The Alyta Trilogy: Handmaids, Heroes, and Hierarchy.
Alyta stretches under the feather cover in her guest�s quarters at the palace. There are some things about royalty that I don�t mind too much, she concedes. She smiles and throws her head back on the pillow as she thinks of Sytifa�s reaction when she came in last night. She just kept saying things over and over in her native language, and giving her bizarre looks. One would think that after seven years, she would realize and deal with all of Alyta�s strange ways. Alyta looks out her window and realizes that what her stomach has been telling her is right, it�s almost noon. She gets up and puts on an aqua dress that would be modest for any princess, but extremely lavish for a commoner. Unless there is a royal occasion, such as this afternoon, she won�t wear anything fancier. She makes her way down the staircase of the castle, this place is all so foreign to her, and she didn�t have the royal tour most princesses did upon their arrival. She was� too busy not being a princess at all. Alyta follows the din to a long hall, fairly crowded already with whining princesses and scrambling servants. She seats herself, and takes her own food from the large bowls at the center of the table. Few of the royals gathered there notice her �common� behavior, but a few of the more snobbish, that have nothing else to do but to notice their surroundings, since they have a multitude of servants fetching their food for them, look up at her. One, who seems to be the leader, nudges two others, and they both turn to look at her. Alyta pretends not to notice, thinking that these types have more bark than bite. She continues to eat her meal until it gets tipped over into her lap. She looks up, and towering above her is the huskiest princess she has ever seen.
�Oh, I am sorry deary. You�ll have to excuse us princesses. We�re just so nervous here. We�ve never had a prospective royal concubine in our presence before.�
Alyta gets up slowly, and brushes off her aqua skirt, now stained a deep brown from pork gravy.
�Not a problem, Helga. I just would have thought that with all your lackeys here, you would have gotten one of them to spill pork drippings on me. But then again, you always did have a �wild boar� aura around you.� Alyta says, smiling sweetly as sugar.
�Wild boar or not, I�ll get the prince faster than you with my eyes closed. No class, no taste. I guess you�ll just have to stay home and cry to Daddy dearest for the rest of your life. Some princess you are. You are worse than a commoner.�
�Oh, your highness, I take that compliment with the highest respect. To be equaled with a commoner is one thing, but to say I am more than one� well, I am forever indebted to you.� Alyta says regally, giving her best sweeping curtsy.
This Alyta was really getting on her nerves. To come into the pre-ceremony for a royal gathering, to watch her eat and behave like a commoner, and then to embarrass her in front of all her peers. There is one thing that she is noted for, and now she�ll have to redeem herself with her fists. She stops Alyta�s curtsy in mid-sweep, and trips her so that she falls onto the floor. A deep, hearty laugh fills the room. It is replaced by the chiming laughter of Alyta, staring up at her opponent from the floor.
�You really want to do this, do you?� She asks the burly woman above her who is looking for some way to distance herself from her peers and win some respect. To get that, she shouldn�t have picked on Alyta.
�You think you can actually defend yourself, scullery maid?� She laughs.
In response, Alyta flips backward, making two revolutions and landing beside two old broomsticks. She picks one up for herself, and throws the other one with full force to the �princess�. She is knocked off balance by the broom, but quickly realizes what�s going on and grasps the broom handle tightly. Alyta comes at her, twirling her �staff� and demonstrating an Amazon kick or two in the air. The two spar a round of intense broom-clanging, with the princess gritting her teeth and Alyta smiling. The princess gives up whatever leftover energy she had in store and lashes with the straw end of the broom at Alyta. She blocks it with her arm, and brings her left leg up and around to kick her opponent twice swiftly in the back of her head. She falls to the ground, and Alyta whispers one thing before turning away from the scene, �Showoff.�
She grabs a pear from a nearby bowl and jogs back up the stairs to her quarters. �Why did I get up this morning again?� She asks herself. Behind her, she leaves a crowd of murmuring princesses in her wake to surround the unconscious bully.
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