The stunningly gorgeous Princess Tilly stood alone in her tower, watching the handsome superhero fly into the distance. She gave a heavy sigh. Eterna Cavaliere would never see her as anything other than a damsel in distress, the princess he always had to save. And how could he get to know her — how could they fall in love — if he would always just save and run away?
She sat down on the bench in the window and pondered her dilemma for a moment. Truth be told, she would only ever notice him as his super alter-ego, wouldn’t she? The point of a secret identity was to keep private lives private, and even though she had no secret life, she did have a private life no one else knew of, didn’t she? One where she wasn’t a damsel in distress at all, not just a princess, but a confident woman in her own right.
“Matilda!” The king’s call rang out over the stone walls of the tower. “Are you up there, my dear little princess?”
Tilly once again looked wistfully in the direction her hero had disappeared before heading down the narrow spiral staircase into the courtyard to meet her father. “I’m here, Father!” she called back, curtsying as he turned to her.
The smile under his bushy moustache was loving and patient, and his eyes looked tired. He had been worrying about her again. “Where have you been all morning?” he asked. “I was beginning to think that maybe you’d been kidnapped again.”
Tilly averted her gaze from the concerned look in her father’s eyes.
“Tilly?” he prompted when he saw her look away.
Her father’s use of her nickname made Tilly look back at him guiltily. “I… I actually was taken this morning, Father. But it’s okay! Eterna Cavaliere stopped the new supervillain and—”
“Matilda,” the king’s voice was stern, but gentle. He looked down at his daughter and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You’re the princess of this land, and my only daughter. There is no other heir to the throne and all of these abductions are becoming a little too frequent and more than my poor old heart can take. You should really reconsider the offer to have a superhero bodyguard.”
“Father!” Tilly exclaimed in his face before realising and pulling back out of his grasp. She spun around, hands to her chest in a wistful manner. “You know my opinion on bodyguards! I want privacy, I want freedom.” She turned back to him with a stern look of her own. “I can’t have that if there’s some super-powered, overly-eager man watching me every second of every day.”
“Why would it have to be a man? What about a woman?” His voice had a slight pleading edge to it.
“They’re even worse!” Tilly waved a hand dismissively. “They’re girls on a power trip who want to prove they’re better than any man they meet.”
“I bet if we knew the identity of Eterna Cavaliere, you’d be quite happy to have him watch over you.”
His smug tone irritated her, but Tilly still put her hands on her cheeks as she felt herself blush. “Don’t bother yourself with silly ‘what ifs’, Father.” Tilly tried to keep her angry tone through her embarrassment. “Eterna Cavaliere has made it clear that he’s not interested in anyone knowing who he is.”
The suggestion had turned into another argument, and her father's eyes reflected his anger at her response. “Well then, Matilda, it seems there is only one choice for you: If you won’t have a bodyguard, you will stay inside the castle so that there is no chance that anyone can snatch you away again.”
“Fine Father!” Tilly stormed away from him, through the massive arched doorway that lead from the courtyard into the main entranceway of the castle. As she was on her way up the large, red-carpeted stairway, she saw her mother coming down.
“Oh, there you are Matilda. We thought you’d—” Tilly cut off her mother’s words with a huff and turned to stomp off in the other direction, towards the castle gardens. She heard her mother sigh loudly. “What did you say to her this time?”
“Michele, you know as well as I do that this is getting out of hand…” Tilly didn’t hear the rest of her father’s speech as she picked up her pace, making a beeline for the stables.
At the stable doors, Tilly stopped. The only one inside was the horse trainer, Corinne, and she was nickering, huffing and making cooing sounds at the castle’s newest acquisition, the golden stallion, Ajax. She didn’t notice Tilly’s presence as she seriously continued what seemed like an actual conversation with the horse.
Tilly leaned on a beam supporting the door and watched the two interact. It was a peaceful scene, and had already calmed her considerably. Corinne continued to stare into the stallion’s eyes, and she held her hand out towards Tilly. Tilly straightened, thinking she’d been noticed, but a bucket of oats and a bridle floated through the air towards her, surrounded by a soft silver aura.
Tilly gasped. “Silver Guide!”
Corinne spun to face her, looking guilty and ready to run. Tilly held up her hands to show she was harmless.
Corinne lost her panicked look as she realised who it was who had interrupted her. She bowed deeply. “Princess Matilda, I’m sorry to—”
“Tilly.”
Corinne lifted her head to glance up at her. “Princess Tilly.”
“Just Tilly.” Tilly approached her, smiling. She liked Corinne, and Corinne was a superhero. This was her chance to finally get her father — and those supervillains — off her back.
Corinne stood very still, and Tilly was cautious on her approach, like with a wild animal, as she knew one of Silver Guide's abilities was teleporting, and she didn’t want to scare this chance away.
“I’m not going to tell anyone, Corinne,” she said.
The assurance seemed to ease Corinne's fears a little, but she was still tense as she let Tilly get closer.
Tilly sighed, she had the chance to talk without scaring the other girl off. “I do need your help, though. My father wants me to be protected from all of these villains who keep kidnapping me.”
“I’m not much of a protector, I just —”
“— You just train superheroes, and I want you to train me.”
Corinne finally let out the breath she was holding, and it turned into a sort of laugh. “I bring out a superhero’s potential. I can’t do much if it’s not there.”
“Have you ever looked at the royal family’s potential?” Tilly asked. “There has to be something.” She cleared her throat, pleading was beneath her station.
Corinne sighed. “If I do this, I can continue being the palace horse trainer?” She reached out her hand to Ajax and stroked his nose.
Tilly could barely contain her excitement. “Of course you can! If we’re going to do this, it’ll have to be our secret, no visible change in our relationship.”
“You don’t want your father knowing? I don’t think I can —”
Tilly cut her off a second time. “Of course you can keep this a secret. This will be just another secret identity, just like every other superhero. If you can do it for them, you can do it for me.”
Corinne let out a final sigh. “I get the feeling I don't have any other choice.”
