The World of Rhune

Kari watched silently as Luna took over the skies, atleast for now. She breathed out stiffly, and watched as her breath became hot mist upon the freezing skies; Kari still didn’t move. She didn’t acknowledge Lili when she came to clear away the leftover dinner plates, but did listen as the soft clang of utensils against glass plates and glasses as they were stacked and taken away. Karillian looked out into the cold night, feeling goose flesh crawl up her arms and up her cold legs. She looked out into the open for a few more minutes and then quit, freezing to death wasn’t really on the agenda. She walked down the hallway her brother had been led down about a half an hour ago and looked into each doorway before she came upon the room she was to stay in for however long and walked in quietly. Kari looked at where her brother was splayed across the couch asleep and cracked a smile. She surveyed the rest of the room, it was big and totally to Zayde's taste. Too bad it wasn’t to her's, what she wanted she couldnt have until Crown Princess Hannah decided to leave. Karillian walked closer into the room, "WAKE UP DEMETREY!!!" She nearly yelled and Zayde shot up immediately, only to lose his balance from moving so sharply, and fell flat on his face. Kari laughed at her groaning brother and walked over to him. "Hey, bro, what up?" she looked down on her brother. "Right now, you." he said, just laying still and laying on the cool tile floor. Kari smiled on her brother, debated for a split second, and fell right onto him, making Zayde oof and start trying to dislodge his clingy sister. "Get...Off...Of...Me!" Zayde struggled in between breaths as Kari managed to keep herself on top of her floundering brother. "No way, Jose,” she laughed and Zay sucked in a determined breath and tried to kick his sister, only to gasp and freeze as pain shot and laced its way around his still injured leg. Kari felt her brother freeze and gasp, but knew he would be okay. “I’ll take that as an incomprehensible uncle,” she said and slipped off her brother only to flinch as the low fire popped unexpectedly. Zay groaned again, “Royal pain in the ass,” he said, and picked himself up, walking a safe distance away from his sister. “Thank you very much,” she smirked and leaned against a whitewashed wall. Zay rolled his eyes but moved to the desk, “I didn’t remember, though, asking for a dirty, evil twin as a wake-up call,” This time Kari rolled her eyes but both of their eyes were brimmed with laughter at the inside joke. If one of them had done something “evil” or what not, the other called them their evil twin like people who didn’t have actual twins claimed. “You’re the dirty one,” Kari shot back at her twin , “You’re the dirtiest, dirtiestest, and dirtiestestest. They’re nothing past there,” Zay topped her with a sly grin, and walked to the desk and took a sheet of paper and a quill, knowing what he was going to write would be incomprehensible to anyone in this palace. Only the people of Caryi knew, and very few of those people even actually knew. Zayde was one of those lucky people. He wrote down the one important thought he’d achieved during his “thinking time”

Xirra Karillian میرے خلاف ایک ہتھیار کے طور پر استعمال کرنے کی منصوبہ بندی کر رہا ہے

Zay finished writing the words and heard Kari walk into the bathroom and slam the door shut. “I’m taking a bath!” she shouted, “It’s a miracle!” he shouted back and heard Kari yell right back without missing a beat “Hey!” but he didn’t take it any further. He looked at the note for a second and then left it on the desk. Kari couldn’t read it, and she was the last person he’d really want to read it. Zay yawned, and looked out the window only to remember he’d shut them the second he came in. So Zay looked at the beds, and within a second had jumped, landed in the soft covers, and was out within seconds. One of his many gifts.

Kari slammed the door and looked at the pearly white bathroom, and she decided after all the stress she’s actually like a luxury for once. She turned the silvery faucets to the right and watched as it gurgled for a minute before spitting out cold water that she knew would eventually warm up. Kari plugged the bottom of the large bathtub and looked for soap and smelling salts, which she found in a cabinet near the sink. She took out all the bottles and let them fall over the powder sink. Karillian smiled, and picked up two soap bottles and a box of smelling salts. She poured the rose-water soap into the bath and watched as it started forming little bubbles all around, then sprinkled lavender salt into the now forming bubbles. It smelled so good Kari couldn’t help but stop and smell the sweet perfume scent that seemed to fill the bathroom. After a second she managed to shake herself free of the aroma and grabbed a couple more bottles before slipping out of her rough clothing and into the soft relaxing bath. “This is soooo what I needed,” Kari nearly purred to herself and laid her head back and rested her sore arms along the sides of the tub. She actually laughed a little as the foaming bubbles tickled the underside of her neck and the princess let out a content sigh and closed her eyes and she soaked in the warmth of the soapy water.

