Princess Opal (princess_opal) wrote in into_the_woods, @ 2013-03-15 00:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | diamonds and toads - princess, king thrushbeard |
Fresh Air (open)
It had taken a bit of sneaking in order to get out of the castle without being seen, but Opal thought she was getting better at it. It only took three attempts this time, and she’d avoided having to talk to her father-in-law at all. She was going to count that as a success, especially when it meant that she was now outside the castle walls, on her way through the woods, without a whole crowd of servants following her about with baskets.
She was starting to get a bit tired of that, actually. At first, it had been interesting, to have that many people following her about. It was so very different from anything she was used to, the novelty had been kind of fun. Until she noticed that they picked up everything that fell from her mouth when she spoke, the rubies and emeralds and pearls and diamonds and roses and violets and daisies and lilies, but they didn’t keep any of the flowers. They were thrown out, like trash, almost immediately.
It made Opal start to think. And while it took a while for her to come the conclusion, eventually she did reach it: it was very possible that her husband had married her because of her “blessing.” She really didn’t want to think that, because she liked her husband. He’d been so kind to her, he’d rescued her after her mother and sister had been so cruel. But when she looked at the way things were, Opal had some growing doubts about his motivations. And that hurt. It really did.
So she’d stopped talking unless she absolutely had to. It wasn’t a conscious effort to thwart a plan to exploit her, Opal’s thought process hadn’t reached that far yet. There may have been a subconscious response, but if asked, she would have said it was just that she felt rather depressed and less like speaking altogether. Nobody bothered to ask her, but the gems hitting her teeth really weren’’t all that comfortable when talking anyway.
Today, though, she didn’t need to speak. Nor did she have to put up with all those people constantly chatting away behind her. Because she had stopped talking, they seemed to feel the need to pick up the slack. Opal wasn’t all that keen on gossip, it always seemed dishonest to her to say something about someone that wasn’t there to defend themselves. And she didn’t like the things she was learning. She could tell them to stop doing that, but that would require talking, so she hadn’t.
She’d just run away. And she was going to enjoy the time she had alone. Opal knew that she couldn’t stay out long, or people would get upset. And by people she meant her in-laws. And by upset she meant she knew there would be a lecture. Those were never fun, and seemed to happen frequently. But she just wasn’t used to being a princess yet. Which is why today, for the next few hours, she wasn’t going to try to be. She was just going to be Opal.
And have a picnic in the woods. With a happy smile, she swung the food-filled basket at her side, and slipped down the quiet trail looking for a likely meadow.