A case of mistaken identity

"Can I get some food?" Begged Marigold, feeling her stomach twist inside her belly. She hadn't gotten a good meal in days.

"Sorry, we do not partake in giving food out for free," the shopkeeper grumbled, turning to face the young bean, "Oh! My mistake, Princess! I didn't recognize you!" He jumped in surprise and horror, as if he had just seen a ghost. Marigold tilted her head at this, Princess? She wasn't any sort of Princess, just a 'useless little orphan', as they called her. But as the shopkeeper shoved a huge load of bread into her hands, even slipping in some extra currency, she began to take on character. 

"Why, I can't believe you didn't recognize me," she gasped as genuinely as she could, "I might have to report you to the guards!"

"N-No! Please don't, my family needs me! Please, feel free to return at any time and just... take as much as you want!" 

Huh. Neat!

------

That wasn't the only time something like this happened to her. It kept happening, different times, different places. It was amazing! The best thing that could ever happen! She was even offered a permanent stay at the inn, with her own personal chef to boot!! Nothing could go wrong!

Until it did.

Very, very wrong.

It started with a guard who was going preforming a weekly inspection of the inn, which to be quite honest, wasn't very 'weekly', considering you'd be lucky to see him once a month.

------

"Excuse me, you said that the Princess has been staying in this room?"

"Yes, we've been treating her as best as we can."

"Really now? Let me take a look."

This is what she overheard just outside her door. She didn't think much of it, the guard would be fooled, just like the others. Marigold hadn't considered that maybe, just maybe, the guards would know what the person they were supposed to protect looked like. After all, even she didn't know. And if she didn't know something, surely it was a secret to everyone!

The door opened forcefully, and suddenly Marigold was at a stare down with an intimidating Bean the size of... well, something HUGE!

"That's not the Princess."

"W-what? It's not? We've been fooled?! That little..."

"Don't worry," grunted the guard, locking eyes with Marigold. "We'll take care of it."

------

If there was any way she could have run faster than she was running, she would have known it. But she didn't know of any, so she kept running.

And running.

And running, running, running.

Until she smelled smoke.

And she turned around to look behind her.

------

The entire city was up in flames. The smoke filled the sky with it's reaching black wings, choking out any view she could have had of the place she once begrudgingly called home.

For some reason, she felt empty.

------

Marigold nestled up in a bush near an old, hollowed out tree, and heard voices coming from it.

"It's your fault! If you hadn't come here we would have been fine! Why didn't you stay away!", cried the voice. It sounded heartbroken, but also had a strange accent that she hadn't heard before. The source of the voice, a young bean, darted away from the tree, right past Marigold. They looked.... quite a lot like Marigold, to be honest.

As she pieced two and two together, she looked up and felt a smile form.

"I guess we do look pretty similar, don't we."