Disclaimer: Sleeping Beauty. Not mine...but on the other hand most likely not yours either!

Roses Red

Aftermath

Chapter VIII

"You're...you're the Princess," Aurelia's gaze was wrenched off of Joseph's pale, shocked face to Undric's as Undric croaked out the sentence, walking slowly towards Aurelia, his eyes slowly taking on a slightly maddish gleam. "Madam, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't mind coming with me," he said then, hishands pulling off his belt, "Now, ma'am, I don't want to have to hurt you-"

"Hurt me? You hurt me? Where do you get off with that Undric, you ass! You just spent the entire day teaching me how to use a sword yesterday and- are you really going to take me back to them? You saw-you had to have seen what I looked like when I first came here!" she looked over to where Joseph now sttod, watched numbly as he firmly turned his face away, but not before she saw the hurt in his brown eyes. She quieted, looking down at her knees and for the first time, feeling an unexplainable shame that she had lied to him.

"Finished, Princess? Now, I really would appreciate if you would just allow me to tie your hands-for old times' sake. Now-"

"Like hell you ruddy bastard!" and with that Aurelia turned on her heel, fleeing down the hill and away from Undric and Joseph's cold, hurt expression. Taking a quick glance behind her, she saw Joseph running behind her, his toned body barely showing that he was expelling energy, whereas Aurelia was already gasping and she had barely begun. Beginning to cry at the thought of what Matthew or Henri might do to her if she was caught, she called on the wind to stop Joseph and bagean crying even harder whenever she looked behind her, only to see that not only was he still behind her, he was catching up.

"Damn it all,Joseph, leave me alone!" she yelled desperately, a brief burst of strength sending her flying into the air, legs still kicking, as she ran over a large mound of dirt and went flying, head over heels. She felt Joseph stop behind her and she turned her now bruised head and recoiled involuntary at the anger boiling in his eyes.

"Now if you would stop running, dammit!" Joseph yelled into her ear, hauling her up and swinging her over his shoulders. He began slowly to run- but in the oppposite direction of the camp; he was running in the same direction that they both had been running in.

"Where are we going, Joseph?" she yelle din his ear, her face throbbing.

"None of your goddamned business, nosy!" he shouted back, turning his head slightly and jogging on, Aurelia bouncing over his shoulders like a sack of corn meal, face and body throbbing angrily.

Aurelia sat in the billowing prairie grasses of Normandy, though the fact that she was in Normandy, and therefore under Henri's rule did not occur to her in any way. At the moment she was lying back peacefully, concealed in the tall grasses, secretly enjoying the feel of the wind playing with the long locks that were stuck to her head. She sighed to herself as she ran a hand through her hair, feeling the knots and oil that had congregated mostly to the top of her head.

"I haven't washed my hair in so long..." she whispered to herself wistfully, playing with one tangled lock distractedly.

"Den-Aur-well, um, Princess, nobody followed us. We really got some good speed whenever the wind began to help push us along, you know," Joseph said monotonously, wlking up behind her and plunking himself down, the high sun reflecting off his golden hair.

"Of course it did, you ordered it to...just like everything else," Aurelia murmured the last part before she could stop herself. But it wasn't like she didn't have the right to be angry!

"By Jupiter! What is your problem!" he yelled at Aurelia, and Aurelia flinched inwardly. 'Oops...guess I really shouldn't have said that with him hating me now and all.'

"You bloody idiot," he continued, not yelling anymore for fear of calling attention to them, "You're the selfish twit who refuses to ask anyone for help or well...anything! I could have helped you and if you had told me that you were a Princess; I never would have pulled your kerchief!" He sat there in front of her, barely three feet away,breathing a little hotly from the harshness of his words, and watching her with his hands held, palm up, in a symbol of peace.

"Oh, so now it's my fault!" Aurelia continued hotly,throwing her head up in a sign of contemptand rising to her feet, her voice just as quiet as his, "You're the fool who can't leave well enough alone! I told you not to touch my head and you didn't listen to me! And do you know why? Because your selfish and spoiled and conceited and not used to anyone refusing your bloody will! You've ruined everything! Everything! And you don't even have enough decency to tell me you have magick in the first place!"

Aurelia had now reached Joseph, had reached the point to where she was barely an inchfrom his face, her fists coming up as she began to beat his firm shoulders, glowering and towering over him because she was standing. He looked up at her, anger beginning to cloud his brown eyes againand he grabbed her fists, pulling them firmly but softly to her side.

"What is wrong with me? You're a selfish little brat, that's what's wrong with me. You have never given a thought to anyone but yourself-"

"Leaving me to learn how to master magick on my own and not offering to tell me you could help, that seems goddamn selfish to me! I'm stuck learning -or trying to learn, at least- from a dream, Joseph, a dream! And all thewhile, you sat on your bloody horse twirling your bloody stick-thing."

"First of all, it's a staff. And second, maybe I had my own reasons for not telling you I was an Air. Maybe I didn't even know that you yourself was of Magick. Maybe I didn't know that you were the Aurelia and that now if something happens to you my ass'll go down with yours- and don't give me a look,your language isn't much better," he said, catching the look she was shooting him.

"I wasn't giving you a look because of the language...I was referring to that statement "if something happens to me your ass'll go down with mine." And why is that?" she batted her eyes fakely at him, forgetting how important she was to The Kingdoms. She saw Joseph cringe and felt asmirk stretch across her face involuntarily.

"Well...you're, erm, very important. You and your heir." Josephfinished this flippantly, but his eyes spoke to her after the last comment and she realised that the heir part wasn't supposed to be known.

