Marina, Kidnapped part 1

As I have mentioned before on the blog, I have been writing short story and I wish to publish it on here. So I will. Here is the first segment of the short story I have entitled "Marina, Kidnapped."

                “Mom, tell us a story. A bedtime story!” exclaimed Maria, Lily’s youngest child.

                “Yes,” Lily’s oldest child agreed, “none of us have heard a story in a long time. Please, for Maria, will you tell one?”

                “Okay. I haven’t had the time to tell a story in a long time. What story do you want to hear, Maria?”

                “The best one!” exclaimed Maria.

                “Alright,” Lily laughed, “Once upon a time, in Old England, a daring young girl, let’s call her Marina, lived in a palace by the woods…”

                Marina argued with her mother and father over absolutely everything. She knew that they hated her. And there was no question in anybody’s mind that she hated her parents. After all, they were the people who forced her into corsets and ball gowns and finery. Like what she was trying to fit into right where our story begins. Marina had a bit of a broad build, she definitely wasn’t chubby in the least, but she was very muscular, which made it very, very hard to fit her into garments made for daintier ladies. For example, corsets, Marina’s third-to-least-favorite-thing in the world (the second was princes and the first was, of course, her parents.)Marina huffed out of hatefulness and horror at having to go to yet another ball. She puffed out of exertion and exhaustion. Finally, the corset tightened, albeit resentfully, because of the hard work of Marina’s mother, Revoltia Theodora Lowlady the Five Hundred and Forty Second. Behind her back, all the servants just called her Revolting, but she never was able to nudge her prying, gigantic, light purple nose into that little secret. The only reason Revoltia named her daughter something completely different was that she always had resented the last name “Lowlady.”

                Anyway, I’m going on and on about things you don’t want to hear about, right? Let’s just say that Revoltia finally forced Marina into every little jewel and piece of silk that could possibly fit on her body. In fact, let’s fast forward to when Marina’s mother leaves the room, after the lecture on etiquette, the lesson on how to manipulate a prince so that he will fall madly in love with you, and the fight about whether or not Marina could periodically go outside for fresh air during the ball. Yes, that’s a very good place to start.

                Marina breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, that old hag was gone. Now, she could get the one thing that always comforted her and calmed her. It had been bought with money stolen from her parents. It had a handle carved with swirls and dragons all over it. It shone in the light from Marina’s window like a star in the midnight sky. It was a dagger that was in Marina’s hand, with a handle of marble and a blade of pure diamond. It was beautiful, to be sure, but it was a dangerous weapon. The diamond blade could slice clean through glass if it was needed to. Luckily, Marina had never had to use it for real, but sometimes she liked to go into the woods at night to practice. She took a bag of sand with her and drew an X in glowing red on it. Then she practiced throwing, stabbing, and anything else you could imagine doing with a diamond dagger.

                However, we won’t go into that now. It’s another story for another day. This day there was a ball, as you may remember. Let’s fast-forward again, past Marina entering the ballroom, past the time when she spit in the eye of the prince she was dancing with, and past the lecture to Marina, provided by none other than Revoltia, about the importance of marrying off. Let’s go to when she went outside for a breath of fresh air, despite her mother’s wishes.

More next week, because I like to keep people in suspense. Thanks for reading! Any current critiques, comments, compliments, corrections, curiosities or questions should go into the comments below and they will be answered shortly.