Dakion
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The Princess and the Human, Book 1 Ch. 11 (Rework for Royal Road)
🕑 Added 2023-11-30 23:15:38 +0000 UTCAuthor's Note: we've reached the chapter that introduced Nadine's Diary. I'm still pretty satisfied with that part, but I extended what comes before a bit. Again, since text editing functions are pretty limited on patreon, *text written like this* is supposed to be crossed out.
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"Kiyrtin!" Silgvani shouted again in her normal voice. "I knoooowww that was you, come oooouuuut!"
Instead of an answer, what became audible was laughter paired with the sound of someone running away. Silgvani took a few deep breaths to get her vocal organ back under control, before turning to the maid who had rushed to her side.
"Why did you not tell me that my brother was visiting??"
"I-I was about to, Your Highness. I didn't expect... this."
The princess sighed.
"You KNOW how he is. What if I had been with a foreign diplomat? This could've been a disaster! At least tell me it's just him and not my parents as well."
"His and her Majesty are, to my knowledge, still at the Sky Palace."
Well, THANK the First Ones.
It was still a couple of days until the ambassador of the Tystrie was expected, if it was just her little brother, she could hopefully get him under control until then. Even if it meant that she could forget the few calm days of recovery she had hoped for.
She looked to the top of the doorframe, at the contraption that had just given her the involuntary shower. It was surprisingly intricate, not at all what you would expect from a child.
"When did he even manage to set this up without any of you noticing?"
"I assume he built it in advance and then simply put it up there when we were waiting for you outside, Your Highness."
Even in that case, the fact that no one saw him do that is a bit concerning, the princess thought. With a sigh, she put the topic aside for now.
"Well, anyway. Mhita, this is Nadine, she is a guest of the palace. While I try to find our little troublemaker, I want you to show her her room. Give her the one with the sturdiest bed."
Mhita cocked her head.
"Um... do you mean the biggest bed, Your Highness?"
"I meant what I said. If the sturdiest bed happens to be the biggest, so be it. In any case, once I am done with my brother, I want a bath for two people to be ready. After that, call in my dressmaker, say it is urgent, and also try and find a tutor that specializes in teaching other species our language. You are also authorized to procure whatever she asks for that doesn't require clearance level 3."
The maid nodded and gestured for Nadine to follow her. As the two made their way towards the guest wing, Silgvani could hear the small alien timidly ask for something to write with.
As the two walked away, the remaining servants quickly closed the door, helped the princess out of her soaked clothes, and wiped her dry. At the moment, there were no other guests at the palace, and since she was about to take a bath anyway, she decided that a new set was unnecessary. Instead, she decided to use the time the servants needed to prepare everything to reprimand her brother.
She took another look at the contraption over the door. Even if he had prepared that in advance, the palace staff still had to have been waiting outside for quite a while if he had enough time for all of this.
Looking around the corner, she could see a hose and a stick with a hook. Right, there was no way for a child to move this thing if it had been filled in advance. The hallway these things lay in led to the west wing, where her brother should be staying right now. The Star Palace had rooms meant for the royal family, should they come for a visit. Said rooms were purposefully positioned on the exact opposite end of the palace compared to the guest rooms in the east wing. Silgvani of course loved her family, but for the sake of their world, it was best to keep them away from guests.
She followed the corridor and soon reached her brother's room. Unfortunately, he wasn't there.
Great that means he's hiding somewhere again.
Maybe she should just have the guards look for him. Silgvani was pretty exhausted from the trip and needed some rest, she really didn't have the nerve to put up with his antics right now. Hopefully, he wouldn't bother Nadine.
She looked around. The room itself was nothing special by the palace's standards, though the bed was on the smaller end for obvious reasons. There was a lot of stuff littering the floor, however. Various tools a lot of junk, probably the remaining parts he didn't use for his latest mischief. Thankfully, no one saw him tinkering in the privacy of his room.
She picked up one of the tools. The engraving told her that it was from the Star Palace's workshop. Maybe it would be best to tell them to be more wary of their equipment while he visited.
Kiyrtin would soon finish his general education and would then need to choose a subject to study. That should take up enough of his time so his antics would get reigned in a bit. Even if he wasn't considered the heir, he was still a prince, and society expected certain behaviors from him. Behaviors that certainly didn't include a commoner's work. She really didn't want her brother's reputation to suffer because of a silly hobby.
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*First day after my arriv*
Day of my arrival
*Dear Journal*
*Dear Diary*
*Nadine's log*
*Journal Entry no.*
*Logfile*
Dear Diary,
I heard writing down your thoughts can help you process them. I hope it will.
*stranded on an alien planet*
*I cant say*
This is certainly not how I expected my awesome space adventure to go. *Well, on one hand, I made contact with real aliens, but on the other hand, I lost everything else.* *My past self probably would not believe how fast my excitement over meeting aliens died down.* Unfortunately, my first meeting with real aliens was plagued with two disasters at once. I have no idea what happened to the colony ship and there seems to be no way of contacting them. I hope *pa* *my father* papa is alright.
Honestly, when I first saw the Doc, I got pretty scared. *Well, how would you react if you woke up to a gigantic, bipedal shr* Their appearance is quite peculiar. Their carapace - if that is even the right term - reminds me of the back of a white shrimp. If I understood the Doc correctly, it is some sort of soft-shell exoskeleton. Yeah, carapace is probably wrong, no idea what the term for that is. I don't even know what I would compare the rest of their features with. *I wonder what living with four arms is like?* These mono-colored, digon-shaped eyes look interesting are especially unique. They are usually dark, but when the light shines on them they are almost like stained glass. The princess's are green like a freshly mown lawn. It's really soothing to look at them.
The princess has been really nice to me. I'm really lucky that she was the one who found me. Today, she even invited me to bath with her. I could finally get *that crusted blood* *the remains of those bugs* *the blood off* clean. She was surprised to learn I could swim with my weight. Funny enough because I never felt so light. I could probably do a backflip standing. She also called my appearance "beautiful". It's interesting that she thinks that considering how different we are. All I could say in response was a joke about our age difference she didn't seem to get.
I at least assume she is older than me, going by the way she acts. I mean, she couldn't already be like that with fifteen, right? *Having to say everything with their time units will take a while to get used to.*
This *world* corner of their world is pretty warm. It's quite pleasant considering I don't really have any clothes. I'm curious what the tailor is going to make me. He had a pretty professional air around him, but he also sometimes shouted weird words that didn't go through the translator. By his demeanor, I assume they were positive. Maybe it's like this when a human artist gets an inspiration? I wonder how I look in her eyes. Perceiving someone as beautiful who looks so fundamentally different from you... like a cute kitten maybe?
A cute kitten with murderous strength. I can't put into words how scared I am to touch anybody. Broken objects can at least be replaced. *I can still feel those giant bugs getting crushed between my hands.*
*Those bugs*
*I'm tired*
*Their blood clinging to my body*
*Will I see them?*
I didn't get much sleep on the ship. *Maybe that actually was a good thing, I didn't dream back then.* The bed they gave me is huge, bigger than my entire room back in our apartment. It looks so soft and comfy*, I want to lay down, but I don't want to sleep*.
I'm tired. But I'm scared to close my eyes.
