On a night where the moon complimented the snow that had covered the city, Angelica, sitting on a white cabinet in her blue pyjamas, looked up towards it, and it looked back with a smile, providing comfort from her mothers harshness. She sat in silence in her room which was far from cheap. A king sized bed which was twice her size, laid against the centre middle of the room. Gold pillars were at each corner of the bed, and a white curtain on top of it. The white cabinet that Angelica sat on, was at the beds right side, while on the left side was another one that had a mirror and an alarm clock on it.
Knock knock knock, went her bedroom door, followed by the butler's voice, Boris, as he called out to her. He probably wanted to give Angelica a clean slate of bedsheets. She responded quickly, giving him permission to enter. Opening the door and walking in straight towards Angelica's bed to remove the previous sheets and replace them with newer ones, Boris had planned to get it done quickly so that Angelica could rest. However she had other plans and began to speak to him, shifting her position from having her knees against her chin, to now having her legs dangling down the cabinet.
"Boris, why must I be a princess?"
She said suddenly. Boris turned his head while he now began to change the pillow case, looking at Angelica with a confused look.
"Mother always insists I have to do things: like dance, instrument playing and all sorts. She never allows me to do the things I want to do."
Angelica looked as though she wanted to cry, but she fought back tears to keep her composure. Seeing this, Boris finished what he was doing and began to walk over to Angelica and sat next to her.
"I presume your mother scolded you? Master Angelica, I know that as a child, you may feel tempted to disobey what you are told to do, but your mother means well. The things you have to do are not merely just for, 'because I said so' purposes, but these things are to help for when you grow to become a fully fledged princess and take the throne as queen in the future."
Boris said, hoping this was sufficient for Angelica. But she hastily shook her head, telling him that she did not want to become queen, but instead be like her older brothers who were warriors. And Boris was surprised to hear this, and wanted to know Angelica's reasoning behind this decision.
"But why master Angelica? Surely the path of being a warrior is less desirable, and a dangerous one at that."
Angelica remained silent for a moment with her hands on her knees and her head down.
"I saw my brothers fighting during the morning. They moved so fast and threw light at each other. I felt happy seeing it, and I wanted to do it too. But mother says no, without telling me why…"
Tears began to form in Angelica's eyes and slowly dripped down her cheek as she wiped them. Boris knew that Angelica was just too young to understand why she must take the role as princess, but he also knew how unfair it was for her to not have a say in her own life. Though risky, Boris couldn't stand seeing Angelica like this. It was always his goal to not only protect her, but make her happy too, like what many of the maids and butlers in the mansion would do. He placed his palm and fingers over his chin with a thumb on his cheek and took a deep breath, contemplating his next words carefully.
"If you really want to be a warrior, then you must first make a decision. Is this what you truly want? If not then continue to follow your mothers original plan for you. But if it is, then it will be in your best interest to learn what it takes. As I said before, it is dangerous."
Angelica's eyes lit up, hearing that Boris supported her, rather than shutting her down. She spoke again, wanting to know what could be dangerous about it.
"What makes it dangerous? Mother said the war was over, so I would not have to fight people. So what makes it dangerous?"
"I would say fighting other people is the fortunate side of being a warrior. But the danger lies in going against the monsters that your mother told you about."
At that, Angelica's jaw dropped. She thought that there was no possible way that monsters existed, but then again it made sense right? Why else would it be so dangerous? But monsters?
Boris noted Angelica's shocked reaction to him mentioning 'monsters', did the Queen not mention that to Angelica yet? It was a basic part of history so he would have thought Angelica's history teacher had covered it by now. But then Boris came to the conclusion that the Queen told the history teachers to not mention anything about the monsters. He gave a nervous sigh and stood up to leave.
"Perhaps I have said too much. Apologies your Highness."
Boris quickly left the room to avoid being asked further questions about what he had said.
Angelica whimpered, getting off what she had sat on and into her bed. What could she do now? Everything seemed so hopeless. She will have no choice but to accept the fact that she will never be a warrior like her brothers. Angelica closed her eyes now, trying to find it in her to sleep, but she just couldn't. She could only think about the 'monsters' that Boris had mentioned, and about how life was difficult for her. Her only hope now would be from her brothers, and she will be keeping her fingers crossed that they'll help her.
With her eyes closed, Angelica began to imagine how she would act if she had the chance to be a warrior, forgetting about all her previous troubles. With a wand in hand, like that of the magical girls she loves to watch on the tv, Angelica pressed the heart shaped button that was on the end of it, transforming her into a magical girl before she beat up the monsters that threatened the city. She giggled at this and began to go deeper and deeper into her wondrous mind, up until her imagination had been broken by subtle talking and footsteps coming from the garden. She opened her eyes and looked over towards the window where she heard it from. It might have just been the common folk walking by the mansion, but the noise seemed a little too close than usual. Cautiously getting out of bed to avoid it from creaking, Angelica had noticed the time on her alarm clock.
"12:00am?!"
