Chapter 1 - Tali I
Sixteen-year-old Princess Tali Arthur sat on her wooden stool in the throne room of the castle of Wintergardens, embroidering detail of a dress that was on one of her many mannequins, focusing on the areas around and above the waist and hips.
It was the first day of winter in the continent of Altoterra, and everyone who lived there knew that in the northern hemisphere, her home of Wintergardens, especially, had it the worst. The bitter, glacial winds and the frostbite that kissed the skin of the townsfolk in the villages and city, which they faced rather frequently, was like nothing else, or so she'd heard. There was a reason her father, King Garrick never let her go out on her own, even if she was guarded by one of her knights or even her brother.
She heard the footsteps of someone's feet walking in; unsure of who it could be at first, but as the gentle pitter-patters of their shoes approached her closer and closer by the second, she recognized her mother Meredith's way of walking almost instantly.
"Hello, Mom," the teenager spoke. "Why are you here so soon?" she asked, as she knew they'd be riding in an extremely closeted-off carriage along with her brother and his children, two-almost-three-year-old Lukas and Selene, who wasn't even a year old yet, but would be in the spring, on the twenty-fifth day of the rabbit. "We don't leave until five past one."
"Oh," Meredith let out a small giggle, amused at the reasoning of why her daughter thought she was there. "I had something else I wanted to talk to you about."
Tali's eyes widened with confusion, wondering as to just what her mother had planned to surprise her this much. After all, nobody knew just how easily Tali could grow surprised nearly as much as her beloved mother, Meredith Arthur, and just how much of a trickster she could be sometimes, her playfulness and certain charm always leaving a good impression on many people.
"Oh?" Tali's head moved back a little, her face curious and brightened. "If I may ask, may you please tell me?"
Meredith thought to herself for a moment. The news she'd yet to tell her third and second youngest child, her only daughter, was rather big for someone as young as her - so maybe, it'd be best to save it for later at dinnertime.
"It's quite big news, so I'll speak of it later," the queen shrugged, turning around. She heard Tali whine in frustration from behind her, urging her to say, "a princess never whines."
"Fine," Tali stopped her small outburst, rolling her eyes from behind her. Thankfully enough, she was sure her mother didn't see that, so at least she had one point for herself. "When will we be getting ready?"
"In fifteen," Meredith answered. "Your dress is being finished by Beth and Mari right now, as we speak."
"Ah," Tali nodded, moving closer up to where Meredith walked down the downstairs hallway. "Beth makes the prettiest dresses, you know."
To everyone in the village and city of Wintergardens, this was a rather known and agreed opinion. Beth Poole, Tali's designer and hairstylist, was a well-known name in the kingdom, both for her ability to befriend lots and lots of people and for the talent, hard work and energy she put into her dresses. Her nine-year-old daughter, Lucia, was also an unofficial 'member' of the castle guard, as she loved to swordfight with the tall, loyal, brave and friendly knights with her toy wooden sword. Tali was indifferent to the child, opinion-wise, but she would admit; some of her antics could be quite cute.
"I'm more of a fan of Alice Tull's dresses and designs, but I suppose Beth is good as well," Meredith spoke, her opinion differing from her teenage daughters. Tali would agree; Alice had been in the business longer and had more experience than Beth, but yet, she wasn't as popular or well-known and liked, despite them both being high in status. "That periwinkle number with the flower embroidery she did for you is one of my favorite looks of yours."
Tali nodded, smiling as she pursed her lips together. "You know, I've never babysat for Casey's children before," she mentioned out of almost nowhere many moments later, hands held to her lower abdomen unanimously. "Maybe, I could watch over Lukas next time? If he and Selene can't go on trips with us yet, I could watch them next time you all leave and stay behind. Or maybe," she stopped her sentence for a minute. "I could stay behind this time?"
