Chapter 2:

IPOV

Aurora- 3 Rafe- 6

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Gabriel. Always has been." I said smiling at him. Gabriel kept visiting us (Aurora and me) ever since Elayna dropped dead; or at least the world thinks so. He brings the cheery grey eyed already handsome little boy, Rafe with him on some occasion as today. Today Rafe was silent and that was so surprising. He was always in Aurora's beck, no matter what.

"I know, Isa, I know." He said smiling.

"Rafe, dear, are you sure you're alright? Travel doing you trouble?" I asked bending to his level.

"Rafe says he loves Aurora. That he misses her ever since he went to the threshold of his castle. God help him, if that's true!" Gabriel said chuckling lowly. Rafe glowered at him as if he let out a bad secret.

I laughed. "Is it Rafe? Well, isn't it so good? Why don't we all go up for breakfast?"

Rafe and Gabriel nodded and all three together went to the dining hall.

"Stacie, is Aurora up yet?" I asked a maid who is the one who takes care of Aurora. Aurora loves Stacie. They get along well enough. Stacie is the one who wakes Aurora in the morning, give her a bath, take her walking, horse riding and at last, sing her to sleep. She is the one who knows Aurora's whereabouts. Being a granny, I still don't know what Aurora does daylong!

"No, Your Highness. She wanted me to read her sleep yesterday and when I read her a poem she kept saying me to repeat it and didn't sleep till later. I'm sorry, Your Highness." She said.

Aurora loves poems and literature work. I thought it came from her mom. Elayna had her own library for all the books she had when she was 17. When she got married, I gave away all the books to the Evolon Library, of course with her authority and permission.

"Hmm." I said pouring myself a cup of coffee. "Perhaps, isn't it time for her to wake up? Breakfast is here."

Before Stacie could say, Rafe stood up and said, "Maybe, I'll start eating with Aurora. Let me go wake her up and surprise her."

Gabriel chuckled. "Well, I guess, she'd love to see you're back. After all, it has been two months since she met you."

"And Prince Rafe, don't go into any kind of characters like you did last time. She was scared out of her wits when you impersonated the dragon character. Perhaps, being yourself would help." Stacie piped up before I could speak up. I wanted to say not to frighten her, but she summed it up.

"I'm sorry I frightened her, Stacie. I won't do it anymore. My presence and its reaction would suffice I guess." Rafe said, winking at Stacie. Stacie flushed.

Well well, Rafe is becoming a Prince Charming. I thought.

RPOV

Stacie said I frightened Aurora. I wouldn't want her afraid in that case. I thought it would be cool of me to do, but, I had it wrong. I went through corridors and reached Aurora's room. I slowly opened the door. I didn't want to frighten her again. I slowly closed the door behind me.

There she was! Aurora! How can someone be so beautiful? She looked peaceful and like a kid she really was when she was sleeping. Her raven black hair was tucked in a braid. Probably done by Stacie, I thought to myself. Aurora was beautiful. I haven't seen anyone prettier than her. Before Aurora, I thought my mother was the only woman who was beautiful. Aurora was different. She's beautiful, and god, I hoped she knew that one day. That's another thing that I loved about her: she didn't know she was beautiful. But she was.

I gently prodded her in the shoulder. She started to stir. She blinked, taking in things around her. She rubbed her eyes with her hand and started looking around again. When her eyes came to me, her eyes were round and huge with disbelief.

"Rafe!" she squealed and jumped on me. She engulfed me in a hug. She held me close before sitting back in front of me. "You told you no come for long time."

"I couldn't be away from you and Uncle Gabriel missed you too. He had some errand so we came back." I said laughing. She still couldn't believe I was here. I told her I'd be back after six months. Dad wanted me to spend some responsible time with him and mom. So I decided I'll come here after six months and meet her. But Uncle Gabriel had to come here for some errand, so we were here.

"Where Stacie? Gran scold Stacie?" she asked.

"Um, no, I offered to come wake you up. They're all having breakfast and if you don't wanna starve all morning, I think we should head back." I said stifling my laugh. Aurora hadn't heard anything at all. The word 'breakfast' was a boost enough for her to be up and awake.

"I eaty eaty!" she chanted on the way to breakfast.

When we reached the dining hall, she left my hand and ran to Stacie and hugged her.

"Stacie Stacie! Rafe came back." She said grinning to her.

"Yes, my Princess, he decided to come back and play with you!"

"I no pwincess, I am Aurora" she said as she ran to her grandmother.

"Shall I feed you dear?" her grandma asked.

"Yes yes yes! I so hungry."

"It is I'm so hungry, dear!" she said and turned towards Stacie. "Start teaching her how to speak properly, dear. She's growing up!"

"Yes Your Highness." Stacie said bowing down.

I ate in silence. Content that I get to spend time with Aurora for a week. Yes, a week is the duration of our travel this time.

"So, Gabriel, what are people outside saying has happened to Aurora?" she said as she expertly fed Aurora. I haven't seen a queen feeding a kid. Hers or not. Mom doesn't feed me, my maid Stefan did.

"Hmm…They said she was in Brandon for a while and some speculated that she was in Eldoren two months ago. Now Morgana reckons she's in the normal human world. Somewhere. They've sent a couple of people to hunt her down. But don't worry, they don't think about Elfi, not at all. They have it that you weren't happy with Elayna's marriage and you abandoned her."

She took in a large breathe. "Let it be. It's safe for Aurora that people don't know where she is rather than her being caught and killed." She said and looked down at Aurora, now drinking deeply from a small goblet. She looked up at me as she laid the goblet down. I grinned; she had foam mustache from drinking her snowberry shake. I bent forward to wipe it away.

"Come on Rafe, lets go." Aurora said.

"Yeah I'm done." I said as I got up.

"Remember Rafe, nowhere outside the castle gardens. We don't know who'd sell us for gold." Isadora said to me.

"I know" I simply said.

Two hours went, and I was still running around catching butterflies. Now I really hated playing with Aurora. Girls can be boring when they do girlie things.

"oohhh! Rafe, look, caterpillar. Lets go catch it next." Aurora squealed out. I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't say 'no'.

"Uh, I'm tired…" I said.

"Oh…Come on Rafe!" she whined with tears cascading down her cheek.

"OK OK, I'm coming!" I said sighing and rolling my eyes. This one week was gonna be crazy!