Chapter 5 Betwitched

Aurora

I was still in a daze while walking back to the servant's quarters, and didn't realize when I had arrived in front of the small rundown wooden door. The door was so old that it made a loud squeak whenever someone touched it. I pushed open the door slowly and walked in, trying to reduce the noise as best as I could.

It was pitch black, but I still knew where my tiny bed was, so I didn't need a lantern to get to it. For as long as I could remember, my bed had always been on the very far corner of this average-sized room.

All the other servants would rather not sleep next to the monster at night, because who knows if they'll ever make it to the next morning. Their words, not mine.

As I was creeping onto the tiny foam we used as a bed, I felt the presence of someone behind me. Perhaps the king already changed his mind and sent someone to kill me in my sleep.

Turning my head to get a look at who it was, I was immediately grabbed by the shoulder. "Aurora where have you been?!" a loud voice said.

Oh my goodness, Rita! I should have known.

Rita is my friend, sorry I mean my only friend and the only one who made an attempt to speak to me despite the rumors and my unique appearance. "Rita shush, lower your voice," I said groaning.

"Well, excuse you," she gasped, feigning shock. "Don't tell me to lower my voice especially since I've been patiently waiting for you right here, hoping you didn't get tossed into the dungeon after I heard what happened."

See, words travel fast in the Palace especially when those words involve me and trouble. Whoever said the walls have ears probably had gotten in trouble so they knew what they were saying.

"I'm sorry, I just got caught in something," I waved my hand in the air, as I settled into the foam. "Although that something may end up having me decapitated by tomorrow," I muttered the last part, hoping she didn't hear me. But to my dismay, she heard me clearly.

"You what?!" she shrieked in surprise.

"Ugh, would you two shut the hell up," A female servant yelled from the other side of the room.

Rita recoiled into herself, "Sorry." I pointlessly rolled my eyes, knowing full well they couldn't see me through the dark.

In this entire castle, Rita was the only one who would talk to me and care about me. At first, she was just like the others, skeptical and distancing themselves from me.

Sometimes I would catch her stealing glances at me like she was studying me, and when she noticed I was staring back, she would scurry off in a hurry. We only became close after she had caught me practicing archery in the fields. I remember being scared to the bones thinking she was going to report me.

But to my surprise, she ran up to me with twinkles in her eyes. "Oh my goddess, how did you make three straight bullseyes in a row." she had said with amazement. Her approach had honestly startled me, I wasn't used to someone praising my skills or being so friendly towards me. We had stayed up that night, talking and laughing.

I had pleaded with Rita not to tell anyone what she had seen and she readily agreed, leaving me with a secret of her own. Apparently, she was a werefox. She wouldn't tell me how she ended up in Tasnim, but according to her, she's been stuck here.

The news honestly took me by surprise. I was looking and talking to an actual werefox. Werefoxes are mostly humans who can transform into foxes. From our human gathered knowledge, they're very sly and bring doom with them wherever they go. But this was the first person who spoke to me in months of being in the Palace without sniding or provocative remarks about my features.

With my curiosity taking over in one of our discussions, I prompted her to show me her transformation. However, to my disappointment, she couldn't transform. She said her fox had been extremely weakened due to an incident she refused to talk about, so she was unable to call upon her counterpart. She could only do things like elongate her claws and grow her canine out a bit.

But, she did give me something else to satisfy my curiosity. She told me what it was like being a werefox, about having mates, and then the caste system.

"Aurora! Are you even listening to me?!" Rita whisper-yelled, snapping me back to the present.

"Huh?" I blinked.

She sighed. "I said what did you get caught up in?"

I paused my lips and hesitated, knowing she wasn't going to like the words that came out next. "The king walked in on me while I was cleaning his room."

I couldn't see her reaction, but I knew her well enough to know her jaw was probably hanging open. My friend is somewhat as dramatic as I am. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you but Did you say 'you came in contact with the king?' who didn't summon you."

"Yeah and the lady Esther," I muttered.

"Aurora!" Rita yelled my name loudly again for the third time tonight. "We have a billion rules in this palace, but the first and foremost is to never present yourself in front of nobles without permission."

"Ugh, can you two keep it down there, some of us are trying to get enough rest for the next day," another female servant yelled from the other side of the room. Rita recoiled into herself, "Sorry, again."

"Not only did you break that first rule, but you did it in front of the king and the soon-to-be queen. Pack your bags right now, we are escaping tonight," she said, dragging me off the bed.

I laughed at her immediate decision and reaction. "Are you seriously laughing right now? You're the one who has a death wish!" she grabbed my shoulders and wobbled me.

"Relax Rita. I'm pretty sure if the king wanted me dead, he would've ordered it since he laid his eyes on me. Maybe the most I'll get is more punishment by madame Matilda which I'm sure you know I am used to now." Her eyes widened

"Wait are you saying you didn't receive your punishment yet?"

"No, my dear friend, I didn't receive any punishment, His Majesty just let me go. He said I must be tired and sent me back to my quarters to rest," I answered.

If Rita's mouth were just a few inches open before, then right now, I could imagine them falling straight to the floor. "Excuse me what? Are you saying the king did not only not punish you, but also sent you back to rest?" she said at a stretch while touching my shoulders.

"Aurora" she whispered "Do you really have elf magic? Was that it? Did you bewitch him?"

I laughed again at her shocked expression, "Oh, Rita, shut up I don't have any magic, and I certainly didn't bewitch him. Besides you know you'd be the first to know if I did. Although Lady Esther seemed to think otherwise."

She stopped wobbling my shoulders and asked, "Huh?"

"Apparently Lady Esther wasn't too impressed by the fact that the king let me go. She saw my ears and assumed I bewitched him with my elf magic, but the king dismissed her ideas. She seemed pretty furious when I left."

Rita sighed and her grip on my shoulders tightened, "I'm sorry friend, but you stepped on a real tail with this one. There's no way Lady Esther won't give you hell from now on after this incident, especially since the king took your side over hers. But still, it's suspicious that the king let you go just like that, especially after seeing your ears. Maybe we should pack our bags indeed and get ready to run."

I admit, even I thought it was pretty strange and yes I feel a little nervous about what would happen tomorrow. Although for some reason I was rather confident that nothing serious would happen. Something in the king's eyes didn't seem like he wanted to kill me.

Placing my hands over hers, I said, "Don't worry too much Rita, there's really not much we can do right now anyways. We just have to wait until sunrise to see what happens."

"Yeah, you're right. In that case, I'm going to sleep then. I've been up all night waiting for you, I'm pretty tired. See you tomorrow...I hope," she said as she got off my bed giving a small laugh, then she walked off to her own bed.

The moment Rita was gone, I fell backward on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. My thoughts drifted to what happened earlier.

In one night, I not only got to speak to the king and look at his face, but he also touched me. This was crazy.

Now that I think about it, he didn't seem to be bothered by my ears, although it did seem like he was curious. I pulled out the small piece of fabric he had given me earlier to clean my wound. I played with it in my hands, feeling up the material and embroidery on it. Since I couldn't see it, all I could do was touch it.

The king...he saw my ears and didn't make a big reaction to it. He didn't judge me or call me disgusting. In fact, he had even flat-out ignored Lady Esther when she was disparaging me.

This was the first time ever that someone didn't act wary of me upon seeing my ears. It was the second time someone touched me willingly - without hitting me - even after seeing what I was.

Moon goddess, What was going on today? Everything was weird. After squirming and tossing around for about a good thirty minutes, the fatigue of the day finally settled in, drifting me slowly to sleep.