Chapter 3: The royal guests from Vandrad.
The warm glow of lights from the orphanage windows fell on the silent street outside the orphanage and cast long shadows of the street lamp poles on the street.
Inside the orphanage some kids were playing, some were asleep and few were in the washroom.
Dylan and his two little friends were in the washroom brushing their teeth before retiring to the bed. George was the first one to complete his nature calls and left the washroom followed by Max.
Dylan peeked out a little to see if anyone was in the corridor and closed the door after finding it empty.
Running to the mirror on the wall, he turned around with his back facing the mirror now and lowered his pants a little and twisted his upper body to his two round white butts in the mirror.
He looked seriously for some time in the mirror before pulling up his pants and releasing his breathe.
'Phew.. Thank god there is no tail growing. Heh. What a crazy girl. Growing a pig tail? Blahhh...' Dylan thought as he patted his shoulders and washed his face before going back to the boys dorm to sleep.
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"ALEX"
"Present miss"
"John"
"Present miss"
"Max"
"Present miss"
....
The kids notified about their presence when the warden came and took their attendance to check if any kids was missing. Since everyone were there in the dorm, the warden turned off the lights and left the dorm.
Since the kids were tired because of school and plays, they all slept as soon as the warden left. Little Dylan too didn't have energy to create ruckus and slept off.
But as the night progressed, a small frown settled on his baby face and he turned and tossed around in his bed.
After some time he peacefully settled on his side and went back to catch his sleep. But just as he was about to fall asleep again, he felt some strange itching in his butts.
At first he just scratched his butts with his nails and it settled, but later it became impossible to ignore and tried putting his hand inside his pants.
Huh? Wait.. Dylan opened his eyes wide and moved his hand a little on his butts.
"AHHHHHHHH..."
Dylan's scream woke everyone in his dorm and also in the beside ones. Even the warden came running hearing his shriek.
When the lights turned on everyone saw Dylan hurriedly wrapping himself in his blanket. His pale face and tears in his eyes scared the warden. Dylan looked around the room. There were a total of twelve kids with the oldest being of age seven in the room. Everyone was staring at Dylan curiously.
"Dylan. What happened? Why are you crying?" The warden came to his tiny bed and started patting his back but Dylan didn't speak. He was too shocked to say anything.
What did he just touch on his butt? Was it a tail? T-Tail? A pig tail? The little boy was scared out of his wits to even register what the warden was saying.
"Little Dylan. Did you have a nightmare? Huh? It's okay. Go back to sleep. The fairy princess will come take you to her fairy land." The warden coaxed him but he was too stunned to sleep.
He can feel the itching just above the middle of his butts and the hairy end of the tiny tail sprouted out just a moments ago was teasing his baby skin.
"Dylan. Baby. Are you listening? Say something?" the young warden asked Dylan again and this time she was really worried looking his blood drained ashen face.
"M-Miss J-Jasmine-e. I g-go to t-toilet." Dylan stuttered a lot as he finished his incomprehensible sentence. Warden Jasmine nodded her head and tried to remove the blanket to carry him to the washroom but Dylan pulled the blanket tighter.
"I will k-keep t-this miss." The warden raised her brows but didn't comment anything. He seemed to be already shaken with whatever dream he had and she didn't want to make him any more uncomfortable.
Dylan slowly walked behind the warden to the common boys washroom with the blanket still wrapped around him.
The kids in the adjacent dorms peaked through the windows to see what happened but Dylan was too horrified to take notice of that.
He stopped the warden outside of the bathroom and said that he could do it himself and hanged the blanket to the hanger behind the door. Rushing to the mirror, he lowered his pants and turned around.
There. A three inch tail matching his skin tone with hair at the end stuck just above his bum crack.
Dylan's blue eyes widened to it's maximum as he looked at the white tail. NOOO... This cannot happen. He didn't want a pig tail.. NOOO...
Sob .. sob .. sob..
The warden rushed in hearing to the sobs coming from the inside and found Dylan kneeling on the ground and crying. Heh? Why was his pants down and butt naked in front of the mirror.
"Dylan. What happened? Why are crying. Tell me? Might be I can help you? Hmm?" It took the caretaker sometime to make him stop crying. He sniffed and hiccuped as he looked at warden.
"Wahhh.. Miss Jasmine.. Please remove this tail. Hic .. I will never lie again.. Hic. P-Please.. sob" Little Dylan held the warden's hand as he begged to remove that ugly tail.
He had learnt his lesson. He will never lie again. Never ever in his life again. "Please miss .. hic.. remove that tail."
Huh? Tail? What tail? Jasmine looked at his exposed butts and found nothing unusual. Did he dream that he somehow grew a tail because he lied. Ahh.. That must be it.
She somewhat wanted to laugh looking the little boy crying like no tomorrow while sitting on his knees with his bum exposed.
But knowing child psychology, she refrained herself from doing that and patted the boy.
"Dylan. Look properly. There is no tail. See. It was just a nightmare." Dylan sniffed and turned his head a little to look at his butts and really there was no tail. Huh?
