Chapter sixteen:
When Darling arrived at the door to her dorm room, she was thrilled to see Raven waiting there for her, with two large well wrapped presents hovering in the air behind her embraced completely by Raven's lavender magic.
Smiling widely Darling quickened her pace, when she reached Raven, Darling put her arms around her and placed her lips to Raven's in a soft kiss. Without hesitation Raven returned both the embrace and the kiss, while at the same time Raven let out a sigh of delight. The kiss was only a brief one but both Darling and Raven very much enjoyed it very much.
"I take it, you are happy to see me." Raven said to Darling teasingly.
Darling nodded to her and gave her a gentle squeeze. "I am very happy to see you. Let's go in inside and then I can unwrap your gifts. I can't wait to see what they are!"
Reluctantly Darling and Raven released each other from their embrace. Darling opened the door to the dorm room, then held it open for Raven and gestured for her to go inside. Raven curtsied to her she then made her way through the door saying to Darling as she did so. "Thank you, my Charming lady knight."
"You are welcome my lady princess." Darling said in return, and once Raven was inside the room, she came inside and let the door close behind them.
Raven stood in the centre of the dorm room waiting for Darling. Quickly Darling made her way over to her and then led her to the side of the door room which was hers. Raven looked at it closely, it was all white and blue, propped up in one corner of the room was the armour of the white knight and on Darling's desk sat an old leather book titled the language of flowers.
Carefully Raven used her magic to settle the two gifts onto the top of Darling's bed, she then turned to Darling and asked her. "Would you like to open the presents now?"
"Yes, I'd love that." Darling said coming over to the bed, she looked from one gift to the other, before settling on the square one first. Darling carefully opened the gift, inside she found a lovely black leather case, Darling then opened the two locks and her eyes widened at the sight of the shield laying inside the box.
Darling was absolutely awed by this gift, it was clearly a fine shield, the runes she knew would make sure the shield protected her from the four natural elements. Somehow Darling managed to find her voice, and say to Raven. "This is amazing! It's a beautiful shield. Thank you so much Raven. I can't wait to be able to train with it."
A large smile appeared on Raven's face, as relief and joy surged through her. "I am so glad that you like it. I hope the other present will make you just as happy."
Darling unwrapped the next longer rectangle present, to reveal another black leather case, the moment she saw this case Darling couldn't help but wonder what would be inside it. Carefully Darling unfastened the two clasps on the outside of the box and opened it up. A gasp of awe and surprise left her and Darlin' eyes went even wider than they had at the sight of the last gift. "Is this what I think it is?"
"What do you think it is?" Raven asked her with a teasing smile, and mischievous glint in her eyes.
Carefully Darling lifted the bow from the box and spoke to Raven in reverential voice. "This is the bow of the moon and it's never-ending quiver of arrows."
"Yes, it is indeed the moon bow and it's quiver. It is one of my father's family's treasures, he gave it to me to give to the chosen one of my heart and I have decided that you my true love should receive it now." Raven told Darling with a gentle smile on her face.
Darling looked over at Raven, her eyes were wide and she couldn't find anything to say, instead Darling carefully placed the bow onto the bed, she reached out grabbed hold of Raven and drew her into a fierce hug. "Thank you…That seems too inadequate for the gifts you have given me today…But thank you is all I can think of to say to you."
Raven returned Darling's embrace, she was smiling widely, and felt thrilled that Darling was so delighted by her presents to her. "Thank you, is all I need you to say to me my love. I am so very glad to see how much you appreciate the gifts I have brought you."
Slowly Darling pulled back a little from Raven, and smiled at her widely. "Hunter is going to be so envious of my having the moon bow."
A chuckle left Raven and she said with laughter clear in her voice. "Yes, I am sure he will be! After all Hunter is obsessed with anything to do with archery."
"Would it be too much to ask, if I can spend my birthday with you, after I talk to my parents and see my brothers?" Darling asked her in a soft loving voice.
Raven didn't even hesitate to answer this question right away. "I'd be delighted too Darling."
"Good. Maybe we could go for a walk in the forest again and then back to the Cauldron for another meal." Darling suggested to Raven.
"That sounds excellent to me, If you send me a hext when you are finished with your family for the day, then we can meet up and go out together." Raven told her smiling at her softly.
Darling smiled back at Raven, she was filled with joy from receiving these gifts from Ravena and now, had a date with her lady princess to look forwards to on her birthday that Sunday. "I look forwards to it with all my heart."
Reluctantly Raven released Darling from her hold and said to her at the same time. "I should head back to my dorm room now, I don't know about you, but I have plenty of thronework to get on with."