"My heir? Well, who? With whom?"

"Well..." he looked uncomfortable and Aurelia felt her mind reaching towards his in the way his own mother had taught her, and felt his mind blocking hers out firmly. 'Why is he hiding that?'

"No one. Come on we need to get to someplace with food and clothes. And Goddess help you, a hair brush."

Aurelia, blushing again, raised a hand self-conciously to the wild tangled mushroom-shaped thing that was her hair. She hurriedly grabbed her handkercheif from under her, wrapping it frmly over her head.

"Shut. Up."

Only a few miles away, hidden within the shade of the rare Plumaria and buried deep underneath its sacred ground, a Trine throbbed. The Trine- the secret name of The Stone- was of a pale iridescent white, hidden deep within the ground since before Ebony's time...it had been hidden since Queen Rhoswyn's time by the great sorcerer Matk who had been ordered to hide all the trines far away from the Aryan ancestors' cruel priests who desired to destroy anything paganistic.

This Trine was that of the Mortals. The one of Fae recently found by a mortal King and handed over to the powerful sorceress Ebony. The one of Elven and the one of Vampyre had been found as well, but not given to the sorceress yet -kept instead in the 'trustworthy' hands of two of Ebony's 'willing' servants. The Trine of the Sea had long been found and cracked, slowly loosing more and more of itself, even as the Seapeople itself declined.

It was known to all those with The Sight that the fifth and last Trine was to be found soon. But to whether it would be used for evil or good was not known. The trines had not been created through evil, but for good. There had once been a time whenever the Trines had stood on top of pillars within the High Queen's castle M'kna Sor, but that time was not now and had not been for a long time.

The only thing that stopped the sorceress Ebony from finding this last and weakest of Trines were two women of the old Woman's Council. The elven lady Deena and the mortal queen Elaine were the only protection that the Trine had and for years they had watched over the Trine carefully, but since the finding of the Princess, they had grown careless...and the Trine was now able to sing and call to its other Stone sisters...

And Ebony could hear that call.

A man and woman walked into an average sized town, both dusty, heading towards a large inn that could be seen outside the town's gates. At the inn's highest room, a beautiful creek could be seen a few miles out and a vague outline of a blossoming Plumaria tree, it's pale white petals floating in the wind and a faint gold outline showing to those gifted and Chosen to see it.

The woman and man walked into the small inn, the man removing his dusty black cloakas he pausedfor a moment to ask the innkeeper something. The innkeeper-whose name was Job- left out of a small door to the far left of a rickety stair case and returned a while later, a small parcel in his hands. Job handed the parcel to the man, whispered a polite adieu -for it was late night- and headed back to the small door that he had gotten the parcel out of.

The man left in the common area, took the parcel and, leading the small woman before him, headed upstairs into the highest room where the Plumaria tree was barely visible and a large bed spread across the floor. Unbeknownst to them, a strangerclothed in blackhad satbeside the burning fire, watching, silently, as they entered and the man had exchanged words with the innkeeper and had followed with his eyes as they walked quietly up the stairs. It was really no suprise that he decided that it was time for him to return to his own room.

"All right, Nissy, I have you a brush, thing of lye soap and a dry gown. The man said there was a water closet down the hall, reserved for everyone on this floor, but that no one should be in it at this time, but just in case, you must -must- not let anyone see you, your hair or that Sign on your neck. Understand?"

Aurelia nodded ascent, grabbing her things and heading towards the door to the immediate right of the staircase, labeled with a WC for watercloset and opened the latch that kept it closed. Once inside, she sighed quietly, looking around gratefully at the small room that only had a small stone tub, a silver washbasin and a silver mirror hanging above where the washbasin sat on top of a stone pillar against the thin wall of the room.

Pulling on the knob, Aurelia listened as the pully squeaked to life, pulling up a large bucket from the well that connected with a small run-off from the stream. Aurelia had to pull the lever four more times before the tub could be filled and even afterthe waterwas pulled, she could barely get in because it was freezing cold. After her poor misused body had finally become numb tot he chill, she let her tangled hair down and began the small fight against the mess that was her hair.

Taking the lye soap, she first scrubbed her body, scrubbing the dirt off until her body was as red as her hair. Then, after her hair was soaked, she washed it with the lye five times, eache time less and less hair and dirt falling out until, finally, no more was lost. By then, Aurelia was wrinkled and shivering and half afraid she had caught pnemonia, but she suffered through the task of emptying the dirty water and pulling up three more buckets so she could splash the dirt from her hair off of her body. Finally Aurelia was able to leave the tub -wrinkly, cold and clean- wrap a towel around her sopping hair and pull on the clean dressing gown Job the innkeeper had given Joseph to give to her.

Stepping out into the corridor, Aurelia padded silently back to her and Joseph's room, never noticing the shadow that moved behind her, his feet as silent as hers.

Author's Note: M'kay...I know! This was like forever coming...well, life kinda got in the way and stuff like that. Just enjoy and give me a beautiful review whilst I work on the next chapter and my next- can you say it?- THREE stories!

Glaze: lol...of course I took care of cyberpiggy. I shall return him to you though so you can update now!

Scoutscraft Piratess: If Joseph hadn't done it where would the arranged drama be?

Ardelis Mercy: Ardelis dahhhling I updated quite fast compared to roadkill...

mistyqueen: I know!

Well thank you all for your reviews...go eat some edimame...if you don't know what it is eat it anyway! Love thee all!

Glittttttttttterpoison