As Jolena walked down the hall she could hear the short older woman following her closely, a soft sigh left her lips as she turned to her head to look at the servant. A long time ago Jolena had made it clear that if the servants wanted to speak freely with her, than they had no need to ask. Unlike her mother and father who felt that the servants and guards needed to ask before even greeting them. Jolena actually liked the company of most of the people around her, some of them she had even grown up around, like the servant who started working here in the castle when Jolena was a mere teenager. Still some people were so afraid of a few little words stepping over the line, that they forgot, it was annoying after a while of the woman following her and simple glancing at the princess from the corner of her eyes.

[b]“Words Arabella?”[/b] She finally asked tone sounding hash in comparison of the silence between them. It made the servant shift slightly as she looked over at the princess bewildered.

[b]“I just believe you should be more worried about your logic than your fighting skill your Highness. With all due respect, you look like hell and….”[/b] Arabella said only to stop talking completely as the Jolena glared back at her, knowing she had just crossed a line. True she likely looked like hell right now but she always did after fighting, her dress had a few cuts in it with signs of blood from the skin getting cut, and where Ethan hit her in the head with the kilt of his sword was starting to bruise. However there really was no reason to point it out, this was signs of her strength in her mind, because she wasn’t running around crying about the fact she had lost.

[b]“What good will having a good head on my shoulders do, if it gets cut off Arabella? If I have to prove myself twice because of logic, I’d prefer to be living so I can do so.”[/b] Jolena said her tone raising enough to make a few guards look at her, as Arabella moved away from the princess a little. The princess let not a soft sigh to calm herself before nodding politely at the guards she passed, she gave the same nod to the guard watching the werewolf as they passed, her green eyes looking at the cage at the man for a second before looking away.

Every day she walked this some way to get to the dining room and back, even when she hadn’t been fighting it was this same way from the entrance of the castle to her room. She simply was unable to not acknowledge the fact there was someone there in the cage as well like her mother and father did. The werewolf had been here since before Jolena had even been born, when she was a young child her young mind had been fascinated with the strange man in the cage. Of course at the time she was much too young to understand what and who he was, she even used to try talking to him, before her mother caught her and roughly pulled her away. She didn’t even wait until they were alone to yell at Jolena that the man in the cage was a monster that would try and kill her, then the fascinated look turned to one of fear. Even as she grew to realize that he would have to actually get out of the cage, to hurt her, part of that fear still there, part had gone away when she was a teen replaced with pity for him. 

[b]“….I’m sure you would rather take that place yourself. Yes?”[/b]

Jolena blinked looking at the servant in confusion, having blocked out half of what was said, for her own thoughts. [b]“Sorry what?”[/b] She asked, making the servant look at her again.

[b]“I said that I did not wish to offend. However if you could not pass then you will have to wait to be able to rule, I’m sure you would rather take that place yourself. Yes?”[/b] She repeated herself looking at the princess with worry that the blow to her head was causing her to not think straight, but in truth Jolena was simply not listening to the woman.

[b]“If I stay alive I can simply retake the test, let my mother and father rule another year.”[/b] She answered with a shrug, sure she knew that she would be a kinder ruler, but that didn’t mean that she wanted to jump in to rule, kinder wasn’t always better. 

Arabella rolled her eyes opening the door for Jolena, following her into the dining room and going to work serving the princess. The dining room was rather large the long table in front of her filled with food, Queen Marjorie sat on one of the far ends, King Declan at the other. Jolena always sat in the middle instead of beside either of them, as a child she had tried, but it always caused fights with her used as the toy they fought over. 

[i]“I see Jolena! You’d rather sit beside your father! Perhaps you do not love me daughter; perhaps if I could stand the idea of your father touching me, I’d have another!”[/i]

[i]”I see daughter! You are just weak enough for your mother too make you sit next to her. I cannot believe that a daughter of my own blood would be so weak! Are you even my daughter Jolena?”[/i]

Such was the beauty of being the daughter of two competitive parents, no, it was better to sit in the middle. Most of the dinner was eaten in silence, it was such a lovely dinner for once, which only made Jolena nervous, she was only waiting for words to be thrown…..or knives. It made the quietness hard to enjoy. [b]“Jolena…”[/b] Her mother started, making her look up quickly. The silence was broken around the end of the dinner, it was such a shame too. [b]“Your father and I have agreed that we should start the test to tell who your husband will be.”[/b]