Chapter V

5_

Princess Aeson felt her father come out of her room, then Aeson raised her tear-stained face to the mirror in front of her, looking into her raging eyes, everything inside her shivering with pain, and everything around her was filled with anguish and silence. Then Aeson stopped her endless expression.

She turned towards the mirror and was shocked when she saw herself in the mirror. A girl in front of her was a girl she did not know and found herself looking carefully at her image in the mirror towards her skin, which had always been golden, which was now pale and yellow.

And her green eyes, both of them always bright and full of life, were withered and surrounded by dark circles. She closed her eyes tightly. Neither sadness nor pain would help her now, nor would it help her go on with her life.

She is already too young for this pain, how can she agree to what her father asked of her and end her life in this way and remain for a whole month captive of a werewolf man she knows nothing about except that he wants revenge on her, because her father killed a wolf from a tribe, her body trembled with fear

From that idea that as soon as she goes to the palace of Chief Francisco, he tortures or kills her.

She shook her head in refusal a number of times with great fear as she searched inside her mind for a solution, and at the same time the door to her room opened and her maid Laura entered after she knocked on the door in her normal dress and wearing a white apron over it.

She advanced with simple steps and said in a sad voice, "The Lord is with you, little princess, since I knew what happened to you, and I am very sad for you, but do not worry, this nightmare will surely end when your captivity ends."

Princess Aison looked at her silently and calmly for a long time, her mind thinking of something while Laura was very surprised by the princess's looks at her and said with interest, "Do you want something, Princess, I bring it to you?"

Princess Aison did not answer her, but smiled at her with a malicious smile that worried Laura greatly. The princess rarely smiles at her with that happy smile, for surely behind that smile is evil and not good.

After a long time.

Laura pressed her trembling fingers to her temples so as not to hear the loud voices coming from the reception hall on the lower floor of the palace, then she looked at the silk dress that she was wearing for the first time in her life.

Her princess, who a while ago forced her to get dressed, then raised her hand to wipe her tears, which were falling with muffled oppression as she remembered what happened.

Princess Aison approached her and said in a sharp tone

"Listen to me, Laura, and keep my words well in your mind. Now you will wear this dress and cover your face with this scarf in a good way so that no one will see you, so that everyone will think that you are me, and then you will go to the forest of the dead and live there for a month instead of me."

Laura shook her head in disapproval, not understanding what I said, and said in a low voice, "Princess please, don't let me go to the forest of the dead, surely someone will know that I am not the princess and then they will kill me."

She clenched her teeth and said very angrily, "Enough foolishness, how will they know that you are not the princess, and they have not seen me not even once, and above all this is an order from me and you must implement it without discussion."

She swallowed her saliva in confusion and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry, Princess, I refuse this request. This is a great risk and I can't handle it."

Aison raised her eyebrows sharply, and looked at her hard and said nervously, "What did you say you refuse to help me, oh so if you refuse to help the people who have done you good, well, you are expelled from this palace on charges of stealing my ring."

"But I didn't steal anything from you," Laura quickly nodded eagerly.

Aison answered her coldly and said sarcastically, "I know that, but prove your words true, and who will lie to a princess and believes his servant."

Her eyes watered in shock, and she got down on her knee, begging sadly between her tears, "But this is unfair. I have been working here for more than five years in the palace and I did not hesitate for a moment and steal something from you.. Please don't do this to me, Princess Aison, my mother's health could not bear such news."

Princess Aeson smiled triumphantly and said with confidence

"You have only one solution before you.. to accept you go to the forest of the dead instead of me, and do not let anyone know this, even my father."

She closed her eyes weakly and despairingly and said, "But my mother, who will take care of her and my big brother?"

She lowered her hand and put her on her feet and said with a nice fake smile, "Don't worry about her, I'll take care of her, and I send her food every day and make sure she's in good health. Agree, Laura, it's only one month and you'll be back to your mother safely."

She came back from her wandering and Laura shivered and felt uncomfortable when she saw Prince Aison enter the room and said quickly, "The procession has arrived outside, and I heard my father send the servant Andrew to ask you to hurry.. Come on, I will hide now and you put the scarf on your face so well that no one will suspect you."

Then Aeson exclaimed in a sharp warning voice, "Don't you, Laura, try to escape or confess to anyone that you are not the princess. I don't advise you that, no, I will send your mother to hell."

"Now she was not sent to Hell," Laure said to herself, and shook her head with tears of brokenness and fear for her mother, while Aison moved quickly into hiding when she heard the door open and Laura lifted the scarf tightly around her face.

And after she left the room among the people of the palace, who were astonished, would Princess Aeson really go to the forest of death as a ransom for her father?

Laura walked outside with slow, hesitant steps, as the spacious reception halls were crowded with invited dignitaries watching what was happening until she found King Ernesto standing in her face, looking at her with great sadness.

And when he tried to get close to Laura, he removed the scarf from his daughter's face to say goodbye to her before she left. He surprised me. Laura took steps back in panic, holding the scarf tightly and preventing him from removing it from above her face so that her matter would not be revealed, and then she completed quick steps towards him outside the palace.