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My back hurts and the floor is cold, I can’t stay here, I can’t trust someone will come for me. I have to get myself out of here. I push myself up off the floor, my dress is ruined, great. My feet are shackled, great. I still have Bauble with me, the guards must have thought it was just some marble. I use Bauble’s and my magic to break the chains so I can move. My shoes will stay in the cell I can move quicker without them. I tie my dirty, torn dress up in a knot so I won’t trip, then I unlock the door. There is no one in the hall I can see, but I was knocked out when I was brought here so I don’t know where to go.
I’ll go left. Only one side of this hall has cells the other is a plain stone wall, probably so you can’t speak to anyone. As I am walking down the corridor trying to move quickly and quietly, I see something in a cell. It’s a boy, probably sixteen, my age. He is whispering to the prisoner in the cell next to him, a pig. What did a pig do to get imprisoned by The Dark One?
“Are you in need of any rescuing?” I ask the boy. He jumped at me talking, how did he not notice me? Am I that quiet or is he that oblivious? “Oh, y-yeah that would be nice, but how are you going to get us out? You’re just a girl,” he questioned.
“Fine, I’ll leave you here if you’re going to treat me like that,”
“No, no, please! I’m sorry, don’t leave us here,”
“Alright, as long as you don’t question me again,”
“Deal,”
I use my magic to unlock the door, a golden key made of light manifests in my hands, it fits the lock. I pull the door open for the boy and then let out the pig. “Why exactly are you and a pig locked up in here?” I ask.
“Oh, Hen Wen gets visions, and she had a vision of something The Dark One wants, it's called The Black Cauldron. It can raise the dead,” he explains, “I broke into the castle to try and rescue her,”
“Clearly you were successful,”
“Clearly,”
We start moving down the hallway. Hoping for an exit. We don’t talk for a while, it was awkward at first, but I think we all know that we must remain quiet to sneak out of here. We turn the corner to find a stairwell, it goes up and down. Logically, cells would be underground so I start up the stairs.
“Do you know where you’re going?” the boy whispers to me.
“No, but I am hoping we’ll find a way out eventually,” I answer in a whisper. We go back to being silent as we ascend the stairs. The first landing we reach has a window, thank Merlin, I peer out the window and the boy does so as well next to me. This is the closest he’s been to me, I never noticed how tall he was. I hope his height won’t result in us getting caught. I believe this is the ground floor, the window isn’t close to the ground, persay, but there are none below it, so there has to be a way out somewhere.
“Do you think any of the windows will open, this one doesn’t move?” he interrupts my thoughts.
“Let’s hope so, or else we’ll have to find a door and that will probably mean a guard, or worse,”
“We could always break a window,”
“And make a noise to lead someone right to us?”
“If we are quick enough we could be gone by the time anyone gets close,”
“Okay, that will be plan B, plan A is to find an exit that is already open,” this floor looks nicer than wherever we were. There are doors on both sides, and most of them will probably lead to rooms. We could try each one, but that would take time we don’t have and we would risk being seen. “Should we keep going down this hall to find an exit? It might be risky,” I ask him
“Whatever you think is best. I promised not to question you, remember?”
“Okay, we’ll search this floor but if we don’t find an exit soon, we’re resorting to plan B,”
“Here, I'll lead down this hall, you watch our backs,” he steps ahead of me and starts down the corridor. I follow close behind constantly glancing every which way. He stops right in front of me when I wasn’t looking and I bump into his back. “Are you trying to knock me over?” he suppressed his laugh.
“Sorry, I wasn’t looking,” I don’t mean the apology.
“This window has a latch in the middle, I bet it opens,” he slowly undoes the latch and then pushes it open, “and it’s unlocked,”
I look down out the window, “Yeah, but that is a bit of a drop-down,” there has to be a 10-foot drop at least. I guess the cells were above ground but had no exit or windows so they seemed underground.
“Just bend your knees when you land, you won’t die,” he says, “wait a minute, you did magic earlier, do it now. Make some stairs or something,”
“Okay, let me try something,” I think about how I need to get out of here while focusing on the window and a rope begins to form. “Will this work? We can climb down. Can you climb down with the pig, I mean, with Hen Wen?”
