The Hidden Princess

Lilith

The moon was bright as could be.  It was almost daylight out.  Cladd could not remember the last the moon was so bright.  They brought very little with them.  He had a satchel with a few necessities for surviving in the woods but that was it.  He was nervous, in the pit of his stomach he felt heavy with butterflies.  He felt bad for his mother.  They had left a note, but he did not say when he would be back.

H took them up the side of the mountain as far as he could go.  Cladd sent him back to the castle on his own by taking off all his tack.  Angela and Cladd walked up the mountain guided only by the moonlight and some intuition.

“I sure am glad I have my Werewolf, otherwise this would be frightening.” Angela giggled to herself. She kept going, the path got steeper and she started having to break her own path.  It was calling her; she could feel it inside.  She was terrified but felt like she could not turn back.  Then the trees gave way to a clearing, the moonlight was so bright she could see every rock.  She saw a blue glowing and it called to her. “I see the portal.” She called back to Cladd who had just stopped beside her.

They stood by the portal, it looked like black water to them.  Angela and Cladd reached for each other’s hands at the same time.  She took a deep breath and looked over at him and nodded.  The jumped at the same time.

It was not like their dream; it was quiet and they just felt like they were sliding down a gentle slope.  They landed feet first into the Magic Realm on the soft moss that covered the forest floor.  Still holding hands, they got up and looked around.  The sounds of crickets and frogs danced in their ears.  Angela took a deep breath in and closed her eyes.  All the smells she was picking up were almost overwhelming her. 

They saw 4 little light bugs headed toward them and Angela was enchanted by them.  When they got close enough, she saw they were little tiny fairies.  Cladd went to slap them away and Angela stopped him by holding her arm out. “No, I don’t think they mean us harm.”

They stopped in front of them and you could see them waving making Angela and Cladd smile at them.  They looked at each other and then blended into a bright light making them squint to protect their eyes. Once they opened their eyes just a single fairy was standing in front of them.  She came up to Angelas waist she had short brown hair and see through black wings.  Her big brown eyes looked at Angela and she took a bow “My Queen, we have waited so long. I am Rainy, I am from the Pixie Tribe.  I have been sent to ensure your safety on your journey.”  She paused for a moment and stood back up “The first thing we need to do is hide your scent.”  She reached in her satchel and pulled out two small bottles and handed one to each. “Drink this, then King Thomas will not sense you are here.  You need time to train and learn about your skills.” Then she reached back into her satchel and pulled out one bottle and handed it to Angela. “You will need this to help with the pain as your powers mature all at once. You were only here for about 10 min after you were born and so your powers have never developed.  When you live here, over time you gain powers but since you did not have that opportunity so it might be overwhelming.”

Cladd and Angela looked at each other and decided to trust her.  Marta had said someone was meeting them there.  Then Angela asked “Did someone send you? How did you know we would be here?” holding her hand over Cladd bottle waiting for her to answer.

“The white witch Marta sent me.  I have been watching over your Father since your birth.  You can trust me.  I have built a hut just over here for you to rest in.  The next few days are going to tough on you. It’s protected with magic so even if someone wanders by, they won’t see it.” Rainy indicated which direction to walk and they followed her after taking their potion.  Angela took the other one after she got in the hut and looked around. 

Then she felt something deep in her stomach and it made her double over.  Cladd went to her and tried to comfort her.  Rainy grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away “She is going through a phase.  We cannot help her.”

Cladd felt helpless as he watched Angela writher on the floor, screaming and holding her stomach. Then her wings sprouted out of her back and they were huge and beautiful with purple and white swirls and black tips.  Then she disappeared and then reappeared, and she lay on the floor of the hut not moving. Rainy released her hand from Cladd’s shoulder and he went to her. 

He touched her wings to make sure they were real.  They felt like leather where the wings on the pixie looked like lace.  Her shirt had ripped over in the back, so he tried to cover her up with what was left. He could see her breathing and she tried to bring her hands under her shoulder so she could sit up.  As she did so, her wings jolted up tossing Cladd across the room. “Oh, My Love, I am sorry.” She looked over her shoulder and saw part of her right wing. “Oh, my goodness, they are really here!” She tried to sit up but the sheer size of them would not allow her to stand up.  She tucked them back like she did in her dream and rolled over and then she could sit up and stand up.  They were heavy and she had to lean forward to stay standing. “How am I supposed to get around with these?” She looked over at Rainy and then she disappeared. Then the door tore out of the front of the hut and both Rainy and Cladd were tossed by wind to back of the hut.

“I think she just took off.” Rainy said looking out where the door used to be.  

‘She’s standing outside. She is scared, you need to talk to her.’ Laddy told Cladd.

“My Love, you are okay.  We are here and we will figure this out.  There must be a way to control your wings.  Like Rainy said, this is going to take some getting used to.  Come back to me, please.” Cladd said in the direction he thought she was “We cannot see you right now, just in case you didn’t know that.” He said with a smile on his face. 

She appeared with tears in her eyes and folded arms across her chest about 50 feet away “Look what I did to the hut.” She cried.

Rainy flew up to her “Okay, you can do what we call ‘Collect your wings’ especially when they are big like yours are.  You have dragon wings so it’s a bit harder than mine, but you stand up straight and just mentally tell them “Collect” and they will.  Your dragon soul in you has control and will listen to you most of the time. Sometimes dragons can be a bit mischievous.”

Angela stood up tall and closed her eyes and thought ‘Collect’ and suddenly her wings retracted to a more appropriate size and folded up nicely along her back and hips.

“Good!” Rainy clapped “Now walk to Cladd and try to keep them that way. Just keep reminding yourself to ‘Collect’”

Angela did as she was told, and they did not inhibit her at all.  Cladd was able to hug her and kiss her and help her calm down.  All of this felt so good to her and then a thought crossed her mind.

“You can talk with Laddy right?” Cladd nodded his head answering “Rainy, can I talk with my dragon? Can I turn into a dragon?”

Rainy paused for a moment. “Dragons are tricky.  We do not know that much about them.  They stay in their cities in the mountains and never come down here.  It is pretty rare that they would crossbreed so your dragon soul must be pretty old since there are no records.  We do see some Vampires that have dragon type wings so they could be carrying the gene.  You can always try.  You should find a nice quiet space, relax, and allow your mind to open to the possibility of another conscious entity inside you.  You have been raised human so it might be harder for you to accept currently.”

“Okay, I am going to go try.  I just want to see.”  Angela looked around and saw a pond with a few rocks around it “I am going to go sit over there for a bit.” She pointed and started walking.  Cladd and Rainy started working on cooking dinner.

Angela sat on nice flat rock and took a deep breath in.  She started thinking about her family, how she met Cladd, how it felt to ride a horse and then she started to concentrate on her wings.  She let them out and touched them.  She let the feelings of love and respect flow from her hands into her wings and started imagining flying with them, thinking of them as part of her. “Hello?” She said into the darkness of her mind. She waited and nothing came to her.  She kept stroking her wings, she wrapped them around her, and they were warm.

‘Hello’ she heard back from the further depths of her mind.

Angela was excited and kept stroking her wings “What is your name?”

‘Lilith’ her voice was smooth and very distant.

“I love you Lilith.” Angela said that with all her heart.

‘I love you Angela’ Lilith said, and Angela could tell she was gone. She stood up from the rock and the sun was setting on her first day here.  Her stomach turned with hunger and she could smell food coming from the hut that was fixed now.  She wondered how long she had been there.