Chapter Seven: The Princess Falls
Meanwhile, in the castle of Solaria, Radius was anxiously awaiting the arrival of his beloved daughter.
"No sign of her yet, Elendor." he sighed,
"Of course not, Radius. It'll be a good half hour until the sun sets." Elendor told him, "Just relax, Stella will be fine."
"But after eighteen years of worry, not even knowing if she is even alive." Radius panicked.
"Its all over, Radius." Elendor clapped his hands and a servant came with a drink and two glasses, "Tonight we celebrate the future." They both toasted to the celebration at hand.
"And to their new palace!" Elendor chuckled.
"New palace?" Radius asked.
"Yes, they'll need a home of their own to raise their own family." Elendor explained to Radius.
"I suppose, in time." Radius thought aloud as they toasted once again. Then Elendor clapped his hands again.
"The plans!" he ordered as the servant took out the plans for the new castle and showed them to Radius.
"You're building it already?" King Radius asked in surprise.
"Built, finished!" Elendor replied joyful, "They can move in tomorrow."
"Elendor, their not married yet." Radius protested.
"We'll take care of that tonight, to the wedding!" Elendor wanted to toast once more, but Radius pushed the bottle of wine away.
"Now wait just a minute, I barely know my daughter and you're trying to take her away from me." Radius protested furiously.
"She'll invite Brandon right? You want to see your grandchildren, right?" Elendor pressured, "Than there's no time to loss. To the wedding!"
"Really Elendor, and besides, Stella doesn't know anything about this." Radius protested, "This'll be too much of a shock."
"How is my Brandon a shock to your daughter?" Elendor question furiously. "Why doesn't your daughter like my son, and by that matter, I'm sure my son doesn't like her either!"
"Now listen here you self centred, old bat!" Radius shouted. They started fighting, but moments later they both burst into laughter.
"Why are we fighting anyway?" Radius laughed.
"Absolutely nothing." Elendor chuckled, "our children are bond to fall in love with each other. And as for grandchildren, I'll have the woodworkers start on a cradle as soon as their ready, no more rush."
"To our grandchildren!" Radius was about to finally toast, when they noticed that the was no more wine. The servant had drank it and fell asleep under the table. Suddenly the two kings heard the loyal announcer.
"Now arriving, Prince Brandon!" Elendor heard, and ran outside to greet his son,
Brandon's horse galloped throw the crowd of people to the castle's doors. Elendor ran down the stairs frantically calling Brandon's name until he caught up to him.
"Brandon! Hurry, son, change into some suitable clothes, you don't want to me your future bride like that." he encouraged.
"But I did meet her, dad." Brandon told him, "In a dream." He began dancing with his father the way Stella had danced with Flora.
"Put me down." Elendor demanded, "Now what is this all about."
"I ready did meet the one I plan to marry someday." Brandon replied.
"Princess Stella, with have to tell Radius!" Elendor cheered excitedly.
"I didn't say it was Stella, I said I met the one I want to marry." Brandon clarified, "I didn't know what her name was, she was a peasant girl I guess,"
"Wait, wait, wait, a peasant girl! You'd give up the throne, for some peasant girl!" Elendor snapped.
"Dad, you're living in the days of traditional loyal relationships, today's-" Brandon tried to protest.
"Today I'm still king, and I want you to came to realization!" Elendor ordered.
"And find the one I love." Brandon finished, riding away on his horse.
"No wait Brandon!" Elendor called chasing after him. But he ran too far away for Elendor to reach him.
"How will I ever tell Radius about this horrible news." he sighed.
Musa, Flora and Bloom lead sad Princess Stella through the forest in their fairy forms, Stella was wearing a blue cloak, so no one would recognize her. Flora placed her hand on Stella's should for comfort as they continued to walk, she felt so bad for poor Stella. Once that reach the castle, they snuck in a side door and up some stairs to a hallway.
"Come on." Musa whispered, looking ahead. No one was supposed to see Stella before sunset. They slowly snuck toward the door.
"Bring her in here, girls." Musa interacted as she and Flora took Stella in the room as Bloom shut the door behind them and let out a sigh of relief.
"Bloom, lock the door, Flora, close the curtains." Musa told them as the hurriedly did so. Musa lead Stella to the vanity and sat her down.
"And now, a final gift, the tiara of Solaria, a symbol of your royalty, and you're birth right." Musa concluded. As soon as Musa placed the crown on Stella's head, she burst into fresh tears and buried her head in her arms.
