DISCLAIMER: If you don't know already, read previous chapters.

Author's Note: Thank you to the ONE person who has reviewed since ch. 2. I appreciate the rebuke. I really should have stretched my imagination for that scene. I hope I'm not stalked by Disney representatives now. *eyes shift nervously* Chapter Four (The Woman In The Flames) has been replaced with a similar chapter but it is still a good idea to go back and re-read it because, well, you just need to. PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!

~~Chapter Six~~

There were hardly any other children in the castle besides Jason and I, and certainly none of them were in our age group, therefore we were often obliged to play with each other simply out of necessity. However, this was not a hardship as we quite enjoyed each other's company.

The other stable hands and horse masters of our stables had recognized Jason's strength early on. That, and his whispered ability to converse with the animals. It seemed all he had to do to get a horse to comply with his bidding was to whisper gently in its ear. I once asked him about this strange rumor.

Jason poured oats into the trough nailed to the interior wall of my horse's stall. Delilah was my pride and joy. She was a gorgeous palomino with a shimmery blonde mane and tale. The cloud of feed particles and dust that arose from the bucket flooded my throat and nostrils and I began to cough.

Jason shook his head and patted me on the back, "You've got to be careful of that stuff."

When I finished hacking up a lung I repeated my question, "Thank you. But is it true? Can you talk to the horses?"

He sighed, "I wouldn't say that. I just politely ask them to do something and I understand what they want me to do. Anyone could do it if they would just take the time to get to know the horses and learn how they communicate. It's nothing supernatural."

I nodded that I understood and hopped up onto the stall railings. I began to swing my legs and examine a hole in one of my stockings. Mother wouldn't like that. Perhaps I could find a way to hide it. The sound of Jason's clanging buckets echoed throughout the hallway. I loved this place. The livery was always warm and sweet smelling from the hay and horses. You could relax here and speak of things, as you never could in the perfumed halls of the palace. Delilah came up behind me and I scratched her behind the ears.

"You've been rather quiet today Rose. Something wrong?" Jason asked as he locked the tack room. He crossed over and hopped up upon the railings with me. "I've never known you to stay silent this long."

I flipped my wavy blonde hair over my shoulders and out of my eyes. I hadn't been allowed to plait it this morning on account of my Mother. She said that it would frizz too much when let down. "Mother invited the King of Linderly and his son, Prince Godfrey to come visit today."

"What's so bad about that? You probably won't even have to see them. They'll be with your parents the whole time."

"No, the entire point of their coming is to see me. I don't know why they want to see ME," I muttered into my hair, which had once again fallen into my face.

Jason was silent for a moment and then asked, "Is that really something to be upset about? I mean, it's good that your parents want you to meet foreign dignitaries isn't it?"

"I don't know. I suppose. But something about it unsettles me. I can't place it but something seems-" Suddenly, from across the pasture I heard a voice calling for me.

"Briar Rose! Where are you? Come here this instant! Rose!"

In surrender, I slid down from the railing and began to walk to the door, "I've got to go change Jason. Mother want's me to dress up for Godfrey's arrival."

"In that case, meet me in the hay loft when you finish. I've got something to cheer you up!" he called after me and began to gather his affects together.

I made my way back to the palace, and the handmaiden who was calling for me, my footsteps dragging in the dewy grass. Upon entering my room, Mother let out an exasperated sigh, "I thought I told you not to run your stockings." I had forgotten to hide the hole. I began to explain when she cut me off and began to pull my course, reddish-brown dress off, over my head.

"You've got to be more careful with your appearance my dear. If Prince Godfrey and his father were to see you now they would take you for nothing but a scullery maid."

"I don't care how they see me," I muttered as I removed my petticoats and put on fresh, starched ones.

"Of course you do. You want to look beautiful for thier Royal Highnesses the first time he see you don't you?" She pawed through my wardrobe looking for a suitable gown.

"Not particularly," I mumbled, but Mother was oblivious, lost in my sideboard. At last she withdrew a frock.

"Absolutely not. There is no way I am wearing that." The dress was pink with a large satin bow tied in the back, ruffles on the sleeves and skirt hem, pearls sewn into the bodice and a matching pink satin bow for my hair. I flattened myself against the wall in resistance.

Mother had other ideas. When I finally emerged from my bedchamber I was nothing more than a pink nightmare. Ridicules for a ten-year-old. Humiliated, I raced to the barn where I could hide from everyone and Jason could help me think of some way to get out of this predicament.

As I poked my head over the loft floor and attempted to pull myself up I heard an explosion of laughter. Jason was rolling on the floor, holding his sides, peals of laughter emitting from his mouth. "You-look-" there was a brief pause as he caught his breath, "-so-ridicules!" He was shaking so hard now that no sound escaped his throat. He simple shook, mouth open in silent laughter, until he could gasp a breath.

I slumped down in the alfalfa, blowing my bangs out of my face and crossing my arms over my chest, waiting for him to finish. Jason eventually calmed down and only let an occasional chuckle escape when he laid eyes on the bow in my hair.

"Didn't you have something you wanted to show me?" I asked, slightly irritated.

He took a deep breath, "Yes, follow me." Jason began to climb down the ladder and I followed him outside.

"Remember the other day when I found that frog by the river banks?" he asked, finally in a normal voice.

"Yes, just the one. Why?"

He grinned mischievously, "I found more. A whole colony. They're by the lake." As he said this we pushed our way through a brush of cattails and emerged on the lake shore. Hundreds of frogs were leaping about in a muddy area near the banks.

"Brilliant!" I cried and turned to him, "Can we catch them?"

"As many as you like." And with that we went to work. For nearly an hour we cavorted about diving after frogs and trying to examine their beady little eyes. But every time we got a hold of one them they squeezed out of our hands and hopped away. I grew tired of this and suggested a game of hide- and-seek. The June heat was oppressive, and we turned to the trees for shade.

Jason ran off to hide and I hid my face against a tree to count to twenty. When finished I began creeping cautiously through the woods. There he was! I was amazed to have spotted him so quickly as Jason could hide better than any person I had ever played with, including adults. Quick as lightening he sprinted away and I began to chase him. It still amazed me how lightly he ran. That and being tall for his age gave him an unfair advantage over me in this case, but I pursued on. At last I got close enough to Jason to tackle him. I sprung forward and landed on his back, throwing the both of us forward down a small hill into a clearing.

Laughing, I rolled over and slapped him on the shoulder, "Got you!" Then I realized that the only laughing voice was mine. Jason was dead quiet, his face whiter than snow on a January day. His eyes were fixed on something a few feet behind me. I stood and turned to see what it could be.

It was my Mother. My Mother, my Father, the King of Linderly, and a weasel- looking boy in robes of royal purple that could only be Prince Godfrey. And they were all staring at me. It was only then that I realized that I was covered in mud and leaves, that my dress was torn, the bow missing from my wet stringy hair, and that I had scratches all over my arms, legs and face which were now deep scarlet colored in dried blood.

In a deadly cold voice my Mother spoke, "Briar Rose, allow me to introduce you to His Majesty, King Marius and his son, Prince Godfrey of Linderly. Gentlemen, my daughter," she dropped the word daughter from her lips like it was a rotten grub, "Princess Briar Rose." I stood and curtseyed with what was left of my dress to their, "How do you do?"s.

"Briar Rose, go upstairs and change immediately. Then meet us in the drawing room for tea."

"Yes ma'am."

"And Jason, Maximus was expecting you for tutoring a half an hour ago. I suggest you clean off and beg his pardon."

"Yes ma'am."

And with that we trudged off.