About half an hour later, Kari judged by how wrinkled her hands had become from soaking, Zay knocked hurriedly. “Don’t come in,” she said in a sing-songy voice, picking up a small handful of bubbles and blowing on them to make them fly about. “Karillian, I know I sound stupid but I have to use the bathroom,” he called through the door sheepishly, and knocked again. His twin laughed, “Yeah right, should have thought of that before, shouldn’t you?” Kari replied and dipped her head under the water, surfacing quickly only to find bubbles all around her head In hindsight, that wasn’t very smart Kari thought and wiped some of the bubbles out of her face. “Katya, I have to use the bathroom!” he cried again and pounded harder on the door. She laughed, again. “Dearest, brother, well…after much thought. I’ve changed my answer,” Zay rolled his eyes, she would have had to have a change of person to let him in. “My answer is now double no, so leave me alone and go use someone else’s!” Kari closed her eyes again and looked at her clean skin, and decided her hair could use a wash too, though luckily the dye wouldn’t come out. She rubbed some oozing, lotion-like stuff from a clear bottle and rubbed it into her hair, massaging her head while she was at it. “Katya let me in for the love of the gods I’m gonna knock the door down in a second if you don’t!” Zay’s voice rose and he jiggled the doorknob harshly again. “Well then, by the time you do that I’ll assume you’ve wrecked your pants and the whole thing would have been a bust, enjoy explaining to prince Trei del Sol” she pronounced his name kind of funky, but since it didn’t bother her, she went back to enjoying her bath, tuning out her brother’s persistent whines until he finally fled down the hallway to another restroom. After another ten minutes, Kari couldn’t bare to see her hands more wrinkled than the 80 year old chief scribe’s hands, and she pulled herself out of the tub and grabbed a fluffy white cotton towel embroidered at the bottom in a simple gold thread design. Kari ruefully pulled out the wax plug from the bottom of the full tub and walked away from the loud draining as the water flowed out of the tub in a swift, violent rush. The princess quickly dried herself and grabbed another towel for her now short hair. She wrapped it around her sopping brown hair and tucked in the towel around her chest, leaving her hands free. Kari smiled, she smelled, looked, and felt just wonderful. The magic of the lone bath she thought and looked at the long mirror infront of the powder counter. Then Kari realized how much she still looked like herself, she looked the same with her black eyelashes, super dark tan skin, and same face. Kari looked at her reflection with an evil grin even though the evil part was going to happen to her, “makeover time,” she said, unlike all the other girls who would squeal, her reflection copying her. The girl turned around to the wide bathroom, “Just what I was thinking,”

