I sat at my window looking over the courtyard below me. The moonlight reflected off the clear blue water of the small pond illuminating everything that it touched. Such a beautiful sight ruined by my otherwise somber mood. My wedding was less than a month away and here I sat unhappy. Marrying “the man of my dreams” was something I should look forward to except there was one small problem, I barely knew the man. Of course I had met him at a few public events set to join the two kingdoms, but that’s beside the point. The truth is I was just not interested in marriage. I knew that it was for the greater good of our kingdom since our resources have been wiped out from the ongoing war. 

Lost in my own thought I had barely heard the knock on the wooden door of my bedroom. “ Aurelie.” My mother’s voice called to me, forcing me to turn towards her. Her once blonde hair was now peppered with white as she continued getting older. I nodded for her to continue. “ You should be sleeping.” I nodded yet again. I knew that she was right. I would be spending the day in town as the maids and servants decorated the house in honor of the upcoming wedding. 

“ I’m sorry mother, I cannot sleep, the excitement is keeping me up.” I responded with a white lie and she smiled. I felt dirty. I hated to lie, especially to my kind mother. She took a few steps into the room. 

“ I remember the excitement from when I was to be married to your father.” She smiled fondly. She sat next to me in the window and took my dainty hands in her wrinkled ones. “ Perhaps we will go to that one barkery you like tomorrow?” She suggested and I smiled fondly. 

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“ That sounds lovely, mother.” I closed my eyes and let out a small forced yawn. “ I think I am feeling tired now.’ My mother nodded and kissed my forehead and left. I rose and drew the fabric to cover my window before locking my door. I slid myself out of silk sleep robes. I looked at myself in the mirror that hung on the wall. My fingers trailed along my slim collar bones as I tilted my head upwards and pushed my long blonde hair behind my pointed ears. 

“ No one must find out.” I whispered to myself as I pulled my hair to one side of my body letting it drape itself in just the right way to cover my right breast before turning slightly to see my back. There in cased in a binding that I was told to never remove hid my biggest secret of all 

Wings. 

One by one my long fingers unlaced the binding. I had done this just a couple times before, desperate to see the part of me that I was supposed to keep hidden. One lace after another carefully united before the binding fell to the ground and my small delicate wings were set free. I reached to carefully move them and help them unfold themselves and stretch them for just a second. I could barely make out the color in the dark room, but they were a pale practically see through blue from what I could tell and vaguely beetle shaped. I had never met any real…. You know, so I couldn’t tell if it was normal. I closed my eyes tight not wanting to think about what would happen to me if anyone walked in right now. Pushing those thoughts away I folded my wings in as tight as they were before shoving them back into the binding taking my time to lace it up properly. 

I slipped my silk robe back on and opened the fabric covering my window letting the moon light in before turning in for the night.