15: introductions

Aurora's heart was beating rapidly in her chest as her new shoes clacked against the marble floors of the royal palace. Although she had been to the palace before, it was so otherworldly in its luxuriousness that she found she could never get familiar with it.

Beth, Aurora's Lady's maid, was walking behind the timid girl as a royal butler was leading them through the palace.

The butler was tall and slim, with long arms that stayed firmly by his sides and strides that tapped against the marble floor in a precise beat. Aurora noticed that he was perfectly groomed too, his blonde hair was neatly slicked back, and his butler suit was tailored to perfection, not a crease in sight. But then again Aurora thought that the entire palace was like that. Every inch of marble was waxed and polished to such a degree that she could see her reflection on the floors as she walked the endless passages. Every separate detail of this place was nothing short of perfect.

As Aurora reflected on herself, she had to admit that she was out of place in this immaculate palace. Her unruly but boring brown hair had been combed back neatly this morning but was now already out of its bun. A stray strand was flapping about in front of her face as she walked. She was so wobbly and awkward that her new shoes made an unstable rhythm against the floors as she rushed to keep up with the butler leading them. She felt she was like an ugly stain in this perfect castle. A stain on the prince even, since he was tied to her.

Her fiancé, the lost prince, as everyone called him. A small smile crept onto her lips at the thought of meeting him. The day she had given him her present, a small pin that she had dug herself from her family mines had paled in comparison to all the other gifts he had been given, and yet he did not complain. He declared in front of everyone how wonderful the pin was and tied it to his collar that instant. That moment was forever carved into Aurora's head as a happy memory. She was sure that today would be another happy memory since she was going to meet him.

She bit her lip happily as the butler came to a stop a few meters in front of her. He turned around to face her and then bowed respectfully towards her.

"Madame Favian, this is the prince's wing. Nanny Zelda will take you from here."

With that, the butler knocked a steady three times on the large white doors. Soon the two doors were slowly opened and a gentle-faced older woman stepped out.

"Good morning Madam Favian. It is a pleasure to see you again." Aurora was immediately relieved to find that Nanny Zelda had a cheerful disposition. She had been scared that the woman would be a strict and cold, but looking at Zelda's rosy cheeks and kind eyes, Aurora was immediately put at ease. She smiled up at her happily the nanny.

Zelda turned towards Beth and nodded in greeting. "Please come collect the young madam after lunch time."

Beth curtseyed while taking a few steps back and then walked back down the hall she had been lead through.

Nanny Zelda stretched out her hand for Aurora which she took happily. The pair began to walk through the prince's wing, hand in hand.

Aurora was in awe of how huge the prince's accommodation was. The wing was big enough to house a few large families and grand enough even for a king. And yet it was a space only meant for the prince.

"My dear, I am afraid that his Highness completed a severe task last night and fell quite ill afterwards. He is in fact still fast asleep in his recovery room." Zelda sighed as she remembered how the young prince had fainted after coming back from his journey to the spirit world.

Aurora's smile was swept off her face at the news.

"A task so difficult that it made him sick?" Aurora's eyes glistened and a small smile marred her little forehead.

"I'm afraid so." A worried frown encroached on Zelda's forehead as she thought about the prince wandering around the spirit realm for so many hours. The poor prince was so hardworking.

"I will take you to the prince's private recovery room, he is expected to wake up soon, then you and he can have a proper meeting." Zelda reached down and gently patted the girl's shoulder in an attempt to comfort the obviously anxious child.

"There's no need to worry little Madame. The young prince is very sweet, a meeting with him is nothing to fear at all."

"Oh no, I am not afraid of the prince." Aurora blurted out much louder than she intended to. "I'm just anxious to meet him properly." She explained bashfully.

Zelda chuckled looking down at the cute girl. "Well then there is no need to be anxious, for the prince is gracious and accommodating, and I'm sure that he will remember you."

