23. Switzerland
1837 Words
The next 6 weeks fly by. The play keeps me so busy. I put on so many shows. Collin helps everywhere he can. I don't see much of the mate game boys. Marcus let me sculpt those pillars into replicas of Nadine and her boys. Now, more people are wanting me to sculpt at their castles.
My servants put the dress they made on me. It's a floor-length red ballgown. The back is open except for a couple of criss-cross straps. It's low in the front. It's quite revealing for a princess dress, but I love it, and they have too much time on their hands. They put the tiara on my head and Marcus shows up to escort me.
"44 remain."
"A lot better than 130 something."
"You might actually be able to get to know them now."
"We'll see how many crack tonight."
We walk through the ballroom doors. "Princess Elizabeth Vivian Canmore. Escorted by High King Marcus Mordecai York."
They cheer for us.
"Oh, this is better." The place is more open and I can see people.
Marcus walks me to the center of the dance floor and leaves for his table. All eyes on me.
"Hello again everyone. They wanted me to make the opening speech tonight. I don't like doing that though." I get some chuckles. "So, we're going to watch a show. It's footage of us during and since the last mate game." I motion the brain for a chair.
The girls sit with me as the footage starts. 'Can you feel the love tonight' plays over the brains.
"We have a voting system. Put your hand up to vote on a scene. The person with the most votes wins the first round."
"What do they win?"
Thora laughs. "I don't know."
It begins with me dancing with different men. I smile at most of them. Then it goes over the mating ball. I watch Evie smile over different meals with them. Then sit with Zeke for the fireworks. Every single one of their hands shoot up when I smile at him, and he puts his arm around me. Then we see me touch the elephant with Lionel. They laugh when he picks me up and gets on with me. Then it shows me sleeping on him. After that, it goes to the elephant rides with Zeke. The last scene is when we came out of the aquarium ride on Tye's island. The music ends, and his advisor says, "I thought you were going to have to beat up a shark, sir." Everyone in the room cracks up laughing.
"Thank you all for listening to my speech. Welcome to the mate games." The girls and I go up to the head table.
Marcus takes my spot. "Those of you who don't know or have never been to Tye's island, the ride appears to come apart at the end. It does seem like you're going to have to beat up a shark." Everyone laughs, and he goes into a never-ending speech.
An hour later, I'm staring at the ceiling, throwing my fork up in the air.
Elkie falls off her chair. Then jumps up and stretches. "Sorry, fell asleep."
Marcus nods and keeps going.
I motion for wine and Dipak yells, "NO DRINKING."
I slam my head on the table and get more laughs.
Marcus shakes his head and signals for the food. "I have to get through this. Listen while you eat."
The food shows up and it tastes like salt.
Nadine rubs her eyes. "We could at least gave us good food."
"Yea, we f****d that up."
Thora rubs her eyes. "Did we have ourselves drugged too?"
"At this point, I'm ok if we did."
"THIS IS THE STUPIDEST s**t EVER." 1 guy walks out and a couple more follow him. Then a king walks out with his advisors.
"2 kings are left."
"We should feed them before we drug them."
"Too late to change the plan."
Then a servant starts screaming at a prince. He is pissed.
"YOU HAVE NO POWER HERE, ASSHOLE."
"ALL I ASKED FOR WAS WATER."
"SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. I HAVE TO FINISH THIS." Marcus turns the page.
"UGH." I fall off my chair. "Sorry. Having a quiet melt down."
The prince leaves. Then a couple more guys walk out.
"Can I walk out too?"
Nadine stands up. "Thank you, Marcus, that was a lovely speech."
"I'm not done."
"Do the rest after we stretch." She signals for the wine. The servants come out in full force with it.
Me and Thora move to the dance floor with a glass of wine each. "Thank you for the words, sir."
Thora smiles. "A toast." She waits for everyone to raise their glasses. "To never letting him talk again."
"I'll drink to that." I down it in 1 drink. "Wine's good."
"That wasn't all of my toast."
"It was enough for me."
They laugh and drink.
We put on a belly dancing song and dance. They start dropping so fast. At the end of our song, Zeke, Romeo, and Lionel stand with us. The medical staff is all over the place and magicians are moving people out.
"You boys don't drink?"
Zeke smirks, "We know better than to drink during the mate games."
Romeo nods. "I knew you were planning something. That and the food... Your food is always good. I knew it was planned."
"We even gave ourselves bad food by accident."
"So, you're hungry too?"
I rub my belly. "Starving and thirsty."
