Little Princess of Light
Outside Aurora's bedroom, Norah heard noises from inside. Feeling both curious and a bit worried for Aurora's safety, she knocked on Aurora's bedroom door.
"Aurora, may I come in?" she called out.
When there was no reply, Norah opened the door, and a strange sight greeted her. Aurora was swinging her toy sword in the air while making her own sound effects. Norah's toys were lined up behind her as if they were in battle formation, facing down Aurora's own soft toys at the other end of the room.
"Light power blast! Boom!" Aurora shouted. She picked up a yellow ball and threw it at the soft toys. The soft toys fell over.
"Yay! We defeated the monsters!" She cheered, her sword raised triumphantly.
Norah stifled her laughter. Aurora looked so adorable.
Aurora spotted Norah, and she turned to her sister with her sword pointed at Norah.
"Stop!" Aurora shouted. "Who are you?"
Norah threw her arms up in surprise. "Whoa! It's me, Norah! Your sister!"
Looking bewildered, Aurora put down her toy sword. "Norah, is that really you? Why are you in Magicland?"
"Aurora is staying in character," Norah realized. Finding it too adorable to resist, Norah decided to play along.
"Oh, yes! But I don't know how I got here," Norah said. She glanced at the door behind her. "I think I came in through a magical door in my home."
"Close it, quick! We can't let the dark monsters escape to the other worlds!" Aurora urged.
Norah closed the door behind her.
"Norah, will you like to join us in fighting evil?" Aurora challenged her sister.
Norah was surprised to by Aurora's offer. Aurora had never asked her to join in one of her play sessions before. She was almost a full ten years older than Aurora and they shared very few common interests. Norah had always assumed that Aurora, at best, saw her as an adult relative. An alternative parental figure of some sort, but neither a sibling nor a friend to play with.
Yet, upon seeing Aurora looking up to her, eagerly waiting for her answer, Norah decided to give it a shot. She did not want to disappoint Aurora.
"Oh no, is there evil afoot here?" Norah gasped, pretending to sound terrified.
"There is a very evil queen of darkness ruling Magicland. We must destroy her and free all the nice people living here!"
"Why, yes, of course I will fight!"
"As a princess I give you my second most powerful sword." Aurora drew out another cardboard sword, made from the white packaging box of the house's new washing machine. "This sword has the power to control time."
Grinning, Norah knelled down to accept her new sword. "I am eternally honoured, princess Aurora."
"Now Norah, I want you to meet my friends." Aurora held up a tear-drop shaped soft toy with a face on it. "This is Igniculus, his light power helps me to distract the enemies."
"Hello, Igniculus." Norah recognized the toy as a freebie that was given out during her school's water conservation talk.
Aurora pointed to a little dwarf. "This is Finn. He has fire and water and lightning powers. He is always scared but he is still good at fighting."
"Why is he scared?" Norah asked.
"He's just a little scaredy cat," Aurora said with a chuckle.
Aurora then picked up two jester dolls, one with a smiling face, and the other a frowning face. "These are Rubelle and Tristis. They're brother and sister, and they are jesters who used to live in a circus until the evil queen destroyed their home because she doesn't like circus. They shield us and heal us when we get hurt by the monsters."
Aurora then picked up the Robert figurine Norah had just lend to her. "And this is Robert. He joined us because he is looking for treasure."
"What sort of treasure?"
"Shiny treasures! The mouse people were all very rich, but an evil spider had stolen them all and he needed to find them."
"Looks like you've formed quite a team."
"Oh, you should take this." Aurora handed paper stars made of glitter paper to Norah. "These magic gems give you extra powers. Carry them with you."
Aurora turned and raised her sword. "Now, on to our next adventure! We are going into the volcano to defeat the evil spider!"
Aurora carried the pillows on her bed to the floor and build a crude looking mountain out of the pillows. She then retrieved a spider toy from her toy chest and placed it under the pillow mountain.
"Oh look, it's the spider! Everyone, fight!" Aurora yelled.
"Fight!" Norah repeated after her.
"Finn, use your fire spell!" Aurora picked up a red ball and threw it at the spider. It missed. "It didn't work because it's a fire spider! Norah, use your time magic!"
Time magic? Norah quickly improvised. She raised her cardboard sword and cried out, "I am now casting a spell that will freeze the spider for a short period of time. Freeze!"
"It worked sister! It worked!" Aurora jumped up and down excitedly. "Charge!"
Aurora ran towards the spider and hit it with her sword. The spider toy bounced on the pillow and hit back at her. "Oh no, it attacked me! I'm hurt! Rubelle, heal me! Norah, keep attacking it!"
Norah went up to spider and gently knocked it with her sword.
"Rubelle had healed me! Now I shall use my light magic power!" Aurora raised her hands, made a circular motion with them, and made whooshing noises with her palms outstretched at the spider.
Norah kicked the spider toy over.
"We won! We won! The spider is dead!" Aurora cheered, jumping up and down. "Robert got his treasures back!"
As she jumped, Aurora's hearing aid fell off. Aurora's smile faded.
"Norah? I can't hear anything. Norah?" Aurora sound frightened.
Norah sprung to action. Dropping her cardboard sword, she bent down to Aurora and held her still.
"Aurora, hold still." Norah picked up Aurora's dangling hearing aid and carefully replaced it on back on Aurora's right ear.
"Alright. Aurora, can you hear me now?" Norah asked, softly out of caution.
Aurora nodded. "Yes."
Norah breathed a sigh of relief. "Is there anything else you need?"
Aurora shook her head and resumed her playtime as if the accident with her hearing aid never happened. She picked up Robert and carried her over to the pillow volcano.
"Thank you Aurora! We got back our treasures," Aurora voiced Robert. "And because you are such a good princess, I've decided to help you. Can I join you?"
"Yes Robert, you can join us!" Aurora happily answered to herself.
Norah giggled. Aurora had such an active imagination.