Zelda came to a stop outside a copper door. Aurora looked up at the magnificent door in awe and marvelled at its bright vibrant colour as she had never seen a door made of copper before.

Aurora watched as Zelda leaned forward and inserted a copper key from around her neck into the keyhole. Zelda then gently pushed open the door and revealed an incredible cosy room inside.

In the centre of the room was a single bed where the prince was asleep. His satin sheets were a copper colour that wrapped around him snugly. But other than that, every inch of the floors and ceiling were covered in healing trinkets.

Aurora recognised the ivory fingers that were meant to conduct healing spirits, objects she had learned about at the academy. Not to mention the copper ornaments that were meant to have healing properties. Gold crosses and silver rods which were superstitiously kept in the rooms of the ill to help them get better. She could see large and small pots of purple hyacinth and green lavender, their scents were known to clear up sinuses and restore good breathing. This room was filled with an abundance of expensive healing equipment, ornaments, plants and many other strange trinkets that Aurora could not identify. After one look, she felt that anyone could get better after spending a night in this room.

"Well, go along dear." Aurora felt Nanny Zelda nudge her forwards into the room. And by the time she had turned around, the woman had closed the door behind her.

Aurora once again looked down at her dress and straightened the wrinkles out with her hands. She noticed that there was a small chair beside the prince's bed, so she decided that she would sit there next to him and wait for him to wake up.

She carefully took the seat, not wanting to make any noise that would disturb him. Once she was seated she gazed down at the prince's sleeping face and really looked at him this time. Last time she had been too shy and had kept her eyes downcast when she had handed him the golden pin, but now that he was asleep she felt more confident, and openly stared at his face.

Just as she remembered, prince Rory was remarkably beautiful with his soft slightly flushed cheeks and remarkable white hair. When she had seen him before, he had the air of a refined prince about him: confident and well-spoken. However, now he looked adorable and gentle. The two versions of the prince in her mind were so different, it was strange to realise that they were the same person.

The prince was sleeping on his back, with his head leaning towards Aurora. His silky white hair lay haphazardly about his face and pillow and his cheeks were slightly flushed with fever. He was in a deep sleep with only his chest slowly rising and falling in his slumber.

The only window in the room was positioned right above the head of the bed, letting brilliant morning light shine down on his face and warming up his body from the cold spirit energy.

Aurora felt it was a shame that she could not see his magnificent golden eyes, but if he was sick she wanted him to rest. Aurora frowned when she saw the prince's cheek twitch slightly from irritation as a strand of his hair was tickling his brow. Instinctively, Aurora reached out towards his face, wanting to gently brush off the hair so that he could return to a peaceful sleep. However she froze just as her fingertips were about to touch his cheek as Rory's eyes suddenly fluttered open.

---

Rory opened his eyes knowing that someone was in the room with him. A combination of his instincts and intuition told him so, even as he was sleeping. He had expected to see Nanny Zelda when he opened his eyes, but instead, he was quite surprised to see the girl he had been worrying about. His betrothed, Aurora Favian. Her little hand just about to touch his face. He suddenly remembered all about the morning he had planned for them to spend together.

When nanny Zelda was not around he had inquired about Aurora to a few of his maids and they had all told him similar stories about Aurora having a hard time fitting in at the academy. Rory did not have to guess that her being betrothed to him put her in the limelight for intense scrutiny, so he felt a bit responsible for the tough time she was having. He wanted to make it up to her somehow. He wanted to make sure she was as comfortable around him as possible, however, when he opened his eyes, he realised that she was not in the least bit comfortable.

Her face instantly flushed a bright pink, and he saw her snatch her hand away to her lap. Rory could not help but smile at her cute action.

"Miss Aurora, it's a pleasure to see you, again." He smiled warmly at her as he sat up in the bed. He found that his energy had completely returned to him after some rest. The effects of being in the spirit realm for so long had worn off.

