Paper Bindings

The fading sun was setting over the kingdom. Shops were closing for the night, only a lone carriage roamed through the streets. The eldest princess of the foreign kingdom held within, forced to choose eye bride for her youngest sibling, her only brother. The future queen of her kingdom was her choice, and hers alone.

She would meet the last princess tonight, hopefully she'd suit her brother, the others hadn't.

And yet, there was no joy in the other princess, who was just a moment away from her chance of being a queen. Instead, she paced aimlessly around her room, quite accepting a fairytale ending was never to be hers.

Sonja and the book clearly weren't on the best terms. At the book's control, she'd landed on hard ground with a heavy thud, while her book, no doubt feeling quite spiteful, had landed in the softest patch of glass with not so much as a squish being heard.

"You hate me, don't you? You absolutely hate me."

The book's key vibrated against her skin slightly as if to say yes, yet Sonja felt a teasing vibe coming from the slightly animated book.

The captain shook her head as she roughly picked up her rival. She carefully looked out around her. The book had dumped her on the outskirts of a kingdom in a valley. White walls surrounded the kingdom, baby blue and magenta banner hung from buildings.

"I'm in a fairy tale, aren't I?" the book shook in response. "You weren't joking, you hate me. If I didn't need you to get home, you'd be in flames right now, you know that, right?" For once the book was silent. "Whatever. Anyway, a pirate walking into the city ain't gonna help our cause, do your worst Booky."

Sonja nervously turned the key, and slowly she could feel her lightweight baby blue pirate dress transform into a heavy velvet dress like the ones the nobles back in her story would wear and trip over. Even her matching hairband became one of those stupid looking, in her opinion, noble hats with the little sheer veils that went down the back to cover her hair. "Yup, book, you do hate me."

The book shook happily. She did say "do your worst."

And with that, the pirate clumsily made her way down the slope to the kingdom gate.

Usually, people ignored her when she was page hopping, it was for the best, if they could tell someone wasn't from around there, they kept a good distant unless they were approached, and even then, they were often uncomfortable.

This was clearly not the case that day.

"Oh! Princess! There you are! Her majesty is waiting for you!" A rather loud, large woman greeted her at the gates. She was dressed in an oversized gown and a tightly laced corset that did her no favors, and based on the high hat she wore, she was some sort of nobility.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not--"

The woman had no intentions of listening to Sonja, and instead grabbed her by the hand and began to drag her up the stairs going towards what seemed to be the castle. She continued to ramble, in the most irrational voice imaginable about how lovely the princess was, how intelligent she was, how well mannered she was, how she was well educated, but apparently trained to obey her husband. It almost seemed to Sonja as if she were trying to sell the girl.

"Ma'am--"

"Oh, hush child, we're almost there. Oh how exciting. This is exactly what the princess has always wanted!"

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The princess learned at a young age that her tutor was often wrong, especially with facts about her own pupil. She'd often boasted about how excited the girl was to marry, though in reality, the princess was rather apathetic about the entire thing, almost to the point of being bored of the idea. She gloated that the princess was smart, though the girl herself felt rather stupid. She was often called an idiot by her peers, and found herself often terrified to make the wrong answer.

She also believed the princess had everything a girl could want. This was not the case. There was still one wish everyone refused to grant. In fact, it was the princess's only wish.

A comfortable dress, that's all the princess had ever asked for. She never asked for seconds at supper, or a pony (as she already had four) or even so much as a new book. All she wanted was that dress.

She'd once caught sight of it in a dress shop window, pink in colour and made of cotton, a fabric most nobles in the kingdom passed off as "commoner's stuff." The sleeves merely capped one's shoulders in a stylish, puffed fashion, and left the majority of the arms bare. The dress was fitted until her hips, as were her other dresses, yet this one would not constrict her breathing, nor would she need help getting in nor out of it.

Perhaps it was the skirt that she was so drawn too. It reached all the way to the floor, and anyone untrained would never be able go walk in it, but the princess could tell by the way it draped that when she spun it would twirl up around her hips like a flower like the foreign dancer's skirts so often would. She'd always envied them, heaven forbid a princess should ever dress and dance that way, or show even so much as her ankles, much less her calves and the bloomers that covered her from hip to knee.

So alas, the dress, the most perfect dress in the world would never be hers. She was used to it, nothing was ever hers.

There was a point in her life that she could bounce back, but after years and years, living her life solely for a kingdom who didn't care and a prince who she did not want to marry, her burdens had been too heavy to push off. So instead, she rested her elbows on the window, starring out into the evening sky.

Perhaps hours had passed since she'd lost herself in the sky, but maybe it had only been minutes. The pain from the tight bun and the tiara in her hair didn't seem to get worse, but it didn't dull, and the weight from her heavy hoop skirt didn't bother her much, but then again, it never did after all those years. Either way, the trance was broken with the infernal rapping on her door by her boisterous old tutor, Lady Aleen. "Princess! Princess!"

