"With your condition, everytime I'm with you, I'm putting my life at stake. If you really want me to help, you mustn't put me in the dark."Raquel's gaze fell to her hands that she had placed on her kneels, her tears streaming down her face, dropping to her uniform, and dissolving right into it, leaving wet patches behind."Ahhh, alright then." Belladonna sighed, holding down the doorknob.Raquel said something at that moment but her voice was too inaudible for Belladonna to hear and understand what her jumbled words meant. She dropped the doorknob and took a step towards her. "What did you say?""They have her," she repeated herself, a little audible this time, her voice a bare whisper. "They have our daughter and till my husband and I pays, they won't let her go."Belladonna's eyebrow arched up, questioning.Raquel had a daughter? That was an interesting thing to do out. Never had the thought of Raquel having a family crossed her mind. Belladonna had been too occupied with the th
"No one wanted bad luck, they wouldn't employ us, nor sell to us, nor give to us. Even though we told them about our daughter, they looked at us with sympathetic eyes, yet they shut their doors and windows, as if we would infect them with our ill fate if they entertained us longer."She sniffled, her face a hot mess. Then she reached for the hem of her dress and blew loudly into it, clearing her nostrils so that she could breathe. When she spoke once again, her voice was really quiet."We had no where else to turn to, but to go straight to the Castle that everyone dreaded for the King that lived in it and his monstrous beast. We were ready to die if it came to that, anything to save our daughter. We didn't meet the King. Who were we to make such request? We just knelt in front of the Castle gate and cried out for mercy."Belladonna could imagine that, she could imagine their pain and desperation, she could feel it.She blinked harder this time, it was really hard not to cry."When t
"Is everything alright with you?""Yes, your Majesty. I just---" her voice trailed off at the sound of a running boots from a guard rushing down the hallway towards them. "Yo..ur M-majesty, yo...ur Majesty..." He called out breathlessly, then fell on a kneel. Before he could state his purpose, the King was already asking. "Is it ready?""Yes, your Majesty.""Leave." Then he turned his attention away from the guard that was already scurrying away, and back to Belladonna. "Important matters of the Kingdom." He started walking down the hallway, making her follow. "Oh."She wondered what could be so urgent that made him immediately forget about what she wanted to speak to him about."I must attend to them."He took the stairs and she followed. The lower they got, the more she worried about what a task it would be for her to get back up to her room. That would probably be where she would have dinner.When he didn't say anything else, she stopped and called out to him. He stopped, turni
"I'm surprised we are not riding your dragon, your Majesty. You still have haven't taken me on that ride you promised yet." She said, seemingly more relaxed now than when they had started this journey.She heard her stomach rumble quietly and she instinctively placed her hand on it, rubbing it absentmindly. If only this meeting could just postpone itself. As much as she was happy to be outside the castle, the excitement she would have completely felt was killed by the fact that they would be going out to work. Now, now she understood a little about royalty and the responsibilities accorded to the crown and those associated with it. She also understood the implied promise of the whole situation of him bringing her along with him, but her need for food was overpowering. She was starving.She didn't know when she would be able to set her eyes on a plate tonight, but she knew that when that would eventually happen, she would feast on it like a hungry beast.Why was she so hungry?She b
"There is nothing for you to fear, I am right by your side." He whispered to her and she nodded."Lead the way, your Majesty and I'll follow."He chuckled softly at the sudden excitement in her voice."You are a wonder, my Bride."So he lead her through the walkway that had a fountain by the side and into the big dimly decorated building. When they got into the beautiful lit long hallway, there were no servants anywhere in sight. It almost felt like as if they were alone. Belladonna couldn't be sure though, the King happened to have really trained soldiers that found it easy to blend seamlessly into the shadows.Finally they got to a large door and the King stopped, unlocking it.Belladonna tensed up.They were here.Wow.She took in a deep breath, ignoring the quiet growling of her empty stomach for the thousandth time, and the nervousness that built at the depth of her stomach, at what awaited her once the King threw the doors open.Ah, even now, she still wasn't ready. ---also,
"The more I got to know you, the more I was caught in between two battles. On one hand," he raised a hand in the air in front of him to desmostrate, his gaze passing over her lightly. "I felt that things would turn out differently this time and on the other, " he raised the other, "I couldn't help but think that it was going to be the same."His gaze moved to the wall behind her and he reached for whatever it was that was holding his interest. She heard a gentle snap and the swaying of a flower pot before she felt him tucking something in her hair, the light weight resting in her corner of her left ear. It was a flower. He pulled back after that. "So I immersed myself in my work to take the thoughts away. It was a moment of self doubt that I regret the most. My actions had pushed you right into his arms. If I had been better, you would have told me the very first time you started having strange dreams about him."Belladonna blushed.Now how easy would it be to tell a King, or even
She felt a sharp burning pain in her hand. A groan slip pass her lips, as she struggled to move away from the King, who seeing that, took a step back immediately. Her gaze darted down at the long sleeve of her gown as a red liquid that was quickly turning black dissolved into it, burning her skin at contact.She gnashed her teeth in pain, struggling to get to the fountain and shove her hands straight into the water for its promised ease.It felt like that part of her skin was on fire. Burning hot!But the King stood in her path and he quickly tucked an opened tiny bottle into her other hand. "Drink," he ordered.Desperate and without thinking, she took the content of the bottle in one gulp. The relief that washed over her right after that was immerse. The stain on her sleeve was no longer black but now red, like blood, also the liquid was no longer burning her.She had no time to wonder at what had just happened though, because the next thing she knew, the King was ordering her t
Belladonna gasped silently. She had never seen anything like that in her life before, oh wait, except for that stone in the Forbidden Room but still, this was different. "I am alright now." The King's whisper snapped her out of her train of thoughts and she blinked. "What was that?" She asked, her voice a little breathy from the shocked state she was still in. "Nothing important," the King replied with his casual dismissiveness and she frowned. Not again. "Your blood..." Her voice trailed off as she tried to look for the right words. "It withered my lily. Like it was some sought of poison---" "It's my sickness." He finally let out with a grunt but she wasn't done. There had to be more to it. "Your hand." She looked down at his hand again but he was no longer bleeding and the contaminated water had now washed away, along with her lily, leaving now in it's place, clean rushing water. "It was bleeding. Why?" "It does that every once in a while." Then he chuckled, his eyes twink