Princess Aratemese

Aratemese nonchalantly slipped into the classroom. She sat in the very back row, so her teacher wouldn’t know that she just came in. Unfortunately, the blue Tonu did and said, “You’re late again, Aratemese.”

     Ara sighed and took out her Striped Notebook and Water Faerie Pencil. The Teacher wrote these giant, yellow letters on the blackboard: Take out your notebooks. The students obeyed and took them out.

     “To get to know you all, I want you to write about yourself,” Ara’s Teacher announced.

     That’s easy, Ara thought, opening her notebook.

     “You have until Friday to finish.”

     Ara dropped her pencil in surprise. Friday, why must it be due on Friday? She looked down blankly at her notebook. It felt as if it was chanting, “Write in me, Ara.”

     The Green Xweetok never liked writing about herself. She began to brainstorm.

     How about, she thought, that one time when- no, that’s not good enough... Or maybe- Nah.

     Eventually, her mind drifted away to back when she had it all. The good old days, she thought, smiling.

     Back then, she was known as Aratemese, Princess Aratemese.

     ---

     Aratemese’s eyes fluttered open. She smiled when awakening, and sat up in her bed. She grabbed her tiara and slipped it onto her head and changed into her royal robes and jewelry. She honestly did not enjoy dressing this way, but a princess must sometimes do things she doesn’t like.

     “Good morning, Princess Aratemese,” the maid said.

     “Hello, Violet. Do you know what today is?” Aratemese asked in anticipation.

     “Ummm...” Violet said, thinking. “...Tuesday?”

     “No, silly. It’s my birthday,” Ara said, giggling.

     Violet slapped her head.

     “Oh yes, of course! I do apologize for forgetting, your majesty,” she said.

     “It’s OK,” Ara told her.

     She began to smooth out the covers of her bed.

     “Would you like for me to make your bed?” Violet asked.

     “No, you guys do enough for me already. I’ll do it,” Ara said, smiling.

     Violet curtseyed and backed out of Ara’s room.

     ---

     “Do you really think,” King Louie began, “that Princess Aratemese is fit for the throne? She is so...”

     “Louie,” Queen Luann cut him off. “She’ll be a fine queen. She has ideas that will revolutionize our country. She has more confidence in one finger than many past kings had in their whole bodies.”

     “I just don’t know, Luann,” King Louie said.

     “She’ll do great, don’t worry,” Queen Luann told him.

     King Louie sighed. The Royalboy Kougra turned to face the Queen.

     “I cannot believe that in only one day our daughter will be sixteen and inherit the throne. Do you really think she’s ready?”

     “Louie, stop worrying so much. You’ll turn blue,” the Queen reminded him.

     The Royalgirl Acara stood up and walked off to the parlor. King Louie sighed and followed.

     ---

     After Ara ate breakfast, Violet led her to Felix, the hairdresser. Ara blushed when seeing the Green Techo.

     “I don’t know, guys,” Ara said. “I wanted to keep my look simple for my coronation.”

     “There’s no need to be modest, Aratemese,” Violet said.

     “She’s right. You must look your best on your special day,” Felix added.

     Ara sighed. “Okay.”

     Felix smiled. He sat Aratemese down onto the red plastic salon chair in a huff. To add dramatic affect, he tied a blindfold around Ara’s eyes.

     “I will tell you to take it off when I am finished,” Felix explained, twirling the sleek black comb between his paws.

     Felix brushed through the princess’s velvet chocolate brown hair with the comb. Violet watched contently as Felix worked his magic.

     About an hour later, Felix laid down his hair tools and untied Ara’s blindfold. He gave her a green mirror, and Ara held it to her face. She swore she heard screaming.

     “What... did you... do to... my hair?” Aratemese stuttered.

     “It looks fabulous, your majesty!” Felix said.

     Ara turned to face him.

     “I don’t really think my hair looking like a Tonu’s mane is fabulous,” Ara said, pointing to the frazzled mess atop her head.

     “I do apologize. I will fix it straight away,” Felix said, picking up his comb.

     “Please do so,” Aratemese told him.

     ---

     Queen Luann stood beside the royal throne. The king stood beside her, a heartwarming smile plastered upon his face. Violet stood in the crowd, holding her feather duster and smiling. All turned to the door when they opened, revealing their princess.

     Aratemese was wearing a Long Orange Dress, and wore no makeup. Her silver tiara was placed firmly atop her forehead. She walked slowly up to the throne.

     Violet felt her eyes grow moist.

     “I mustn’t cry. I must not cry...” she said, tears welling up in her eyes.

     Ara sat carefully on the throne. The Queen lifted the crown from her head carefully from her head. She was just about to place it atop Ara’s head when...

     CRASH!

     The windows shattered. An army of pirates stormed the throne room. The congregation screamed and fled the room. The only one who wasn’t running, Ara noticed, was Violet, who was frozen in fear.

