Melissa

It was about a week later that we arrived at the foot of Mount Drogone, home of the Lunargent Scale. We didn’t enter immediately, though, instead deciding to camp a ways out so that we could send Talith to scout ahead. Joanie’s idea - and a good one, too, considering he came stomping back a few hours later with some bad news.

“Two helms per head,” the lapsi grumbled. “Two! Just to pass through the damn gates to town. I nearly threw a fit.”

“You didn’t though, did you?” I asked, a little worried.

That got me a glare from Talith, who narrowed his eyesockets at me. “Of course not. I’m not an idiot.”

“More importantly,” Lonna broke in, “did see any wanted posters on your way in?”

“I did,” Talith confirmed, sighing. “‘The Heroine’s’ face is plastered all over the guard posts - like they were afraid it might get missed, or something. I even saw a few posters scattered across town, all with a hefty bounty listed.”

“Great…” Lonna muttered. “We’re going to need to cover her with an illusion, or something, then… Combined with a cloak, it… might be enough.”

“Nope nope,” Joanie said. “Too risky. If we get caught, it could raise trouble for the Countess.”

“Well, she should have thought of that before sticking us with one of her stooges,” Lonna retorted. “If you can’t handle how we do things around here, then feel free to go back with your tail tucked between your legs.”

“Tail’s too short for that,” Joanie replied, shaking her head.

“That’t not… Ugh.” Lonna slapped a hand against her face, slowly dragging it downward. “Fine. What would you even have us do, anyway? March right up and say we’re here on the Countess’s orders? How are you going to explain the fact that you’ve taken the Countess’s ‘captive’ Heroine in the exact opposite direction from the capital?”

“Not the Countess’s captive,” Joanie replied, staring Lonna down. “The Princess’s.”

“The…” Lonna paled. “No. No way. Being forced to greet the Countess was bad enough, now you want me to actually ask for an invitation with the local lord?”

“The local lord lives a ways away from here,” Joanie replied. “You won’t have to meet him, nope nope. Just say you’re here on official Princess Business, and need to get through to the mountain path.”

“Urgent princess business?” I broke in. “Isn’t that a bit… suspicious?”

“Guards aren’t paid enough to question princesses, nope nope. Not so long as they’re definitively the real princess, anyhow.”

“Funny how that doesn’t seem to be stopping you,” Lonna grumbled, crossing her arms. “I don’t wanna do it. We should just wait until night and slip over the walls.”

“But the Countess-”

“Can bite it for all I care!” Lonna snapped. “I have no intention of playing along with her little game. Taking the throne after Sorissa’s done with it? Marrying Melissa, just for political gain? She doesn’t even like me, in case you couldn’t tell!”

“Um…” I interjected. “What’s that about… marrying me?”

“That’s… you…” Lonna bit her lip, and for a moment I swore I saw tears glimmering in her eyes - but then she turned away, stomping off towards the trees. “Forget it! I’ll go get the damn scale myself if the rest of you are too cowardly to.”

“Wait-” I started, only to be interrupted by a massive clay hand. 

“Let her go,” Talith told me. “She’s been building towards this for a while.”

“Building towards what?” I demanded. “She isn’t actually going to get the scale by herself, is she?”

“…She might,” Talith admitted, glancing at Joanie. “You, and the Countess - you underestimate how much she hates that title. For good reason, too. It’s caused her nothing but pain.”

Joanie shrugged. “Not my job to question the Princess. Not my job to question the Countess, either, though. And the Countess thinks she’s the best route towards peace.”

“More like revenge,” Talith scoffed. “Everyone knows she hates the Queen.”

“There’s more to it than that,” I said, only to blink when both of them turned towards me. “I mean… uh… There’s just. It’s complicated. For the Countess, and for Lonna too, I’d bet…”

“Complicated, huh?” Talith murmured. “I guess that’s one way to put it…”

“Do you think she’ll come back?” I asked. “To plan things out properly, I mean?”

“…She might,” Talith said. He didn’t look too sure, though.

***

Lonna

***

It felt like my life was flashing before my eyes - even though I wasn’t anywhere close to death. Unless you counted emotional death, I guess, because a part of me felt pretty close to that.

I remembered my life as a princess far more clearly than I wanted to. It wasn’t the way most people imagined life under Sorissa - or as a princess, either, for that matter… Sure, there were strict etiquette teachers, who made sure I learned the rules of high society from nearly dawn to noon - but then, afterwards, there were dinners with M… Sorissa. Dinners where we abandoned all royal decorum, and just talked.

She used to read me bedtime stories. Used to tuck me in at night and kiss me on the forehead. Used to promise she’d be there for me, forever - or at least until the Heroine herself came to take her away… not that I ever understood why some Heroine would take away my ‘precious mother.’ Didn’t sound like the sort of thing a proper Heroine should do, at the time…

I was happy, back then. Happy, and sweet. I used to sing, all the time - not hum, but sing. I had servants who attended to my every need, and a mother who loved to spend time with me, and all the food I could eat… soft bed, a warm blanket, a roaring fire during wintertime. All of it.

I’d even had a friend. Kayle. The idiot who stole my first kiss - the one who made me realize that maybe boys weren’t for me. Something I rushed to tell my ‘oh so sweet mother’ about, all worried as to how she’d react… but she accepted it. Told me it was fine, and that I could like whoever and whatever I wanted.

And then she killed him.