"I have quite a bit too. Will I see you tomorrow at breakfast?" Darling asked her, eager to be able to spend at least some part of her day with Raven.
With a nod of the head Raven spoke. "Of course."
"Then I'll see you in the morning my lady princess." Darling said releasing Raven, then taking one of her hands into hers and kissing the back of it.
"Yes, you will, my charming Lady knight." Raven assured her.
When Darling released her hand Raven made her way over to the door of the dorm room, before she left though Raven turned back to Darling, she gave her a wave saying as she did so. "Good night, Darling."
"Good night, Raven." Darling said in turn.
Raven left Darling's dorm room, she made her way back to her own one and the moment she came inside Apple shot up from her chair "Well how did it go?!" She asked Raven with a mixture of curiosity and excitement.
Raven looked at her roommate with a huge smile on her face. "It went wonderfully. Darling loved her presents and I managed not to give away my actual plans for her birthday. Instead we agreed that after Darling had seen her parents and brothers that we would go for a walk in the forest and then for a meal. What about you, how have you done today?"
"I've managed to get a lot of people to help out. I plan to have a word with Dexter and Daring about what we are planning as I feel they should be involved." Apple told her.
Raven gave her a nod. "That makes sense."
Glad that Raven agreed with her plans, Apple continued to talk to Raven about more of her preparations for the knighting of Darling. "I phoned the vintage store in town, they had several gowns which might be exactly what we need, so I asked them to put them aside. I thought we could go into book end tomorrow after breakfast. If I have our time tables correct, then we both have that morning free tomorrow so the timing will be perfect."
Still not used to her new time table yet, Raven pulled out her phone to check Apple was right and saw that she was indeed correct. "Yes, you are right, like you I have free morning tomorrow morning."
"Great! I look forwards to helping you find the perfect dress…I'd also been thinking, that perhaps we could look for a crown to go with the dress, what do you think?" Even as Apple asked Raven this, she was honestly more than a little concerned that Raven might find this idea a little too ostentatious for her taste, but at the same time Apple felt it was very important that Raven really look the part of a princess of the past for the knighting.
There was silence for a moment as Raven thought this suggestion over, she knew that the image which she presented on that day would be very important. "I think that since the crown is a sign of my rank and will need to fit in with the theme which we are attempting to portray that getting the correct kind of crown would be a very good idea. Thank you for suggesting it Apple."
"I am glad you agree with my suggestion." Apple said with a feeling of pride growing inside her.
A deep sigh left Raven, she was very reluctant to do her thronework, she would much rather plan Darling's birthday surprise, however Raven was well aware that she needed to get started on it so that the thronework would not interfere with their plans for tomorrow. "I should get on with all of my thronework."
"So should I." Apple said in agreement as she made her way back across the room to her desk and returned to her thronework.
Raven got her thronework out, she put away anything which she did not need, Raven set her thronework down on the desk, Raven sat down at the desk and then started working.
High up in her tower room the Evil Queen was progressing well with her dark magic for Raven. She had been working hard the past couple of days. The Evil Queen had been carefully sneaking through the mirrors to find herself food and drink to keep herself going and making sure to rest.
The Evil Queen knew that for the spell to be strong enough to work on her daughter, she would need to spend several more days than she would normally need to spend on the spell.
There was also the matter of casting the spell on Raven. The Evil Queen was sure that Raven would fight her and so she began to consider ways in which she could prevent Raven fighting her. She could place a sleep spell onto Raven from inside Raven's mirror in her dorm room, sneak into her dorm room, catch her by surprise and kidnap her to the tower to enchant her there, or wait until Raven was alone somewhere and spring her spell onto Raven then.
None of these plans particularly appealed to her though, as each one held far too many elements of risk to her plans for Raven.
Then the Evil Queen remembered, on the Monday of the next week Raven was due for her monthly visit to her 'prison'. It would be the perfect time to trap her daughter and cast her spell over her. No one would suspect anything was wrong until it would be too late for anything to be done.
As she looked over this idea the Evil Queen could see that there were another couple of bonuses with this plan, she wouldn't have to risk being witnessed taking Raven, and those witnessing this trying to stop her or warn others and another was that she would place all kinds of enchantments onto the tower room to make getting inside extremely difficult.
Yes, as far as the Evil Queen could see this plan would be perfect. She let out a small evil laugh and continued on with her work. Everything had to be perfect, to minimise the chances of Raven escaping or being rescued for the fate the Evil Queen had planned for her.
