Chapter Text
Maple wanted to be a princess.
She turned the page on the book and saw the page of the picture that showed the princess on her throne with the prince next to her. She had a big throne room with all the nicely dressed guards and people, and the sunny sky that let in light. The biggest stand out in the picture to Maple at least was that woman on the throne in a bright happy castle.
She wasn’t sure how one became a princess, but it couldn’t have been that hard. All she needed to do was get kidnapped by a big scary person, get put in a big tower, and then escape and make a lot of friends. At least that was her understanding of it, but maybe there was more to it than she thought.
She wanted to ask Daddy, but he was busy again in the forbidden room. He spent a lot of time there, and even when he didn’t, he was always thinking about something. She wasn’t sure if she interrupted him; he might get angry with her again and she didn’t want that.
The thought made her shutter as she just began lazing about in her room. She hadn’t known why he’d gone to chop her down that one time, but he hadn’t done so again thankfully. She still wanted to run to some extent, but at the same time she was sure that he wouldn’t do it again. Sometimes he got scary for a moment, but he stopped after a moment. She wasn’t sure if he knew that she saw him doing that, but she and she wasn’t sure why he did that.
She closed the book as she began to leave her room before she paused. There wasn’t anything to do in the house after she’d explored it. Well, that wasn’t true, she couldn’t get past that big door near the basement because the door was too heavy no matter how hard she pushed. The ground was nicer there, but she didn’t like how dark it was.
A part of her wondered what would happen if she went to the village again, but she didn’t like that either. There was something about that place that was…dark. Yet not dark as in the basement dark as in…she pushed her lip up as she thought about it. Could it be dark without it being nighttime?
She shook her head in confusion as she went about rereading the book that she was given. Maybe if she looked at another detail, she could figure out how in the world she could become a princess. Maybe it was in the way that they dressed or the handful of ways they talked. After all, it wasn't like there was anything else.
When dinner finally came, she didn’t think that she was any closer to finding out how to become a princess. It had been a little frustrating after thinking about it for so long hadn’t really given him any better
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Maple did not like Gaia.
Sure, the girl wasn’t going to replace her, but she wasn’t a nice girl. She was always dirty, and she called Daddy old man, and she was so loud as well. The house had been really quiet before Gaia had shown up but she just sorts of stomped everywhere like how Daddy did when he was angry. What reason did Gaia have to be so angry all the time?
The dirt that she left everywhere as well wasn’t good at all. Gaia had tried digging her roots into it, but it wasn’t like the dirt outside at all. Even when Gaia’s dirt was dry it still felt incredibly wet, and she didn’t like the taste of it compared to normal dirt. It was just clingy and empty, and she didn’t know how that worked.
So, Maple had made it a point to never talk to Gaia for as long as she could. She had to look at her for dinner but even then, she didn’t like sitting next to her. When Gaia found something, she liked eating instead of asking for more of it she just began to take from her plate instead. Even when she sat across from her and next to Daddy Gaia would try and stretch over when he wasn’t looking, or he was thinking again.
The only place Gaia seemed to never go was Maple’s own room, so she began to hide away from her. She knew she was the big sister, but what was she supposed to do when her little sister was angry, she wasn’t big. The only adult had said that she couldn’t just say Gaia was the big sister, but all of her problems stemmed from being the big sister.
This was all very confusing.
An idea suddenly sprang into her head, and she went back to her dresser. She opened it and retrieved her book before she began to flip across the pages. She’d read the book again and again in order to find some ways to become a princess, but she’d gained no further insight into the matter. That might change now because of her new sister now and her bad attitude that always came with her.
The picture showed the princess and an ugly troll that had blocked her path. Gaia was a lot like the troll without being ugly, but she was just as dirty and rude. She’d read the passage enough times to know that the way she got past and made friends with the troll was by giving the troll something as a sign of friendship. The troll hadn’t had that before, and they became friends really fast after.
Maple didn’t have a lot of things as she looked around. There were some old toys, but those didn’t feel nice enough to give Gaia to prove she wanted to be friends. It had to be something nice, something really really good that would prove that she really meant it. The problem was that Maple couldn’t think of anything that she had that was on the level other than her favorite book.
