Ten Yards From A Horse [Tally, Mary, Invite-y]

Writing again with Neri yay! Apologize for the looong post. It kind of reminded me how to write Marianne, so it is there. You can skip to the third part if you'd like!

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The Princess’ Royal Carriage had always been an impressive sight. A treasure from an age long past, it was said that the very first Queen of Hyrule who ruled in her own right commissioned this carriage for her coronation day. Streamlined in shape but with elegant curves, it was meant to evoke a particular bird in flight, with its two wings stretching proudly on its roof to taper to an elegant tip a little behind the carriage body itself. There was no etching or head sculpture to picture the bird itself, but it was an intentional design. The slightly angular inclination of the carriage fit perfectly with the four wheels and four horses two-by-two it was designed for, giving an impression of oneness and unity: a graceful, horse-headed bird gliding through the roads on wheels of divine clouds.

In its heyday it was lavishly adorned with gold plating and gemstones. But most of the decorations had been stripped in the aftermath of Starlight Tragedy by the orders of the current Princess Royal, to help fill the Royal Treasury which had been emptied by the brigands and to get the beleaguered populace back on their feet through Royal Aid in turn. It was a move still mourned by some historians, though no one denied that the Kingdom’s people needed all the help they could at that time. Certainly not the Princess, who stepped up to lead the reconstructive efforts in the aftermath and who walked to virtually all the corners of the kingdom in person in the hectic months to personally assess the need of her people and completed the kingdom-wide census she initiated. "The Carriage can be refurbished later," she reasoned, "When prosperity returns to our Kingdom. But the lives of the people that we can save today cannot be replaced. And the lack of lavish decorations will not distract in the slightest from the masterful craftsmanship that is The Princess’ Royal Carriage."

Perhaps that was why Princess Marianne had been one of the most beloved royals in recent memory, and how her year-long disappearance –just as the restorative efforts she headed started to bear fruit- was a terrible blow to the populace.

But she had been back for a good while now, and thoroughly increased the efficiency of the government while she was at it. With King Leon barely visible and Princess Beatrix off on her own errands, Princess Marianne had been the singular face of the Royal Family lately, helped by her seemingly inexhaustible drive to be as close and personal as she could on her duty, no matter how small or insignificant. And behind all the opening ceremonies and the smiling visitations, she worked just as hard on the actual running of the government. Blessed with towering intellect and an acute eye for details, she subtly demanded that all important proposals by the ministers went through her first before being submitted to The Council, and her humble meeting room beside the Throne Room had been the unofficial second center of the kingdom lately. With a seat on The Council and with veto power, a High Judge herself, being the appointed Regent and secretly known as the protector of the Kingdom’s spy network which she had rebuilt from obscurity, it was a rather shocking change for those who had known the princess before: a quiet, unassuming young woman who self-consciously held herself back to be average on all things because she painfully knew her position as a half-princess, born out of wedlock. Sure, the hardworking tendency was there from the start, and it seemed that necessity smoothed out the rest.

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In this fine and crisp late autumn morning, Princess Marianne was inside the Princess’ Royal Carriage, smoothly gliding to the direction of Lanayru Province. True to her habit, the interior of the carriage had been slightly altered to accommodate a foldable wooden desk on which she could work. Right now she was reading one of the many stacks of paper she brought with her, crossing words and re-write a few sentences with her quill pen, stopping only to dip her pen on an inkbottle nearby. In front of her, her Sheikah guardian-slash-friend-slash-nagging mother Evanidus was watching her with an incredulous look.

“Miss Eva, you have a mind to say something,” Marianne finally said, lifting her eyes from her paper, a slight smile on her face, “Pray, speak your mind freely around me.”

And the sheikah answered with a long sigh.

The Sheikah was one of the rare few allowed to call her by her name, a sign of their extreme closeness. Marianne glanced at the carriage window. The rolling grasses of Hyrule Field, dancing merrily in this fresh morning breeze as far as the eye can see, was truly a heart-lifting sight.

But then she returned towards her papers.

