Pottery

"Father can't you just let sunny take over for you?" A young lady was walking beside her father in the quiet walls of the castle.

"Ouch" She winced from the hit her father gave her hand that was holding onto his elbow.

"You will take over my family's work and I won't hear any more excuses" her father glared at her, not sparing her a single glance as they kept on walking.

Elsa could only frown at her father's words.

The name of the young lady was Elsa; she didn't wish to be in the castle nor take her father's generational profession.

Her father was a Potter; her family had the best potters in the kingdom of Slandor.

No one could beat their family in the business of pottery.

They were able to get recognition for the castle and it has been their family making the castle's vases and other fine ceramics, Elsa was also very good at pottery but she didn't want to take it as a duty.

She wanted to learn how to sew clothes and be a seamstress, but her father didn't allow her to.

She believed it was not her fault, Her father was the only son of her grandparents while his brothers died.

Unfortunately for her father, Elsa's mother died right after she gave birth to Elsa, which made Elsa the successor of the generational profession.

It should have always been men but Elsa being the last descendant had no choice but to carry it on.

That was why she learned pottery and became good at it, even with the amount of dedication she put into it she was still not able to make it a passion or even a hobby.

It was just something she had to know and she knew it.

"Behave, Elsa, we are almost entering the Queen dowager's chamber," Elsa's father, Mr. Isaac abruptly stopped and warned her.

"Sure father" she answered casually and walked away.

Mr. Issac shook his head at his oblivious daughter. only if she could just embrace his profession once.

He followed after her, and they were allowed into the queen dowager's room.

The room was heavily guarded, which was how things ran in the castle of Slandor kingdom.

It was a powerful and strict kingdom and that was in honor of someone.? What does this sentence mean?

"Greetings, My queen!!" Elsa and her father greeted the queen that was sitting by the dressing mirror in unison.

"I see you are here, please have a seat" she gestured towards the chairs in front of her for them to sit.

They both sat down "I won't take less than an hour of your time." she smiled at them and continued "My second son will be having his wedding in three months and I want all the ceramics and vases to be replaced, starting from the kitchen to the rooms before the big day" the queen dowager went straight to the point.

"That won't be a problem, my queen, as I am getting weak my Daughter will be the one to do the job and I promise it would be perfect," he held Elsa's hand to attract her attention because he knew her mind was elsewhere.

The queen turned her head to look at Elsa and smiled at her. Elsa smiled back.

"I trust you, Mr. Isaac, let's talk about the plan" she brought out a book and Elsa interrupted them "I will be outside looking at the castle for inspiration,"

Elsa really wanted to leave the room badly.

She hated meetings like that or being camped in a specific room so she came up with a convincing lie.

Her father wanted to reject but the queen suddenly said "Sure just stay away from the hallway quarters" she smiled at Elsa in a reassuring way.

"Thank you, my queen" Elsa jolted out before her father could stop her.

"Phewww, I am free," she grinned happily as she started walking out of the Queen dowager's quarters.

She saw a garden in the distance from where she was standing and loved the site so she decided to go there.

On her way, she couldn't figure out where the garden was "should I have asked one of the guards?" she muttered and sighed out of the stress of walking around without finding her way.

She found herself in a very serene corridor and wondered if someone was living in it. She guessed if this was where the 'invisible king' was staying.

She knew the king of this kingdom was hardly seen by the people and he didn't even go to parties.

Rumors had it that he was a vampire that couldn't walk during the day but she didn't believe it because he won wars and strengthened the kingdom.

So she concluded that he probably just didn't like coming out.

She brushed the thought off and walked down the corridor.

Then she heard sounds from the guards "who is there?" "I think someone just walked in". A guard said.

Oh no that was when she remembered the queen dowager telling her to stay away from the hallway quarters.

The footsteps of the guards got clearer and faster.

If the queen had warned her to stay away from this quarter, that means she had no power there. getting caught might lead to her death.

She started running through the corridors. Maybe she could find an escape route, but everything was dark. It was like a haunted corridor.

Not even an insect was walking around, so she decided to enter one of the rooms. Maybe someone could walk her back to where she came from.

She opened a particular one and entered the room. Once the door was closed she placed her ear on the door so she could hear what the guards were saying or doing.

"I told you no one was here, who would come to a lion's den?" one of the guards said and glared at his partner then walked away. The other guard looked around one more time and followed after the first guard.

'What do they mean by lion's den?' Elsa found that statement extremely disturbing. Were lions being kept in this quarters?

Once they were gone, Elsa sighed in relief and turned her body to face the room.

Then she saw the most scary thing she has probably never seen in her entire life.

"Arhhhhhgghhhhhhh"