Cheerful, bouncing music flows from the throne room. The giant chandelier hanging delicately from the ceiling shines like never before. The four trees in which the thrones are embedded stands tall as the water filling the indents in the floor in front of them shimmers in the lamplight.
Tot Colorum's annual ball is in full swing, ladies dripping in silk were being twirled around by the crisp men. Soldiers line the white walls which were covered in ivy and flowers. The smaller chandeliers have various plants swirling down their chains attaching them to the ceiling.
Aanya was not enjoying the glorious ballroom, however. Instead, she stands in the kitchen, watching Addison and her team work to put the last finishing touches on the soon to be served feast. Wondrous smells surrounded Aanya as she waited. She was supposed to be serving the horderves to the guests but she had run out so she came to the kitchen to get a refill.
While she was waiting, she thought about all of the things that had made their appearance in the last week. Her parents' new inexplicable death, the supposed riots outside the palace walls, and her dream about the beast people (that's who she assumed they were), and of course the never-ending problem of her not being able to try out for the royal soldier academy.
Flashbacks from her nightmare earlier that week kept resurfacing in her dreams. During her free time, thoughts of the riots and the council ran through her head. And lastly her parents; she was puzzled about the entire situation. Why would officers visit her parents? Yes, they both worked for the palace, but they did nothing that involved the royal guard.
Her train of thought was interrupted by a plate full of mushy glops on top of individual pieces of toast being shoved in her face. "What is that?" Aanya questions with a sour look.
Addison frowns at her reaction. "It's good food, don't worry about it. You're not eating it anyway" she answers.
Aanya gives her a skeptical look. After a moment Addison says, "Just serve it, will you?"
Aanya sighs. "Fine."
"Thank you."
Aanya grabs the tray of mush and goes into the transition hallway from the kitchen to the throne/ballroom. She looks longingly down the hall that leads to the servants' wing, thinking of her room where she could be training with no piercing eyes that look down on her. But, she has a job to do so she turns the other way and enters the merry gathering.
Well, others would think it was merry. All Aanya can see is the scowls of the councilmen and the king, who was sitting on his throne embedded in the tallest tree; leaves dark without the natural light pouring through the windows.
They are clearly still annoyed by the meeting the day before. Aanya tries not to look at them too often in order to avoid making eye contact with any of them. She eyes the king especially though. Queen Atali was speaking to him in hushed tones while trying to keep a smile on her face. She looks like she was scolding him and giving him encouragement at the same time. The queen leans back after a few moments and stops whispering to her husband. There isn't much change in his expression, but he tries to make an effort to smile.
Meanwhile, Princess Tharia is having the time of her life. Some young noble had asked her to dance and they were currently spinning around on the dance floor. Her newly made dress whirled out as she spun, the dark blue fabric making the snowflake designs at the bodice pop out.
Aanya strides around the room, offering her the plate of mush to guests. She looks for Koa as she does this and doesn't find him until she is near the grand parlor on the far side of the room. He stands close to the entrance of the large room. The urge to go over and talk to him is overwhelming.
But she fights it. "Now is not the time to make chit chat," Aanya recalled what Benita had said during the servants briefing just before the ball started. "You have one job, and one job only: to serve." Aanya sighs and walks toward the opposite wall.
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After another half hour of serving those mushy horderves, Aanya takes a break while the guests are eating the feast. She didn't want to be around anyone so she sneaks up to the second level using the back stairs and sits on a couch in a random parlor.
That's when she hears something. Aanya instinctively dives behind the couch as the voices come nearer. One of them sounds annoyingly familiar. Aanya's heart pounded with fear of being caught and excitement. Thankfully, they didn't come into the room Aanya was in and simply went to the one next door. Something about one of their voices causes a spike of curiosity to shoot its way through her body.
Aanya climbs over the couch as quietly as she can. She tiptoes to the doorway of the parlor that was currently being used as a getaway spot. She presses her ear to the door only to hear heavy breathing and soft moans. The curiosity melts away as fast as a bolt of lightning strikes.
Aanya wants to gag at the thought of what was going down in that room. She runs down the hall with soft footsteps, although those two probably wouldn't hear her if she had stomped around right outside the door.
She escaped to her room where she stayed, trying to distract herself until a maid named Millie came and got her. Now she was enduring the painfully boring ball again.
Aanya makes her rounds and tries her best to stay away from Koa. Eventually, she makes her way to his area where a group of chatty ladies stood, eyeballing the young men on the dance floor. Aanya looks over to Koa to find him already staring at her. She spots a sly smile creeping onto his face as she nears. Aanya diverts her attention to the group of ladies and offers them her new tray of chocolate truffles. They each take one of the goods, wiping her out. As she walks back to the kitchens she hears, "Meet me at the balcony after this." Aanya almost pauses, but she keeps on walking. When she makes it to the kitchen, she lets out a sigh of relief.