Meredith thought about it for a moment. On one hand, Tali was just under a month away from turning fifteen when he'd been born, and was very occupied with school, her school lessons at Winter Academy for Ladies, and going to all sorts of festivals, tourneys and such, she'd never gotten the chance to hang out with her nephew. But on the other hand, Casey had been rather protective over the children since his wife, Dahlia had died when giving birth to Selene, so it was unknown on whether he would let his teenage sister watch his son. "I'll speak to him about it when you're getting ready," she told her daughter, who nodded eagerly, showing hope for a positive answer. "Speaking of which, Beth's waiting for you. Get going now."
And with that, Tali walked ahead of her mother, picking up the skirts of her dress as she ran ahead, turning when reaching the end of the hallway to go to the dressing and vanity room.
As she waited for Tali to finish getting ready with Beth, Meredith sat on her wooden-carved throne in the throne room, the crown she wore with a steel-made wolf head sitting atop her own head.
She heard a knock on the door, it already opening before she could answer it and say 'come in' to whoever was out there.
It was no other than her youngest son, Benjamin aka Benji, who looked to be holding something with his cape wrapped around it.
"Mom, I found something," he spoke up, her looking at him with a look of pure curiosity in her arctic blue eyes. He pulled down a part of his cape, showing what looked to be four baby wolf-like dogs. "They were alone in the city, behind the statue of Felix Arthur."
Meredith's eyes widened almost instantly, in pure disbelief and wonder at what her youngest child had brought to her. The baby dogs he held in his cape were no other than snow dogwolves, a rare breed to see in anywhere, even in Wintergardens, where they'd first been popularized about 200 years ago.
"Four, you say?" she spoke up, clearing her mind from shock just enough to speak up a bit and confirm the larger-than-life discovery Benji had just made. He nodded his head in approval, his strawberry-caramel red curls falling over the sides of his face and his forehead. "How about this; you take one, and give the other three to your siblings? I'm sure they'd all enjoy to have them as pets."
"Even Tali?" Benji asked his mother. Tali was known for, while being generally kind to those she cared about, could be cold and closed-off from strangers, those she disliked, and people who posed as a threat to her. There was a reason she'd never been able to befriend many people when she was in middle school.
"Even Tali, yes," Meredith confirmed, nodding her head. She still sat in her throne, elbows all the way on the back of the armrests and her fingers forming a temple-esque shape together. "If you want to see her, she's getting her hair done by Beth in the dressing room, and should already be dressed by now."
"Got it," he said, turning around with the pups still having his cape wrapped around them tightly, making his way for the dressing room.
'Tali's going to love this,' the fourteen-year-old prince thought to himself.
Tali sat upright as Beth did her hair, styling it into a French braid bun, one of her favorite signature hairstyles.
"You look very beautiful, your Highness," Beth complimented, Tali smiling at her kind words. "I'm sure the people will love it."
"People?" Tali asked, looking back at her stylist through the mirror she sat in front of. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, you didn't know?" Beth replied, "You, your brothers and your parents are going to the royal tourney in Umbelle today, and you'll be meeting Willis Aelorine, a friend of your sister-in-law's."
"I've heard lots of him," Tali remarked, moving her chin so Beth could put the final braid into place with several bobby pins. "He's the Lord of Umbelle, right?" she'd worked hard from a young age, since she was about seven years old, testing her memory every other day to recognize titles, names, and histories of all of the royal families and their houses. She'd worked especially hard on learning more and more about the Aelorines, and hoped she'd guessed correct on this one.
"You would be correct, Princess," Beth answered. Usually, the nickname would make Tali scowl and side-eye people, but considering she knew Beth so well and was rather fond of her, she didn't mind it one bit. "He is the Lord, former Prince and probable future King, assuming his brother doesn't die in battle against the Heartlands and their armies."
Somewhere inside of her, Tali shuddered at the thought of Beth's words coming true. The Heartlands, a large island of the coast of the northwestern kingdom of Iron Rock, had been at war with the Arthur family for over a century - it was because of them that the Queen of Wolves, Katelyn IV Arthur had died in the Battle of the Long Winter, shot in the back by an arrow of their head soldier. She died in the arms of her best friend, crush and consort in battle, Baron Ramsay, who began a rebellion against the people of the Heartlands in vengeance of his best friend and soulmate's death. She'd heard of the story many, many times, and hoped she'd find a love like Katelyn and Baron had with each other, but without the tragic ending.