"Oh, thank you, you too..." Aurora blushed, worrying if the prince realised that she had been about to touch him a moment ago.

As Rory was now sitting upright in the bed, he was a bit taller than her and was looking down at her, which only proved to make Aurora more self-conscious. At a glance Rory could tell that he was making Aurora uncomfortable, he just was not sure about what he was doing wrong. He also began to get a bit nervous and self-conscious as he saw Aurora's red ears and quivering pupils. Did he look odd? Did he perhaps smell bad? He could not figure it out.

Rory then shifted over to the other side of the bed and lifted the covers off of himself. He saw that he had been changed into formal white silk button-up pyjamas. He stepped down from the grand copper bed to find that something warm and squishy was lying beneath his feet. He looked down and laughed out loud as a distraught Sirith stared up at him. His pet's eyes were aghast and his striped brow was furrowed. Sirith looked completely flabbergasted that his master had just stepped on him.

"I'm sorry, Sirith." Rory could not suppress his laughter at the hilarious expression on his pet's face.

Aurora curiously leaned over to try and see what the prince found so amusing. She discreetly peered over the prince's shoulder, only to let out a shriek when a giant sabertooth cat leapt onto the bed next to the prince. Aurora was so shocked by the sudden appearance of a giant cat that she shot back into her chair. Unfortunately, she sat back down with such a force that she put too much weight on the chairs back legs, causing the chair to tip over.

When she realised that she was falling she instinctively shut her eyes and reached out for something to hold onto. She did not know what she had grabbed, only that it was something silky to the touch.

She fell to the floor with a loud thud and grunted in an unladylike way at the impact. Right after she hit the floor, another heavy weight fell in top of her and pinned her to the ground. She opened her eyes to see that had fallen on top of her. Her face was immediately dyed a beetroot red from embarrassment and Rory's eyes widened in shock as they both stared at each other and wondered how they had gotten into this precarious situation.

It took a moment for Aurora to realise that when she had fallen, she had grabbed hold of the prince himself as a stabiliser and had been the cause of him falling on top of her.

Her hands flew to her mouth in shock as she apologised.

"Prince Torryn, I deeply apologise!" Her voice soaked up her state of panic and she shouted out the words as if she were a hundred meters away from him and not directly under him.

"I-uh, it's okay. Don't worry." A flustered Rory tried to reassure her as he moved his head back so he was not so close to her face. Just as he was about to get off of her, Sirith peeked his furry head over the side of the bed to get a peek at the humans. His ears perked up and he cocked his head to the right in confusion as he tried to understand what his master was doing on top of the female human. Realising that his master was obviously playing a game, Sirith decide that he should join his master.

Sirith happily pounced off the bed and landed his full weight on top of Rory's back, feeling proud of himself for understanding the ways of his human.

"Ugh!" The air was shot out of Rory's lungs as Sirith's substantial weight was dumped on his back. Moreover Rory had to quickly push himself upwards so that Aurora felt none of the impact.

"Ugh! Sirith! Get off!" Rory gasped, struggling to hold up the ever growing hekate.

Before Rory new what was happening he heard a giggle from underneath him. He looked down to see Aurora still cupping her mouth, but barely concealing the delighted smile on her face. To her, who had been so nervous and high strung the entire day, this display from the prince and the sabertooth was too hilarious. A moment later she could not hold herself back and exploded into a ball of laughter. It was the first time she has really whole heartedly laughed since coming to Azlantean.

Rory stared down at her cute smile, rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes and found that he was staring to laugh as well. After Sirith pounced off of Rory's back, Rory and Aurora just sat on the carpeted floor together laughing. The stress they had both been under dissipated. Aurora stopped worrying about what the prince thought of her and Rory stopped being on edge about making Aurora feeling comfortable with him. They were finally being themselves and just laughing.

Sirith frowned at the unfamiliar interaction between the humans and wondered if he could mimic the sounds they were making if he tried.