Seven - Visitors

I can see the light beyond my eyes lids and have no idea where I am. I do hear someone close to me breathing. I slowly open my left eye, looking for the person breathing in the hopes they don’t notice I am awake.  Faulk is sitting in a chair close to my bed in my new room, the room filled with the sunlight cascading in through the windows. 

I take a deep breath and slowly bring myself up in the bed…

“Oh my god your awake, are you ok? You passed out and fell to the floor in the throne room yesterday. I carried you here and have been keeping an eye on you. I’m so glad your ok I was Soo worried” Faulk leans in giving me a hug that I don’t return, still confused as to what happened. 

“What happened, I have been out since yesturday? I have a bump on my head, what is It from”?  I flinch as I rub the bump on the back of my head. 

“You blacked out and fell. I tried to catch you, but wasent fast enough. You smacked ur head off the floor. I’ll run and get you some ice” 

Faulk looks very anxious as he answers my question, while quickly getting up leaving my room. 

I hear a light knock on the door. Which opens to revival the Queen, I bow in my bed as best I can. 

“Oo sweetheart you do not need to bow to me please stop it! I’m so happy your alright you gave us all a good scare, how do you feel?” Lindy asks as she rushes to my side with a tray of food and a goblet of something. 

“My head hurts where I hit it on the ground so I am told but aside from that I feel fine. I’m terrible sorry my queen I don’t know what happened” I get out although it feels like I have sand in my throat. 

“Don’t be sorry darling its completely fine. Please just call me Lindy from now on, ok?”

She passes me the goblet which has the fuzzy juice in it. I gulp it down as quickly as she gave it to me! 

“ I scolded them both for throwing you into all this so quickly, no one gave you a chance to think or relax for even a minute” stupid men she mumbles as she takes my empty goblet. 

“I’m so sorry love. I’ll let you relax. Please take a bath and check out the rest of the castle. Aside from the tower. I will come and check on you later this afternoon” she says as she gets up and makes her way to the door. 

“Aurora don’t worry, you are safe here, try and relax” she says as she leaves my room.  

I slowly eat was is on the tray beside me, trying hard not to think about everything that has happened. So tired by all the thoughts in my head. Once I am finished I make my way back to my favourite spot in this castle so far, my gorgeous bathroom. Doing just as I did before, locking the door and start the tub filling. Adding this oil and that soap as I let the scentswash over me calming me instantly.  

I sink myself as deep into the tub as I can and keep going over what the king had said. I must choose. I have never been able to make hardly any of my own choices in my life. The thought of this gives me hope.  Hope that I will have a future.  The choice I have to make to pick a creature when I’ve never even met any other creature aside from my wolf dog and didn’t even know until now that any of them were even real.  How could I choose not knowing.? 

But the more I thought about it it seemed to me that the choice was clear I need to pick a creature that was the strongest of them all. It made the most sense to me to become a wolf. Feeling like I should’ve been a wolf the whole time. Faulk kept me safe and healed me all those years and I feel like maybe that’s what I was destined to become.

I let the water out of the tub feeling a little better with myself. I get up and dry myself off with a big white fluffy towel and slowly make my way into my room gawking at the beauty that was within. I get into the walk-in closet and start looking around at the clothes trying to pick something out that seems simple. I grabbed another long dress with soft flowey fabric and threw it over my head as I grabbed another pair panties out of the small drawer and putting back on the soft pink slippers that I had on before. I headed back out into my room. 

Now the queen had given me permission to go and explore the castle maybe I should do that. I take a deep breath and walk over to the door and open it to look down the long Corridor only to find three guards stationed outside my room yet again. I look at them all questioningly and to my shock they bow. I slowly make my way out of my room into the opposite direction that I had gone before just to check out this beautiful castle I now find myself in. I open the door at the end of the hall and make my way into the room behind it. My breath taken away by what I saw before me a beautiful greenhouse the walls all glass and windows etched with many small pictures of mythic creatures.  The plants and aromas in this room or unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Birds chirping, butterflies flying around. It seems to have its own sparkle in the air. I can see the ceiling panels are open to allow creature in and out, it’s breathtaking! As I walked around and laid my fingers on the soft petals of the flowers in the garden beds taking it all in. It feels like the best dream I have ever had. 

I found a small bench in the centre of the greenhouse, sitting on it and taking in my surroundings this whole place is beyond anything I could have even imagined, how as I so lucky to have made my way here.  

I hear a strange noise from the back of the green house that catches my attention. Slowly getting up and making my way over to the corner. I see a set of wings.  Wait, wings, no one has wings, I must be dreaming…rubbing my eyes as I get closer. They were definitely wings attached to a small dainty girl, with beautiful long blonde hair. 

“Hello” I call to her, which scares her.

“I’m so sorry to have disturbed you. I didn’t realize anyone was in here” she says sadly as if she was bothered by something and was almost trying to hide in there. 

“That’s ok! No need to be sorry. My name is Aurora” I say gently to her as she slowly turn around to look at me.  She is breathtakingly beautiful. Long blonde hair that shines like gold in the green house,  bright purple eyes, I could have sworn I was dreaming again. They didnt even look real. 

She curtsy’s towards me, which I am taken aback by. 

“Please there’s no need for that. I am a mere human. I was brought here my my long lost brother to meet the king and queen” I say to her with warmth in my eyes. 

“I know who you are. I was summoned here just to meet you dear Aurora” she says as she gives me a warm embrace. 

I am shocked by this just like I have been with everything so far.  Why would this fairy be summoned here for me? 

“Oh my dear I see you have arrived my sweet Lily. Of course you have already met Aurora” Lindy says as I see her comming towards us out of the corner of my eye. I’m sure the look on my face was probably a sight to see. Lindy rubs my arm as she walks over to Lily to give her a hug! 

“Aurora don’t look so shocked my sweet. I invited lily to meet you, along with many others.  That way you can meet and get to know the different creatures so you can make the best possible decision for yourself with all the information needed. However I get the feeling you have made your mind up about it already.” Lindy looks deep into my eyes. All I could blurt out was

“How did you know”?

“I am the Queen Aurora, I know everything! Alas I still would like you to meet everyone so you can make an informed decision!” She smiles 

“Yes, your majesty….I mean Lindy!” My cheeks going red at my misstep, I look away quickly! 

“No need to be embarrassed my dear. Now get on to your room and change into something a bit dressier. Our guests will begin arriving as we speak for the large formal dinner this evening for you. At the end of which we hope you will announce your choice to everyone so that we can make plans for your change as soon as possible.  These things must be done in a timely manner or some creatures get upset!” She winks at me and smiles….

My head feels dizzy again, a formal dinner. I have never even been to one of those…Anxiety floods through me and my stomach is instantly in knots.  A formal dinner…..