I still didn’t know why. Was it for touching her ‘darling daughter’? Was it because he’d stolen my first kiss before I could give it properly? Her idea of justice? Or was it just possessiveness, in the end? Had she wanted me to be hers, and no one else’s?

I could still remember her smile, and the blood dripping down her face, as she held out the bloody knife and asked me if I wanted to join in…

That’s being a princess meant to me. That’s what the Countess and her little soldier would have me embrace. A world of smiles and song and knives in the heart of anyone you dared to care for.

I didn’t want it. Couldn’t do it. I couldn’t. I didn’t want to go forth as Princess Lonna, the soft spoken and easily fooled. I didn’t want to be connected to her in everyone’s eyes. To embrace my role as Princess heir - wouldn’t that be spitting in the face of everything I’d done to distance myself from that crazy woman?

Wouldn’t it just… turn me back, into that naive and helpless princess who didn’t even know she needed to be rescued? Who thought the Heroine was surely bad to even consider taking her mother away? Who couldn’t do anything for herself, and only caused trouble to the ones who tried to help her?

I didn’t want that…

I didn’t.

Something rustled in the brushes, and I hurriedly wiped away my tears before turning to face them with a scowl. “I don’t want company.”

Again, the bushes rustled.

“I said-”

A bunny hopped out, sniffed at the air for a moment, and then hopped again.

“…Joanie’s going to be disappointed she didn’t manage to spear you,” I muttered, mostly to myself. 

“Too bad you didn’t bring her with you, huh?” asked a chipper voice from behind me.

I spun around, turning to face its source - a blonde with pigtails and a manic grin, hanging upside down with her legs hooked around a tree branch. She wore pink skirts, which were currently falling down around her, and held a pink umbrella in her hands. “Who-”

“But then, you never did like being alone, did you?” the figure mused. “Poor little Princess Lonna, so lost in her thoughts, she tries not to wonder, is it all a facade? She laughs and she loves, but she cares oh so little - for when friends come calling, she always proves fickle.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded, already reaching for the light around me. The sun was starting to dip down the horizon, already, but there was still plenty to work with.

“Noooooothing~!” the girl called back, in a singsong voice, straightening out her legs and dropping back to the ground - where she landed in a painful looking heap. “Oops!”

“What the… Who even are you?” I demanded, refusing to relax - just because she seemed pretty harmless doesn’t mean she was.

“Who am I?” the girl asked, tilting her head to the side. “Who am I…? What a good question! Am I a boy? A girl? A person? A doll? Maybe I’m a toy, abandoned by its owner after her mom stepped on it! Or maybe I’m your replacement. Too bad I can’t transform myself to look like you - do you think Mother would care for me more, if I could?”

“What are you… Wait…” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Mother? You’re the-”

“Substitute?” she interrupted, giggling. “Kylee at your service! The little fake, created to go along with all our mother’s whims. Made to be there for allllll the formalities you like to skip.”

“What are you even doing here?” I asked, cautiously. I didn’t know much about the ‘substitute’ Mother had made princess - and I didn’t particularly like to think about her, either. “Did you run away, too?”

“Run away?” Kylee asked, tilting her head again - in the opposite direction, this time. “No, no, why would I run away? I’m here to make Mother happy, after all! Happy like I am. Always soooooo happy…. I bet she’ll be happy if you come home, you know?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I declared, tightening my grip on the surrounding light and readying myself to cast a spell.

“Good. I don’t want you to.”

“H-huh?”

“I don’t want you to,” the girl repeated, shaking her head. “I like it like it is. You’re too late, anyhow. The one you couldn’t be bothered to save is alllllll gone.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded, taking a step back from her.

“Nothing. Everything. All the things! You know, Dame Boring Borington tod me not to bother with you? She said that we should just go get the scale while you’re all distracted with figuring out your plotty plots. I think that’s boring, though - why shouldn’t we have a good old race for it? First to the top gets it for keepies!”

“You’re after the scale?” I demanded. “Why? What are you trying to do with it?”

“I’m playing keep-away of course! Keep the scale away from the ungrateful brat. Keep the brat away from the ungrateful queen. Keep the play going - going, going, for what’s to happen to a toy when the playing stops, hmm? Cast aside again?”

“I don’t know what that means,” I muttered, looking away from her. Something about her made me… uncomfy.

The girl giggled. “I’ll make a diversion, okay? A big monster diversion. Then you can just slip inside while all the soldiers fight for their lives!”

“Don’t even think about it,” I warned her. “I’ll cut you down before you can even-”

“But I’ve already done it?” the girl replied, tilting her head. “Can’t you hear it? The lovely sounds of screams in the background. The sight of flames, leaping high… I wonder if any soldiers will truly die?”

Kylee giggled again, before pushing herself up onto her feet. “I really must be going. Official princess business to attend to - you know how it is, sister of mine. Or maybe you don’t? Mother always did spoil you, I think…”

“Like you’d know,” I scoffed. “We’ve never even met before.”

“Haven’t we?” the girl asked, tilting her head back. “Well, as you say… Bye bye!” 

“Wait-” I started to call out, but before I could a vine wrapped around the girl’s waist and tugged her back through the trees.

“Bye byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye!”

~~~

Author's Notes

I had some serious writer's block on this one - I knew I didn't want Lonna regrowing her antlers just yet, for reasons, but also didn't have a good reason for her not to beyond being stubborn... Which, to be fair, she is.In the end, I decided to just write the story and see what would happen, figuring I'd find a way to roll with whatever occurred in the end... Hope you enjoyed? DX