She had thought. Did 4 hours really pass that quickly? She hadn't even slept. If her mom knew she was awake right now, she would get more than just a scolding.
Thud!
"Hey, not too loud…"
"It's not my fault the snow is this deep. I can barely see the ground.."
This time, the voices were a little more clearer, and they sounded just like her brothers, Anton and Andrei. Angelica peeped the side of her head over her room's wall to act as cover, to see if her suspicions were true, and sure enough, it was. Just like Angelica and her Mother, Andrei and Anton were like a mirror looking in on itself. Their short hair, while blue like Angelica's, was a different shade of it. The two wore black cloaks to hide their identities, and held a flashlight for navigation of the dark.
Angelica opened the window and called out while also trying to keep her voice as quiet as possible so that no one else in the mansion could hear. The two boys almost jumped, their heart beat going from quick to slow at seeing it was only their little sister. Andrei was the first to speak.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping Angelica? You have lessons tomorrow."
"It is an off day tomorrow."
Angelica said, getting an idea as she leaned in and out of the window, holding the top of it to ensure she didn't fall.
"Can I come?"
"No way, we prefer not to babysit you."
Anton now said, not wanting Angelica to get into the dangers they had planned. At this, Angelica scowled and stuck out her tongue."
"Meanie!"
Andrei quietly laughed.
"Hadn't mother taught you not to stick your tongue at people? Oh I don't see why not. Go grab a light, we will wait for you."
Angelica smiled widely, hurrying into her drawer to find her magical girl flashlight. Anton looked at Andrei with a confused expression.
"If mother finds out, it's our head you know?"
Andrei shrugged it off and gave him a suspicious wink.
"But you remember what mother said, don't you?"
"Yeah, but not like this. Actually I am quite certain she never meant like this."
"Oh come on, Angelica will be fine with us here. We won't go further than what we are used to."
"Fine, but you will take all the blame if mother catches us."
"Deal."
Angelica came to the window again, asking how she was going to get down without being spotted, and Andrei responded with him catching her. He opened up his arms, waiting for Angelica to jump, but she gripped the curtains, too afraid to. Andrei then had to promise that he wouldn't drop her, but it still wasn't enough. Anton came up with an idea and raised his arms towards Angelica, creating a translucent slide for her to slide down without any trouble.
Angelica was in awe to see that her brother was able to do this, she came sliding down and into Antons arms with a giggle, wanting to do it again. Anton sighed, hoping that nothing bad would come out of this as he began to walk with Andrei and Angelica in hand.
"How did you do that Anton?"
Angelica curiously questioned, wanting to know his secret. Anton gave it some thought before telling her.
"By manipulating my life energy to take the form of a slide. You won't have to worry about doing that any time soon."
Angelica's amazement grew even bigger at this. She was about to ask them to teach her, but noticed that they had walked past the train station.
"Are we not going out of the city?"
"We are."
Said Anton, to which Angelica replied.
"Then we have the turn back, the trains that way."
The brothers grinned at each other. Anton held Angelica firmly, telling her to hold on to him tightly which confused her even more. At one moment, the sounds of her brother's feet crunching the snow was a consistent beat, and at another moment, it had stopped. The street lights had faded, along with the multitude of buildings that seemed to go on forever. Angelica blinked twice, all she could see now was the endless ocean of snow that led into the night's abyss. This was the first time that she had gotten this far away from her home, it was nerve racking for her.
"See that Anton? It only took us 2 seconds this time. That 500 mile gap is easy now."
Andrei had proudly said, pleased with his physical improvement. Anton had now allowed Angelica to walk on her own, turning on his flashlight.
"I won't be carrying you anymore so keep up and don't drag us down."
Anton uttered. The two brothers began walking into the unknown with their flashlights piercing through the dark. Angelica hesitated, not wanting to go out into such a place, but to hopefully reach her dream to be like her brothers, she swallowed her nerves and followed suit.
The night grew colder and colder as the siblings ventured further outside of the city. Visibility became harder from the thickness of the upcoming blizzard. Angelica wasn't fully prepared for the extreme temperatures. She had thought she'd be able to handle it as she always did back at home, which is why she didn't bring a coat, but outside the city had made her begin to shiver and rub her arms to try and warm herself up.
Anton had looked back to Angelica, seeing her falling behind.
"Come on Angelica, you're walking too slow."
"Brother, I'm cold."
Angelica cried. She wanted her brothers to lend her the cloaks they had on to provide her with some warmth, however Andrei had told her that if she wanted to be like them, then it was necessary for her to handle extreme temperatures like this, but she just could not handle it. Her cotton slippers darkened and grew heavier with each progressing step; her hair became stiff and her nose were dyed red. Angelica began to regret the thought of wanting to be a warrior, this was just too much to bear. She wanted to go home where it was warm and pleasant.
Just as she was about to inform her brothers about wanting to go home, her leg sank into the ground, causing her to stumble with a leg now trapped in thick snow. Angelica attempted to pull her leg up, but her fragile body proved otherwise. She then called out to Anton and Andrei to help her, but…
They were gone.