“Yeah I think so, you go first if something goes wrong I will toss her down to you,”
I hold onto the rope and maintain my focus on it so it doesn’t disappear. I begin my descent downwards as quickly as I can without falling. As soon as I hit the ground the boy follows after me, but I keep my focus on the rope, not on him. Once he is close to the ground he jumps off the rope. As soon as he does the rope disappears, and I make the window shut and lock behind us. “We’re out!” I exclaim
“Yeah, but where are we?” he looks around. Everything around us is forest beside the castle we just escaped from.
“If we have something from someone at one of our homes I can use a spell to lead us there,” I think of all my belongings trying to remember if any are borrowed.
“This is all mine, I’m not allowed to touch most of the things in the house I live in. I’m a farm boy for an enchanter, so most of his things are magical that can be dangerous,”
“Uhm, wait! I think this bow I’m wearing was lent to me by my nanny as a child!” I take the bow out of my hair, letting it fall down my back then cast the spell on it. “So, it should glow as we get closer to its owner. It should lead us straight to my castle. What enchanter do you live with, is he one of the legends?”
“I’m sorry, did you say YOUR castle? Who are you?”
“I’m Eilonwy, the princess Prydain, now answer my question. I asked first,”
“Wait you’re the Princess Eilonwy, the only heir to the missing King Caspian of Prydain?”
“Yes, now what enchanter do you live with!?”
“Okay, but we’re going to keep discussing this while we walk,” he takes the ribbon from my hands and starts walking until it starts to glow, then continues in that direction. “I’m a farm boy for The Sorcerors' Apprentice,”
“Wait, you know The Apprentice, like the apprentice to Merlin himself,”
“Yeah, but it’s not like I am some sorcerer, I just take care of Hen Wen and the other animals he has,”
“Have you gotten to meet Merlin?”
“No, he has been missing for years, he speaks only to The Apprentice in his absence”
“Oh, wait, you never said your name, I told you mine,”
“I’m Felix, now back to your name. If you are the princess of Prydain, why didn’t knights come and storm the castle looking for you?”
“They’re probably still on the way, I was taken last night so I was probably reported missing around the time I broke you out of your cell. We’ll probably run into them,”
“Why were you taken?”
“I think it has something to do with Bauble,” I hold up the golden, shining orb, “it’s a drop from the sun that I get my magic through. It makes my magic entirely light magic and it is the strongest possible form of it,”
“How did you get your hands on it?”
“It dropped from the sky on the day of my birth onto the balcony of my nursery, my father saw it as a sign and kept it secure until it could be given to me on my thirteenth birthday,” I explain, “How did you end up living with The Apprentice?”
“I was orphaned as a baby, he found me in a basket floating down the river he was meditating by. When he plucked me from the water he said that he heard Merlin say to raise and train me to be a hero one day, for the realm will need me,”
“You were prophesied to be a hero by Merlin himself?”
“Well when you put it like that yeah, but I haven’t felt like a hero, you’re the one who has been doing all the rescuing,”
“Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be a damsel in distress and you’ll get to rescue me,” I smile and bump him as we are walking through the woods.
“Maybe you should avoid getting kidnapped, actually,” he smiles
“I can’t help that I am a hot commodity, it’s not often you find a royal with the power of the sun,”
“Literally, a hot commodity,”
I pause, was that, no, was he flirting? No, wait, ohh, “Oh yeah, hot like the sun, I get it” I laugh (a little awkwardly).
He laughs too, but I think he is laughing at me more than with me, “If it isn’t a touchy subject, what do you know about your parents' whereabouts?”
“Oh, uh no, it’s not touchy, but I don’t know much more than anyone else. My mother was only known by my father, when she birthed me it was only him helping her no chambermaid, nurse, or anything. I still question how there are no ideas about her identity though, there had to be a pregnant maiden who was suddenly no longer pregnant that had no husband or baby that people questioned. Maybe she also had magic and was able to conceal the pregnancy the whole time. As for my father, I never knew him, he went out on a hunting party with many of his men and none of them returned, there was no sign of them either, no bodies, there is a rumor that deep in the woods there is a tree that has a sense of unrecognizable magic. People suspect that it took them to another world, but that’s a little outrageous, only magic beans can do that, “ I spiel out to Felix.