Nadine starts the love song from earlier again. "We'll eat when we get there." She grabs Lionel for a dance.
Thora takes Romeo and Zeke wraps his arms around me. He dances formally with me.
"I thought you didn't know how to dance like this, sir?"
"I'm taking some lessons. I see how much you love to dance. I'd like to dance fancy with you too."
I step in and hug him. We sway back and forth. "This is the best dance though."
"Yes, it is." He kisses my head and rubs my back lightly. Tingles flow through me.
Thora glances around. "Who won the first round?"
"King Lionel Lancaster."
Romeo chuckles. "I'm going to have to step it up. But I didn't know you assholes were seeing her outside the games."
Nadine shakes her head. "You know where we live. Lionel was showing up for contracts. I think Zeke only seen her at the mating ball."
"LET'S GO. Everyone's in."
"What the hell were you even reading, Marcus?"
"Old law papers. Told them it was the rules for the mating games."
Nadine laughs. "Now they think there are rules."
"I thought that prince was going to blow up when the servant called him an asshole."
We step into the Switzerland resort.
"It's later. Let's eat." Thora pulls me into a restaurant. The rest of them follow.
Marcus stands up to make a speech and Nadine throws something at him. "Not you."
He sits down and Cruor stands up. "I'll do it. Everyone made it. They each have a room with a brain and a servant in it currently. I'll be alerted if anything weird happens tonight. They should wake up at about 6 in the morning. Dipak has the papers for everyone else. They have your room numbers on them."
Dipak passes them out. "If you want to wake up at 6, let the brains know. Breakfast will be in here at 7:30. More directions and instructions will be passed out there. We'll let Marcus talk tomorrow."
"If he starts on law again, I'm jumping out the window."
Tye nods. "We all will."
I lay my head on Zeke's shoulder and he rubs my knee. "You tired?"
"Little."
By the time we're done eating, I can barely keep my eyes open. I go to my room and Collin's reading.
"I thought you decided not to come."
He unhooks the dress. "I had to come late. Someone called off at my store. Was it fun?"
The dress drops and I step out of the shoes. "If fun is listening to Marcus talk, then yes."
He takes the jewelry off me. Then he carries me to bed.
It takes everything I have not to mark him in the morning. I can tell he wants to as well. But we somehow manage not to. We get to breakfast on time. I go to the front, and he goes over to Tye.
"Everyone is awake and here. You can continue."
Marcus stands up. "Welcome to Switzerland." We jump up and cheer. "Thank you. And yes, the kids are excited."
Dipak cracks up laughing. "Now, he's going to talk about the rules."
"UGH." We plop down. Everyone else laughs.
Marcus stares at us. "You can not go outside without winter clothes on. This includes a coat, pants, gloves, hat, boots. If any of you go outside with a swimsuit on, you're getting your ass beat. Swimsuits are for the pool area. Not outside."
Luke's hand flies up. "DO YOU HAVE SLIDES?"
"Yes."
"DO YOU HAVE RIDES?"
"You can go check out the area after this. Where was I?"
"Winterwear."
Vouchers get sent around. "Everyone gets vouchers for clothing. Use them in the ski shop. The swimsuits and towels are in the swim shop. The kids' store has swim and snow stuff. Girls, you might fit in the kids stuff. You will probably still want an adult tube though. Food. Breakfast and dinner are here today. Lunch is here tomorrow. For lunch today and breakfast tomorrow, you can eat anywhere at the resort. Or you can have a chef come to your room and cook for you. Alcoholic drinks, you must pay for. All other drinks are included. The spa is open to you 8a - 10p daily. You are also getting 3 massage vouchers. They are good for any of the massages. They can be done in your room or in the spa. The Teens club is open to everyone. They have events going for for teenagers. However, with only us here, I gave everyone access. There are a few other random vouchers, for a soap set and things like that. Those can be filled at the ski shop or massage shop. You also get a paper of everything I said."
Dipak stands up. "You can always ask the brains or servants where to fill a voucher. I promise they won't call you assholes today."
The servants giggle.
Omar nods. "We're going home on Sunday at 5. If you need to leave before that, let a brain or servant know and they will get 1 of us. I think that's it."
We jump up.
Marcus shakes his head. "Pick up your vouchers. Nobody else move. You will be trampled." He waits until we're ready. "You are free to go."
We tear out of there. Frode, Tre, and Collin are standing in the hallway. I leap and he catches me. "I'll help you baby. Let's go shopping."
- Writer
