With a deep gasp you woke up from your comateous sleeping state, feeling as if someone had just freed you out of a cage where they had locked you up for ages and had thrown away the key. In one smooth movement you opened your eyes and you saw a deep light was falling inside of the room through a crack in between the curtains. It didn’t hurt your eyes like you had expected it to, you didn’t need to blink furiously in order to let your view get used to the new background. It took you a few seconds to figure out where you were, one of the chambers where you had been before, but your mind seemed to be on fire as you tried to remember which one it was. The mattress was softly pressing into your back, in such a familiar way that told you that you had slept here before, but you couldn’t recall any of that. Your hands were shaking as you placed them on the sheets and you pushed yourself up, noticing that every single muscle inside of your body was screaming as soon as you moved. It was almost as if someone had broken all of your bones, one by one and had put them back together afterwards. Your skin was sticky and clammy, making your hair being glued against the back of your neck, making you feel disgusting. The sound of your shallow breathing rang inside of your ears as you looked around the room, seeing all the small dust particles floating around through the air. You could see the small details in the wallpaper, the small gold spots that were so minuscule that it almost seemed impossible for a normal eye to see them, but you did. Your heart rate picked up as soon as you heard two people talking to each other, two voices which you had never heard before, but there was no one else in the room with you. What happened and where were you? Had you officially lost your mind? Had you finally gone crazy? Maybe all those hard winters and the lack of good food had finally caused your body to crack. You listened carefully to what the stranger said and tried to understand it, but his words sounded like he was telling someone a fairy tale. “I heard the princess should be waking up any time soon. I wonder how she’s going to react to the change? Maybe she’ll never be the same again, poor girl.” 

Who was this girl they were talking about, and what did they mean when they used the word ‘change’? What kind of a place was this, where the rooms were so enormous and people who weren’t around you could speak to you? “So I heard. Let’s hope that she’ll be reasonable about all of this. The prince had no other choice and I’m convinced that he’ll feel devastated about all of this. It was never his intention to change the princess, he has always wanted to protect her humanity. But we all knew this day would come, a human can’t survive in a place like this.” All the small hairs on your arms stood up right as she said that, being reminded of your own humanity. If they could take it away from a princess then who knew what they would do to you? And if those people who were talking downstairs weren’t human than what were they? “I’m sure she’ll come to reason when she sees how well her son has been doing. That boy is exactly what this kingdom needed, new found hope. As soon as the prince makes his way to the throne then everything will be much better and with the princess as queen I’m sure he’ll make a great king.” A third voice joined the conversation, and the voice seemed so familiar that you tried to dig into the black holes which had formed in your brain because you wanted to remember it. It was a soft voice of a girl and you got blurry images of a faceless woman combing her hands through your hair as she spoke, but you didn’t get anything more than that. “Don’t move too fast, firstly the princess should wake up and recover. The change is a big transformation for everyone and we don’t have any idea what kind of effect it will have on her. Maybe she won’t even survive.” Sadness echoes inside of her voice as she said that, as if she was talking about a close friend of her’s who she fondly cared about. Maybe she was good friends with this princess, whoever she may be. It was obvious that these people all really cared about the wellbeing of this person, but again, she was probably one of the most powerful people of this place. A strong feeling of jealousy came over you, knowing that there would never be anyone who would feel that way about a girl who had fought for her life on the streets, a girl like you who was just trying to take care of her family, of her sisters. 

Rose, where was she? You had to find her and make sure the two of you would get home safely before you had to prepare dinner. What had you been hunting for today? Right, bunnies, you had been able to catch a pair of lovely bunnies for tonight, your father would be delighted. If you would be careful then those animals could serve as your meal for the next few days, and then you and Rose could recover for a few days before you would go back to the woods and would have to hunt again. Happiness filled your mind as you thought of the fact that you wouldn’t have to run into the cold for a few days and you could stay in your house, warm and safe. Now the only thing you still had to do was find out where you were and ask them if they could take you back home. In a swift movement you hit back the covers, seeing the white silk gown you were wearing, and which looked more expensive than all the clothes you owned together. Shock traveled through you as you ran your hands down the fabric, knowing that this dress didn’t belong to you. What was this? Why were you sleeping in such a huge chamber and why were you'd dressed in this way? Your breath seemed to get stuck inside of your throat when you heard heavy footsteps outside of your door, climbing up a staircase, coming closer and closer to where you were. How was it that you were able to hear this as if it was all happening inside of your head? Your eyes scanned around the room in order to find a hiding place, somewhere they wouldn’t be able to find you. Panic rushed through you, mixed with fear for the unknown as someone pushed down the door handle and swung the doors open. As quickly as you could you stumbled out of the bed, feeling your muscles protest as you moved them so suddenly. Your body felt as if someone had driven over it with a car and just the small actions of backing away in the furthest corner of the room and pulling a poker to you chest which was used to handle the fireplace made you feel as if you hadn’t slept in days. two men in an expensive looking uniforms made their ways into your room, both of their faces looking familiar as they stared at you. They were both smiling in a friendly way, though the looks inside of their eyes were both different. They both seemed curious, awaiting, but one of them seemed to be mocking you while the other one looked at you with such adoration that it made you shiver. The only thing you could do was stand there, like a frightened little girl who was stuck in a room with two strangers, of which you didn’t know what their intentions were. 

They looked at you as if they were expecting something from you, as if you were supposed to ask them an obvious question, the only one that would be normal in this situation, but you didn’t know what it was. It was as if they were both playing a game and they expected you to know the rules, but instead you had no idea what they wanted from you. With big eyes you stared at them and after the silence continued to last inside of the room the two men se