@sevynkingdoms requested: helaena&azan!
The palace had grown quite festive these past few days.
As the Red Keep’s gardens bloomed anew with spring, the city welcomed a different entourage each day - lords and ladies, servants and artists and children of every age and origin came to guest at King’s Landing. In the mornings, up on Dreamfyre, Helaena looked down and saw the endless caravans along the road. The influx had begun about a fortnight after the Crown sent out the ravens to announce the next royal wedding, and every day the princess liked the occasion even less.
Her ladies-in-waiting seemed to thrive in this environment. The girls loved to fantasize about the songs and dances, about the plays, the tourneys, the handsome knights... but Helaena was tired already.
In truth, she’d never liked weddings. The ceremonies were dull, and the guests were always eager to compensate it in the feast that followed, though Helaena only found their roaring celebration loud and chaotic. Most of the times, they went on so late that she would be snoozing on her chair before a guard took her to her chambers. All of that was unpleasant enough, but being the bride came with such exhausting demands that the princess could seldom find the time to ponder on what this meant.
For hours, there would be someone telling her how to dance. What to say. Where to walk. The Septa always made her repeat everything after her lessons, to make sure she got it right. People had started to look at her differently, too: whereas before Helaena could just disappear into a corner, people wouldn’t stop talking to and about her all the time. One day, she was alone in her room whispering to her crickets. The next, everyone started telling her what a good mother she would make!
“I can’t wait for this to be over”, Helaena murmured, eyes up in the clouds, sitting next to Azan on the bench, fingertips tapping at her knees. Her nails were stained with soil after digging with her bare hands to pick up a millipede. The Septa was looking for her, she knew, and the unkempt state of her hands would earn her quite the admonishment, but for now she had no intentions of being found. “I want things to go back to normal.”