"I'm praying for his brother," she spoke. "May he return from the battle safely, good Mother above us."
"That's our Tali," Beth looked down at Tali warmly, who smiled with a nod. "Always thinking of others."
"Hey," Tali spoke up a few moments after her hair was done in silence. "I heard in the hallway that Mom spoke to you about me possibly staying home for the weekend and approved. Is that true?"
"No," Beth answered the question, her voice genuine and honest. "So, I'm guessing you'll still have to go with them."
"Aw!" Tali whined. She jerked in her seat for a second, then realizing that she still had to follow Beth's strict no-moving policy and stopping herself. "Sorry for moving."
"You're fine," Beth assured her. "I get how you feel."
"And... done!" she exclaimed a few seconds later, pulling her hands away from Tali's hair. "Your hair is done, your makeup is on, and your dress looks perfect. You're ready to go, and just in time, too," Beth smiled, looking up at the clock. "There's just under ten minutes for you get outside and in the carriage with your family."
"I will," Tali said, quickly getting up, bowing to Beth and picking up the skirt of her dress to walk away safer. "See you on Monday!"
As she went outside, Tali was helped up into the carriage by one of her father's guards, who made sure she stepped up safely and surely. She now sat between her eldest brother, Ned, and her mother Meredith, who looked at her with impressed expressions.
"You look rather fine, dear," Meredith complimented her daughter, stunned by the beautiful look of her mauve lips, smoky eyes, ice blue dress and French braid bun-done hair.
"Thank you," Tali nodded. "Mom, you mentioned there being something you had to tell me earlier when we were in the throne room, what was it?"
Meredith stuttered. "Oh!" she laughed, voice sounding rather put-together and falsely formed. "Your little brother found something."
"What'd he find this time?" Tali rolled her eyes in annoyance. "He's usually found the most absurd, useless and dumb things, what could it be this time?"
Meredith scoffed for a minute, before deciding to brush her daughter's ignorance and irritability to the side, the latter trait being one they both shared at time. "Well, once you see it, I'm pretty sure it won't be that useless, or as much as you believe it is."
She signaled for Benjamin to hand her a straw basket, a white and black-colored blanket draped over it. "Look inside," she instructed her daughter with ease in her voice.
Tali took it off, a bit annoyed before she became genuinely shocked and somewhat pleased with what was inside. "Snow dogwolves?" she said in shock. "I thought they were endangered and hard to find in the North, especially in the forests where he likes to adventure."
"Well, I guess your brother got lucky," Meredith chuckled, looking over to where Benjamin sat on his left of the other seat of the carriage, next to his dad in the middle, with his second brother Casey on the right. "And in case you were wondering, since I already know you wanted to watch and/or spend time with them, Beth will be watching Lukas and Selene over the weekend until we return. So this time, you'll be going with us, obviously."
"Dang it," Tali whined. "But I hope she'll have fun, I suppose. Maybe next time?"
"Of course, dear," Meredith patted Tali's shoulder. "If your brother approves, that is. Casey, how would you feel if Tali was to watch the kids?"
He looked even more annoyed than his sister usually did at the question, rolling his eyes and scoffing as he answered to his mother. "I'll think about it," he said, his voice almost hissing like a cat at them.
'Well, he's certainly not happy,' Tali thought to herself, being snapped out of her critical thoughts of her brother as the carriage driver signaled for the horse to go, moving in her seat as they got going.
"Here we go," Meredith said. "The start of a new adventure for the weekend."
Tali smiled at her mother's words. Maybe, she could look at this positively for a moment, and genuinely be excited about her dreams coming true; as she would be going to a real tourney and be having fun in one of the cities of the North known for great events filled with fun, excitement and adventure. She looked down at the snow dogwolf pup in her lap, petting his fur and secretly smiling down at him.
'And now, into the unknown places of the world,' she thought to herself. 'Goodbye, Wintergardens, and hello, Umbelle.'