…
She looked down at the book in her hands with a smile.
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Maple liked Misery a lot more than she liked Gaia, but she was a little weird. She was always crying, and while Maple would admit that she also cried a lot Misery REALLY cried a lot. She hadn’t seen a day go by when the girl wasn’t letting tears fall from her face.
She could even cry when she slept!
It added to the noise of the house between Daddy’s mutterings, Gaia’s stomping, and Misery’s tears. It was sort of like the music of the wild, not that Maple understood what Annabeth had been talking about. As annoying as it could be at times Maple did prefer it to the total silence that the house had been engulfed in what felt like a short while ago.
But other than Misery’s crying she was an amazing little sister! She also seemed to like stories like she did and even liked ice cream as well. She also wasn’t very mean, and when she asked for help she always remembered to say please before she did. The only part that Maple didn’t like was that Misery got more time in Daddy’s arm being carried than she did.
Then again Daddy had said that Misery wasn’t right in some way. She was defect-something or other. He hadn’t been talking to her directly, but he’d been muttering under his breath to the air in front of him. She didn’t get it, but maybe he did it to calm himself down.
The point was that Misery needed help, a lot more help than she or Gaia needed. She could kind of understand because she looked really thin, like she hadn’t eaten enough to grow big. Then again Misrey didn’t eat a lot for dinner either when the time came. That was really bad, how was she going to grow big if she didn’t do that?
She was pulled out of her thoughts when the girl she was thinking about tugged on her branch. “Yes?” She asked as she turned around and frowned at the sight. The other girl’s hair was covered in that goopy mud that Gaia left when she pulled it. “Can you help me?” Misery asked and Maple just nodded to her.
As Maple helped brush the mud out of the weird hair that Misery had she thought about Gaia and frowned deeper if it was possible. Gaia was not being a good big sister, much like how she wasn’t a good little sister either. She was always being mean to the both of them, or laughing when they got hurt. She really didn’t understand why the girl was so nasty to them.
She hoped Daddy could fix that.
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Gaia was hugging her.
“Let’s go play!” She said as she began to pull Maple forward from her room. Maple had been so stunned that she just let the girl drag her away. Gaia was…being nice to her? She didn’t know that Gaia could be nice to her, but there was something odd about her. Maybe it was that instead of stomping like she always did she was sloshing now...
no, that wasn't it.
She looked smaller. Maple didn’t know how to describe it because no one looked like Gaia, but she was just smoother and less uh...Gaia. As Maple tried thinking of ways to try and describe her sister, she was brought to the living room where there were a lot of blocks. “I’ll go get Misery!” Gaia said suddenly, returning to reality.
“WAIT!” Maple yelled causing Gaia to turn to her. “Why are you being…?” Maple thought about the question a little more before she asked it. “Nice?” Gaia frowned but instead of getting angry she seemed to…shrink? Not a lot, her neck just seems to duck into her shoulders as she tapped her fingers together.
It was really strange.
“I haven’t been a good sister…and I made a buncha problems.” Gaia said looking at the couch where Daddy was laying. He was paler than normal, and the food he’d made for all of them was a bit burnt. She wasn’t sure how that happened, but it was really bad. Maybe he needed more sun and water to get bigger.
“I want to be a good daughter to the Old Man. That means being a good sister.” Gaia answered just as Maple tilted her head. Gaia always called Daddy that, but the idea Gaia liked him was strange. Still if she wanted to be a better sister than Maple would at least try, but she hadn’t forgotten her book.
“Can we play something other than blocks. “Gaia grit her teeth but did shake her head. “Sssure, what do you want?” she clearly didn’t want to, but Maple didn’t know when she would ever get another chance to do this. She smiled as she remembers the game that Misery was really good at.
“Do you know hide and seek?”
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Every new sister was weirder than the last.
Esto made little sense to Maple because she couldn’t understand her. She was made of all those sharp blades that could cut down trees and break things, but she was scared all the time. How could she be scared all the time when she was made of knives. She couldn’t even walk without scrapping the floors and adding more noise.