     “Run!” Ara shouted.

     Violet instantly snapped back into reality and ran at top speed out of the room. Ara breathed a sigh of relief, knowing her friend was safe. Suddenly, she felt someone grab her. Ara whipped her head around and saw a pirate Lupe drag her through the shattered window.

     “Help me!” Ara cried.

     No one, though, was brave enough to face the pirates. Even the King and Queen did nothing but watch.

     Aratemese began to cry. The Lupe threw her aboard the ship. She fell face flat onto the hard wood. She quickly sat up and saw the crew lifting anchor, and the ship began to drift away.

     “Take me home, please!” Aratemese begged.

     “This be yer home now, princess,” the Lupe said in a rusty voice.

     ---

     The next morning, Ara awoke from her restless sleep on the cold, hard floor below deck. Her back ached in pain as she stood up. Her once glistening mane was tarnished in dust, and tangled in knots. The pirates gave her rags to wear, and threw her gowns overboard the night before.

     The Lupe, who Ara found out was Captain Luptan, walked down below deck threw a mop and bucket at Aratemese. She caught them, and then looked up at Luptan skeptically.

     “What am I to do with this, Captain?” she asked.

     “Ye must swab the deck,” Captain Luptan told her before slamming the wooden door behind him.

     Aratemese sighed and carried the heavy bucket and mop to the deck. She plopped the bucket down and shoved the mop inside. She then lifted the mop up, drenched, and plopped it onto deck. It splished and sploshed loudly as Ara moved it sloppily across the floorboards.

     After hours of hard work, the deck was sparkling clean. Captain Luptan walked up to Aratemese.

     “Ye missed a spot,” Luptan said.

     “No, I didn’t,” Ara retorted.

     Luptan grabbed a barrel of cannon powder and tilted it over, spilling all of the dark powder across the once spotless floor.

     “Ye did now,” Luptan said, laughing and snorting as he walked away.

     Aratemese grimaced before picking up her mop... again... and swabbing the deck... again.

     Later on, while Ara was cleaning up the deck, Luptan shouted at the top of his lungs, “PRINCESS!!!”

     “What do you want now?” Ara asked.

     “We need food too. Fix the crew and me up some grub, now,” Luptan commanded.

     You could’ve said please, Ara thought as she put down the mop and trudged down to the eating quarters. She grabbed a barrel of Blumaroo Steak and gave a piece to each pirate, giving two to the ones she liked.

     “What be the meanin' a this?” Captain Luptan shouted.

     “I’m doing what you asked,” Ara protested.

     “And ye only give one piece to the Captain? Why, ye good fer nothing prawn! Yer...”

     Ara cut him short. “No one should have to put up with how rude you’re being! Is a simple ‘please’ or thank-you too much to ask from you?”

     Aratemese shoved him out of the way as she stomped up the stairs to the deck.

     “What are ye doin?” Luptan asked.

     “I’m getting off of this prison ship, once and for all!” Aratemese exclaimed.

     She grabbed a life ring.

     “No!” Luptan shouted.

     Aratemese walked onto the plank.

     “NO!” Luptan screamed.

     Aratemese jumped off of the plank. She felt the air rush onto her face as she fell closer to the warm, salty ocean water.

     SPLASH!

     She was then surrounded by the water. Ara quickly swam up to the surface. She began to swim.

     And swim,

     And swim,

     And swim some more.

     It was hours, maybe even days before Aratemese saw any sign of land. When she finally saw a little island just beyond the horizon, her weariness momentarily vanished. Her heart raced, her breathing grew rapid. She forced her weary arms to swim. Swim, swim to the island.

     She finally reached the island. She dragged herself onto to warm sand and collapsed. Her arms were burning, her legs buckling. Ara just wanted to rest. The last thing she saw before closing her eyes was a tall figure walking towards her.

     ---

     Aratemese’s eyes fluttered open. She sat up, only to cause pain in her shoulder and plop back down onto her bed again. A Blue Tuskaninny walked in, looked over at her, and gasped. The Tuskaninny ran out of the room crying, “She’s awake!”

     A moment later, a girl with brown hair and pale blue eyes walked in with a Red Uni and a Green Flotsam. The girl ran over to Ara and hugged her.

     “Who are you? Where am I? What’s going on?” Ara asked, panicking.

     “My name is Pretzel. I found you on the beach, so I took you home to nurse you back to health,” the girl said. “But last night, I was thinking about it, and decided...”

     “Welcome to the family!” the Tuskaninny concluded.

     The Xweetok couldn’t help it; she hugged her new siblings and owner. She may not be home, but she wasn’t on a pirate ship, either.

     ---

     Aratemese smiled at the memory. She then realized it; her story did tell about who she was. It was perfect for the assignment!

     Ara smiled, picked up her Water Faerie Pencil, and began to write.

The End