Refuse to apologize.
“Hhmph! At least I’m not as weak as they think!” You argued. The advisor rolled his eyes. “Well it’s whatever. They’re going to buy it anyway.” the confidence in your tone rang out through the hallways as the two of you slowly paced towards your bedchambers. Your tail whipped back and forth angrily. Walking silently, you were left alone with your thoughts when the two of you arrived.
“Princess…” your advisor said as he took his leave. “You need to practice some responsibility.” his cold tone cut you deep as the large wooden door swung closed on its hinges with a loud bang.
“Pff, whatever” You thought to yourself. You’re a bad girl, and you wanted to keep it that way. What did anyone know anyway? You read about science, and even designed the thing. Your hard work could NOT have been for naught. Yet your slivers of doubt began to pile up into a large mound of self loathing by the time you dosed off to sleep.
The next morning, you were awoken by a loud banging at your door. It was your advisor yet again. It was a surprise to you that he had come so early in the morning. Clutching a writing board and a greasy smile, he approached you as you sat at the side of your bed.
“Princess, but I am afraid to inform you that as of today, your royal rights have been revoked, effective immediately.”
“What!” You leaped out of the bed, and your stomach felt a cold lump of anxiety in it, as if you were about to spray your stink all over him, just to return to your peaceful solitude.
“My apologies princess, but please, don’t shoot the messenger.” he said, giving you a more serious look. “I took it upon myself to give your parents a full explanation about your little… mishaps, and they immediately brought it to my attention… that you are no longer needed in this role.” your anger built up within you; all you wanted to do was fight.
“What do you know anyway? They’re MY Parents.”
“Yes princess, but they’re also the rules of the land, and as you know, they always know best.” It looked like he was trying to hold back a smile.
“No! No no nono!” You argued, stomping your paws on the cold textiles on the floor. The tantrum lasted for a while, and you fought so hard that you didn’t notice the advisor pulling out a tiny blow dart as your emotions continued to get out of hand.
“My apologies miss.” was the last thing you heard from his high pitched, lizard-like voice as it hissed through the air. Another hissing quickly made its way towards you, but only it was loud, and different, as if-
“Ouch!” You said to yourself, a sharp pain resonated through your neck. Putting your hand up to examine the source of pain, you realize you had been shot with a sleeping dart. Not long after you woke up that day, you found yourself back asleep, dreaming of every insecurity that had built up from your failed exhibition.
You woke up after an unknown amount of time and found yourself in a cramped dark room. The benches were hard and dank, and it smelled of droppings and many other mysterious stenches. Almost instantly, you realized that you were left in the dungeons, and without a single word from your parents too.
The blow stung hard in your heart, and all you could do was attack the bars and yell out for the guard’s attention. It took a few hours, but when you heard the rattling of keys across the hallway, your screaming didn’t seem as futile as you thought.
As a dark shadowy figure loomed towards you, the hard white stripes along dark jet black fur was distinct- it was familiar. Stepping out of the shadows, you recognized the figure as your mother, who had come to talk to you, for what you feared to be the last time.
“Hello darling.” You were silent. “Though this is unbeknownst to you, you probably may have already guessed it.” She said in a cold tone. “Your invention was a complete and utter failure. The people were upset that their taxes had been spent in such an ignorant and impassibly awful fashion.” she looked down at her fingers, not even giving you the luxury of eye contact.
“And THIS is what you do to me?” you yelled, sliding your slender muzzle through the vertical bars lining your cell.
“Of course! In an instant you have become a liability to the entire kingdom, especially your family.” you couldn’t find the words to express yourself, and your mother continued to insure the silence didn’t linger. “After you were essentially shamed off the stage, your father and I had to work hard to recount the losses we’d have with you. The advisor even mentioned not knowing what to do with you. It was clear you lied about many things, and that attitude of yours will get you nowhere.” She blinked funnily. “Well, other than here of course.”
Your mother turned to leave, slowly letting the darkness consume here once again.
“Wait!” You yelled. “You’re just going to leave me here?” your eyes began filling with tears.
“Of course dear. If you haven’t already heard, the people tried rising up after your little folly, and we can’t afford anything nearly as bad as this to happen again, hence why we’d rather just keep this stuff- you, underwraps for a while until the political environment cools down a bit more.” you thought to yourself how long that could have been, and the heavy feeling began to drag your stomach down even farther as her figure receded away from you.
“No… Wait..” you slid to the bottom of the cell floor, and your body felt too weak to even hold you up, and you sobbed until your swollen burning eyes couldn’t stay open.
You fell asleep on the floor your first night, and the second, maybe even the third. In this dark dank environment, you couldn’t even tell how long you had been there. Locked up without a cell mate- and maybe for the better- you felt your mind slowly slipping away as you stayed a week, a month, maybe even years, who could tell. It didn’t take long for you to forget your old life, or any of the others. Or what you were even doing there, all you knew, was that you were defeated.
Written by Driftingdragon on 28 September 2020
The end (for now)