I opened the door to our home. The lights were out and our house was dark to the point of making a person believe they were blind. But my eyes adjusted a minute later and I could see that everywhere was orderly and tidy.
I donned my cloak and basket at the door and walked towards the stairs. But a small flash of light caught my eye in our living room. I soon saw it was a small, lit candle beside two pieces of paper. One was the newspaper from the morning and the other was from my mother.
It said:
Dear Vera,
Please reconsider your choice of not going to the Choosing. You know how much your father believed you to be a true princess.
My eyes started to tear up, blurring the words on the pages from my sight. He had died after a riot he was so intent on joining to keep us safe. I still missed him no matter how much time had passed.
Please make his spirit happy and at least attend. . .even if you do not make it, I know your father would be happy to see you try, as would I.
With love,
Your mother, Rose
I couldn't stop my tears anymore. They started to leak out quickly, one after another. My nose started to run too and my silent tears soon turned to quiet sobs.
Wiping my tears away, I saw a picture tucked under the candle. I picked it up to see my father's soft brown eyes smiling up at me through the picture. His smile was so gentle it could warm even the Wolf King's heart. I looked down at him, my role model. My father. I gently kissed the picture and returned everything to normal with shaky hands.
I climbed into my bed and lay there, now the tears silently streaming down my face. I know sleep would not come too soon, so I just stared out of my window and at the full moon. But after a while, somehow, I fell asleep, lulled by the howling from the woods.
---
“Vera? Vera ?! ” Hands shook me awake.
“What do you want, Abbi?”
“Come on, we have got to go shopping !!!” I opened my eyes to her vibrant green ones.
“Fine! Let me get ready. ” I fully woke up and started to move around my room. I opened up the curtain that someone had closed when I fell asleep.
I dressed, pulling a dress over my head. Then I simply loosely double dutch braided my dark, long hair.
I slipped on my shoes and headed out of my room. “Abigail!”
“Yeah, Vera?” Her voice called from the kitchen - of course.
“Let's go.”
I turned around the corner to see her holding a berry. “Aren't you going to have breakfast?”
“No, I can survive for a few more hours,” I chuckled, “It's only 7 in the morning, Abbi.”
---
We left and shopped for a couple of hours. And finally, we came back home after an exhausting day.
I put my newly bought light, feathery, violet dress on. It's beautiful and breath-taking and I just stood there in front of my mirror for a moment longer. I just couldn't take my eyes off of it. The beauty of how it was not like the ball gowns everyone had but still remained gorgeous - it was more like a chiffon dress, where the slitted long sleeves had double sleeves, the second one dropping to the ground while the first one fitted at my wrist; the plunging neckline and the open back dropped down to the high, cinched waistline and the whole dress swept across the floor as it was that long.
I wonder what Knox would think of it. I smoothed out my dress with my palms. Wait, no. That's not right. I chuckled bitterly and shook my head and told myself: Just because he gave you a little attention and was extremely handsome does not mean you can start fantasizing about him - a stranger you barely met.
I sighed. “I just hope I'm making the right choice. I'll probably be returned home at the gate. I mean look at me! ” I crawled in my bed again, comforting the butterflies in my stomach with that though - “Yeah, they'll just send me back at the gate. Yes, that's it. . . ”