Chapter Text
Life rarely went accordingly to plan, you were very aware of that.
One day you were a princess, living a pampered life in a castle surrounded by servants and handmaidens, the next you were being dumped on a deserted island by your lover after you helped him kill your human-eating monster brother, born after your mother had an intercourse with a bull because your father pissed off a God.
Yeah, the usual stuff.
What surprised you the most was the detached feeling that slowly took hold of you as you watched the ship with black sails (flags?) becoming smaller and smaller on the horizon.
Uuhmm.
Anger, bitterness, betrayal, desperation... why wasn’t any of that home in your brain right now?
...
Were you in shock?
You let yourself fell backward on the sand, uncaring of your elegant dress and elaborate (hairdo).
Then you began rolling from side to side in a totally unprincess-like manner, feeling little grains getting everywhere and your hair come loose.
...
Yup, still no reaction.
Seemed like you finally did it: after years of dealing with weirdoes of any sort and feeling compassion for people who didn’t deserve it, you finally managed to kick emotions out of your system.
...
You know what? Good riddance.
No more shame and consternation for a mother who hid in a freaking wooden cow to seem more sensual at the eyes of a sacred bull.
No more rage at a father who started all this mess only because he didn’t want to sacrifice a freaking animal to a God, but who had then no qualms feeding human beings to his carnivorous monster son.
No more falling in love with a handsome prince who in exchange for your help to save all those poor souls from their destinies promised to marry you and make you his queen.
Your bleeding heart was the reason you were now stuck on this island, hated back home for being a traitor and abandoned from the man you loved and (whose) life you saved.
Even if you could escape from here, where would you go anyway?
Home was not an option anymore, and everywhere else you wouldn’t have your princess status to help you (have) the kind of life you were accustomed to.
Life was hard for commoners, and it would be doubly hard for a spoiled princess not accustomed to manual labor and the brutality of the real world.
Should you be grateful that the bastard had left you not in a foreign land with people ready to kidnap, rape and enslave you, but in a place where you were sure to die eaten by wild animals or because you put something venomous in your mouth in your desperate search for food?
...
Die bastard, die.
You sighed and got up, wiping your hands down your dress to get rid of the sand.
Well, it was useless to stay here and (think) about your misery; while your mind was still in this strange lucid state your time would be better spent focusing on how to survive to see another day.
You may have been a sheltered girl living in luxury, but you weren’t (slow-witted): if you had (successfully) found a way to solve a labyrinth that had caused the death of countless people, surely you could manage something as trivial as finding water and food on an island that was green with vegetation.
Your mind made up and your heart (brimming) with determination, you gave one last spiteful look at the retreating ship and turned your back to it.
Only to came face to face with a grinning skeletal creature.
You hastily took a step back with a startled yelp, tripping on your long dress and falling ungraciously on your butt.
The creature didn’t react to your undignified performance, the only thing giving away its awareness of your presence being the way the big red light in its left eye-socket followed your movements.
You quickly observed its appearance, going through your knowledge of gods and other non-human beings to understand if you were topping your disastrous adventure with a meeting with a minor deity ready to take offense from your very presence on its island.
The creature in front of you had the appearance of a skeleton, even if clearly not a human one, considering the evident different shape of its skull, skull that was broken on the left side, right above the ominously lit socket; it wasn’t very huge in size, but the sharpness of its teeth more than compensated for its height in the intimidation department. It (him?) was dressed with a simple cloth tied around his... hips,