Chapter 2

We finally made it to the castle. It was lavish, luxurious, and absolutely beautiful. Anthea had passed out during the carriage ride on the way here, which was surprisingly shorter than expected. It was only a couple of hours. We exited the carriage and walked into the castle with a maid leading us.

"Your highness, we will send you to your room and send lady Elaine there after a trip to the washroom," the middle-aged maid said.

"Absolutely perfect!" the princess said charmingly.

Once again, I felt something in my gut that she was odd. Another maid went to lead Anthea to her room which was strange. If she lived here, why would she need to be shown where her room is? Anyway, I was being led to the washroom by the older maid. Walking through the halls was exceptional. The amount of marble, gold, and design in the castle was astonishing! There were columns on the sides of the hallways that were sculpted into people holding up the walls. Walking through it was like watching a movie.

We made it to the bathroom and I dismissed the maids before they began to wash me. The bathtub was as lavish as everything else, completely made of marble. Steam billowed up into the air from the tub but before I got in, I decided to take a look at this new face. I moved up to the full length mirror in the room and I was stunned.

Starting from the top, the hair was a light mahogany brown, very wavy and pretty. 'My' eyes looked hazel and my face was cute and small. That's the problem. It was small. This is the face of an actual child. I am somehow a child. No wonder I'm so tiny! I'm a pipsqueak! I am the baby you steal candy from!

No, no, no, no, no. This cannot be. A child cannot solve any problems. What the f*ck do I do? First I get sent into this world and now I am a child? Looking away from the mirror, I start to hop for what seems like an endless amount of time.

Sucking in a deep breath, I move myself to the mirror again. Moving my finger up, I poked my cheeks. Yup, this was me. I continually started to touch my face just to see if this was some sort of hallucination. My eyebrows scrunched up.

"Miss, are you okay?" the maids called. They were waiting outside and were probably worried since they haven't heard any movement.

"Yup! Just about to dip in!" I replied. Yeah, let's go into the water and relax for a minute. I walked over to the tub and stuck a foot in. The warmth was perfectly comfortable surrounding my foot, so I went in. The bottom of the tub was a whole lot warmer than the rest of the water. I looked at my body through the it and really saw how short and chubby I truly was. I banged my fists against the water, unsurprisingly splashing it everywhere. I sat in the tub for a few minutes to think about what has happened to me. After having my little moment, I just washed up using the soaps they left me.

"Excuse me? I'm done," I exclaimed. All of a sudden, a few maids ambushed me. One started brushing my hair while putting oils in it. Another gently put things on my face. The final one put me in a girly, fluffy, dark green dress with a matching ribbon at the waist.

"Excuse us miss, we will wait outside," they said respectfully and they left me stunned. How long was that? Palace maids are super efficient! I turned to look at myself in the mirror and was once again stunned. The green complimented my eyes and the stuff they put on my face gave me a glow befitting my age. My childish face was adorable! I smiled and a small dimple on my right cheek showed itself. Wow, I have a dimple too! Caressing my hair, I found that it was as smooth as silk. Damn, this is great. I walked out of the bathroom to the maids so we could head wherever we need to go.

We made it to a pristine white door that was almost six feet taller than me. The molding around the doors was extravagant and like everything else was, lavish. A guard that was standing at the door knocked and announced our arrival. One of the maids that lead the princess to her room opened the door and behind her skirt was the princess peeking her head towards us.

"Elaine!" she yelled. The princess grabbed my arm and pulled me into the room. Oh my poor heart, why must she be so cute? Anthea then dismissed the maids and stared into my eyes.

"Your eyes are pretty," she said.

"Erm, thanks princess," I replied. Warmth crept into my heart and my face.

"So you kinda aren't supposed to be here," she explained, "I went there to see what everyone was so excited about so I think I just stole you…"

"Does that mean I have to go back?" I asked. Going back is going to be a delay that I don't know if I can handle. With the princesse's resources, this could go a lot better.

"No! You really don't! I can just ask to have you be my playmate!" the princess rushed to say.

