Yay! Update!

Enjoy!

Alfie wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and leaned back on the wall of the stall he stood in. The brown horse whinnied, nudging his arm and the dark-skinned boy laughed, stroking the animal's nose. "You understand, don't you?"

The horse snorted in response and Alfie patted his back before stepping out of the stall and locking the door behind him. He slowly made his way down the long hallway of stalls; every other cubicle had a horse while others were empty.

At the end of the stables, a young girl about his age stood, peeking in at one of the horses. Princess Amber's horse; the majestic white steed she called Rosebud. She giggled and then continued to talk to the stallion.

"Is she beautiful when she rides you? No, of course she is; she's always beautiful." she scoffed at herself, brushing a strawberry blonde curl out of her eyes.

"Excuse me?" Alfie spoke up, coming closer to the woman.

Her head snapped around to look at him and her forehead connected with a beam that held a pail of food for Rosebud. She hissed in pain.

"Are you okay?" he asked hurriedly, rushing up to her, holding her elbow as she stumbled backwards in shock. She rubbed her forehead and nodded.

"Yeah, it just surprised me." she giggled, closing her green eyes as she bent over, laughing.

"Yeah," he chuckled, helping her stand up straight and then took a step back. "Can I ask what you were doing talking to Rosebud?"

"That's her name? What a beautiful name. Only Princess Amber could name a horse so brilliantly." She sighed dreamily, looking back at the horse again.

"Yeah…" Alfie's brown eyes narrowed at her. "Who are you?"

"Willow Jenks; maid, part-time wiccan, full-time biggest Princess Amber Millington fan!" she bounced happily. "She's just so perfect – she just makes me want to...SQUEE!"

Alfie blinked.

"So who are you?" she smiled.

"Alfie Lewis, stable boy." He responded and she nodded, shaking his hand, her happy grin never leaving her pale face.

Patricia gasped, suddenly finding herself in a dark closet. She had been pulled in by her elbow and didn't know who it was with her in the blackness. But then she realized it was Eddie. Who else would drag her into a small room to be alone? Only Eddie.

"What do you want, Slimeball? I've got work to do." She stated, planting her fists on her hips.

"You would rather do chores than be with me?" he asked, fake hurt lacing his voice as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his chest.

"I'd rather do chores than have your nasty breath in my face. Would you stop eating sandwiches for a while?" she scoffed, hand finding his cheek and she pushed his face away from her.

"God, Yacker, you make it really hard to be romantic." He groaned, releasing her shoulders.

"Then stop trying so hard. I'm not one for romantic gestures anyway."

"That's because no one has ever done anything romantic for you yet." He retorted.

"I'm just waiting for the right guy to do those things for me." she whimpered teasingly.

"Oh really?" his smirk was obvious in his voice.

"Yeah, I don't have any idea where he is though." She shrugged even though he couldn't see her and slipped out of the closet easily.

As the door clicked shut behind her, Eddie frowned, letting his shoulders sag in defeat. Patricia was just hard to work with sometimes.

Amber smiled at her father, sitting down next to him in the sitting room, smoothing out her peach colored dress. Her hair was slightly curly and pulled back, half up-half down. She waited a moment for him to put his book down and Andrew turned to his daughter expectantly.

"Eddie's very nice, daddy; I think you picked the right prince." She said, flicking her hair over her shoulder.

A smile tugged and Andrew's lips. She was happy. He had tried so hard to make her happy after her mother had died. When the queen passed away due to a cold last winter, the whole kingdom mourned with the family. And she had meant everything to Amber. It had really killed him to betrothed her; he hadn't wanted to upset her, but it seemed that despite her original feelings on the situation, she was happy. He laid a hand on hers and placed a kiss on her temple. "I only want the best for you, dear."

"I know." She whispered. A thin veil of sadness wrapped around her as she left the room. If he really wanted the best for her, he wouldn't have angrily forbidden her to see Alfie when he had seen them walking through the garden. Alfie had almost gotten fired, but Amber managed to persuade her father not to. But they had to see each other secretly and at night from then on.

"Oh, hello, Princess Amber," Poppy smiled and curtsied.

"Oh, um, Jerome's sister, Poppy, right?" she giggled, clasping her hands together excitedly. "It's a pleasure to meet you! You're so pretty! No, beautiful! Like a totally natural beauty. Wow. Mara is so lucky to have a sister-in-law like you! We can be best friends!"

Poppy laughed. "Okay,"

"Fantastic! Call me Amber; I'll call you Poppy, and we're on our way into a beautiful friendship." She gasped, leaning into her face, staring into her eyes. Poppy's blue-green eyes widened in surprise and she took a step back to distance herself from the other princess. "Oh my gosh, that's so cute – you have a crush on someone!"

"What? I do not!" she defended herself and Amber scoffed, waving her protest away.

"That is such a lie – I can sense these things. You like someone. Who is he? What's his name? Is he cute? Is he sweet? Is he worth it?"

"Um," Poppy swallowed. "I don't know his name."

"Huh?" Amber cocked her head in confusion.

"I danced with him at my Jerome and Mara's engagement celebration ball but I didn't get his name – he ran off before I could ask."

"Aw, it's like a fairytale! Only backwards…" she shrugged and linked their arms. "I want details."

Review?

Are all of you ready for this year's 12 Days of Christmas? It's gonna be fun! :D

"I'm the lord of the wastelands; a modern day man of steel. I gather darkness to please thee and I command you to kneel before the god of thunder and rock and roll. The spell you're under will slowly rob you of your virgin soul."

...okay then... Well, you gotta love KISS.

-Rachel