Princess Ahira

H
ow to be a Fairy Tale Princess

Princess A
hira

By:
K. M. Shea

a Take Out The Trash! Publication

Chapter 1:
Failure
of a
Princess

Chapter 2:
Digging in Dishes

Chapter 3:
A Pox on Princes

Chapter 4:
Shrinking Spells

Chapter 5:
Dragons at Tea Time

Chapter 6:
Meddling Wizards

Chapter 7:
the Dragon Steward

Chapter 8:
Beauty and Intelligence

Chapter 9:
Princess Visitation

Chapter 10:
Keeper Clichés

Chapter 11:
A Moody Kitten

Chapter 12:
A Princess Outburst

Chapter 13:
Dozing Dwarves

Chapter 14:
Bad News

Chapter 15: Truths Revealed

Chapter 16:
Dragons on Trial

Chapter 17: Ardeo Again

Chapter 18: Stand Tall and Pour Wine

Chapter 19: The War

Chapter 20: Happily Ever After

Failure
of a
Princess

Once upon a tim
e
… is how just about every fairy
tale starts, right?
I always wondered why that was. MY story starts more along the lines of,
“
One dark night
my mother grounded me
.
”

My story doesn’t start like the stereotypical fairytale
s
, but the components are there.
I am a princess from the fantastical land of
Somnio
. I hail from the
country of Ardeo
.

Somnio
is
segregated. One half is populated by humans, the side I live on. West of the
Enchanted
Mountains, however,
Somnio
is called Tsol and is filled to the brim with dragons, unicorns, dwarves, leprechauns, griffins, fairies, and so many magical creatures and entities I couldn’t hope to name them all.

Some humans are lucky enough to be born with magic. These wizards/enchanters are able to travel back and forth between
Somnio
and Tsol.

Unfortunately
I am an unremarkable
, unmagical
,
middle child with three old
er sisters:
Jezbell, (She’s
married
and out of our family castle
,
THANK GOD!)
Brianna
, and Deb
o
rah
.
I also have one older brother, Caspian, age 18,
the Crown P
rince
.
In addition to that I have tw
o younger sisters, Annabell and Leah.
As you can see
my poor father and brother are sorely out numbered
.

My name is P
rincess Ahira Zipporah, and as far as my mother is concerned I am a failure as a princess.

My story starts on
the eve before
my sixteenth birthday.
I was locked in my bedroom tower
,
again.

“And stay in there until you
learn to behave like a lady!” m
y mother
shouted for the third
time that day before slamming
the
door shut.
I sighed and
I tugged my cape off my shoulders.

“
Bother,” I muttered
, bending over to brush off my boots,
breeches, and white shirt.
That
was
what the fight was over
:
my clothes.

M
other caught me sneaking into the stables in
male clothing
.
According to her, i
t was
a
n act only the most barbaric
of
woma
n would attempt
.
(Needless to say I enjoyed every second of it.)
 

I kicked my boots off and
walked
across my bedroom so I could gaze out my window.
My bedroom was
near the top of the family
keep
,
giving me quite the view
.

My bedroom door clicked,
and I turned around
in time to catch Caspian closing the door behind him.

Caspian’s features combine into the perfect mixture of a storybook prince.
He
inherited my father’s golden h
air and my mother’s blue eyes. My brother
is
every bit
the dashing lord
riding the white horse.

Unfortunately
his storybook
features
twisted into a
frown
when he got a good look at me
.

“Ahira, is
that my shirt?” h
e asked.

I grinned and he
scowled,
pointing to
my
screened off dressing room
.

I purposely gave the most pathetic sigh I could muster before sweeping into my dressing room and changing into a hunter green dress.
I hated it, mostly because it
made my
unattractive dirt brown hair turn into an even more unattractive
mouse
y
brown
color
.
“Happy?”
I asked
,
tossing him his shirt
.

“Yes!” he
said
, inspecting the seams
.
“You didn’t s
hred it this time.
”

I grunted
and walked back over to my window
, Caspian joining me moments after.
I didn’t speak, I didn
’t have much of anything to say. S
o Caspian filled an hour with chatter about his precious horse
:
Windfall.

“
So after I brushed him—you know he has certain favorite spots in which he likes to be scratched and the grooms
never
get him there—I took him out for a ride.”

I liked Windfall enough, but Caspian never allowed anybody else to ride
him
. I was stuck riding old nags, so it sort of felt like he was rubbing it in my face
.

“He got a rock lodged in his hoof so I had to stop and pick it out, but otherwise h
is gaits were perfectly smooth
! I raced Lord Gai’s son, Roland, and beat him by a mile if it was an inch!”

Did I mention Caspian
really
doted on his horse?

After an hour of equine discussion
Caspian
silenced himself and
stretched.
“I have to go.
We’re having a feast tonig
ht and Mage Helem is performing,” he grimly
said
before
gallantly
handing me an apple he smuggled up.

“Have fun!”
I said as I bit into
the
proffered apple
.

“
I will try. But Ahira,
please don’t try to anger M
other as often anymore. I think you’re steadily pushing
her to the edge of a precipice,
” he warned
before
making his exit, disappearing
in all
his princely glory
. 

I la
id
down on my bed
for a nap
and fell asleep
—sleeping into stables is hard work you know.
Unfortunately I
woke up a few hours later.
It was dark and I blinked as I slid ou
t from underneath my blankets.
I walked over t
o my
open
window once more
and peered outside
.
The window
was good sized,
as
high
as I am tall and
at least as wide.

“Hmm,” I said. “Judging by the constellations… it’s nearly midnight. In mere minutes I shal
l be 16-years-old,” I concluded. (I
ronically
, I was
staring up at
the dragon star constellation as I said this.)

I sniffed the
ai
r. I
t
was heavy with the scent of rain and
as
frigid
as ice. Winter had just left us
what felt like mere days ago
. I was most pleased with my observations when the bells of the cathedral tower started to toll.