Cold Feet

COME ON, AMANDA!" Susie called through the door to the bathroom. "We can't let the bride wait! It's only five till the ceremony begins!"

"Yeah, yeah.", came the muffled reply, "I'm already done!" With the last word the door to the bathroom opened and the other maid of honor came out. "Now come on, we have to make sure she doesn't freak out." Susie scowled, though only resumed in rolling her eyes as she made to follow the copper and gold waves of her fellow bridesmaid.

Opening the door to the bride's chamber they were immediately greeted with a shaking and blabbering mess. "Okay, she did freak out." Amanda made for the small heap of misery and crouched down next to her. "So, what is troubling you?"

"I-I-I I don't know. I don if and then he'll ha— but ids not goo-oo-ood." The bridesmaids exchanged a few telling looks.

Susie silently pushed the door shut and crouched down to the bride's other side. "Clara." A short glimpse in her direction was the only reaction. "Clara." she called again. This time though with another, more imploring and forceful tone. "Clara, look at me." She helped her words being followed by cupping the bride's face in her hands. "Clara. There are no doubts. You know it and everyone else does. You love him and he loves you. No, you won't question that! Just take it as a given fact. The sky is blue. It's dark at night. Josh loves you. Okay? No doubts..."

"No regrets." Clara's weak voice brought solace to the tense friends. She took the offered hands to steady her shaky rising and shyly smiled at her companions faces who answered with expressions of reassurance.

"Now come on. You have a guy to marry." Amanda took Clara by the shoulders and shoved her through the door.

Susie just gave another eye-roll and hurried after them. "Wait, we need to clean up your makeup!"

The classical Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy began to play and Joshua snapped his view towards the door to the chapel. The door his wife-to-be was to come through any second now. Though he did wonder where Amanda and Susie were. However, his bride would come through that door. Any moment now. The thought of her having got cold feet came uninvited and was indeed unwelcome. He pushed against it with all his might. How could he dare not to trust her?! Clara was a wonderful woman. Always kind and caring and loving to smile. And she was brave. And she wouldn't have said "Yesyesyesyesyesyes!" if she wouldn't have been sure. Right? Of course! However, there was still the question where she was. And where were her bridesmaids?! They would know if—

Suddenly the door creaked open and there she stood. Slowly but deliberately she set one foot before the other and the music, that priorly lost some vigor, found new power and filled the hearts of everyone with happiness. Amanda and Susie quickly snuck to their posts, smoothing out their dresses and smiled at the few faces that looked at them with either amusement or slight disdain.

Thank you girls. Gratitude filled her as she and her friends hurried to the chapel. She could already hear the music.

There was the door. She only halfheartedly listened to the encouraging words her friends told her and took the bouquet in her still slightly shaking hands. She closed her eyes to gather herself. Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out. She could hear her friends high-heels clack on the stone floor and opened her eyes. She pushed the door open and slowly but deliberately put one foot before the other.

ϡϗ

Oh no! Nonononononononono! I didn't I didn't– I did. Despite her inner panic she lay perfectly still, snuggled up against a warm, smooth and decently muscled chest. Last night! What happened last night?! Waaahhh! Oh so slowly she rose her head off of the arm it had rested on and was about to use her knees and arms to push away but she lay way too close to do that without waking the unknown man that slept beside her. I have slept with! She pressed her eyes shut to banish the thought.

It wasn't like she was ashamed of sex. But that she had jumped into bed with a guy she'd never met before? That kind of bothered her.

She opened her eyes and rolled onto her back instead of pushing away, her arms still crossed over her chest and her head with some strain held high so as to not touch the arm again. Though she didn't account for her hair. Her hair that seemed to tickle the man. He scrunched up his face slightly and unconsciously reached with his other arm to push away the annoyance. And clumsily wiped it over her face.

Clara's eye twitched.

Once more she took some calming breaths. The hand was on its way again but she dodged it by a hair's breadth. With her face towards the bed's edge she noticed that she would need only one more roll and she would be off the bed. She steeled her resolve and rolled. Onehundredeighty degrees later she looked into the confused eyes of the owner of the bed. She knew because hers would have screeched.

"Good morning." It sounded more like a question. His baritone reminded her of a teacher. Weird.

"Good morning." she whispered.

After a minute of awkward silence he asked, "Breakfast?" He only got a shrug and an awkward grin as answer. "I'll take that as a 'Yes'." And with that he got up, dressed a simple leisure suit and went out of the bedroom. "The bathroom is just to your left when you come out." she heard him call.

Slowly she let go of the breath she hadn't known she was holding and set up. Okay, calm down. No doubts, no regrets. That was the third time she had to take deep breaths to not hyperventilate. There's nothing to panic about. It's just a one-night stand. Nothing that hasn't been done before. She even had regained some of her memories. Apparently it was the typical go-to-a-party-drink-too-much-and-flirt-shamelessly-with-some-random-remotely-good-looking-guy-scenario. Though she had to admit that "remotely good-looking" was kind of an understatement.

She looked around and found that she was in a decent and rather stylish bedroom. It nearly had the flair of a hotel. And she found her clothes lying strewn around the room. So she let out a sigh and got up. She picked up her garments and went out of the room. The bathroom was exactly where the man had declared it was.