"Oh, okay. That's great!" I said. We spoke about random topics for a bit until the princess apologized

"I am sorry that I yelled. Concubine Rose said yelling isn't good for ladies. It's just Akira said that I need more friends and she has a lot," she said regretfully

"Akira?"

"Akira is my bestest best friend in the whole world!" she exclaimed with bright eyes. "She is my cousin but I only get to see her sometimes."

I saw how her entire being turned dejected. Her proud shoulders slouched and she looked so pitiful. Shit. I don't know how to deal with other people's emotions!

"Princess, tell me about what we are going to do." I went for the second best thing and tried to distract her.

"Well, since it's almost time to present you to daddy, lets just play!" She cheered up almost immediately. She grabbed my hand, however, I gently slid her hand off mine. She turned towards me and scrunched her eyebrows. "What's wrong?'' she inquired.

"I don't really like it when people touch me," I said. All of a sudden, her amber eyes lit up, reflecting gold that I don't think was there before.

"Akira said that too! She ended up throwing me into a commoner's house when I hugged her so I set a strand of her hair on fire!" she said enthusiastically. I was shocked. How was that even possible?

"How was she able to throw you?" I inquired

"Oh! She's part wolf and kitsune!" Anthea answered

"Are you a wolf?" I have so many questions! They could help me defeat those cruel monsters!

"Of course not! I am part fae and kitsune. Our moms are kinda related so I call her my cousin," she explained

"Wow! How did you set her hair on fire?" I asked again. All this information was amazing!

"Do you wanna see?" she asked mysteriously. I nodded immediately. This was going to be interesting. Anthea then smiled and turned around. I felt a rush of heat in the large room and looked at the princess's back. It was completely different. Her long ash hair changed into pure white and the most shocking part was her two tails. Her clothes happened to change too for whatever reason. Her once blue ball gown was now a white and red robe.

"Isn't it cool!" she said. I inhaled a sharp breath at what Anthea looked like. She had ears!

"Yeah, it's amazing!" I replied shellshocked

"My mom said I shouldn't show people this too often, but I trust you!"

"How do you have powers?" Though I was grateful in her trust, this is way more important!

"Oh well, my teacher said that its cause mom and daddy mesh well," she said. She then put her hands together in a praying gesture and when she opened them, there was a freaking blue fire ball! She came closer and held it out to me "Hehe, I lit her hair on fire with this!"

"Oh, wow," I said. This was so cool! Can I do that? I sure hope I can do some magic.

"Yeah." Then in one moment, it was all gone. The ears, the hair, tails, and the new clothes. Everything was changed back like it never happened. Then there was a knock on the door.

"Anthea, it is the third prince, may I come in?" an unfamiliar male voice said.

"Yes Jorden, please do" Anthea squealed. Then a beautiful boy opened the door. What is in the water here?

"Hello, my darling fourth princess. I have news," he said. He had dark brown eyes and dark forest green hair. He opened his mouth to say more but before he could, Anthea bolted towards him. The boy opened his arms and swirled her around. The sounds of their laughter filled the entire room.

"Do tell, brother," the princess mocked in a polite voice. Her brother then looked her in the eyes and seriousness took over his face. He looked over at me and back at Anthea. They had an unspoken conversation but Anthea nodded.

"Father has recruited eight more consorts. Rumors are that one of them is pregnant so be ready for a seventh sibling. Father has also cancelled the meeting with your guest and you," he informed.

"Okay, I understand," she tearfully said. What did that mean? They continued to speak while I thought of all the possibilities.

"I have to go. I hope to meet you properly next time, Elaine. Goodbye sister," the boy said. Later on, after a while the princess called in a maid to send me to my room. She was obviously very upset but it wasn't like I could do anything to help.

"We are here, my lady," the palace maid said. Another maid opened the door and at this point, I wasn't surprised. It was a beautiful room but I was way more interested in sleeping. I changed into the more comfortable sleeping gown they left for me. Then when I was done, I ran and fell onto my bed. I made a loud sigh sound once I fell. It was way more comfortable in contrast to the bed that I slept in on my first night in this world. I tucked myself in and fell into the abyss of sleep.