"What is it?" the princess asked halfheartedly, barely turning to look at the wooden door.

"The prince's sister has finally arrived to inspect you! Are you ready?"

A higher, younger voice spoke up, "but I'm not the--"

"Nonsense, don't be embarrassed, we recognized you right away, you look just like your brother!"

The princess sighed and opened the door. A part of her wanted the other girl to disapprove of her, but that would mean shame upon her family, and with such shame they'd never let her have the dress she'd dreamed so much about.

"I am ready..." she mumbled, unlocking the door.

It was at the moment, the princess assumed that her tutor was drunk. Why? Because the prince was a tall, gangly boy with white skin and blonde hair, while the girl in front of her was quite short, the princess noted that if they stood next to one another they'd be near the same height. Her hair was dark and looked almost as if she had held her bangs out in front of her eyes and chopped them off all at once. her skin was caramel from the sun, and she has muscles quite visible under her tight sleeves. She seemed out of place in her noble dress and struggled to walk as she entered the room. Her cap was lopsided, and her hair was all out of place.

She looks almost like a pirate in disguise. the princess thought with amusement.

"Now I shall returning in three hours time, now behave yourself, Princess!" the large woman called back as she slammed the door and scurried away.

The prince's sister took no time to take off her hat and throw it towards the open window. "I hate that thing," She mumbled, "but anyway, we have something to clear up."

The princess giggled. "You aren't the prince's sister, I've figured that out on my own."

The girl chuckled. "Am I really that obvious?"

"Apparently not. You seem to have slipped right under the noses of Lady Aleen and the guards. So, who are you really?"

"One, I didn't sneak in willingly, I was grabbed by the wrist and pulled in without even getting to explain myself. And two, I'm Sonja Alonses, Captain of the Stronghold." Sonja said brightly, quite proud of herself.

"I knew you were a pirate!"

"And how'd you know that princess? Besides, who ever said I was a pirate?"

The princess smiled and took a seat on her bed. "You walk funny, only pirates walk like you do, I see them coming into the city from my window all the time! You be be spent so much time on the sea wearing short dresses and pants, you don't know how to walk on land and walk like us."

"Who is us?" Sonja asked, perhaps the words coming out rather rude.

She pressed her finger to her lip. "What do you pirates call us, landlubbers? Such a silly word that is. But yes, us without sea legs."

The book shook joyfully.

Sonja jumped a bit in surprise. "Princess, could you excuse me for a minute?"

The princess smiled weakly. "Of course! Just don't get too far, the guards might lock you up when they realize who you are not."

"Aye, I'll be back!"

The pirate shut the door behind her and collapsed against the opposite wall. She pulled the book from her satchel and clutched the key with her free hand. "She's who I'm looking for? Why?" she whispered.

"What do you mean she's special? She's dragon bait just like any other fairy tale princess." The book shook stubbornly, it was not letting Sonja win this one. "I can't  take her with me, Book, she'll be a hazard in most of the stories I go in." The key grew freezing cold. "Oh yes, because a book is going to be able to protect a princess, that sounds like it is going to go swimmingly." Just for that remark, the key burnt her again. "Fine, fine, I'll bring her along, but if anything happens to her, it's on your head!"

Sonja pushed the book back into her bag and opened the door. "Hey Princess, you wanna go on a little trip?"

"A trip where?" the princess asked, the first time all day, or even all year, that any excitement filled her voice.

"To another story?"

Her eyes widened. "You're a page hopper? That's why you have a different accent!" She wished she could withdraw that last comment. "Oh yes, I'd love to go somewhere! anywhere to--"

Sonja covered the princess's mouth. "Let's do this without getting caught, please?"

The princess nodded and pushed Sonja's hand away. "Alright, I understand, but how do we do it?"

"Do what?"

"You know, page hop?"

Sonja peered out the window. "We need to be somewhere where there's very little chance of someone seeing, with a lot of space. The top of the hill is where I landed, it should work. You ready to go?"

The princess nodded enthusiastically.

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"I can't believe I just did that! I snuck out, me, oh Miss Sonja can you believe it?" the princess cheered as she skipped along the cobblestone streets, "Where are we going?"

"The town, says here in the book there's a dress you want or something?" Sonja pulled the book from her satchel, "It's not going to stop shaking until you get what you want."

"Really? It cares what I want?" the princess asked in shock, "nobody ever cares what I might want. They usually just say, 'Princess, it's your duty,' or 'Princess, your family's honor relies on this, no matter how miserable you might be.' It's not exactly a life anyone would want to live." She shrugged and mumbled, "You cannot change your fate, your destiny, anything. What is going happen will happen. There is no other way around it."

"Aye, but you might as well enjoy it, right?" Sonja asked, hoping the encouragement would make the princess move just a little bit faster.

