On my second full day, I shoveled horse shit from the barn, and carried it over to the farming plot with a wheelbarrow borrowed from the stables. “With your permission, I'd like to inoculate a bed of hay so you'll only need to scoop out poop once a year, and we could immediately use it in the garden,” I asked one of the stable workers. It took some convincing, but they eventually agreed to the experimentation.

I miss my farm. It's so much easier showing people the work that could be done, instead of attempting to convince them to do the opposite of what they've been taught from infancy.

On my way back from the kitchen, where I took some stale and moldy bread, a muslin bag, and a few handfuls of sugar, the royal twins crossed my path. 

“Ooh, what are you doing with that?” Camilla asked with the same sense of wonder I had when watching her use magic.

“Oh, uh I'm going to be fermenting this, and mixing it with hay in the stables to make a deep litter for the horses.”

“Deep litter?” Leo inquired.

“It's like a bed of material that decomposes pathogens in horse waste, so the stable workers will only need to shovel it out once a year.”

“Isn't that unsanitary?” he questioned, in an irritated tone.

I waved my hands around in a panicked defense. “No, that's what I mean by this mixture decomposing pathogens, it won't be unsanitary or dangerous at all!” He lifted an eyebrow, and crossed his arms. “I wish I could've given the both of you a tour of my farm before coming here, to show you the results of all the changes I'm making.” The very thought of home hit me in the gut.

Camilla smiled at me, as if she could tell I was feeling down. “We'll see the changes first hand.”

Her eyes shifted from looking at me, to following something behind me. When I turned around, I noticed a carriage pulling up to the castle. I didn't really care who it was, since I was busy anyways, but the look on Leo's face led me to believe it was someone important to him. His eyes were glistening, and he had a silly grin on his face that made him look like a goofy kid, instead of the cold prince he was towards me.

He's cute.

I shook my head, and pardoned myself to do my work. After preparing, and burying the sugar-starch mixture in the ground, I walked up to the fence, and began to chop them down with a borrowed axe from one of the other outdoor workers.

“What're you doing that for?” a small voice asked from behind me. Startled, I screamed and fell back. “Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!” Eva said before offering her hand to pull me up.

I grabbed her hand, and started to stand up with her help. “No need to apologize, I should've been more aware of my surround-”

Leo appeared as if from thin air, breaking us apart and causing me to fall on my ass again. “Eva, Camilla has been looking for you. She wants to see you in the library,” Leo said with a noticeably forced smile.

“Oh, but-” Eva started.

“Don't worry, I'll help out here and meet you in the library shortly.” And without comment, she made her way back to the castle, looking back at me for a moment.

Leo extended a hand out to me, and helped me up without exchanging words. “Thanks,” I said begrudgingly, wiping the dirt off my pants.

Before walking off, he waved a hand and muttered something under his breath, which caused sparkles to fly out from his fingertips. Captured by the allure, I didn't notice what he had done until he had already made some distance between us. He fixed the fence.

Day three, I prepared myself for the brisk morning by covering myself in my home-stitched autumn jacket, and eating leftover cookies from the night before with hot coffee. Apparently rich folks don't eat too many sweets.

I swung the large, but empty muslin bag off my shoulder, and started my way out.

“Where are you going?” Princess Camilla asked innocently, with her hands behind her back, demonstrating her endless curiosity like a child. Prince Leo stood by, looking away as if he were distracted by something else.

I pulled my jacket closer, desperate to cover it, feeling ugly again in my own clothes. “I'm going to the forest for some materials.”

“Oh!” Camilla exclaimed cheerfully. “We'll go with you!” She turned to one of the maids in the hallway, carrying a crumpled pile of bedsheets. “Janet, could you get my pink coat from my bedroom?” she requested, despite phrasing it like a question.

The worker Janet practically ran at this request, taking no more than 2 minutes to bring out a light pink piece of art with beautiful strips of cream-coloured embroidery. She put the jacket onto Camilla, who stood with her arms out, undoubtedly used to this luxurious treatment. Can't they put their own coats on?

“You really don't need to, princess. It's not too exciting, and I can show you what I gathered when I return.”

She batted away my response with her hand. “Nonsense. Besides, the woods are the perfect place to practice earth magic.” She looped her arm under mine, and linked arms with me. “Leo, hurry and get your coat.”

“It's not that cold yet.”

“But the woods are-” I started.

Camilla interrupted by linking arms with her brother, and saying in a singsong, “Alright, let's go~”

The walk in the open field, and into the forest was a long one. Filled with chatter between Leo and Camilla, I couldn't find my way into the conversation, and eventually accepted my exclusion by time we reached the edge of the woods. The autumn leaves were still bright, in a range of colours scattered across the forest floor. It was immediately apparent that the woods were cooler than the open air, but Leo didn't seem bothered by the drop in temperature.

Upon entering, a rabbit hopped into view and startled the royal twins, resulting in Princess Camilla holding onto me with an even tighter grip. Still clinging, she cleared her throat to ask, “So, um, what do you need to do now?”

I swung the muslin bag from my back, and dropped it on the ground. “Fill this bag with leaves and twigs.” She nodded to let me know she was still listening, but was searching the grounds for animals. “Um, I'll actually need you to let go of me.”

“Oh, right!” she exclaimed, and released me.

Clearly, my progress was too slow for her. “I'll help out,” she said, rolling her sleeves up her arms and quickly packing the bag with the forest floor. “So we can leave this creepy place asap,” she continued under her breath.

She repeatedly took from the same spot, exposing the ground to the cool air and forcing the bugs underneath to scatter. Camilla jumped back and screamed at the squirming life that grazed her helping hands. She ran behind Leo for protection, but he seemed every bit as frightened as her.

I picked up a worm with my hands, to their utter disgust. The more the worm squirmed around, the more they did as well. I let out a light-hearted laugh, and reassured them the creature was harmless. “These are one of the most important creatures in soil revitalization,” then added as a joke, “Do you want to hold it?” Both Leo and Camilla took a step back, and wore their horror and disgust blatantly on their faces. I placed the worm back on the ground, and it immediately slithered back under a pile of leaves. I assisted it in its efforts by covering the bald spot with the leaves Camilla had removed. “I should've mentioned, smaller creatures need the leaves too, so you can't gather too much from one spot.”

After a short intermission of the royal twins smoothing down their bug phobias, Camilla started to help out again. Slower this time, afraid of touching a worm, or gods forbid, a creature with multiple little legs.

By time the bag was half full, Camilla noticed Leo's nose had turned red, and he was shivering. “I told you, you should've grabbed your coat.”

He glared at her while hugging himself for warmth. I looked down at my poorly-made jacket, and considered giving it to him. The scene played out in my head; I offered it to him, and he scrunched his nose in disgust from the smell.

In reality, he was still shivering from the sudden breeze flowing between the trees. I silently took my jacket off, and held it out in his direction. “Here,” was all I said. He seemed neither disgusted nor grateful, but stared at me. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, I continued, “I'm getting warm anyways.”

His hands brushed against mine for a moment as he grabbed the jacket. He quickly put it on, and somehow brought beauty to it's plain design. “Thanks,” he mumbled, before breathing on his hands for warmth.