Author's notes: A short study about Elena's time in the amulet.
Mercy or punishment?
The first days were the worst. Of course, Elena used the term ‚day' rather loosely for she had no way how to know whether in this realm exists something like a flow of time.
She remembered Shuriki's face full of anger and bloodlust, the enchantress holding her wand and her mouth shouting a spell. Elena didn't even try to run away she just reflexively put her hands in front of her face and waited for the inevitable. The light flashed behind her closed eyes. And…
Nothing happened, She was still alive. To be precise, nothing isn't the right word. Something did happen obviously. She wasn't in the palace facing a mad witch anymore. She was… Where was she anyway? The princess looked around. She was levitating in a violet realm. She was utterly alone, there was nothing and no one else. Elena tried to swim in the violet aether that surrounded her. The princess didn't get tired but didn't get anywhere either.
There was nothing. Only her and her thoughts. All her thoughts. Her fears about the Avalorian people, her self-pity about being stuck when that horrible woman is free to do whatever she likes, her homesickness made worse by the fact she was mourning her parents, her anger at herself, her fate and the whole world. It was so unfair!
She never got hungry nor thirsty. She didn't technically get tired either but sometimes she deliberately took a nap whenever she ran out of ideas to occupy herself. Because boredom was like a slow poison. It crept stealthily into your mind leaving it open for misery and apathy.
But whatever this realm was, it always provided very deep and dreamless slumber. The princess was thankful for the small mercy of this heartless void. For Elena was afraid that were she to dream nowadays her dreams would make her to relive her parents' death and or she would imagine hundred ways Isabel could get hurt.
Once Elena realized something and she really didn't know how she came to that idea but the more she thought about it the more she believed it. She was in the amulet! Her mother said it would protect her and it did. When she faced certain death the power of the necklace has sucked her in.
At first she felt relief having realized she's out of Shuriki's reach and still alive for a few times Elena caught herself thinking of this place as a part of the spirit world. The relief however has faded away as she succumbed to the despair from the fact that she can't leave.
She wept; she yelled insults aimed at Shuriki, her own weaknesses, the long dead Maruvians and even the very artifact she was kept in; when she ran out of words she screamed unintelligible noises until her throat ached like never before. She was alive but the price was immensely high.
It took time but eventually the amulet learned to respond to her wants. She didn't have to mindlessly levitate in the space anymore. First she wished for a ground to stand on. She paced through the endless interier of the amulet senselessly counting steps to keep her mind occupied.
Later, maybe as a reaction to a wish of hers or it was a whim of the amulet, a magical window that enabled her to watch the outside world appeared. At first she saw unknown people from a country she knew solely from geography lessons. She understood them only when they spoke Diplomatic Enchancian, a language used whenever you met a foreigner whose language you didn't know. As time went by the trapped princess began picking up the common dialect as well, she suspected her language learning ability has been boosted by the power of the amulet itself.
With the food grows the appetite and Elena was eager to poke the matter that filled the amulet to see what it does next. She wished for a sewing machine, a lake to swim in, a garden to plant violet flowers.
That didn't mean Elena remained positive all those years, she did falter countless times but her will to live was stronger. Whenever she stumbled, she stood up again.
In moments of personal darkness and hopelesness she recalled her old life and all that she has lost. Girls her age were merrily running and playing on the beach, dancing in the street, jumping on their beds - wasting time doing all these useless things yet Elena would give anything to be able to jump on her bed with Isabel once more.
Three generations. She witnessed the life of three generations of Amulet of Avalor wielders.
Charlotte who earned her monicker Grand Mum. Matilda who prefered to be called Tilly. And last but not least: Sofia who jokingly chose a simple yet magnificently sounding title for there can be a crowd of the Great ones but only one person in history can be the First.
And one day she was free at last.