The Bride of the Zodiac King

Chapter Six

Ella could not get a wink of sleep.She kept remembering her dream over and over again. She wanted to know more , she was craving for more information , there were too many unanswered questions and it was driving her crazy. She walked over to the window and opened the curtains , outside it was still dark and as she looked up, she was mesmerized with  the way the moon looked , it was more of a golden color than silver . She tried to look around but could barely see anything else, it was as if the light coming from the moon didn't reach the ground.

'The whole place must be as dull as the dungeon! I wish I had stayed back there , in that beautiful garden..at least if my l life is going  take such a drastic turn, I would be happy in such a peaceful place..but yet again why did the Queen look so worried when she told me to leave?!', Ella said.

'Gosh! Look at me ,  I'm talking to myself. I feel like Alice in Lewis Carroll's book. The only things missing are a white rabbit and the mad hatter!', Ella growled as she walked towards a sconce and pulled out a flaming torch. She had nothing else to do , so instead of driving herself crazy by talking to herself ,she thought about finding out where she actually was.

Ella walked up to what looked like the main entrance doors to the bedroom .As she pulled on the metal  door handles, she found that the massive oak doors were locked. She growled  and wanted to kick at the door , but seeing the size of those doors she would have probably hurt herself. Ella gazed around the room and noticed another door , she quickly made her way across the room towards a smaller door and opened it. Inside she discovered the bathroom. She walked in and looked around the room, only the bathroom was twice the size of her bedroom back in New York. In  the middle of the room there was a round bathtub which for her actually looked like a pond. She had seen those types of bathrooms only in  movies , bathrooms fit for a Queen.

' Well , isn't that what you will become when you marry the King of Zodiac?', Ella sarcastically said and walked out of the room.

Zodiac, thinking of that word made her laughed. She wondered of all things, she had to be trapped in a world of something she did not believe in and even liked. People made up all of those things just to make money out of innocent people, like some of her friends . That's why she kept saying to herself that all of this was just a dream, a dream she could not wake up from. She wondered if something else had happen to her , that maybe she had an accident and had fallen in a coma. Patients she had  interacted  with  at  the hospital, had often spoken about weird places they had been whilst in a coma and her heart started to beat faster as she tried to remember if she had an accident on the way to the hospital with that man. But Ella  could not remember anything and she was getting frustrated. She was trapped in this place, like a prisoner and now all she had to do was wait for her sentence.

Ella walked inside another room which looked like a walked in wardrobe with clothes hanging on metal hooks.She touched the clothes ,they were all made of the softest silk.In what looked liked a large wooden basket ,she found bras and panties made out of the same material as the clothes. She wondered if the women around knew what those were or they were especially made for her . It looked like whoever brought her here knew her size perfectly. She walked across the wardrobe and found herself in what looked like a library and she laughed softly.She put the torch in an empty sconce on the wall and walked towards the book shelves, being in the Zodiac world she expected to find books about horoscopes ,but to her surprise they were novels.Old books written by ancient authors,she wondered if all of those things were brought for her or to make fun of her.

'Could have at least brought some good fashion magazines or gardening magazines. What will I do with those?',Ella said as she grabbed one of those books and sat down in the armchair, she ran her hand over the cover of the chair and again the cover was made of soft material almost like silk.

' The Reality', Ella read the book title and laughed.

'Just want I need', she said as she turned to the first page of the thick book in her hand.

Ella woke up with the sound of running water and people talking . She rubbed her eyes and looked around her .Ella saw shelves full with books and she slowly started to remember where she was and sadness clouded her face. She looked down towards her hands at what she was holding and saw the book she had started to read last night. She stood up and placed the book back on the book shelf. She walked towards the sound of the voices chattering excitedly. As she reached inside her bedroom she saw five women dressed in an old fashion maxi red skirt, red off shoulder top with and  a white scarf covering their hair. They all stopped  talking when they saw her standing there. She noticed one of them ,looking at her from  head to toe and then she looked away and softly laughed. Ella wanted to ask her to share the joke, but she refrained from doing so as she had no idea who she was dealing with here, especially after she found out that old man was actually a fairy or something along that line, because for her fairies had always been girls.

'We have prepared your bath, his majesty wants to see you after you have eaten', the eldest among the five women said to her and she glanced at the table laid with what she would normally have for breakfast and then  she looked back at those women.

She told herself that there was no way she was going to eat or drink  anything apart from the apples.There was no way they could poisoned those , but then she remembered Snow White's fate and changed her mind. Ella thought she would make one of them eat with her and see their reaction. She did not say anything as she followed the  eldest woman inside the bathroom. She heard the others giggling behind her and she glanced back towards them and then realized that they were laughing at her torn dress.That reminded her about who could have gotten her changed last night and she wondered if it was one of them, but she didn't dare ask any questions.Ella was surprised when the woman closed the door to the bathroom and walked towards the bath which looked like it was filled with flowers.

'You don't have to stay'. Ella said to the woman .

'I have to perform the cleansing ritual of the bride for the King's inspection', the woman said handing her what looked like a strapless bra and a panty made out of orange cloth. Ella wondered why everything had to be so bright colored.

'What are you waiting for, hurry and get change!', that woman said as if she was ordering around .

Ella wanted to shout back at her and send her and her King to hell , but again instead she took in a deep breath and walked behind a wooden divider in front of the bathtub , removed her clothes and put on the undies that she was given. She dreaded the idea of someone giving her a bath, but she had to pretend that today she was one of the patients in the hospital and that awful woman was her nurse. She slowly walked towards the bath , she wrapped her arms around her exposed abdominal and that woman laughed.

'You are not the first woman I prepare for the King', she said and Ella looked at her with wide eyes as she wondered if he was one of those men with ten wives.

She got in the tub, anxiety surrounded her, she did not have a clue what could happen next.  That  woman started chanting something in some weird language, as she poured what looked like oil in the water and then all over her hair. Ella could smell the earthy floral scent of lavender as the oil made its way from her hair down onto  her face , the smell to lighten the soul. Ella started to calm down and slowly she couldn't hear that woman anymore , it was as if she had been put in a trance.

'Its really her this time your majesty', Ella heard someone  said and came back to reality.

She opened her eyes and  looked at the woman. Ella realized that she was looking towards the door and her heart started to pound.

Is he here?, she asked herself.