Miss Eva rolled her eyes in her mind, but of course she did not show it. “I thought you trusted Lord Haakon and his Ministry of Interior.”

“I do,” the princess replied curtly, circling a set of numbers on the budget allocation sheet. “But there is always, always something missing. See this, Miss Eva.” She flipped to a page. “I know from my own experience and the maps I have consulted that our bay does not have this curve like this. So this means that a significant part of the design is wrong. Also,”-and she flipped to another page, this time filled with the princess’ own set of numbers superimposed the actual writing was hard to read- “they put the wrong type of sand for the foundation. Ours is soft sand on lime bedrock. Not…this.”

The princess puffed her cheek in frustration. “I’ve put a recommendation to consult the Quarry Guild first. I can’t believe this has been internally reviewed twice and passed the Lords of Treasury but no one ever noticed this! Imagine what a colossal waste of rupees it would be!”

The young princess was clearly a little agitated, and in turn Miss Eva felt a little bad on pushing the matter. It was hard to differentiate an honest mistake from a sneaky attempt at mark-up, as it was.

“No one doubts your important contribution, Mari, or how your breadth of knowledge always finds a way,” the sheikah said softly. “It is not about your work that I am worried about. It is about you. And I know” –she raised her hand when Marianne was about to answer- “that you have heard this countless times. You told me to speak my mind and I did.”

‘At least she nabbed breakfast today,’ Eva thought internally, knowing full well her charge’s unhealthy tendency to skip meals, ‘That’s five days in a row, a new record. Even if it was only a cold sandwich before she ran off to her fencing lesson.’

When the carriage rolled out of the castle gate, with the driver and the announcer at the driver’s seat and four Royal Guards on horseback flanking them on all sides, Princess Marianne did not seem willing to touch any work today. She opened the carriage window and waved back to every single citizen who hailed her as she passed, even ordered the driver to stop so she could bend down and received a gift of red rose, her favorite flower, from a young boy, giving him a hearty kiss on the cheek as a thanks (the boy literally flew towards his friends and family in excitement afterwards, no doubt having a great story to tell). The rose fluttered on the closed carriage window right now, and as soon as the wide grass replaced the cityscape and there was no one in sight, the princess drew her desk and started her work until now.

An uncomfortable silence fell between them. Marianne, realizing that she might have annoyed Miss Eva, restarted the conversation herself.

“So, umm, Weeping Rock Farms...” she started in a clearly apologetic tone, “That is where we are going, right?”

Miss Eva nodded, softer this time.

“Love….” Marianne chuckled, still crossing a few words here and there, “That is the hallmark of a good establishment for sure. Still…. Weeping Rock seems a name to evoke sadness, don’t you think? Or perhaps a local legend….”

“You’ve been there once,” Miss Eva said, reaching out to help tidy some stray papers, “During the last census after… after… that.” She cleared her throat, uncomfortable still about the Starlight Tragedy. “I’ve sent missive in advance to tell them of our visit, and so that they ready the best horses they have to offer."

Marianne nodded.

“I see. I cannot seem to remember the place, though….”

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Presently the carriage stopped in front of the entrance of the ranch and the four guards on horses stopped in sync. The announcer hopped off and, opening the carriage with a deep bow, announced with pride and flair:

“Her Royal Highness, Princess Marianne de Hyrule, of the Kingdom of Hyrule.”

Out stepped Marianne, dressed for the occasion. She opted for a rather practical dress with double button front and pants underneath, holding a round shape of the crinoline skirt which gave way to a more slender dress lines, with the bulk of the fabric drawn back behind the skirt. Full-sleeved, double-breasted vest colored soft crimson hugged her small frame tightly, clothed as she was in white ranch bodice. A matching suede hat: round, wide-trimmed with rose decorations and adjustable chin strap completed the princess’ look, along with her own touch: her famous crimson cloak was draped over her body. The last one would not score any points with her wardrobe maids, but she loved her cloak too much.

Behind her the sheikah guard Eva also stepped out of the carriage, wearing a simple black dress.

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