The Princess

Amora gestured with her free hand towards the clear blue sky projected on the dome above. An invisible brush painted the image of a young girl with short pink hair appeared amidst the clouds. She wore a frilly white dress and was in the process of stuffing a piece of pie into her mouth as she ran, a matronly looking woman hot on her heels. Then the picture zoomed out and the girl became a mere background for a group of adventurers setting out for fame and glory.

“When we last saw her, this little darling was far too young to follow her sister on her legendary adventure. But that hasn’t stopped the fans from wondering what happened to the precocious little sister of Victoria Runeblade the Third. How she took the news of Vicrtorias ****.” the picture changed, showing the same girl dressed in black and clutching a battered sword to her chest like a teddy bear. Her eyes full of tears and wild determination. “ And many a fanfiction has been written to on how she worked tirelessly to fill the hole her sister had left and become worthy of a crown and duty she never expected to inherit. “ Another oilpainting. The same girl, but older this time and seated on a throne. Her pink hair was now teased into drills that hung to the small of her back. Her light blue dress struck a delicate balance between modest elegance and being cinched juuust tight enough to show the puberty fairy had not screwed her over completely when handing out curves. Her posture and expression were regal, but with those soft round cheeks, rose-petal lips and wide turquoise eyes she’d probably still look adorable even if she styled her hair into a mohawk. In short, she had had the kind of cherubic youthful face that will get a woman carded until well into her twenties when buying ****. “Official canon never mentioned she found anyone worthy to share her throne. Or her bed. But many a fanfiction agrees that after all that hard work she deserves someone to pamper her a bit. ”

“The first to join our valiant hero on his quest will be: “Amora made a pause for dramatic effect as the various images winked out of existence” The Princess!” a cloud of white smoke billowed up at the edge of the seats.

The Princess stared out into the empty study from behind her desk wondering if she had slipped into a diabetic coma. It would be the most logical explanation, why she had gone from buffing out a few sratchmarks in an antique chair to being some kind of fairy tale princess. The part before that, the one where she had met some gorgeous blonde in a toga amidst a featureless white plane and been told about some kind of magic gameshow had a dreamlike quailty too.

Well if she WAS in a coma there was nothing she could do. And if she wasn’t…. then it was time to stop panicking and start planning. Because that woman made it sound like this was going to be a competition and getting caught with her pants down was probably bad. Or skirts down as it may.

That would definitely take some getting used to. But given the choice she’d rather get used to lacy dresses and ridiculously long hair than getting calls from debt collectors. So put that into the ‘Positive’ column.

Heels were a firm ‘Maybe’. She was so short now she might appreciate them later, but right now they felt mostly like a safety hazard.

Aaaand there was the door hanging in midair, just like the blonde had said. Too late to be a barefoot kind of princess now.

A moment later the first contestant stepped out of the smoke.

Jeff had expected to see one of his friends, dressed up like the character. But the girl slowly descending the stairs looked exactly like the one in the picture. Well mostly the same. The girl in the picture looked perfectly at home sitting on that throne while the one slowly picking her way down the stairs looked mostly concerned with not tripping over her own feet. Without that aura of effortless poise it was a lot more obvious that she was definitely below average height for a woman.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs she finally looked up to meet Jeffs eyes “ Greetings, Sir Sherwood.” She said with a demure smile and lifted her dress in a somewhat clumsy curtsy “It is nice to see you again.” She greeted with a posh English accent.

“Likewise. I think.” Jeff replied “But I uhm I’m afraid I don’t recognize you.” The way the girl raised her eyebrow as she shot Amora a questioning look, did seem awfully familiar though. But try as he might Jeff still couldn’t place her face.

“Ah! I must have skipped over that part. What with all the interruptions.” Amora said with a slightly reproachful look in Jeffs direction “I apologize for the confusion dear hero. As I said your comrades have been reborn into new lives, so their appearance might have changed a bit.”

“So uh, who are you?” Jeff asked the princess.

“That’s a secret.” The princess told him. ”I will explain the details once all the contestants are assembled. “ Amnora added “For now all you need to know is that we provided each one with a makeover so they could have a proper fresh start with the hero. So the sooner you meet the next contestant the sooner we can get this adventure started.”

“That’s one spectacular makeover.” Jeff let out a appreciative whistle “That wig looks completely real.”

“That’s not a wig.” The princess corrected “That’s what I actually look like now. Well I am wearing makeup of course. But this ” she tugged at one of her curling bangs “That is my actual hair. It takes a lot of wrangling, but it does look great, doesn’t it?”

“It does.” Jeff nodded.

“I am delighted to hear that, Sir Sherwood. ” she dropped into another curtsy. “And I look forward to catching up, but I am afraid we are on a bit of a schedule?” she shot a questioning look to Amora who nodded energetically and held out the wand to Jeff again.

“Oh. Right!” As soon as Jeff closed his hand around the cool metal, shadows began to dance around it’s tip once gain.