User blog:Watermelonoutburst/The Panda Princess

I may or may not go back to posting on the galleries. For now:

Part 3

Over the nine days we realized that the night changed every time a set of quadruplets ended, and also that even if our shoes were worn through they’d return good as new. We found that we got thinner, despite the banquets, and for some odd reason our hair was growing. My sisters tried to cut theirs, but seeing it was futile I just piled my hair in an updo, though it still reached my ankles. Mom was growing extremely suspicious and her tizzy was mounting. A wolf had entered the house and trotted around at our heels. It was now the thirteenth night (from when we first went down the magic stairs) and I didn’t know what to expect. I had hoped, seeing the mystery girl-Carnation- take my place it might only last twelve nights, after all, it started at midnight. but apparently that wasn’t the case. Anticipation was piling into a mountain. My stomach churned with anxiety and I was restless with excitement. But I didn’t know what I was waiting for. At midnight, we were wearing slippers, princess dresses, crowns, and any hairstyles had come undone so our hair pooled or trailed on the floor behind us. The wolf was still stayed with us, staying at my side as the dance began. We headed down the stairs. The plant on the trees were bamboo, the rare bamboo flower, bambusoideae. The Panda ran to meet us immediately, running at me and then disappearing before impact. At the platform, the wolf gave a yip! and then suddenly transformed into a human, a boy about our age. He had course, black hair and skin nearly as dark as mine, is eyes, slightly slanted were a pretty amethyst. We were all startled but the magic stopped us from reacting. We walked down the path, it was polished bamboo and lined with flower-shaped gems I’d never seen before. The panda led us the whole way. Getting into the boats, the boy road with me. A panda crested the head of the boat. When we reached the palace, everything looked normal. We entered and took partners, the boy danced with me until the magic led me to the middle of the dance room and I began dancing, alone. The others danced around me, but my dance was different and only for me. Suddenly, I must have kept dancing but it felt like the world had frozen, my vision blurred, filled with colors and then cleared. I seemed to be having a vision. A woman was lying in the single bed of the small house. Her skin was dark like bronze, her coal black hair fell around her violet eyes. She was in deep pain. She coughed horribly. “Go!” She whispered to a man with hair dark as obsidian standing at her side. The man got up and left, I watched as he traveled through gardens. He stopped in front of some flowering bamboo. This was rare because bamboo only flowered every 49-120 years. He stooped and picked a single branch of the flower. Suddenly he fell over, covering his eyes like he’d been blinded. He listened as someone talked to him in a clear voice I couldn’t understand. His face was wretched. I watched as he shook his head, his eyes dark. “No, no.” He murmured and tried to shove the branch he had taken at whoever was talking to him. The voice became sharp and loud, though it looked like he tried he could not let go of the branch. He shook his head, “no. No!” The voice spoke to him again and his head dropped. His voice broken he said quietly, “yes.” The image whirled to the woman lying in the bed, cradling a baby that looked just like her with her dad’s hair. The baby was crying, screaming. “Shh, shhh little Deae, little Bambusoideae.” She whispered. The man was in the house, his head in his hands. Suddenly there was a swirl of light and a cruel looking woman stood in the room. She spoke in a hard, cold voice and reached out to take the child. The mother began crying, clutching the child and trying to keep her away from the woman. “No! No!” She cried. But the woman grabbed the child from her mother and walked out. “No! No! Give her back!” The woman cried despairingly as her husband held her back. “No.” The mother sobbed, falling to her knees. The scene changed and a beautiful woman was in front of me. Colors swirling behind her as she spoke to me. “Stolen girl, taken from your mother. Change the balance and help these girls, break their curse and yours will be broken. Fail to break it and forever these girls will be trapped and you stolen. Set these girls free.” The trance broke and the woman disappeared, but I knew what had happened. That stolen baby was me. 🌸   I jerked up, my dance stopping immediately. The spell seemed to break as everyone else stopped dancing. I started running to the door, the yet to be named boy at my side. The emerald dress I had been wearing had disappeared, replaced by a loose, gold gilded pink tunic; My feet in sandals. My hair, had come down from it’s updo, the crown disappearing, in their stead my outrageously long hair somehow made a normal sized braid, held in place by a silver leafed band. The boy, in turn had a matching outfit except no hair style and a orange tunic. “Rachel, wait.” He said tugging at my sleeve. I turned and saw my- sisters screaming. Only I couldn’t hear them. Tiger-lily was hammering at air, Violet ran, her stride suddenly stopped as she slammed into something. My other ‘sisters’ were at the invisible barrier, hammering at it and yelling. I ran to them, touching the barrier, it felt like stone. My hands were over Snapdragon’s but not touching. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she was not one to cry. “We need to go.” The boy said, eyeing Forgetmenot, who was still as a statue, her eyes staring at nothing. Orchid was pounding the barrier as her hand stopped moving and looked like it was freezing up, she stared at in horror. Lily, her gaze firm as it seemed she too was freezing up, pointed to the door. I couldn’t move as I watched her turn into an almost statue. Carnation reached me at the wall and looked deep into my eyes, mouthing something that seemed like I’m sorry. My eyes hot I turned away from them and ran to the door, as the ceiling around us beginning to crumble. The voice whispered in my pounding ears: Save them