corset. She is wearing matching yellow flowers in her braid. She is always so great at coordinating her outfits.
“I told you to wear hiking clothes,” I remind her. She doesn’t like to wear anything tight fitting around her legs. She had an accident as a child that nearly shredded her legs. I was twelve at the time, she was ten. I was chasing her around the castle and she ran into the barracks. She hit a sword rack and fell over. The swords all fell on her. Fortunately, I had dragged her away far enough so she didn’t die, but I wasn’t able to save her legs. It took a whole day for the clerics to fix it. When it was done she looked like a cat and an owl had a fight on her legs. That was ten years ago, but it still hasn’t fully healed.
“Well I have an image to uphold, I have to look cute,” she says this in a very light and girly voice. She does look cute, but its more than just her appearance. Her mannerisms are what makes her cute. Like when she jumps a little every time lightning strikes. She also scrunches her nose whenever she is trying to focus. Whenever she falls asleep she makes adorable sounds. They are very quiet, but they are noticeable if you pay enough attention.
“If you look too cute, I would have too many people to compete against,” I plead. She has attracted many wealthy and powerful suitors. I’m surprised she turned all of them down. Even before I confessed my love for her. She could have had anything she ever wanted. Yet it seemed like she was waiting for me to confess...
“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Lenaia states. I can’t help but worry about it. She is the only thing I have. My mother died when I was nine, that’s when the castle took me in and gave me the job of advisor. I didn’t actually start advising her until I was eleven, and even then it was really only babysitting. But I wouldn’t trade a second of it for anything.
“And why is that?” I say as a half hearted question. She doesn’t always think that logically. Whenever I give her the reports from council meeting she always says something strange. Once she said that the only way to fairly distribute land to the farmers was to have them climb a tree. Sometimes I worry about what she will do when she is queen, but then again, I will be queen as well.
“Because you are rather large and intimidating,” she states. I am rather tall, and I can see how I might be intimidating. When I was in the army, I was told to keep my hair short. I guess I never bothered to do anything else with it. Thats probably why I am intimidating; people probably mistake me for a bodyguard or a soldier.
“I suppose, but hopefully you are not too scared of me.” I do worry about being too vicious around her. I want her to feel safe around me. If she was scared of me, I don’t know how I would change her mind.
“I’m not. You have too big of a heart to actually be mean,” she says, destroying my fears for the moment. I guess she is right though. When I went on military campaigns I never had the guts to actually kill anybody. I was, however, very good at coming up with strategies that would ensure the safety of my troops. Thats why I was offered a position as a general. I would have become the first woman general for five hundred years.
“Well thats good. Watch out for that rock by the way,” I warn her earnestly. She has a tendency to make the same mistakes. She used to always eat the food straight out of the oven whenever she was learning how to cook. Every time she did the same thing. And she always burnt her tongue. Even when I warned her she would disregard me!
“I don’t make the same mis...” she tripped again. Its not that she isn’t smart, she just doesn’t apply herself as much as she could be. While she does have crazy ideas, sometimes they are just the thing that is needed. During the year the locusts came, she suggested that we plant trees so we could get more food. She was right...in a way. We planted lots of fruit trees, and the locusts left most of the crop alone. And now we have better trading because of all the fruit.
“What were you saying? Would you rather me carry you to the top of the hill?” I jest at her. She would kill anyone else if they were to say that to her. She has little tolerance when it comes to people belittling her.
“This isn’t a hill, this is the mountain to hell,” She complains. It is a rather steep hill. I keep forgetting to bring her abilities into account whenever I make plans. But she always agrees to do things with me. She likes to spend as much time as she can together. She worries about me whenever I am working. She never explicitly told me that, but she talks in her sleep. It’s actually really sweet that she worries about me so much, but doesn’t want me to know so I don’t feel bad.
“Here, let me help you,” I say as I pick her up and begin to carry her. She doesn’t weigh much more than a couple sacks of flour. Nothing I can’t handle. When I first met her she hated to be touched by me. But she slowly warmed up to me. One night, during the harshest winter I’d ever seen, she asked me to sleep in her bed. As an eighteen year old advisor, I knew not to argue about it. This was only a little while after I confessed to her, and she still hadn’t given me an answer. I thought she didn’t like me in the same way. But then once I got in the bed she grabbed me and pulled me close to her. She fit snuggly into my side. I was shocked, and I felt like my heart would burst out of my chest. Then she told me that she loved me and I nearly died blushing. I was so embarrassed that I actually warmed her up rather quickly, and she fell asleep.
“Put me down this instant Cecelia! I demand it as your princess!” she squeals. Cecelia. Nobody calls me that but her. It sounds like a ray of sunshine, if that was able to produce a sound. Everytime she says it I am like a little dog whenever it hears it’s masters footsteps.
“Nope. You need to relax,” I advise. She can be rather uptight when she is out in public. She really does worry about her public image. She really does care about becoming the best ruler she can. She’s come a long way from her lackluster shell. I decide to spin around. I don’t know why, it just seems right.
“Stop giggling. And stop spinning around, I’m getting dizzy. And another thing…” My god can this girl nag. She never nags because she is angry, She only does it when she is embarrassed. I can see her face blushing as she goes on and on. There is nothing I can say that won’t be mean, so I do the only thing I know works everytime. I kiss her.
“There, better?” I ask. My voice cracks a little. My heart is always thrown into a crashing wave of excitement when whenever we kiss. It seems like the world stops. The world ceases to exist. It is only me and her, together in a limbo of nothingness.
“You can’t just kiss me when you want me to stop talking...but yes, better,” She mumbles the last bit. I remember the first time we kissed. I had just finished reading her a love story in which the two lovers are cursed to die if they ever touch each other. In a last action of despair, they kiss, and then disappear. Lenaia was rather torn by the story. She got out of her bed and ran over, nearly choking me as she lunged into my arms. She was worried that something like that would happen to us. I did the only thing I could think of to calm her down. And kissed her without a second thought.
“Here we are; the top of the ‘mountain to hell’,” I mock. It is a rather cloudy day, but the view is beautiful. I let Lenaia back to her own feet. This isn’t our final stop, we still have a ways to go until we get to our destination.
“Finally! Now we can walk downh...” she trips.
“My lord Lenaia. You are a clumsy princess,” I state as I wipe the sweat from my forehead.
“Yes, but I am your clumsy princess,” She says recovering from her fall.
“And thats why I love you,” I say. And I truly mean it. I love her more than anything. My dear princess.