“What do you think happened? I mean everyone in Prydain and the whole of the Enchanted Forest has a favorite theory. Mine is that your mother was actually another royal that had an affair with your father and she had the blue fairy cover it up for the sake of their kingdoms. Then your father was slowly dying and he knew it, so he just needed a quick and easy way to get an heir for the kingdom. After he had one he went out with his hunting party and he had them end his suffering knowing you were safe with those in the castle,”
I look up at him with concern, dumbfounded by the story he just told me, “W-what?” is all I manage to say in complete disbelief.
“Oh Merlin, I’m so sorry, I’m telling you a traumatic conspiracy theory about yourself,”
“Well," I swallow, "That one doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t account for all the men that disappeared with my father,” I correct him, “but I like to think that my father fell in love with a woman he could never be with, so she was kept hidden for her safety. I think that my father never meant to leave me behind once he had me. My nanny always told me that he looked the happiest when holding me in his arms. Wherever he may be, I hope he is happy and that he knows how much I wish I got to know him,” I say the last part holding back tears.
He looks at me with apologetic eyes, he must have noticed I was choking back tears. He grabs me by my shoulders to turn me towards him as he says, “I think he knows, he must miss you very much,”
I just smile at him and then turn back forwards and keep walking, I think about my parents often, it often makes me sad. I am grateful for those who raised me in the castle, but I always wished it was my mother and father there for all my achievements. I wish my father was there when I first rode a horse or first shot a bow and arrow. I wish my mother was there when I had my first ballgown tailored or to answer my questions when my monthly came. I always worry that my nanny sees me as a task or a chore, she is the only parental figure I have, but I am simply her responsibility, she is paid for taking care of me. I am a transaction, not a child. I am no one’s child. I am orphaned just like Felix, but no one sees me as a little girl, I have always been a Princess, a duty, not a person.
Soon enough we hear hoofbeats and head towards them, hoping it is the knights of Prydain and not the Evil Queen’s Black Knights. As they come into view we see it is the Black Knights and we jump backward, as we do we trip over each other and fall. Except we fall into a hole at the bottom of a tree. When I open my eyes I see we are surrounded by the fairies, somehow we stumbled into their home.
“How did we get here?” Felix asks as we sit up and make sure Hen Wen is okay. “You fell through one of our portals in the endless woods,” the Blue Fairy explains as she helps us up.
“We were in the endless woods?” I ask, “Maybe it’s a good thing we are here, or we never would have gotten out,”
“With your magic, I’m sure you would have found your way out. However, it is good you came here because you need to destroy The Black Cauldron. With the help of Hen Wen, we can take you to where it is,” thefairy tells us. I give felix a concerning look when she says this.
"Why do WE have to destroy, why can't it be someone else?" I question.
"You are the ones with the capabilities to do so, it is your destiny. You must," the Blue Fairy states.
"That is not much of an explanation," I refute.
"Eilonwy, it is no coincidence that the sun fell upon your birth, as the holder of the sun drop you must do this to stop The Dark One," she explains.
"Alright, we will do it," I give in, I nod towars Felix.
“Okay Hen Wen, can you show these fairies what you know about the cauldron?” Felix asks her, and as he does she begins to project her vision about the cauldron from her eyes for us to see. It is located in a house owned by three witches deep in the dark forest and it is amongst a large pile of cauldrons for concealment.
“Those are the witches, Orduu, Orgoch, and Orwen, they are… difficult to deal with. Lots of arguing, you might have some back and forth with them,” the Blue Fairy tells us. She then summons a sword into her hands, it has a red leather grip and an ornate gold lion head on the pommel. “This sword was forged in another land that is nearly impossible to reach, it holds great power. You will need this on your journey,” she says as she hands it to us, Felix takes it and fastens it into his belt. “Now let’s get you to that cauldron, we will keep Hen Wen safe and return her to The Apprentice,” she uses her wand and creates a portal large enough for us to walk through, it shows the same house we saw in Hen Wen’s vision. “This is the witches’ house be careful and stop The Dark One from raising an undead army,” Felix and I step through it, unsure what will come next.