Princess and the Pea... A new story.
Birds can live in a cage their entire lives protected and groomed, but that is a waste of a life. At an early age I realized my pet bird was basically a reflection of me. The only difference was I still had the ability to give its life meaning. So at the age of six, I set that pretty bird free hoping one day the same would happen to me.
Setting my bird free was a really great moment for me, but my nanny and my parents, didn’t share my feelings. I would live as a slightly more pampered bird that would be let out on a leash, if I was lucky. Marriage would be the final arc of wasting a life.
When the year finally came my father announced that the time had come for something important.
"for what?" I asked him hoping it wouldn’t let my life slip away without doing something, anything, I would settle for stepping outside the palace gates. For the first time it occurred to me that I had honestly never left the palace. Never wandered farther then the dilapitated shurbs my parents called a garden. Only my eyes were allowed to follow Lesta and Nanny when they ventured beyond the palace gates and into the forest.
"No!" I yelled out. Mama jumped slightly, she wasn't used to being interrupted. She searched Papa's face before turning her bewildered eyes to me.
"Lamb!" Nanny scolded me from behind. I hadn't heard her enter the room. It was one thing to speak up to my parents, it was suicide saying anything Nanny didn’t approve of. When my eyes met her’s I could tell she was trying to keep from tearing my head off right then and there.
That night I lay around while Nanny went on and on about embroidery and how important it was. Her thick accent purred on letting my mind drift in and out. I tried imagining what it would be like to leave the palace. Would it live up to my expectations? Well, my expectations were set pretty low. But once I was married off I wouldn’t be able to leave. As first and only born, I would marry a second or third born and we would live here. That thought depressed me even more. I literally felt like a baby when I had to cry to relieve my stress.
"Lamb, stop with this foolishness. Maybe marriage will bring you the freedom you seek." I could tell she was trying to be nice, which was actually quite rare for her.
“I’ll never be able to leave!?" I twisted and turned on my couch, hopelessly tangling myself in my hair and petticoat. The confinement of my tangled petticoats was like a glimpse of my life. I would never know what it means to walk freely. To walk right out those gates, to really see something other than the stone walls of the castle and the infuriating shrub gardens.
"Celia! Stop with this! If you don't like it here then find a means to leave. They are here to protect you, not keep you prisoner." Nanny wasn't yelling, she was sure my meltdown was a fleeting thing. It wasn't worth the effort to take me seriously.
"you sure about that?" I peeked at Nanny through one eye.
"I'm sure." Nanny said firmly. I pretended to drift off and waited until I heard the soft creak of my bedroom door opened and squeaked close once again. I popped an eye open and scanned the room through the tangles of my hair. No one was in sight except the soft fire struggling to keep me warm.
This was it. It was literally now or never. Lesta had the night off, there would be no one to watch me like a hawk. I had to pry my cage open from the inside. I couldn’t back by down.
I grabbed my riding/winder cape and tiptoed down the corridor. Every noise I made might as well have been a sonic boom in the lonely halls of the castle.
As Nanny had predicted walking right out of the castle was a piece of cake. Each clump of guards I passed asked what I was doing up so late, each guard accepted that I was taking a walk to clear my head. The guards at the shrub garden exit where so weakened from lack of sleep they could be knocked out with a feather.
I realized It wasn’t as easy as Lesta had made it look when we were kids but I still ran. I ran not knowing what for or what towards, but I ran to savor my escape.
The last hour drew to an end and my body was growing weaker. Freedom was wonderful, but my body wasn't used to it. I found a tree and snuggled into its roots. A small rabbit wandered up to me. Her(I can only assume it was a her) little nose wiggled its way into my side. I drew her into my riding cape to add to my warmth. The adrenaline wore off and I was out cold for the night.