"Oh, Stella." Flora sighed sadly.
"Lets just leave her to cry." Musa told them sorrowfully. The three fairies left the room and stood in the hallway.
"Its that guy she likes." Bloom replied.
"What are we going to do?" Flora asked, for of sadness. In the room, Stella continued to cry, but didn't know that the fireplace had went out, and a purple light appeared in the empty space. Princess Stella looked up to see the light, and was curious to know what it was. She stood up, and her cloak slipped off as she walked towards the light. Outside in the hallway, the fairies were still talking.
"I don't see why she has to marry just a prince, I think she should marry whoever she wants." Bloom replied.
"But thats not for us to decide, Bloom." Flora told her. In the room, Stella was inching closer and close to the light and following it through a secret door. With the others, they will still discussing Stella's admirer.
"Maybe we should tell King Radius about the boy." Flora suggested.
"Well why can't we?" Bloom added.
"Girls, I sense dark magic nearby… Cassandra!" Musa gasped. As the fairies opened the door, they saw Stella disappear into the secret door.
"Oh, why did we leave her!" Flora cried out as they continuously called her by her peasant name, only because they were so used to addressing her as Cira. With Stella, she was following the light up a winding flight of stairs. The fairies pushed on the wall, until Musa shot it with her magic, and they flew through to find Stella. It turned into a race against time as they called for her as she followed the purple light. It lead the Princess to a small room, and then it turned into a spinning wheel. Stella reached out her hand to see if the spinning wheel was real. The fairies rushed to search for her as they called out her peasant name.
"Cira, don't touch anything, what ever you do!" Bloom called out. Stella's hand was getting so close to the spindle that it practically glowed. Then she heard a wicked voice.
"Touch the spindle Princess, I command you." Cassandra's voice ordered, and so, Stella did as she was instructed, but at a costly price. When the fairies reached her, it would too late, Princess Stella was face down on the ground, and Cassandra stood there before them.
"You naive, laughable, goody-goody pixies! You think you could outwit me, the Countess of Evil, well here's you Princess Stella!" Countess Cassandra cackled as the fairies had looks of terror on there faces when they saw the fallen Princess of Solaria. Then, Cassandra vanished into thin air once again.
"Cira!" They all called..
"I'll never forgive myself for this." Musa sobbed.
"This is all our fault." Flora added sadly. Outside the castle, the sun was reaching the horizon.
In the throne room of Solaria, Elendor ran in the door in a panic.
"Radius, I have to tell you something!" he called, "Its about Brandon."
"Yes, where is he anyway?" Radius asked him.
"Thats what I'm trying to tell you." Elendor replied.
"Elendor, listen." Radius hushed his old friend as the announcer proclaimed the safety of Princess Stella. Fireworks of multiple colour slashed over the canvas of night sky, while up in the tallest tower of the Solarian palace, the fairies placed the fallen princess on a bed to rest. They all had tears running down their faces, but Musa just couldn't bring herself to look at Stella as she walked to the balcony. Moments later, Bloom and Flora followed her. Flora placed a comforting hand on Musa's shoulder.
"Poor King Radius and Queen Luna," Bloom began sadly, "They'll be so heartbroken when they find out what happen to Ci- Stella."
"That aren't going to find out," Musa replied wiping away a tear, "we'll be the entire kingdom to sleep until Cira awakens." And with that, Musa closed the curtains, and the fairies miniaturized and flew off. They sprinkled their fairy dust on the unsuspecting people in the courtyard of Solaria's palace, as well as everyone else in the ballroom of the palace. As the dust was sprinkled, everything came to a stand still as the people drifted off to sleep. It was Musa's job to put the two kings and Queen Luna to sleep when she overheard the conversation.
"So I was talking to Brandon and it seems he has fallen in love with a peasant girl." Elendor replied with a huge yawn due to Musa's fairy dust.
"Peasant girl?" Musa asked, flying back to Elendor, "Yes, your majesty, tell me about the peasant girl, who is she, where did Brandon meet her?"
"Just some peasant girl…" Elendor mumbled, "In… in a dream…" and then he fall asleep like the rest of the people.
"In a dream." Musa gasped, flying towards the other two fairies, "Girls, we have to get back to the cottage." After Bloom blew out the last of the candles in the room, they were in a race against time to save Brandon.