She was also really big. So big that Daddy couldn’t carry her like he did with all of them when they went into town to do, their jobs. She just walked close to Daddy and was always looking around at things. What things specifically she didn’t know, but she was looking for them.
She sighed as she sat on the bench, having already completed her work, and opened her new book. Daddy had also been spending a lot of time with Esto in order to ‘fix’ her habit of breaking things. It had been taking a really long time, so Esto must have been really broken since Daddy had fixed. That had been a shame because Maple really wanted to play with Esto.
She always seemed so sad when she wasn’t afraid. Any time that she went over to try and play with her Esto would always move away and then find something else to do. The only other thing that Maple could remember Esto doing was eating almonds from Daddy’s palms because she couldn’t hold anything.
Maybe that was also why Esto was sad? Maple couldn’t imagine not being able to pick things up, or turn pages, or play with blocks, or a lot of things actually. All Esto could really do was cut things, and it seemed like she didn't even like doing that. The more she thought about Esto the more she realized that she didn’t really understand her and it made the book hard to read for some reasons.
She closed it and was about to leave when she turned and saw a girl with…what was on her face? Either way she was behind the bench she was reading while looking at the book, but now that Maple was looking at her, she seemed scared? She was about to begin running away when Maple yelled at her with a question.
“What are those?” She asked as she pointed at the girl’s face and stopped her from running. “These.” She said picking up one side and moving them slightly. “These are my glasses.” Maple tilted her head as she looked at them again. They were kind of a full head version of what that weird toy man wore on one eye.
She didn’t know, Daddy didn’t let her near him.
“What are those for?” She asked again as she got closer. The girl seemed to forget that she had been about to run from her and spoke again. “They help me see. I can’t go too far without em.” Maple gawked at the girl as she said that. She didn't know that some people needed help seeing things.
Actually, that kind of sounded like a more specific version of what was wrong with Esto. She pushed her lip up in thought before she talked again to the other girl. “Do they have that for whole bodies?” Now the girl was giving her a weird look at her question. “I don’t…think so.” She answered after a moment.
She slumped over sad after a moment from that answer. That was a shame, that would have been really helpful for Esto. “Why would you need that? Maybe my mom can make that.” The girl asked as she came to the front of the bench and sat down. Maple furrowed her eyes as she looked at the new girl with another question.
“What’s a mom?”
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Apis was the best!
Maple had never known that she would ever be able to get to the top of the trees or be able to fly when she was going to get a new sister! Unlike the other sisters that she’d gotten there wasn’t anything weird about Aspi either! She was nice, could be touched, and was very eager to play with all of them. The house now had the sound of beating wings constantly to join with all of the others.
That wasn’t to say that Maple suddenly disliked all of her sisters because Aspi was better than the rest of them out of the gate. Esto and Misery were really fun to discuss books with and Gaia was asking her tips on making friends with a boy named Dennis. Granted Maple didn’t know how well she could give that advice because Dennis was really different from Sally.
For one he didn’t need help seeing.
It made her wonder what things Aspi would do in the future. The cold and silent house that they had seemed like it was so long ago. Now there were always sounds playing even if no one ever heard them but her. It also made her wonder what other girls that Daddy was going to make in the future.
Daddy himself no longer muttered, instead he always seemed to be humming without thinking much about it. He was a lot happier now, and he never seemed to get angry like she was always scared that he was. Any time he was angry it was never at them, and honestly if they were anything like those bad people all that time ago then let him be mad.
At the thought of those two she flipped the pages of the book that she once adored and frowned. She was no closer to becoming a princess, and honestly, she didn’t want to be one anymore. Those two men had tried, but daddy had stopped them with the help of Esto. The book never seemed to talk about the sort of things that knights had to do to save people, and it seemed to ruin the shine of it.
That was bad, if she didn’t want to be a princess would else could she be? A tree was obvious, but she wanted to do something else as well. That was a really hard question because nothing seemed to pop out at her…
As the sounds of her sisters drew closer, she realized the question could wait.