The little scared visitor

The wet grass felt cold under her feet as she stepped into the grounds of the magnificent palace. She heard one of the maids hurrying towards her with a pair of shoes. She was about to bent down and make her wear them when she stopped her and took them from her. "Thank you Lucy, I really don't feel cold. I want to feel the grass." She smiled towards the maid and put the slippers away. She continued to walk and tried to get away from the sight of the guards and the maids so she could be alone for a while. She wanted to run away from this place, the grass and the trees were her only escape from the wicked and suffocating environment of the inside of the palace.

Her name was Helena, Princess Helena Carter. As much as she loved the name that had been given to her by her grandfather, she still hated the family name, "Carters, what a silly name!" She thought to herself as she made way through the giant row of bushes and onto her favourite spot, the huge swing that his grandfather surprised her with on her fifth birthday. Lately, she had thought about him alot, she had missed his low chuckle that he gave every time she would tell him the silly things that she had done with the children on the street and specially with her friend, Aimey. She missed her alot as well but she was not allowed to meet her as she was a commoner and she, a princess. God, she hated it. She would look at her brothers and sisters learning languages, politics, diplomacy, dance and manners and what not and feel like she didn't fit in at all.

Lately, she had felt a lot lazy and useless, not to mention her mother constantly reminding her in a wicked way of how unkept her hair was, how she needed to wear seperate clothes for every activity , how she needed to learn to dance and how to learn etiquettes and what not! She simply told her she didn't want to do all these things and if they wanted, they could just leave her at peace and tell the kingdom there was no fifth child! Yes, that would be great! "If they would just let me be!" She thought to herself as she usually did and sat on the swing and began to swing slowly. She was feeling really down today and nothing seemed to cheer her up. She stared at her bare feet now "not that clean" and smiled to herself. "That ought to make mother angry." She wasn't surprised at how this thought made her so happy because this was the only thing she wanted so much in her life, to get away from the wickedness of this castle. She was kind to people but still selfish in the sense that she didn't even yet have the courage to stand up to the King and Queen and leave this castle. She was, in a sense, used to the comfort of this place and as much as she wanted to leave the place, the thought of an outside world she had never seen was alien to her. Where would she go if she leaves this palace? Where else would anybody ever want to keep her? Sometimes, she just wanted to lose her identity and live in a tiny cottage somewhere, make cheese, yes she liked it alot, and grow old. She wanted to be left alone from all the negativity around her. She just wanted an escape but was too scared of the world outside.

As she was immersed in her thoughts, the bushes behind her rustled. She turned her head backwards to see what caused the interruption in her thoughts only to find a tiny helpless kitten stuck in the bushes and trying to free itself. "How precious!" She thought as her heart filled with love and care for this tiny creature who had decided to come out of nowhere to make her smile.

She stood up and tried to get closer to the adorable little creature, but as she did, it widened its little green eyes in fear and made a huge attempt in freeing itself from the bush and disappeared out of sight in the blink of an eye. "Oh!" She sighed in sadness . "Oh little one, I wasn't going to hurt you. I wish you could come back." She sat there on the grass for a minute and finally stood up to go back inside. Nothing good seemed to last for her ever. She was even more disheartened and as she began to make her way back, she heard a low purr and a "Meow!". She looked back to find the same green eyes looking at her from behind the bush. The kitten somehow stayed, as if it understood what she said before and was looking at her with those intelligent green eyes. "Hey! You came back!" She almost shouted in joy. She heard the rustling feet of the palace guards getting nearer and nearer. She stood infront of the bush, hiding the little kitten, and faced the guard as he appeared into the scene, "Your highness, there was a disturbance. Is everything okay?" He asked, panting. He was wearing too heavy of a uniform, she thought. Why did they have to wear that? She rolled her eyes in her head. As if someone was going to hurt "them"! This palace! It was the people that needed to be protected from them, and not the other way around. "No, it's nothing. Everything is fine." She said with her hands behind her back and dodging his questioning eyes. His name was Peter Black, the incharge of the palace grounds, always lurking around to find any unusual activity that she might be upto. He had nothing else to do, hunh, she thought.

He looked at her with his eyes narrowed, not believing her at all. He knew her too well to believe that. Still, he couldn't say anything to her of course. So he bowed and hurried away to his position on the main ground.

She sighed in relief and turned back to where the kitten was, it was gone. She kept talking and calling to it but no response. She stood there for a long time waiting for it to show up again. But maybe, it didn't like Peter. God, she was angry at him now. Frustrated, she went back inside to her bedroom, leaving dirty footprints all over the palace. She didn't care now. Though she knew she will feel bad for the maid who had been cleaning the place since morning. She just didn't care right now. She had a bad bad temper. And she didn't like it. She didn't like herself at all.