Showered and dressed she now stood at the end of a short corridor and looked at the rest of the apartment. Before her was a fairly big living space and dining area. The clean but well used kitchen unit used a bar table as room divider. Behind it came another short corridor and then what she assumed was the entrance door. There was another door to her left but she had no clue as to where it lead.

And it was of no interest to her as her view was drawn to the dining table and the delicious foods arranged on it. And coffee! The man arrived at the table with it and noticed Clara.

"Well, breakfast is ready. Have a seat." He complied with his own words and sat down at one end of the table. Suppressing a sigh, Clara followed his example.

However, before touching anything she wanted to know something. "I'm sorry, but I really drank way too much yesterday." She averted her eyes and a slight blush decorated her cheeks.

The man answered with a laugh. "Well who hasn't. That party was way too lively." He still was chuckling.

"Yeah, well, I kind of wanted to ask your name. I don't really remember it."

He was chewing but nevertheless gave her a smile. After he swallowed, "The name's Joshua.", he gave her his answer and reached a hand over.

Reluctantly she smiled back. She reached for the hand, hesitated shortly but then took and shook it with renewed resolve. "I'm Clara."

ϡϗ

Clara treasured that memory. It always made her smile in amusement. That true love could have such a start was ridiculous. But it happened and it made her as happy as can be.

She was halfway to the altar and her doubtful thoughts from before were gone and even their memory burnt away from the felicity and love that filled her heart. She had to restrain herself to not run to her husband-to-be.

Clara's growing smile was not lost on Amanda and Susie and it infected them. Grinning from ear to ear the winked at each other.

Joshua's heart began to pound even faster and threatened to burst out of his chest. He loved that smiling face. Maybe even too much considering that he had a photo of it in his wallet, his suitcase, took a framed version of it with him wherever he traveled, one in every jacket and coat and of course several versions in their joint appartment.

He really loved that smiling face of hers.

Only a few meters and she'd get married. Step by step she made her way towards the love of her life. Smiling cheerily into his face. No doubts, no regrets. Never.

She only saw black.

Wait, what? She felt dizzy and could not feel her body. What?! She desperately tried to open her eyes but something was trying to push her away. Something that felt just as much panic. Nonono! I need to wake up! I have to get to him. I need to say 'Yes'! Eyes, open! Open! *Open!*** "OPEN!" With incredible mental force her eyes obeyed her and the feeling rushed back into the rest of her body.

The first thing she noticed was that she lay in a rather weird fashion on an incredibly soft bed. Weird because her limbs and neck shouldn't be able to bend that way and because it felt comfortable. That led her to notice the general oddness of her body. I'm certain I do not have four arms. And I still can't feel my fingers or toes. And she was right.

"Your Highness, shall we enter?" The muffled voice went unheard.

She raised her head an looked. There was hair. And no arms. And hair. And she could pivot her head so much as to look behind her. And there was hair. All over my body. She took in her shape again and an eye began to twitch. "What?!"

"Your Highness! Shall we enter?" This time a little louder but it still wasn't enough to raise attention.

What is going on?! This is not me! It's an animal. I'm not an animal. I am Clara and I'm marrying Joshua and we'll get a bigger apartment and we'll have children and we'll be happy and I want away! This. Away. Take it away! Oh please, god! It's wrong and not and get away. Run. Need to run. Run away! She tried to get to her feet but didn't have any and stumbled and entangled herself in alien limbs. Wrongwrong. Wrong. Slowly she began to mutter. "It's wrong. Wrongwrongwrong." Panic rose in her heart and she began to hyperventilate. "I don't want it. No. No!" She began to thrash around. The soft bed now feeling like it wanted to swallow her whole. Suddenly there was a thud and she lay still thrashing on the ground. That was when she began to scream. "No, I don't want it! Take it away! Take it away! Wrong! All wrong! Nonono! Awayawayaway! Ahh!"

"Your Highness! We're coming in!" Suddenly a door flew open and two equine being stormed into the room. With shocked expressions they took in the state their ruler was in. "Your Highness, please!" The older of the two went to her side and tried to calm her down.

As soon as Clara caught a glimpse of the new arrivals her panic redirected itself. "Ah!" With that shout she shuffled with her Wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong. hooves backwards until her back bumped into the side of the bed. "No! Away! You're wrong. Wrong, too!"

The two guards were startled and glanced at each other. The older one looked between the other two occupants of the room and then whispered something to his comrade who nodded grimly and ran out of the room. The senior guard let out a sigh and looked at his still muttering princess. She was shivering and her mane and hide were matted a patches of each stuck up in every which way. And tears were streaming down her face and out of eyes that - while being glazed over in mental absence - were filled with incredible fear and confusion. He made a decision.

"Nonopleasedon'thurtandwhyisitwrongiwanttogohomeandnotwrongandfeelrightandohpleasemakeitadreamandiwakeupan–" She felt someone lay his arms around her. No arms. Forelegs., something deep down in her consciousness noted but she didn't care. It was a hug and it was comforting. It was a good feeling and she needed it. She awkwardly returned the hug and it tightened a little bit so as meaning to reassure. It worked. And she silently cried into the shoulder given.