Just a Shadow - Chp. 1

Pic is of Resin... enjoy!! xoxoxo

Chapter 1:
Princess Aulda's face was half an inch away from the standing mirror as she smudged charcoal down on one of her cheeks. Examining herself, she smiled. She looked perfect now, exactly like a commoner. But at the same time, she felt she looked too bland. Taking the charcoal up again in her milky perfectly manicured hand, she drew tight on her lash line. Aulda moved her face from side to side, examining it in the different panes of the golden candle light from the chandelier hanging from her bedroom ceiling. Only one thing is missing now, she thought, and started unbraiding her wavy red hair as a knock sounded on the door. Aulda's eyes brightened.

"Come in dear Resin, and behold my new ensemble as a common wench!" she flung up her arms and shook her head as her auburn curls cascaded down her shoulders. The door opened and in walked Resin, followed by two young servants who looked very aggravated. Resin walked over and stopped short only before Princess Aulda, who's hands were still aloft above her in exclamation. Resin narrowed her gray eyes and looked more closely at Aulda.

"Did you..." she muttered, and then took steps forward so she was in front of Aulda completely. Resin looked up into Aulda's eyes and gasped. "You did!" Aulda's arms dropped suddenly to her sides as she rolled her chocolate colored eyes.

"Yes well, we all can't be celibate, can we?" Resins eyes widened. Her brown hair whipped her in the face as she turned and started pacing.

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea, Aulda. Prince Munroe of Melding is coming tomorrow and you need your sleep. And by lining your eyes, that's probably the last thing you're going to get. We shouldn't go. Especially not with your doing your makeup like a....well.... you know what I mean."

"Resin, really?! You're my Shadow, not my mother!" Resin reeled, her eyes desperate.

"But I'm just..not...comfortable with this!"

"Resin, you're my Shadow. I'm sorry, but that means you do what I want. And before we have to share a husband, I want to experience life in the fullest. And I don't understand why you don't want to as well." Resin stopped pacing, but her petite figure looked stressed, and even smaller than usual. She hated the fact that she didn't get her own life. She was tied to Aulda, because her father, the tyrant King Vidge had ordered it so. She turned back to Aulda, her light brown hair now frizzy in its braid because she had been running her hands through it. She crossed her arms and downcast her eyes.

"You're right." she said, "I might as well." Aulda took a threatening step towards her

"And you'll enjoy it?" she questioned. Resin answered in an unenthusiastic sigh.

"Yes, I'll enjoy it." Aulda's grin widened and she looked past Resin to the servants, who were looking down and shuffling their feet on the floor. Her grin turned into a face of disgust. "What are those here for?" Resin cleared her throat.

"Um.. they are our outfits."

"What?"

"We are using their clothing so we blend in better."

"What is wrong with what I'm wearing now?"

"Well, you see, commoners, even though we know they are exceedingly moronic, can tell the difference between silk and cotton." Aulda was silent for a moment.

"Can they really?" she finally spoke

"Yes, they can," Resin smiled. Aulda shrugged.

"Well then, I guess we better get dressed! Ladies, clothes off!" The two servants looked up in surprise , but then started undressing. When they were done and left standing in their white slips, Princess Aulda went up to the taller one and held out her hand for the dress. The servant picked up from the floor and generously bowed into a lunge, keeping her head down, but her hands up offering the dress up. Aulda took it then started pulling it on with the servants help. Resin walked up to the other servant, who was holding her dress in her hand. This servant's face was in a scowl when she saw the dress was to go to Resin, the Shadow. She looked over at the Princess and saw that she was occupied putting on the dress. She threw hers down onto the ground and stepped on it violently. Resin was frightened, and gasped, stepping back. But the servant got right up in her face again.

"I hope you like your dress, parasite" she scowled and walked out of the room. Aulda turned around at the sound of the closing door.

"What was that all about?" she asked. Resin stuttered, picking the dress up from the floor.

"I..um.. told her..that I could put it on by myself. And that she could leave."

"And why would you ever do that?" Resin shrugged and smiled just enough so that Aulda would buy it. All the servants hated her because she was the Shadow. A baby born on the same day as the princess whom she is forced to live with for her entire life. They saw her as a disgusting parasite, because she will get almost all the same privileges as a princess and yet is not of royal blood. They resented her for it. Resin shook off these dark thoughts and pulled the gray cotton dress over her head. She had a party to go to.
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It took them half an hour to escape from the castle, and another hour to get to Coon's Pub. It was at the end of the marketplace (which was closed at night) and in a tall but skinny wooden building that was severely infected with dry rot. A faded sign hung from the roof over the door that said:

