Setting

(Princess Academy)
Chapter 3
The setting of the story is at the Academy where the girls are studying and preparing to
be the princess of the prince. The Academy’s foundation had been laid on a white gleam
polished linder, and though the rest of the house has been built from gray rubble rock, the
stones were squared, smoothed, and fitted together in perfection. Three stairs led to the main
door and columns supporting a carved pediment. Workers perched on the roof, fixing weather
damage. Other lowlanders replaced empty windows with glass panes, pulled up grass growing
between the floor stones and steps, and swept away years of dirt.
Miri stared down as she entered the building, letting the tip of her boot slide across
floorstone white as cream, with the palest streaks of rose. It seemed remarkable that with no
one to tend it, the stone had held its luster for so many decades. The villagers had to clean and
oil the wooden chapel doors regularly to keep them undamaged. Olana led the girls through the
cavernous house, warning them to stay silent. The walls and floor were bare, and Olana’s voice
and the click of her boot heels echoed over Miri’s head and under her feet, making her feel
surrounded.
They followed Olana into a long room that would serve as a bedchamber. Several rows
of pallets lay on the floor. The far wall held one hearth for warmth and one window facing
home. Miri mused that the girls on pallets farthest from the fire would be mighty cold. Next,
they visited the huge chamber in the center of the building that would serve as a dining hall. A
large hearth with a carved linder headpiece was the only indication that the room might have
been grand once. Now it was bare but for simple wood tables and benches.

Submitted by: Margarette L. Gonzales

Submitted to: Ms. Joy Biazon