“As the captain and his crew closed in on their plunder after such a vicious and ferocious battle, he could not stop his heart from fluttering at the thought of finally obtaining what he had been searching for all these years…”
A feminine cocker spaniel lifted the book closer to her face, her crystal blue eyes dancing over the words, growing increasingly alight as the story took her in. She brushed the long crimson locks of her hair back to stop them from falling onto the pages.
A loud knocking suddenly reached her, spooking her out of her envelopment of the story. She was brought back to her surroundings, bnketed in darkness due to the closed curtains of her grand, oversized bed.
“Lady Genevieve?” A female voice called out to the spaniel, muffled from the other side of the door.
The spaniel looked frantically from her book to the source of the voice, choosing to return to her reading. Making sure to keep her voice down as she continued from where she left off, the door opened with a cck and a creak before someone made their way inside.
She was a female dachshund, her eyes and snout wrinkled from old age. Her floppy brown ears drooped downward from under the white maid cap upon her head. She wore a bck maid uniform with a frilled white apron around her waist and chest as she entered, holding a silver tray with a fine china teapot and cup. “Time to wake up, Ms Genevieve.”
Hearing her maid the dy spaniel drew the book closer to her eyes, trying to get as much of the story as she could before the curtains of her bed were finally drawn, revealing the dachshund servant.
“Morning, Doris…” Genevieve greeted the maid, a guilty smile upon her face.
“Really, Ms Genevieve,” Doris shook her head with a small smile, pcing the tray down and making her way to the window, clutching the curtains keeping the room pitch bck. “How you’re able to read anything in this much darkness, I’ll never know.”
“No, wait, Doris, don’t-!” The dy spaniel’s words were all for nought as Doris spread the curtains open, engulfing the room in blinding daylight. Genevieve hid her face from the sudden sunshine with her bnket, groaning in agony from the light striking in her eyes.
“Oh, isn’t it such a lovely day!” Doris excimed, smiling as bright as the sunshine. “A terrible shame to spend the whole of it in bed with your nose in a book, Ms Genevieve.”
Genevieve gave one st pained moan, rubbing her eyes to help them adjust to the sudden sunlight before shooting her maid a pyful grin. “In my defence, Doris, it is quite an engaging read.”
“Oh, come now.” The dachshund maid bemoaned, grabbing ahold of the bedsheets and throwing them off the noble dy, revealing her dressed in a sleeved, light pink nightgown. “If you don’t get up now, Master Pedigree will have my head.”
Genevieve grimaced at the notion. The st thing she wanted was to let her maid and friend receive punishment because she didn’t get out of bed on time. “Oh, very well, then…”
The spaniel heaved herself off from the soft comfort of her bed, running her paws through her crimson locks as she got to her feet and made her way behind a dividing screen, where Doris followed behind and began helping her change for the day.
“I hear that Captain Jackson will be visiting the manor ter today.” The dachshund maid cimed in whispered delight.
“Yes…” Genevieve answered back in a tone of forced interest. “It has something to do with what he and my father have been discussing, whatever it is.”
“Perhaps, he’s come to propose?” Doris mentioned, her voice rising with giddiness.
“I sincerely doubt that, Doris.” The spaniel giggled. “Everyone on the isnd knows that the only thing Jackson is engaged to is his duty-GAH!”
The noble girl let out a sudden gasp when her maid began to tighten the corset around her waist.
“Then, perhaps we should make you look so lovely, even he won’t be able to help but think about getting down on one knee for you.” Doris decred joyfully, holding up a dark purple dress for her dy to step into.
As the dy spaniel slipped her Armes into the sleeves, Doris came around and ced the back of the dress up, fixing it in pce on Genevieve’s form. The noble girl then took a seat on a nearby stool, allowing her maid to brush her red locks with a fine brush.
“But honestly, I don’t know how you could look any lovelier, miss Genevieve.” Doris decred as she stepped out from behind the divider, her work done with readying her dy for the day.
Genevieve followed behind her aid. The purple of her dress matched finely with her brown fur, while her hair shined in the sunlight with a beautiful ruby-red sheen.
“Perhaps if the captain were willing to take me along on his next expedition, I would probably consider granting him a chance to propose, at least.” Genevieve joked half-heartedly.
“Nonsense, miss!” Doris bemoaned, stopping while fixing her dy a cup of tea with the set she brought in. “A noblewoman as fine as you doesn’t belong on a ship! Besides, sailors are nothing but filthy mongrels! I dare not imagine what would happen if the likes of them ever got their paws on you!”
Genevieve shook her head with a small smile. Doris meant well, but she could be a little too much sometimes.
“Besides, why would ever want to leave?” The dachshund questioned. “Pedigree Isnd has everything we need right here. All the finest fashions and delicacies come to us from far and wide, thanks to your father’s company. It’s practically paradise here.”
Genevieve gave a tired sigh. “Yes, I suppose…” The dy spaniel made her way over to the window, looking out across the view of the isnd she called home.
Pedigree Isnd was the rgest encve of nd to be found and cultivated in the Lapping Seas. It had long since become a popur location for trade, making it a venue for wealth and prosperity, especially for nobility.
The cry of seagulls came to her ears, a small flock flying over the tiled rooftops of the finely built houses of the nobility. The sounds of hammering and hollering drew her attention towards the rustic shacks of the port town close to the shore, where shipwrights and bourers were beginning their day of hard work.
The next sound to reach the noble spaniel was the barking of orders coming from the isnd’s naval fort, located on a cliffside to the west of the port town. The giant structure of stone loomed over the town, standing strong and tall for any ships out on the ocean to see.
Genevieve stared out across the open ocean, the horizon of blue causing her to want to see what y beyond its rolling waves.
“Another day in paradise…” She bemoaned, zily pcing her head on her hand, propping herself on the windowsill.
As the noble spaniel continued to stare out at the sea, a small speck in the distance appeared. Lifting her head, she leaned out of her window to peer closer at whatever it was that was approaching. Her eyes grew wide when the object grew close enough to decipher…
A navy vessel that looked to have been in battle, and miraculously lived to tell the tale…
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