When she woke the next morning, it took a minute to remember where she was. The first thing she realized was that she felt no pain. She wasn't even a little sore. She felt well rested and comfortable and, oddly, at peace here. ' It's strange' She thought to herself. 'I feel more relaxed here than I ever did at Snake Mountain. These people should be my enemies, so they should have left me in my cell, but instead of leaving me to my fate they saved me.' She didnt know how much longer she would have lasted. ' It's entirely possible I would have died in that cell.'
She opened her eyes, she was still in the brightly colored room, only this time there was no one else in the room with her. Judging by the light coming through the window it was early morning. She slowly sat up. She pushed the blanket off and turned to her left. She saw that someone had left her a glass of water next to the lamp. She picked it up and sniffed it. Even though they had saved her, there was no telling what they would do to get information. When she didn't see or smell anything dangerous, she took a long drink before placing the glass back where it was.
She stood up and noticed that there was a mirror she hadn't noticed before. She quietly walked up to it. What she saw looking back at her, shocked her. Her old gray dress was torn and stained, it looked beyond repair. She was unnaturally thin and could see her bones poking through her skin. Her dress looked to big for her now. Her hair which had always looked like liquid gold, now looked pale and more silvery blonde. Her eyes were red and the blue irises looked almost faded. She was deathly pale. She looked like a ghost of herself. Unable to stand it any longer, she turned away. She walked to the window and looked out.
The view was spectacular. She couldn't see snake mountain from here, instead she saw a lush green field and flowers. In the distance she saw a beautiful forest, bright with color. She looked down and saw what she assumed was the courtyard. It was beautiful. She hadn't been outside Snake Mountain since she found Evil-Lyn.
A quiet knock at the door startled her. She didn't say anything, hoping to be left alone a little longer to gather her thoughts. Her wish wasn't granted and the door opened anyway.
Teela walked in holding a tray of food and some cloth. She looked surprised when she saw Destiny by the window. "Oh! I didn't know you were awake. I brought you some breakfast." Teela said as she walked to the table. She placed the tray next to the glass of water. She placed the cloth on the bed. Destiny said said nothing as she watched Teela's movements.
"Come on. You must be hungry. You're so thin that if you turn sideways, you might just disappear." Destiny smiled and sat down on the bed. She took the tray of food and inspected it. It was a simple breakfast, there was eggs and toast, but there was a small stack of something she didn't know. It was thin, circular, and covered in some sort of sweet smelling syrup. Nothing looked dangerous so she picked up the fork and poked the stack, liking at Teela. "Those are pancakes. It's a recipe that Queen Mariana gave the chef when she first came here." Teela said with a smile. Destiny looked back at the stack and cut a small piece off and ate it. It was delicious and she quickly finished of the stack before moving to the eggs and toast. When she was finished she placed the tray back in the table.
"I brought you some clothes to change into. That dress you're wearing has seen better days." Destiny looked down at her dress sadly. "I'll see if we can manage to save it. For now though, I'll leave you to change." Teela said as she stood up and walked to the door. She paused by the door. "I'll be waiting outside the door. Come out when you're ready." Teela left the room, closing the door behind her. Destiny looked around the room again. She was relieved when she didn't see any surveillance.
She picked up the cloth and saw it was a white dress. A pair of matching boots fell out and landed on the bed. The dress seemed to be made of silk. It was a V-neck and the sleeves were loose and flowing. The skirt of the dress had a lace floral pattern and stopped at the knees. It was both modest and beautiful. She glanced around the room again before removing her torn dress, and putting on the white one. She put on the boots before removing the belt from her old gray dress and buckling it around her waist.
Once she had dressed she carefully placed her old gray dress on the bed. She performed a small magic cleaning spell on herself and magically fixing her hair back into a bun. Once she was satisfied she turned and walked out the door.
"Oh good it fits, we had to guess your size." Teela said. Destiny nodded. Teela led Destiny down the hall. "I thought we'd start with a tour."
~~~
Destiny's tour consisted of the throne room, kitchen, banquet hall, and the library. She was silent throughout the tour. When they had run into the king and queen in the throne room she had only given them a small curtsy but for the rest of the tour, she focused more on not getting lost rather than the people she saw.
Teela was currently leading her outside. "This is the palace courtyard." Teela said as she led her out the door. "And over there," Teela pointed to the right, "are the royal gardens." Destiny looked over to the right and saw an open gate with vines and flowers in an arch over it. When she looked behind her, up at the palace she could see her window. 'So I was right about this being the courtyard.' She thought to herself.
