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Cassandra squinted in the harsh midday sunlight as Rapunzel flitted further ahead, gazing indiscriminately at the ships moored around the harbor. The princess was never anything short of entranced by the city during their brief, strictly-monitored outdoor excursions, and today was no exception. Rapunzel slowed near a hefty stone bollard holding the navy’s biggest ship in place and gesticulated to her enthusiastically. Cassandra followed her charge over, adjusting the hem of her cumbersome gown.
“Wow. These looked a lot smaller from the bridge. I never thought ships could be so big…” Rapunzel said, trailing off. She appeared dumbstruck, and continued to stare at the large oak ship-of-the-line looming above them both, casting blue shadows over the dock. “One of the books I had in the tower mentioned a ‘square-rigged ship with a bright red flag on its sails’. It didn’t say it was as big as a whale!”
Cassandra recalled that one glorious time the both of them had witnessed a huge, clog-shaped humpback whale somersaulting out of the harbor. “Now that you’ve seen it up close, what do you think?”
Rapunzel’s eyes gleamed with a wonder Cassandra knew would result in many new books on seafaring and nautical works piling up in her room later, followed up by detailed sketches scattered along the bedroom floor. “It’s amazing. I can barely imagine that people built this.”
“She’s our top-of-the-line flagship. It took our shipbuilders five years to build, and I watched it all the way from keel to rigging, ” Cassandra said, feeling strangely prideful of the fact. Here she was, with a deathly fear of swimming, lecturing the princess about Corona’s impressive naval might.
“I wish I could have seen it.” Rapunzel paused, then turned to look at her queerly. “Wait, she?”
“You know, the ship. Valeria, they call her.”
She continued to stare at her, fascinated. “Is the ship… a woman?”
Cassandra paused. In the entirety of the two-decades and change of her existence, she’d never once wondered why ships were deemed to be decidedly feminine creatures. Still, not wanting to look stupid in front of the princess, she said, in a blasé tone, “It’s just an old sailors’ custom. Anyway, we’ve gotta keep moving. Your next appointment’s in thirty minutes.”
Rapunzel looked like she wanted to keep probing, but Cassandra promptly moved away from the behemoth of a ship, its sails flapping impotently in the weak breeze, prodding her to follow. As they made their way down the rest of the pier and back up to the castle, a small smile persisted on the corners of Cassandra’s mouth.