Raziah shot up from her sleep when that sense of alertness kicked into her sleep, and her eyes traveled to the entrance of the cave where Bellerus stood back staring at her. She looked completely disheveled from head to toe. Her hair and skin were dirty, and her clothes were torn and barely sitting on her body.
Recognizing the Crown witch, Raziah turned back to stare around the cave. Aletta was nowhere to be found, and her aching foot had calmed down a lot. Raziah couldn’t remember when she had fallen asleep last night, though she could remember Aletta whispering something soft, like a melody into her ears...maybe that was what helped her fall asleep through the pain.
The sun was up, and the scent of earth after rain filled the air as the Princess pulled up to her feet. She walked out of the cave limping a bit, though it was almost unnoticeable and just walked past Bell when he felt something new from her. His lashes trembled in thought and doubt, trying to give himself plausible reasons on how that might have happened.
"Acacia wants to make sure that you’re ok. She has her doubts about you still present in the witch’s Forest, and I know you do not want her to find out about all this," Bell said behind her, giving her another once over, "What happened last night?"
Of course, she didn’t give him any details. Anticipating something bad might have happened to her, it was a good thing he brought a change of garments for her. It was something he had picked up from the closest village, a dress that was of the same quality as the one she was putting on before.
Her long hair was almost touching her knee, and the threads were even more golden in color than before. He noticed she wasn’t quite walking well like she was trying to hide something from him. Not much was said between them as he took her to the closest lake to wash off because it would be a disaster if she went back to the witch’s Forest looking like that. He kept the new clothes by the bank of the water and gave her time to rest a little.
Raziah found some stones with sharp edges and made use of them to cut her hair back to its regular length, burying the long strands she had cut off somewhere around. Though the cut wasn’t perfect, she packed it into a bun so no one would notice the untrimmed edges of it as she changed into the new clothes brought for her. It was not in her call to accept help from someone she couldn’t trust, but her choices were limited right now. If she continued to prove stubborn and returned to the witch’s Forest looking like that, then her husband would hear everything from Acacia.
As predicted, Acacia was waiting for them just as they walked into the forest.
"Your Majesty..." Acacia greeted curtly, "I didn’t realize you would go anywhere without me. These grounds... aren’t exactly safe."
One look from Raziah, and Acacia zipped her mouth shut. They had brought her somewhere she didn’t know, paralyzed her body, and had her lying on a boat with some floating book above her head. She wakes up five days later and finds herself chained to the bed, only to feel changes happening to her because of the Redl moon. It’s rather annoying to have any one of them talk to her, or even question her... and so the Princess walked away.
Unlike last night, she was back to whom she was before. Those heightened senses of hers were gone. Sighing inaudibly, she continued down the path without a destination in mind.
"You didn’t let me see her for over five days. You should have told me you managed to get her to go somewhere with you," Acacia whispered furiously at her brother, glaring at him as they both walked quietly behind Raziah who was already far ahead of them.
Bellerus didn’t have the strength to begin explaining anything to his sister, "When do you plan on leaving? I believe you’ve achieved your goals here, " He mumbled.
"Yeah. The whole experience really brought out convincing and understandable results, didn’t it?" Acacia glared at her brother even harder. The man was speaking as if they had found the answer to their question about her when the only thing the silver book and canoe ride exposed about the Princess was that her old wristband has something to do with her abilities, and the two written words on the silver book have them even more confused.
"You were there when it all happened. There’s nothing neither of us could do about it. You know the world of the supernatural is filled with question marks so don’t go putting out your frustrations on me when things don’t go your way!" He scowled back at her, "Now when are you leaving? I have things to attend to!"
"It’s not like I want to be here! I’ll be off before you know it!"
"I’m sure your king would be delighted to have you back when you have nothing tangible to tell him about this," Bell said sarcastically.
"At least I tried." She muttered. After a few minutes of silence, they sighted Raziah standing in front of the cliff looking down at the towns below her. A Part of Raziah was curious to go down there and take a look around the villages that seemed so different from the ones she was used to, but her will constantly reminded her that there were even more witches down there than they’re up here.
"From what I’ve seen... She’s even more insecure than we all are. Always on her toes from sunrise till sunset. She’s confused about who and what she is, and she seeks her own peace of mind, patiently waiting for the day it would come to her," Bellerus spoke calmly this time as he stared at Raziah’s back. The Princess was once again fidgeting with the wristband again as she kept staring down at the town. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶
Acacia looked up at her brother.
"Long ago, something similar happened with someone. The person was with Harlow, one of the former crown witches and the same thing was also happening to her when they tried to find out what she was with the silver book. I didn’t quite see who it was, so I can’t say if it was the Princess or not. Though I didn’t see everything till the end, something tells me they found the answer to their question at that time." Bellerus sighed, knowing his next words would be as unpredictable as Raziah was right now. Facing his sister, he placed both hands on her shoulders and stared deeply into her eyes, "Acacia, I’m not sure if I’m right about this and I didn’t feel it till this morning when I saw her before we headed back..."
Acacia could see the contemplating and confusion shimmering in those multicolored eyes of his. He squeezed her shoulders hard as he continued.
"And I do not think it’s advisable for you to let anyone know about something that isn’t yet confirmed." He continued softly, "No matter what happens, I want you to try and keep an eye on the Princess because right now, my senses keep telling me that there’s another heartbeat growing inside of her,"
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