After breakfast, the group came upon a patch of magnolia trees and Charlie asked if they could stop for a moment, so she could gather some of the flowers. If it had been anybody else, Alastor would have said no because he didn't want to delay getting his forest back. However one look at the smile on Charlie's face when she first saw those magnolias, he couldn't bring himself to deny her.

"I won't be long." She said. "I really don't mean to delay, but magnolias are my favorite and I haven't seen any or smelled them since I was a little girl."

She proceeded to pluck a few magnolias and then weaved them into a wreath which she wore on her head.

"Would you like a wreath too Alastor?" She asked him with her eyes shinning so bright.

"Uh...No thank you my dear." He said backing away in a bashful manner. "I don't really like flowers. They're much too sweet for me and- Oof!"

He had accidentally backed himself up into a tree and his antlers became entangled in the branches.

"Oh this won't do at all." His arms went to his head as he tried to free his antlers, though it proved to be quite a challenge.

"Here let me help you." Charlie said.

She got closer to him and tugged on the branches.

"Careful not to pull so hard." Alastor said.

"I think I'm supposed to bend em back." Charlie said. "Or do I just jerk?"

"That's my antlers you just jerked."

"Sorry."

Angel and Vaggie both thought about intervening but then they thought that perhaps something beneficial could come from this. Beneficial to Alastor and Charlie's relationship.

"A little more to the left my dear." Alastor instucted.

"Like this?" She replied.

"Not your left, my left."

She pulled on the branches so hard that at long last, she freed Alastor but the impact had caused her to go tumbling backward into a nearby pond. Alastor didn't mean to laugh at the drenched princess but he couldn't help himself.

"Are you...Ha!...Alright? Ha-ha!"

"Oh so you think that this is funny?" She said standing up with an irritated look.

"I'm sorry Charlie." He said holding his hand to her. "Here allow me to assist you."

She took his hand but instead of letting him pull her out, she pulled him right into the pond. Both him and Angel were surprised that Charlie was strong enough to pull a full grown wendigo into a pond. However Alastor's shock quickly faded when the princess started laughing at him.

"Now that's funny." She giggled.

A mischievous grin rose to Alastor's face and he splashed pond water on to her. Charlie retaliated by splashing him right back.

"So you wanna play games?" Alastor's grin increased ten fold. "Well I gotta a game we can play. It's where I pick you up and throw you into this pond."

"Don't you dare! Oh!"

She quickly climbed out of the pond and ran away. He chased her up a hill, through the grass, and around and around the trees. He tried to grab her countless times but she always managed to evade his grasp.

"A nimble little thing, isn't she?" Alastor thought to himself.

But despite his constant failure to catch Charlie, he was laughing and smiling the entire time. They both were, and after awhile, Charlie decided to slow down a bit and let Alastor catch her.

"Gotcha!" He said grabbing her by the waist. "I must say I'm impressed. No human has been able to out run me before. You are full of surprises, my dear."

"You're full of surprises too Alastor. I never thought a wendigo could be so playful. Growing up, I never had any friends to play games like that with."

"Neither did I. Well except for my mother of course. She would play with me for hours once she had finished doing her chores."

"My mother and father would play with me when they could. Running a kingdom doesn't leave much time for fun, but they always made sure to tuck me into bed and read me a bedtime story every night. Oh how I loved bedtime. My mother would wrap me up in quilts, hold me in her lap, and my father would next to us and read to me. And he would always adjust the book to where I could see the illustrations."

"What kind of books would he read you?"

"What else? Story books. Adventure stories, magical stories. Stories of ourageous heroes who fight villains, of fair maidens who are rescued by their one true love, of good always triumphing over evil."

"I'm all too familiar with that form of literature." Alastor sighed. "My mother would read stories like that to me before bed too. But I grew to hate them."

"Why?"

"I truly don't mean to offend you, I truly don't, but I think those traditional stories do more harm than good. I feel like all they do is brainwash people into believing that only the beautiful creatures are good while the ugly ones are bad."

"That was never my take away from it. I always believed that they were trying to teach people that working hard, trying to do right, and having faith will win you happiness. That goodness and love can overcome all."

"That's a touching belief but it doesn't work for everyone."

"How do you know?"

"Because when I was a boy I believed the same thing. Growing up I worked very hard, I tried to do right, and I had faith but no matter what I did, I just couldn't be happy. Nobody would let me be happy. So I thought to myself, what's the point?"

Charlie looked at him with sympathetic eyes and gave him a soft smile.

"Sometimes gaining true happiness requires patience." She said. "It doesn't always come the instant you ask for it. And in some cases like my own, it can take many years for it to come. But if you have faith and a good heart, it will come. And don't get me wrong, I know it isn't easy to wait and hold on to faith and hope, especially when you're suffering through difficult times, but pain and misery is only temporary. Love and friendship is forever. As long as you don't give up on it."

"You seem so sure of that."

"I know it's true. You proved it."

"How do you mean?"

"You rescued me from the tower. For sixteen years, I was trapped there and during that time the only thing that helped me hold on to my sanity was the belief that someone would free me eventually. And I was right."

Alastor tried so hard not to blush but the way she was looking at him right now, it made his emotions go crazy.

"And you know something else." She continued. "I believe that's why your mother read you those stories. She probably deduced that life would be very hard on you and she didn't want you to cave into depression or let pain turn you cruel. So she told you those stories in hopes that it would inspire you to always have faith, have a good heart, and have the will to never give up."

Alastor never thought of that before. He had often wondered why she would read him those fairy tales about handsome human men and beautiful human women living happily ever after while hideous creatures were punished with misery. At first he thought that she was trying to teach him that because he was ugly, he'd never be happy whether he was good or bad. But perhaps he had misinterpreted her teachings?

After all, he remembered his mother having such a passion for life and a smile in her heart. True she had suffered greatly, with losing her own true love and having to be forced to leave her home, then hide in the dark and raise a child all by herself. But she still found a ray of light in that darkness.

"No matter how much people try to hurt you, don't ever let anyone take away your smile."

When she said those words, she most likely meant that he should never let any form of pain or cruelty break his spirit. That happiness was always possible even if the world was against him. And although she had told him to stay hidden and keep away from humans, she probably never intended for him to keep away from other creatures like Angel. She probably never intended for him to live life alone.

"I mean I can't say for certain." Charlie said. "I've never met your mother and I don't know what she was like, but I don't think any mother would have wanted her child to be all alone for the rest of their life. Nor do I believe that she would want her child to grow up believing they were never going to be accepted and loved."

She was right. His mother wouldn't have wanted him to live completely alone. She would have wanted him to live a discreet and cautious life but not a solitary and lonely one. She would have wanted Alastor to seek out friends and fall in love and maybe even have a family someday. All the while being careful of cruel human beings of course. But Alastor had taken being careful way too far.

"I think you're right." He said smiling softly just like she was. "And even thought she was very afraid of humans, I'm sure she would have adored you. She would have adored any human who was wiling to give our kind a chance to be anything other than a monster."

"I would have been so honored to have known her." Charlie said.

For a moment they just looked and smiled at each other. Then they decided that there had been enough delay for the day and proceeded with their journey.