#katrien

it's kind of an old set of sketches but whatever. These characters are from the book Sorcery Of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson (a special interest of over three years for me). I highly recommend reading it!

While the masquerade had been quite an interesting evening, Solveig had been more than happy to fall back into the normal routine in the couple weeks since. Though, with that said, the normal routine didn't put her in touch with Katrien nearly as much as she would like it to. Which meant that today she'd specifically set aside for bonding time. That, and she'd seen her with Amir at the event and there were still a lot of questions there that needed answering. Those weren't the kind of questions you asked while perusing the village though. So she'd kept quiet most of the day as they toured all of their favorite places to visit.

She'd promised her a movie night in the princess' room with Thai special ordered from the kitchen, sans peanuts for the guard of course. She'd taken a small detour to her own room though, ushering Katrien in so she could at least drop off her purchases and change into something more comfortable for the evening. "Make yourself at home," she said as she dropped the bags in a chair before heading to the adjoined bathroom. "I should only be a couple minutes, but honestly, these jeans are killing me," she called from the bathroom with a laugh. Even as she went about changing, it slipped her mind that there was a very sentimental picture on her night stand of a young girl, about 10 when the picture was taken, with bright blue eyes and dark blonde hair. A girl with looks that were a near perfect union between Matthias and herself.

Cas had been thoroughly enjoying his evening. It was a shame Emma hadn’t shown up, though he seemed to be having just as much fun with the rest of the connections on his card, not to mention the people he’d already known and liked. That was, at least, until he’d spotted a familiar blonde moving through the crowd. It had triggered a rather unpleasant conversation with Cam that he’d been dreading for a couple of days now. Not to say the lady hadn’t taken it well, better than he expected honestly, but his own feelings still had him thoroughly unsettled about the whole thing. Honestly, what kind of man was stupid enough to arrange a marriage of his daughter to the youngest Greek prince? Perhaps Cas had been underestimating his own father’s charismatic qualities all these years. 

With a swig from the now nearly empty flask he kept in his pocket, the now tipsy prince finally found he had the courage to approach the Dutch girl. How did he even start the conversation?, he wondered as he made his way over to her. Walking up he opened his mouth before closing it again, deciding hitting on her was not the best course of action. “Get any letters from home recently?” he finally asked. 

There was a time when Amir had prided himself on being the life of the party. So much so that it was something he was well known for. Of course, now that he was the crown, that reputation was coming back to bite him in the ass, but none the less. These days fewer people and less crowded spaces, and the fact that he couldn’t easily identify anyone had his muscles tense and his nerves on end. 

After his mandatory hour he was just about ready to head back to his room and hide away from everything when a familiar blonde silhouette caught the corner of his eye. From a distance he couldn’t be sure it was her, but getting closer he over heard her laugh and his suspicions were confirmed. He was getting ready to tap Katrien on the shoulder when she turned around and nearly ran into him. He supposed it was his fault for not announcing himself. “Sorry,” he said with a small chuckle. “And hello. You look absolutely stunning.”