User blog:Watermelonoutburst/The unable to be posted (though I may try again) Panda Princess!

Yeah since it didn’t show up on DCSHG, and I couldn’t post in comments, here it is!:

The Panda Princess

Part 2

None of us spoke during this strange adventure, and we didn’t think either. For though thoughts swirled in our heads, whatever was controlling us would not let them break the surface. And then it hit me, with a wave of tingly skin. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before: magic. It must be magic. No wonder mom was in a tizzy! We walked down the petal stairs, a gold railing was on the pillar that must have been the middle of the flower, but there was no railing on the edge of the petals. Lush, leafy vines hung from gold rings in what must have been the ceiling. Bright, beautiful lilies cascaded over each one, making a beautiful waterfall of plants. The stairs looked like quartz and were decorated with mosaics, mostly flowers, but some animals and stories too. When we reached the bottom, we stepped onto a platform. It had some sort of gauzy, glittery wall around it that looked like you could walk right through. I had a sense that it was a protection spell of sorts. It opened and we stepped through the ‘door’ that it made. We were in a forest now, the same lush, lily covered vines hung from copper trees that’s leaves looked like copper. We walked on a pathway made of pearl and lined with sapphires. When we were through the woods we reached a lake. It was sparkling and crystal clear, and it was also like a liquid rainbow. As we stood on a silver marble ledge, three gondolas came up to it and we climbed in four (in a certain case five) a gondola. The gondola paddled itself across the lake. We reached out the other side on which a majestic castle stood. We walked in. Inside, everything was laden with gold, silver, marble, quartz, or gems. Laid out on one side was a beautiful banquet with fruits of all kinds laid out across it. Remembering how we had skipped some meals we headed over to the table eagerly. We chatted, even the new girl, who was still anonymous and cloaked, though we talked about things we wouldn’t normally. Suddenly, a white peacock stride into the room, spreading her feathers. The food disappeared and we became silent again. Then we strode onto the gold flower inlaid dance floor and began twirling. Music came from the flowers decorating the whole castle. Beautiful, enchanting melodies. We must have been spinning all night because suddenly the magical world was dyed scarlet and the music stopped. We turned and went back to the staircase. We climbed back up to our room and the staircase came up so that it was just a normal floor. I could see the sun rising through the east window. The mystery girl left silently. We were still silent as we climbed into bed. Tiring as the dancing had been the magic powered my adrenaline so I didn’t think I could sleep. 🌸 I woke up in my bed, mom was standing over it. Three other sisters were still asleep, Violet, Orchid, and Bluebelle. Snapdragon was trying to wake up Violet. The others were standing and looking guilty. “What are you doing?! You’re asleep?! It’s nearly lunch time!!!” She shrieked at me. I looked at my sisters for help. They couldn’t. “I, I-“ I thought wildly. I remembered the wonderful night before, but that wouldn’t be a good way to get out of this. Thinking about dancing just made me dead tired. “I was up reading.” I said. I did read late into the night some of the time, but mom was clever. “And where’s the book?? Daylily said you were playing cards with her.” She said, giving me that creepy look parents give you when you’re in trouble. I had to get out. “I was.” I stammered. “Which is why I was up so late. Daylily wanted to play and I had to make her wait through a few chapters and then the game went longer than planned and I still wanted to read more- I was close to the end of the book... I finished and went to put it away and then I realized how late it was and-“ mom was giving me a laughing look. “Iris said you played with her. If it were true you would have pointed out that it was Iris not Daylily.” Her voice was rising and the last three sisters were awake now. “You have all been lying to me! Now what really happened?!” She looked from me, to the others still in bed, to the others. Tiger-Lily, Who was also clever stepped forward. “I’m sorry mother! We didn’t want to tell you because we though you’d be mad!” I cringed and so did the other sisters. She was just going to give away our secret? “You were in such a tizzy yesterday you didn’t notice or help a wolf with a toothache that came to the door. We took him in to try and heal him. We were worried you’d be mad because you didn’t seem to care for him so we hid him in the cellar! He started to howl a bit last night so we went down to take care of him. We gave him some food but we couldn’t help his tooth so we sent him to the forest healer. I’m so sorry for doing all that behind your back!” She did a good job with the guilty look, the nervous voice. I relaxed, besides, this wasn’t a total lie. Mom still seemed a bit suspicious, but Tiger-lily hadn’t tripped up so mom was disarmed. “Alright. But no more being lazy birds, get some herbs and greens for lunch. Go!” She left and I got up and dressed quickly. “Great job Tiger-lily,” Vinca whispered. 🌸    Night fell and when the slippers appeared I was as surprised as before, especially because I was sure we had danced through the soles of them last night! Again they had a new design, the bottoms were ebony and the shoes themselves all matched, pale blue with silver embroidered leaves. As before we slipped them on and took our places on the flower. On the stroke of midnight the door opened and again the girl came in. She wore the same clothes as before. As she stepped into her shoes the magic tugged her cloak off. It fell to the floor behind her. I could now see the girl more clearly. Her eyes were not so dark as I at first thought, instead they were only a shade darker than my sisters. Her hair was silvery and beautiful, falling down gracefully over her shoulders. Her face was sunburnt, her arms tanned, and her hands callused and weathered, but her skin seemed as fair as my sisters. She wore a simple, patched, brown dress. She was obviously a villager, but her likeness to my sisters was striking. Presumably, all people looked like that and my dad, who I took after was from a different country. Then some scarlet fabric whooshed over and began wrapping itself around her. More fabric, bright yellow, dark red, pale green, and turquoise came, wrapping itself around my sisters while a flurry of fushia came at me. When it was finished we all had gorgeous dresses, fit for a princess. Then, we began to dance. Again the flower petals descended forming a staircase. I would say that it all seemed the same but for one thing I can’t talk, and for another instead of lilies, the vines were covered in alplilies. The path was lined with pink topaz and the tree leaves were bronze this time. When we reached the castle, they had pastries and did a waltz when the unicorn came out. Again we left at sunrise and went back to our room. The dresses slipped off, leaving us again in nightgowns. The girl, picked up her cloak, put it back on and left. I managed to look at the shoes before I went to sleep. Indeed, we’d worn right through the ebony! The shoes seemed to disappear in my hands, wether from sleep or magic I couldn’t tell. 🌸  We managed to wake up only a little after breakfast, which was good because I realized that I still had the slipper. It’s pair was gone, it must have been what I felt disappearing. I must have dropped the other one, but hanging onto this shoe must have stopped it from disappearing. I set it on the floor but the magic seemed to not work in daylight. I barely managed to hide the shoe, hearing the footsteps in the hall and taking a second to figure them out. Mom stuck her head in the door. “Has skipping meals become a habit of yours? Come eat breakfast while it’s still lukewarm!” We got up quickly to do so.