Looking around she saw the man, Prince Adam, leaning against a large cat. Judging by it's emerald green coat and yellow stripes is was an Eternian Tiger. It was sleeping while Adam had apparently been reading, but had looked over at the sound of Teela's voice. There were two others in the courtyard. One was a young boy about ten years old with brown hair, the other was a floating figure. The figure had it's back to her. It's outfit looked like it could be a red shirt on a human but on the figure it l was more like a dress that went past it's feet, if it even had feet. It also wore a red pointed hat. From where she was she could see he had light blue pointed ears that were poking through ear holes in his hat. He to raised his arm out and she saw his hand was also light blue.
She turned her gaze back to the Prince and the tiger. The Prince stood up and the tiger opened his eyes for a moment before shifting his position and falling back asleep. The Prince walked over. "Hello again. I'm glad to see you up and moving around." She gave a Prince a small smile but kept her eyes on the tiger. "Don't worry about him. That's Cringer, he wouldn't hurt a fly."
As if to prove his point a butterfly landed on his nose. Cringer opened his eyes, let out a loud yowl and ran up the tree he had just been sleeping under. This was apparently normal cause everyone laughed. "Cringer its just a butterfly." A squeaky voice said, which Destiny realized was coming from the floating figure. "Get down ya big scaredy cat."
"I c-can't!" The tiger cried. Destiny had never heard a tiger speak before. The branch the tiger was clinging to suddenly broke and the tiger landed on the ground with a loud crash. He sat up and started sulking under the tree.
"Come on guys, its almost time for lunch." Teela said with a smile. "Oh! I'll race you Cringer." The figure said excitedly. Cringer mumbled something that Destiny couldn't hear. "Ok Cringer, suit yourself." The figure said before disappearing with a pop.
Cringer stood slowly and walked over to them. "Cringer this is Destiny." Adam said. "Destiny this is Cringer." Destiny smiled and tentatively reached her hand out to stroke his head. The fur on his head was soft but became course as she got to his neck. She had an amused look on her face when she scratched behind his ears and he purred. "Oh, I-I like you." He said.
"Come on guys, we'll be late." Teela said from the doorway. They followed Teela back into the palace.
Destiny was quiet throughout the meal. When someone would try to get her to talk she would stare at her lap until the conversation moved away from her. The food was great but Destiny ate very little, being unused to having more than one meal a day. After a while the floating figure decided to perform a few magic tricks which ended up covering Man-At-Arms with juice from several different types of berries much to his annoyance and everyone else's amusement.
After lunch she learned the figures name was Orko and he did almost the same thing to Cringer at dinner.
When Teela walked her back to her room that night she paused by the door. "Listen, I wanted to apologize for raising a sword at you back at Snake Mountain." Teela said. Destiny shook her head. While she didn't say anything it was clear to Teela that Destiny understood and was telling her that she had no reason to apologise.
During the three days that Destiny stayed at the palace she never spoke, but she was completely happy. The guard remained by her door at night but for the rest of the time she was able to move freely through the palace. She spent most of her time at the library and the courtyard. She read whichever stories and books someone suggested. She was starting to look a lot healthier and regained her lost weight very quickly. Man-At-Arms thought that her magic had started to cannibalize her body when she wasn't allowed to have proper meals while her body healed from Skeletor's torture.
~~~
Meanwhile back at Snake Mountain.
~~~
Skeleton watched the events on the vision crystal in his throne room. Destiny had been at the palace for three days now. Surely the plan had recovered now. After all He-man had "saved" her from him. Skeleton knew he had to get her back before she decided to switch sides. He could tell that she was starting to like them and trust them. If she stayed any longer his plan would likely backfire and she would betray him. They would march to the palace tomorrow and take her back. By force if it became necessary. He called the others in to explain the plan.
~~~
After breakfast on the forth morning, Skeletor decided to come and get her back. Destiny, Adam, Cringer, Teela and Orko had been out in the courtyard. Skeletor had brought his army with him. Once the guards spotted them they raised the alarm. Destiny knew immediately what was going on and a sad look crossed her face. As soon as the alarm was raised Adam and Cringer ran into the gardens. Destiny didn't want to go back but she knew she had to. She ran after Adam and Cringer. She wanted to tell them it would be okay, that she would go willingly. When she found them in the garden, Cringer was cowering and Prince Adam was holding his sword over his head. "By the power of Greyskull!" He called. There was a bright flash of light and He-Man stood in his place. "I HAVE THE POWER!" He said before pointing his sword at the quivering Cringer. There was another flash and Cringer grew and got a red helmet that covered his head and a red saddle on his back. He let out a fierce roar and turned and saw her watching.
~~~
He-Man placed his sword back into the sheath on his back. He turned to Battle-Cat, but Battle-Cat was looking wide-eyed at something on his right. He-man turned and saw Destiny looking at them. He knew from the expression on her face that she had seen them change.