Dylan shook his head vigorously and rubbed his eyes. Again there was no tail. What happened to the tail? Dylan didn't know.
It somehow disappeared and of course Dylan was extremely thankful for whoever god that showed mercy on him.
Though he still felt that weird feeling of having a tail attached to him, he understood it must be psychological. The teacher then helped him wash his face and put him to bed.
Dylan slept straight on the bed with his stomach facing the ceiling thinking that even if the tail sprouts again, the bed should stop it's growth.
"Oyy Dylan.."
"What happened to you?"
George and Max came to his bed and whispered after the warden left. Their friend never behaved like this before.
Dylan simply pursed his lips and his cheeks flushed thinking about the position Miss Jasmine found him in the bathroom. How disgraceful! This is all because of that Stella. He will get his accounts settled with her later. Hmphh..
"Nothing happened. A bad dream. Go to sleep both of you. We have school tomorrow." Dylan shooed the two boys to their beds and the night became silent again.
Though it took sometime for Dylan to sleep, he finally slept without anymore itching and by morning everything was as usual.
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[Mythiopia | Blemond(Capital of Mythiopia) | The Royal Palace]
"Oh my.. Look how beautiful you are looking my baby Isa. Mwahh.." Queen Aliza hugged and kissed her little daughter as she tried different dresses on her.
Every mother likes to dote and doll up her daughter and she was no different. And her daughter was so huggable and kissable. She couldn't resist.
"Mama. I don't like yellow." the little princess pointed out when her mother picked up a yellow frock for her to wear.
The queen pursed her lips looking at the dress. The dress was so beautiful and it will surely look good on her princess but looking at her princess's pouty face she dropped the idea of forcing her to wear this. She will ask the seamstress to make the same the dress in her favourite colour - blue.
"What is my queen and my princess doing?" Both the ladies turned their heads and looked at the man who came into the room unannounced.
The king went straight to his daughter and carried her in his arms and went to his wife. The queen signalled all the maids in the room to leave and close the doors behind.
"Ahh. I see. My princess is trying her new dresses." King Lawrence asked his daughter and the cutie in his hands nodded her head. "I am sad."
The queen raised her brows hearing that her husband was sad. She didn't comment anything since her dearest husband was lost in his daughter's world.
"Why are you sad Papa?" Isabella asked her father as she cupped her father's face and analysed him. The king had a pout on his face with his lips curled down looking quite pitiful.
If anyone sees this, they would surely go find a doctor to get their eyes and ears tested. No. They wouldn't even go for test and directly jump into medication.
"Your Mama didn't get new clothes for me." The little princess gasped hearing this and accusingly looked at her mother.
"Mama. Papa is sad. Please don't forget to buy clothes for him too. Isa will be sad if her Papa is sad." The little princess heralded her edict making her mother speechless.
The queen opened and closed her mouth but no words came out. Her Papa is sad because he doesn't have enough clothes? What a joke.
If there was anyone in this room who didn't have enough clothes, then it was her. Her husband was quite good at ripping off her clothes every night and now she was ashamed to even tell the seamstress to do her dresses daily. The king smirked looking at his wife getting scolded by his daughter.
She took a deep breathe and shook her head. A daughter will always be a Papa's girl. Hmpph.. She glared at her husband before sweetly smiling back to her daughter and assuring that she will buy new clothes for her father as well.
'I will tear all his clothes and see what he wears for the court tomorrow. Hmphh.' The queen thought and gave a smug smile to the king which sent a shiver down his spine.
"Papa. Mama. Why are you buying me new clothes again?" princess Isabella questioned the parents. Her mother had brought her a lot of clothes just a few days ago. She hadn't even tried many. Then why again?
"That is because we are going to have guests baby. More specifically friends of your Mama and Papa are going to visit our kingdom next week and are going to stay with us for a few days." Queen Aliza excitedly replied about her friends arrival. Lawrence chuckled at his wife's alacrity and sat on the bed with his daughter on his lap.
"The people visiting are the king and queen of Vandrad. Like how I am the king of Mythiopia and your mother is the queen, Jayen Ivanov is the king of Vandrad and Kristina Carlson is the queen of Vandrad." The king explained his daughter about the guests. Before the girl could even nod her little head, her mother jumped in.
"It's not just that baby. We four studied in the same academy and were friends since childhood. Ahh those days..." Isabella curiously listened to their parents and all the fun they had in their academy.
"But I don't have any friends." Isabella's dejected voice stopped the parent's banter and they both looked at their daughter.
How can they forget that their daughter doesn't have any friends? She couldn't do magic like other kids and hence the kids of her age didn't play with her. She always played with the maids in the palace.
The queen cupped Isabella's face before speaking. "Don't worry baby. You will soon have a good friend. The king and queen of Vandrad have a son who is just few months older than you. His name is Calhoun Ivanov. I am sure you both will get along well. He visited you with his parents when you were born. You don't remember that." The queen coaxed her daughter and the king nodded as well. This cheered the princess as she was soon going to get a friend.
The girl started telling her parents all types of games she wanted to play with her friend till she fell asleep and her parents chuckled looking at their daughter's overloaded cuteness.
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