Jon turned over in his sleep, groaning. Someone was trying to wake him up, and was shaking him insistently. "Just a few more minutes, Mom."
"M'lady?" An unfamiliar voice asked uncertainly.
Jon sat up and attempted to see who it was, but some sort of huge yellow curtain fell in his face. He attempted to pull it away, and felt someone tugging on his hair. "Ow." He said, groggily.
That's odd. My voice sounds different. And what's that feeling on my...chest. Oh. He suddenly remembered the bookmark...and the character he had become.
Resigned, he brushed aside what he now knew must be his long, golden hair and prepared to confront his situation. He most definately wasn't in his room any longer. The bed was a large canopied affair with pink silk drapes and matching sheets, and the walls and floor of the room were made of pale stone. He appeared to be in a castle of some sort.
"M'lady?" Came the voice again. Jon turned and finally noticed a middle aged woman standing by his bed.
"Er, yes?" Jon asked, still surprised to hear his soft, high voice.
"Pardon, m'lady, but the...unusual woman that came here with you told me that you liked to be woken at first light to make yourself beautiful." The woman answered. Jon noticed that only the barest bit of light was filtering through the room's narrow windows. It must have been very early morning.
Make myself beautiful? Unusual woman? Realization came suddenly. Damn it, Karyn. This isn't funny
"If you'd rather sleep in, I can-" The woman continued.
"Oh, no. That is all right." Jon interrupted. There's no way I'm getting back to sleep like this. He added silently.
The woman nodded. "Your maids have already been set to drawing you a bath, m'lady. It will be ready shortly." With that, she bowed and left the room.
A bath? Jon didn't much like the prospect of seeing this body naked. Sure, Allaria was attractive. Almost impossibly so. But at the moment he was Allaria. He considered telling them to stop, but decided against it. He didn't know what would happen if he started acting too out of character, and he didn't want to test it.
So a few moments later two younger girls that were apparently his maids appeared and ushered him into an adjoining room that seemed to still be part of Allaria's chambers. In the middle was a large water filled tub. He sniffed at it suspiciously. They had clearly put some sort of perfume in the water.
"Might as well get this over with..." He sighed, slipping off his nightgown after the maids had left the room. He stood there for a moment, examining the soft white skin that had been revealed. Allaria was every bit as beautiful as she appeared. Her skin was fair and flawless, and despite her petite size she was very curvy, to the point that her figure would have simply been impossible for a real woman to achieve. And, Jon noted, she didn't have hair anywhere on her body. At all. Must be an elven thing. He thought.
Despite his earlier misgivings and his continued awkward feelings at being a gorgeous woman, he couldn't help but walk around a bit, feeling the alien sensations of his long hair tickling his back and even the tops of his round buttocks, and the intense and uncomfortable jiggling of his disproportionately large chest.
After a moment he decided he didn't like it, and finally climbed into the tub to bathe.
"Woah." He exclaimed as he slipped in. He was shocked and somewhat embarassed to find that his breasts floated, bobbing slightly in the warm water. "Weird." He put it out of his mind and began scrubbing himself (while carefully avoiding his errogenous zones). He didn't even want to think about how long all that hair was going to take to dry. He felt like his head was strapped to a dumbbell, it was so heavy with water.
At that moment, the doors opened and Allaria's maids entered again. Jon quickly attempted to cover himself, but the girls didn't seem to find anything odd about being present while he was bathing. In fact, they immediately started going about their work, one pooring in some more warm water as the other began brushing out his long blonde hair.
His fears about having to play the role of a princess manifested themselves as the girl brushing his hair began chatting absently. Oh, but m'lady has beautiful hair. It's such an honor to have her here. What does m'lady think of the palace? Did m'lady know that she is very beautiful? How she wished she could look like her. What does m'lady think of the prince? Oh but m'lady is so beautiful! Jon had no choice but to smile and pretend to be flattered by the complements, and give noncommital answers to her questions. It was all he could do to stay in character, all the while telling himself that he'd get even with Karyn for this.
Finally, she did his hair up in a high ponytail with an expensive looking ivory clasp. Deciding he'd had enough, he stepped out of the tub as his maids began to dry him off, smelling unfortunately of perfume.
After looking through his wardrobe (which seemed to have nothing but dresses, many of which were more revealing than the night gown, and the bizarre half dress half harem outfit sort of clothing he'd had on when he'd first changed) he reluctantly picked the most conservative dress he could find, a form fitting blue outfit that would still show most of his newfound cleavage, and had his maids help him into it. A task which proved fairly difficult. He thought he was going to suffocate before it was over, but they finally finished lacing it up.
He slipped his feet into the high heeled slippers,(Jon was quickly beginning to learn that the author was apparently not much concerned with historical accuracy) which again seemed to be the only sort of shoes Allaria had, and as the finishing touch placed Allaria's golden, emerald crown on his head.
Finally managing to politely get rid of his maids (With one last gush of "You're just so beautiful my lady!" from the younger of the two) he took a moment to examine himself in a full length mirror that was present in the room. There was only so much that he was willing to do to keep up his role, so he hadn't used any of Allaria's makeup or jewelry aside from his tiara, but Allaria stilll looked gorgeous.
He sighed. It was now completely light outside. It had taken at least a couple of hours to get ready, and he was sure he hadn't done nearly what Allaria would normally have done. Would he have to go through this humiliating routine every morning for the next week?
He hoped that something would happen soon. He had specifically chosen this book because he didn't remember the plot very well, so he didn't know if the story would proceed within the time limit of seven days. He desperately hoped that this entire vacation wouldn't just be a standard "Week in the life of Princess Allaria". From what he'd seen of it so far, the embarassment would be enough to drive him insane, especially with Karyn doing her best to make things worse.
With another sigh, he left Allaria's chambers to find Karyn, and whatever else lay in store for him.