Something still bothers her though. She hadn't seen Tharia at all since her break on the second floor. That was half an hour ago. Should she be worried? No….maybe. Aanya groans, knowing she will have to do the right thing. She sets down her tray and avoids interaction with Addison, then heads to the second floor.
She looks in the parlor she had caught them in earlier, but there isn't anyone present in the room anymore. Aanya creeps closer to the couches and finds a mess of pillows and cushions. She turns away, not wanting to see any more. She notices an overturned stand that used to hold a vase full of flowers, which were now splayed across the floor.
That seemed strange. The scene of the couches suggested they were...doing some things, but the scene of the flowers suggested something much worse. Worry seeps into her bones.
Aanya runs out of the room and checks the other rooms on the floor. Nothing. She goes up to the library, the office floor, and Tharia's suite. Not a trace. Aanya checks every room in the canopy section of the tree-like palace. She runs past the loading docks on the top floor, on her way to the garden when something catches her eyes.
One of the royal ships was missing. Everyone was at the ball, no one should be leaving or coming at this hour. She checked the statistics board that showed the launch and landings of every ship on the docks. Sure enough, one of the ships launched about twenty minutes ago. She checked the direction the ship was going on the big screen. They were headed in the direction of Bestia, the planet of the Beast people.
A flash of a very hairy man lunging, claws out, teeth bared and eyes glowing bright red. Aanya shuddered. If Tharia was kidnapped by one of them that could mean open war with the most dangerous species in the solar system. She had to go after them.
Wait… this is crazy, Aanya is just a maid. A maid who has always wanted to be a soldier, a maid who secretly trains in her room just so that she can apply for the academy. This is her chance to finally prove to her brother that she can do it and that she'd be good at it.
With that Aanya runs to a small ship, normally used for transporting soldiers across the planet, but it would do just fine outside the planet as well. Aanya climbs into the pilot's seat. She takes one look at the many buttons and controls and has no idea how to use them. No time like the present to learn how.
Aanya looks around for an old instructions manual and is lucky enough to find one in the glove compartment. They must use this ship for training then. She briefly skims through the "how to take off" section. She sets the book down and looks at the controls. She reaches for a button and clicks it, unsure if it is the right one. The engine gives a slight shudder and comes to life settling into a quiet hum.
Aanya smiles at her accomplishment. Ok, now I just have to fly. Her confidence falters at the thought. She tests the controls by gently nudging them forward. She hears the engine grow slightly louder and feels the ship become lighter as it hovers over the launch pad.
Aanya glances to the take-off page in the manual before cautiously trying out the controls again. All of a sudden, the engine roars, and the ship shoots up into the sky. Aanya jerks the throttle out of instinct and the ship stops. She lets out a sigh of relief.
Then, she's falling. The small ship flips and turns in the air as it plummets to the ground. Aanya made the mistake of not putting on her seatbelt. She tumbles out of her seat and is tossed around like a ragdoll. After hitting every instrument and object on the ship, she hits the back wall. Aanya tries to catch her breath but the sight of the ground getting steadily closer makes it hitch again.
Aanya pushes against the wall and rockets to the pilot's seat. She pulls herself in and makes sure the buckle is clicked in. She pulls on the throttle as hard as she can and the ship makes a sudden stop. Aanya lets the ship hover for a moment. A smile breaks out on her face.
Laughter bubbles up to her mouth and she lets it out. Soon she's doubled over in laughter and starting to find it quite hard to breathe.
"I can't believe I'm doing this. This is crazy," Aanya says to herself. She giggles for a few more moments and marvels at the thought of her actually flying a space shuttle and going to leave the planet to rescue a stolen princess.
She takes a deep breath to calm herself down. She takes the controls again and eases them forward. The ship climbs steadily higher and Aanya finds herself on the edge of the atmosphere.
Aanya takes another deep breath to steady her nerves. This was crazy. She pushed a few buttons and took the sticks, flying the ship into a steady pace toward the hostile planet of Bestia.
Once she was sure it was safe, Aanya put on the autopilot. It was another few hours until sleep hit with the power of one of Tharia's icy outbursts. She went to the back to sleep after checking all of the screens to make sure everything was fine.
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Aanya wakes to the sound of alarms going off. She runs to the front where she sees empty space through the glass. Then, she glances at the screens and sees red dots covering them. Aanya doesn't know what they mean but she could tell it was bad.
She plops into the pilot's seat and looks out the window again only to find an asteroid flying past. Aanya veers away from the giant rock. BANG! The ship flies into another asteroid and Aanya can tell she has dented the hull.
It rebounds off of the asteroid and flies into yet another floating rock. Aanya gets jostled in her seat by all of the knocking around. She grits her teeth and fights to get the ship stable again. But the laws of nature just weren't on her side. The ship continued to play a giant game of pinball.
Aanya was so focused on trying to get the ship under her control again that she didn't register the giant asteroid that the ship was rocketing for. Just before they made contact, Aanya spun in her chair and her eyes widened at the sight.
Black.