I tried to back away from the sharp tool Grimwore brought closer to me but Galund grabbed me by the sides of my head. "Oh, what? You can handle me beating the shit out of you but the thought of a piercing scares you?" I struggled as I spoke. "Hey, wait! Those are different! This is permanent! Hey! No! Ahhhh!!"
After they had forced me down and stabbed a hole in my left earlobe, I spent the rest of the day looking at my reflection in a river by the village. I looked at myself with a gold ring in my ear and tilted my head. 'This actually looks kind of badass. Piercings are rare in Reinthoria, it's not often that even the women have them let alone the men.' I then realized just how uncultured my kingdom was and how they had chosen to shut out the forests voluntarily. It occurred to me that all we had to do was put lights up to scare away the night dwellers instead of a wall that looked more like the night.
I wondered why my ancestor made the decision to separate our worlds and I started to think about if I was going to continue my original plans once I became king. Before I could dwell on the subject any longer, May came up beside me. "It's about dinner time. I've come to retrieve you." I didn't look at or answer her as I stared at my reflection.
May then sat down next to me with a little blush on her cheeks. "Don't worry, you look very handsome." I turned to her with an eyebrow raised. "Really?" She nodded, smiling nervously. "Uh-huh." I stood up and turned to look at the water again. "Theodius never said that I'd have to get studded to get the stone of Sudre." May giggled as she moved to flutter next to me. "You know Theodius, he's just a big goofball." I hesitated. "Well, something tells me that goofball doesn't like how close we are to winning his game."
After May reassured me that Theodius was just playing around when he acted excited at the thought of us losing, we went to eat with the clan and before I knew it the sun had risen and I was starting the fourth trial. I was standing in front of Grimwore again in his chair as he explained what I would have to do. "The trial of humility is used to test how secure a man is with his masculinity. A man should always feel confident in who he is no matter how ridiculous they appear to others."
I crossed my arms. "And how do you test that?" Grimwore laughed a little. "We're going to dress you up like a woman and you're going to walk around in public all day." My eyes popped and May raised her hand excitedly. "Oo! Oo! Can I do his makeup?!" I turned to her, annoyed. "He didn't say I had to wear makeup!" Grimwore nodded in thought. "You didn't originally, but I like that idea! Of course you can, CherryMay."
May jumped with joy and ignored my glare. "Yay!" Grimwore continued explaining and ignored the fire in my eyes. "The way you fail this trial is if you show any hint of embarrassment or leave public view. So, the goal here is to be as confident as possible. It will be easy to tell if you fake it, so good luck. I'll give you the honor of dressing him as well, CherryMay. I'm interested in seeing what you come up with."
May then grabbed my arm and bolted to her tent, taking me with her. "Thank you!!" Later, she had made a dress out of a large red calla lily as the skirt and wrapped more red petals around my torso that was sewn to the lily as the top. After dressing me up she made makeup from squashed berries and put blackberry eyeshadow on my eyes and red lipstick on my lips.
After she was done she had me stand up and held a hand mirror in front of me. "You're so pretty!!" May exclaimed. I raised an eyebrow as I looked at my reflection. I realized that May was really good at putting on makeup and it appeared evenly applied and not too thin as well.
I looked down at the dress I was wearing and sighed. "You picked something that matches my hair well, I guess." May laughed and pulled my arm to leave the tent. "Come on! Let's start this trial! Remember, don't let yourself be humiliated, you look absolutely foxy!"
I couldn't believe the lengths I was going to right now. After we left the tent we approached Grimwore and as soon as he saw me he burst out laughing. "Oh, this is my favorite part of Raknorah! Haha!" I rolled my eyes and started to walk around the village as instructed with May following me. Everyone who saw me laughed and I did my best to not care.
I was surprised, however, at how a lot of the men got flirty with me. They'd yell "Hey sexy!" and things of that degree as a joke, and one of them even slapped my ass. I pulled his arm out of its socket for doing that but I was still horrified. At one point we ran into Raimu and Galund, and Raimu noticed us first as Galund was sipping from a canteen. "Oh, you look, haha, great, Dedrin." He held back his giggle and as soon as Galund's gaze fell over me he spit out the water in his mouth.
"Hahahaha!!" Raimu wiped his face from the spit and Galund adjusted his posture to stand straight. "Damn, looks like you have some competition for the prettiest girl here Cherry. Haha." May's face became surprise. "You think I'm the prettiest girl here?" Galund smirked and stepped closer as he grabbed her face. "Of course. You're cute as a button."
She blushed and I about had a conniption. Before I could push him away from her Theodius got there before me and appeared between them. "Hey! Grabbing CherryMay is my thing!" He wrapped his arms around her and May blushed harder. Galund crossed his arms and I pulled Theodius away by his hood. "Ah!"
He turned to look at me and nonchalantly said, "Pardon me, ma'am," and was about to turn back to May when he stopped himself. He looked at me and started laughing. "Oh my gods! Hahahahaha!!" Annoyance appeared on my face as he continued to laugh, and Galund and Raimu followed as their attention was brought back to me.
At first, I felt a part of me being humiliated from being laughed at constantly but as time went on I didn't care anymore and just ignored the stares. I used the time I had just walking around either listening to May jabber on or trying to collect all the weird thoughts I'd been having. Once dinner came around I sat silently as everyone giggled, and at one point two orcs passed by and I overheard what they were saying about me. "Hey look, the pretty princess came out to eat. Haha." I then stood up suddenly and turned to yell at them. "Oh, you wish you looked this good in a dress!"