Snowball
Elora had a hundred and one thoughts weighing her down. And it wasn't just for the night. Even as she strolled through the mansion in the early hours of the afternoon the next day, her thoughts were like shattered glasses, scattered all over the place. She thought from the incident at the funeral to the birthday invitation they’d gotten the previous day.
It made her wonder. What was the marriage of the Prime Minister and the late Princess like? How dare he plan a party only a few days after the princess’s tragic demise? Perhaps he wasn’t hurt by the death of his wife and child? Did he not have remorse or even a little respect for the dead? Or maybe it was vampire nature to only mourn for a day or a few hours and move on?
Every single day in Elyria gave her a new discovery about them. They truly were heartless and emotionless and she wondered how the birthday celebration would look in the eyes of Elyria’s inhabitants.
“Oh my goodness, my lady,” Hula’s gasp from behind caused her to raise her eyes as they reached the courtyard.
“Keep your voice down,” she snapped at her servant. Only after a second did she realize her tone and clear her throat. “Speak.”
But Hula couldn’t keep it down and it seemed as though the other servants behind her joined in the gasps and surprised screams. “Your highness, there.”
Her eyes followed Hula’s pointed fingers until they settled on the small garden space she’d created beside the courtyard. Her eyes grew wide when she finally saw what the maids were surprised about. She let out a gasp.
“Oh my.” Her hands flew to close around her open mouth.
“My lady, the flowers blossomed. Ho…how is it possible?”
“They survived,” Elora screamed, bunching the sides of her dress and dashed toward the flowers, her eyes lightening up. She’d been too busy all these days to check on the flowers or even tend to them, yet they survived and even blossomed.
For the first time in two days, she burst into a fit of laughter and jumped in excitement. The servant watched with smile smile-filled face as they watched the princess jump up and down in excitement and afterward crouched down a little to pluck a rose. She brought it to her nose and sniffled.
“This is a miracle,” she giggled and sharply turned to the servants. “Does this mean we’ll finally have flowers in the kingdom?”
“Your highness, I think so,” Hula replied. “May I put that in your hair, my lady?”
She eagerly burped her head and handed the rose to her servant. Hula stepped forward and after gently slipping the rose into the princess’s hair, she smiled.
“My lady. Your hair color with this rose is a perfect combination,” Lia complimented.
“Ginger and red is such a good combination,” this time, it was Brenda.
“Your highness, you look like a heavenly creature.”
“This is how the creatures from heaven look.”
Elora’s cheeks began to hurt from the amount of smiling and blushing she was doing. Just a while ago, she’d been in a bad mood but now, she was in the best mood for the week. She waved her servants' compliments with her hand and blushed hard. “You can all stop with the flattering now. I can’t look that good.”
“You don’t know it, My Lady,” Lia protested.
“I am delighted we finally can grow flowers.”
“Okay, okay. I will let you have a rose each.”
The eyes of the three servants lit up like lanterns. They didn’t wait for another second before they all flocked to the flower and gently began to pluck a stem of roses each. After they were done, they retracted and brought the flowers to their noses, the vampire servants almost bursting into tears at the smell of the rose. It must be one of the few things that could make vampires so emotional.
“Your highness,” Brenda cried. “I have never witnessed a flower grow almost all my life. I must be fortunate to witness the arrival of the gifted one in Elyria.”
Hula added. “You’re right. I forgot to mention, my lady. The servants at the castle announced that a few trees turned green a few hours after the princess’s funeral. We’re so fortunate to witness this.”
But although Hula had thought that this news would make the princess even happier, Elora’s smile dropped to the floor and in an instant, a frown creased her forehead.
She had just had a flash of the Queen’s words from the previous day and her heart immediately began to thump loudly, her hands letting go of the flower she was holding.
She remained silent and her feet dug against the floor.
‘Elyria needs The Gifted One to be forgiven by the Holy One.’
‘Convince the second prince, Rafael to take Lady Zireya as a concubine.’
‘On behalf of Elyria, we plead.”
The voice of the Queen echoed in her head like ripples. She shook her head to get rid of the voice but it was insistent and continued ringing in her head.
‘You’re the only one who can help us.’
‘Elyria deserves to be life-filled again.’
She clutched the sides of her dress so tight, she felt the fabric rip a little. Her eyes met with the hopeful, excited eyes of her servants. One thing was certain. They were eager to have a life-filled kingdom and be forgiven by their Holy One.
Was she being selfish by blocking Elyria’s forgiveness? Was she betraying Yvlies by refusing to accept the Queen’s offer and return? Was she making a mistake by not letting Zireya have her husband?
Zireya could be the gifted one and she might be blocking Elyria’s forgiveness. She might be betraying the servants who’d treated her nothing but fairly since she arrived at the kingdom.
But still, for some unknown reasons, the thought of Rafael with someone other than her caused her great unease even though she knew he might not feel the same way.
“Your highness, are you okay?”
She met Lia’s worried gaze. She nodded.
“My lady, I think it’s about to snow,” Hula announced.
Brenda agreed. “It’s not even winter yet.”
“I wonder why it snows so much these days.”
“It must be The Gifted One.”
Elora’s gaze moved to the sky. Truly. It was going to snow.
The servants burst into laughter when the first drop of snow fell right on her forehead.
She let out a scoff of unbelief. “Are you laughing at me?”
The snow began to pour heavily on them. “Your highness, I think the snow fits your face,” Lia joked.
“Oh wow. I want to see if it suits your face too.” All thoughts flew to the back of her head and she gathered a snowball in her hands and threw it at Lia.
She burst into laughter as the ball lightly hit and got stuck on Lia’s face. Hula and Brenda also laughed but they playfully gasped immediately as Elora’s gaze fell on them and she began to chase them with a snowball.