It seemed to work, as the young brunette perked right back up and began the hunt for the dress shop. She scurried around the street like a mouse in the kitchen trying not to get himself caught. "Miss Sonja! Here it is! Oh, look at it! It's perfect, beautiful in every way, isn't it?" She sighed dreamily and leaned in closer for a better look. "Aye, if I had the money it'd be mine by now..."

"But aren't you a princess?" Sonja asked in confusion. The book began to shake as if it had a plan."

"Aye, one who isn't trusted with money."

"Book," Sonja whispered, "Do you have any?"

Her bag jingled with coins the book had dropped. "Thanks. Hey! You want it that bad?"

The princess smiled. "How could I not, look at how perfect it is!"

Sonja waved the bag of coins in front of her. "The book wanted to give you a present. Knock yourself out!"

"Oh, Miss Sonja, I couldn't--"

"Take it Princess, it's from the book, if you don't take it, this stupid thing will make me suffer." The book's key tried to burn her again for that "stupid" comment.

The princess began to glow. "I'll only be a moment Miss Sonja!" she chirped and scurried inside the dress show, a giddy smile on her face. She watched with joy as the owner took down the mannequin and pulled the dress off. She put another in it's place before taking the princesses money.

With the dress carefully folded and placed in a bag, the princess rushed out to show off her new purchase. "What do you think Miss Sonja?"

"It's a dress." Sonja said bluntly.

Not the response the princess was looking for. "Perhaps you aren't the person I should be squealing over a dress with."

"Probably not Princess. By the way, I never got your real name, Lady Puffball never bothered to tell me, and you haven't really said anything."

The princess avoided eye contact, and absentmindedly stared into the glass window of the dress shop.

Sonja chuckled to herself. She'd never gotten a princess to shut up so quickly before. Most of them rambled on for hours like you actually cared. "Cat got your tongue or something? Come on Princess, it can't be that embarrassing. "

"I don't have one." she whispered softly, and started to turn away.

"What do you mean you don't have one? Doesn't everyone have a name, I'm pretty sure it's a law in some places." Sonja asked again. She had grabbed the princess by the shoulder before she could slip away.

With a sigh, the princess admitted, "I wasn't important enough to my author to deserve a name, and even my parents hadn't bothered themselves. There was nothing stopping anyone from doing so, but it seemed that it was in everyone else's better interest that I have no name. Perhaps dehumanized me when they shipped me off to be married, there wouldn't be the attachment that families are supposed to have with their daughters."

Much to her own disapproval, Sonja found herself doing something she really didn't want to do. Be sweet.\\

"Well, why don't we change that?" the pirate offered with false cheerfulness, "That way I don't spend the rest of our time together calling you Princess and Dragon Bait."

"Dragon ba--"

"Don't ask, pirate thing," Sonja interrupted. She began searching the town for inspiration. "How about Josephine?"

The princess shook her head. "Sounds too much like a friend of mine, I need something that suits me, do you know what I mean miss Sonja? Like the name Sonja suits you!"

For once, a princess had confused the pirate queen. Usually, they weren't smart enough to ouutsmart her. "What do you mean?"

The princess sat down on a nearby bench next to a beautiful flowerbed with plants so high they reached over her head standing up. Each and every plant was a different colour, and yet all of them seemed to compliment one another in some way or any other. "Sonja means wisdom, I remember reading that somewhere. You only look about my age, 14, maybe 15, but you have an old and wise soul filled with many experiences. Perhaps your author or your parents knew this when you were given such a perfect name. Ah, yes, how wonderful it must be to have a perfect name."

It seems that the princess was more knowledgeable and worldly than she had given herself credit for.

"How about Flora?" Sonja suggested.

"Flora? How did you come up with that?"

"It means flowers, I'm not sure, it seems to suit you," the pirate said with a shrug, "I think it's a pretty name, but if you don't like it--"

"No! It's beautiful!" the princess squealed, "it's beautiful, it's unique, it's all mine, oh Miss Sonja, it's perfect!" The princess, now known as Flora, hopped up from her bench and threw both arms around the pirate. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm forever in your dept, I'm sure we'll be the best of friends because of this!"

That was definitely not the response Sonja was hoping for. She would have preferred something with a little less... Physical contact. "Easy there Flora, if you still want to come with me, we're going to have to lay down a few ground rules. Number one, no hugging. No exceptions." The princess hadn't let go. "Right now isn't an exception either."

Flora dropped her arms. "Sorry, my emotions have a tendency to take over and it seems I lose control of them quite easily. Any other rules?"

Sonja shook her head. "I'll come up with them later. For now, are you ready to go?"

"I have never been more ready for anything in my life."

That wasn't a lie. For the first time in almost fifteen years, the young girl now known as Princess Flora had something in her life that was worth looking forward to.