Kari looked at the supplies infront of her, scissors, liquid brown mascara, light tan powder and pencil she’d had to ring Lili for, and light lip dye. If she could at least change some colors to her face that her mother nor father would ever expect, she’d be two-thirds of the way there. Kari started with her horrid hair. It was lopsided and pretty ugly. Her brother would never be a hair-stylist, since she’d done better and wasn’t even able to look at herself. Kari looked at herself in the mirror and tried to calculate the best way to accent her already ugly brown and blonde hair. She decided on layers. Her hands instantly picked up the metal scissors and held them up to eye level. She only faltered for a second before locks of brown hair started fluttering to the floor in wisps and her hair became shorter and shorter until it stopped at just over her shoulders. It was ugly in terms of Caryi hairstyles, but her parents would never really know. She’d cut off about fifteen inches from her hair today, when her mother barely ever let her get one. But it wasn’t as if it wasn’t pretty, the layers complimented as much as they could the odd streaks of blonde that ran through her now light brown hair. Kari convinced herself it gave her a unique edge that no one else would have. She looked back at her reflection. Her eyes were a main focus, they told a lot about a person, but her nose she couldn’t do much about. At the least she would add fake freckles that she hoped would turn out okay, since they looked good on a lot of pretty girls. Kari started. She brushed the mascara onto her dark lashes and made them look a completely different color and longer, unlike her stubby ones. The princess expertly then started applying the powder all over herself and was glad it was one of the good kinds that didn’t really rub off without water. The only bad part was it seemed to take forever, though it actually was only ten minutes. Karilian dared to look into the mirror again and bit back a shriek. She looked so pale it was scary. She was still tan, thank the gods, but she was so pale compared to her old super dark skin tone that she couldn’t tell whether she was prettier or uglier. She tried to tell herself prettier. After a minute of silent hysterics, she trudged on; well more forced herself to draw on super light but noticeable freckles. There weren’t many and they were equally spread over her nose and some on her cheeks. Kari watched as she applied her newfound freckles and actually smiled for once. They looked great, actually, and she loved how they made the rest of her face look even and well just nice. The girl breathed a sigh of relief. She was looking just as pretty as before, maybe she could make herself look prettier. Yeah right, you still want to kind of be true to yourself her conscience contradicted and Kari picked up the last thing on the counter, the lip dye. It was a different color. A light pink-brown but completely natural color she’d found in the back of the medicine cabinet. Kari bit her too dark brown lips for a second, contemplating whether she wanted to potentially ruin her current beauty. Kari, this isn’t about beauty it’s about you getting away and staying safe. She flicked an annoyed glare at herself. Stupid conscience, why does it always have to make me feel bad? Kari quickly raised the dye to her lips, ushered a quick prayer from her untouched mouth, and carefully maneuvered the tip over her upper and lower lips. Kari ran it over her lips completely, making sure to get every last spot and perfectly, if she messed them up people would know it was fake. The tube slid over her mouth, and her lips turned from dark brown to a light brown and paler color. Karillian removed the tube and let it drop and roll into the sink. Her face didn’t look better, if anything it looked worse. But, I’m pretty, and I actually like myself this way, better Kari smiled and thought to herself, and turned in the mirror. She looked pretty, but she was also freezing, so she needed to get changed. At least she looked like someone who could be mistaken as Princess Karillian, but to her, no one would be actually able to recognize her. But then Kari looked into the mirror. Her hair was missing something, and Kari had two strange urgings. One, to dye her hair just the mousy brown color without the stripes, and two, to tie or clip something into her hair. Karillian looked around, after nothing she looked under the cabinets, and in the fourth she found not just a white towel, but it had a frazzles at the end dyed a blue, and the princess immediately clipped them, and started knotting them in different directions creating a round cord of threads in different patters around a lock of her hair right under her ear. “Wish two done, you only get one more,” she told herself, thinking of the makeover and now the hairpiece. Kari finally unlocked the bathroom door, waking up Zay in the bedroom, and (when he actually woke up) gasped. He got hit in the head with a pillow courtesy of the couch. Karillian walked over to their heap of things they’d managed to bring with them, and she dearly wished for her bow. But she’d get that back, if not she’d personally take it up with the prince. Karillian remembered she was still in her towel, and blushed so much she knew it showed through the make-up. Kari quickly scavenged through their items and pulled out black breeches and a plain white shirt, then found that brown pot and claimed the bathroom yet again. “So the first time wasn’t enough for you?” Zayde called when she slammed the door again. Kari clicked with her tongue and changed into the soft leather and cotton, and looked back at her hair. She should have done this before that extension thing. She looked at the dye and recreated what she’d done earlier, except only swiping it over the blonde which disappeared under a wash of brown quickly enough, and dried even faster. Kari stepped out of the bathroom five minutes later, and Zay looked up at her when she finally came out of that bathroom. “Where’s Kari and what have you done with my sister?” he whispered appalled, she couldn’t blame them. She looked ugly compared to Caryi standards, but to her own she thought she looked pretty. “Good, you think I’m so called ‘ugly’ and cant ‘recognize’ me, so I think I’m good,” Kari grinned at her still appalled brother, “Love my new look?” she smiled wide and tilted her head slightly to the side. Zayde seemed for once in his life lost for words. “I’ll take that as an ‘I love it’” Kari walked to the small chair near a window and plopped into the seat, realizing from the bath she smelled all springy and flowerish as if she’d sprayed perfume on herself. Kari almost gagged, she hated that stuff and how it felt when her mom had tried to pump some on her for her fifteenth birthday. She ended up smashing the bottle…not her brightest moment. “Wow, that bath sure worked, you actually smell nice for a change,” Zay called from where he was working over the shock. “Gee, thanks.” She said sarcastically and heard something at the door…though she didn’t exactly know which door. “Hello?” she asked.