Over the morning I managed to scan the library and find out about the sea horse, it was a hippocampus. It doesn’t seem much like a fish to me! 🌸 That night the shoes were there again, I looked at them surprised. I knew they’d been worn straight through, but now they looked good as new. Magic, I reminded myself. Tonight the shoes were moccasin-like, the were made from bright orange cloth and encrusted with rubies. The bottoms were thick leather, but if we wore through ebony we could definitely wear through this. Taking our places, the girl again entered at the stroke of midnight. Again, her cloak slipped off and had to adjust to the beautiful girl beneath. Tonight we were dressed in gauzy cotton, finer than any cotton before known. They were each a different color and encrusted with different colored gems that clashed neatly. This time our hair was done up in stylish updos and crowns placed in our hair. Going down, the vines were draped in tiger lilies. They must change according to my sisters names. I realized. How can they do Rachel? Will they do the other girl’s? Do we really only get twelve, maybe thirteen nights here?” Thoughts swirled through my head, and then I realized that the thoughts had reached the surface. Something funny was going on. The mosaics were changed and now had birds instead of what they had before. The path was quartz lined with topaz. The trees were covered in brass leaves that seemed to emit their own light. And I noticed a fiery bird flying in the shadows, lightning them up. A pheonix. So the animals must be according to the sister’s order too. I knew Tiger-lily was a bit headstrong, but why was everything different? When we reached the lake it was a sunset not a rainbow, in the water. We crossed in the gondolas as before, and reaching the castle there was a beaded curtain not a door. They food was savory, and the music livley. The pheonix dancing in the air above. Despite the odd changes, the night went on as before. 🌸  So did the next couple of nights. Through the next nine nights the leaves changed to silver, gold, terrecotta, sapphire, etc. the path way to every imaginable gem, The day of the anonymous girl (which would have been mine, why does it seem that she’s taking my place?) it was Carnations, so I assume that is her name. It was never any less magical, but it was exhausting as we saw every morning. It actually became kind of scary, because sitting out wasn’t optional.

Hope you liked it!! 😁😉 Waves of watermelon 🍉