Coon's Pub
:
Finest Mead
in Validanse

Commoners were lingering outside the door, dressed still in their requisite gray work clothes. One of the women outside was leaning against a man, giggling, her breasts all but popped out of her gray bodice. Another group of men were swinging pints back and forth while singing a folk song from before the time King Vidge came into power. Just then, the doors flew open as a man was thrown against them from the inside. He was flung through the doors and rolled on the ground outside the pub until coming to a stop a yard before Resin and Aulda, blood trickling down his forehead. A bigger man walked through the doors next, his muscles rippling through his work smock and glistening in the candlelight from sweat. Resin heard Aulda suck in a breath. She leaned over to her and whispered;

"You okay Aulda?" Aulda turned her head to face her

"Just know that he's mine, Resin. And vidge, is he getting lucky tonight!" and with that she strutted (in a way no commoner would ever do) off to meet him before the body of the man. Resin sighed, and tried her best to pointedly ignore them as she made her way to the door of the pub. In her mind, she imagined the scenario that would play out. Aulda would approach him and start calling him flattering names, running her hands up and down his arms and chest. He would reply vainly and perhaps start touching her as well. And then he would start to lead her into the pub, but as soon as the candlelight better hit the couple, he would notice that her eyes were lined. Then he would instead lead them into a private ally, back-room or hallway. And the rest made her feel too disgusting to imagine. Aulda knew her way around men. She always had. And Resin admired her for it because she knew that most of what Aulda did on a regular basis, she would never have the guts to do.

Resin continued her way in through the wooden door and into the pub, making her way immediately to the bar. A large scruffy bartender polishing glasses approached her quickly.

"What'll it be, ma'am?" he asked
"A pint of mead, please." he nodded and walked off to the tap. She put her head in her hands and breathed. Aulda thrived in these places, but Resin was more of a scholar than a partier. One of her favorite places in the castle was their giant two story library only accessible to the royal family. It was one of the reasons she enjoyed being a Shadow; she got unlimited access to it. The bartender returned with the pint and handed it off to her. "Thank you," she said softly. She wasn't actually intending on drinking any of it, but if Aulda came in and saw her empty handed, she would throw a fit. Resin sat at the bar for a while, pretending to sip and looking over at all the plaques and clocks and paintings that coated the walls of the pub. Suddenly, she felt an arm on her shoulder and she startled, splashing a bit of the pint on the counter.

"Whoa, watch out there Miss Missy!" said the drunk man with his arm on her shoulder. He had close crop blonde hair and wandering drunk blue eyes. He was quite attractive, and Resin might have been interested in him if he wasn't giggling at his own pathetic joke now and sloshing his mead all over her. "I have never seen your beautiful face here before!"

"This is the first time I've been here" she replied, somehow his attention making her nervous.

"Did you here that? First timer!!" he screamed over her head. Resin turned and looked in surprise to see that another two men were now surrounding her, laughing with the first one. She started to panic.

"Yes well, I must go now. My..uh.. mother will be getting worried." The blonde one bent his head so far down that she could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"Well let's give her even more to worry about." he smirked, and forcefully pressed his lips on hers, his one hand holding the back of her neck so she couldn't back away. The other two were laughing as the blonde shoved his tongue down her throat, choking her. He finally stopped, but just as Resin thought the horror was over, the other men grabbed her and pulled her off the stool, onto the floor. Her head snapped against the wood painfully and her shoulder struck a rusty nail, which pierced her skin. Resin cried out in pain as a pair of arms grabbed her from under the armpits, hauling her up and placing her away from the group of men and against a support beam she could lean on.

Resin was still preoccupied with the pain in her shoulder and head to fully realize what was going on behind her. But in the dull setting of the ache in her head, she heard the sounds of a brawl. Chairs were being smashed and so were wine bottles. She could hear the sound of mead splashing to the floor and the blunt sounds of a fist contacting flesh. Head still pounding, she tried to focus in on the sounds and turned her head to face them. But she found that her vision was blurry. She tried blinking a few times, but still the image remained unclear. The fighting sounds had stopped, and now a man was approaching her. Her vision was too blurry to make out specific features, but his hair was black and his skin more bronze than either of the three white men that had attacked her.

"You okay?" he questioned, his voice deep like a lullaby. Still blinking, she tried to nod, but it made the world spin too much and she stumbled. His hands flew up on her shoulders to steady her. "You must have hit your head really hard." His face drew closer and Resin shrunk back out of instinct. "I'm just going to look at your head, love," he said. Funny, Resin thought. Only those of Melding say those kinds of things. But no one from Meldin is allowed to cross our border. She looked up at him again and blinked, her vision clear enough to make out two forest green eyes. "Just one second, I'm going to go get ice from the bartender, okay?" The mysterious boy walked off to the bar to speak to the bartender, and slowly turned to fuzz in Resin's vision. The door burst open and in stormed an upset red-headed girl, who looked around the pub for a minute, until her eyes settled on Resin.

"There you are," she said, and took her by the hand and started pulling her out of the pub. Resin looked back just in time to see the man at the bar, waiting for the ice, his green eyes studying the plaques and clocks and paintings that covered the walls of the pub.

I really think I'm going to finish this one guys. I've got a good feeling about it <3 COMMENT please!!