It is morning and the rising reddish sun is warm and glowy, shining brightly in the cloudy red sky. The grass is wet with the morning dew as Stormy walked through the woods, the clouds dancing above in the sky as the sounds of the early birds cheerfully singing slowly calmed her uptight nerves.
She moved her hands freely about in the air, carefully touching and feeling the soft petals of the beautiful flowers scattered all over the place while also enjoying their beautiful and sweet-scenting fragrance.
The weather, calm and serene gave off a peaceful ambiance, helping her to relax her troubled mind.
For the past couple of days, she hasn't had a good night's rest. All she ever does is lay awake on her bed, thinking about Ella's words.
'It's not everyone who is in support of your being here'
What did she mean by that anyways?
Was the union between the two kingdoms not a consensus decision? And if it indeed is, why then will some people not be in agreement of it and also who might those people be?
Why are they against the marriage and why will they want to hurt the princess?
What could be their reason? And most importantly how do they plan on hurting the princess?
Wasn't that going to cause another war?
Preoccupied with her thoughts, Stormy unknowingly ventured deeper and deeper into the woods completely unaware she had left the borders of Nightingvale and had now crossed into Berovia, the wolf territory.
It was only after she heard a sudden noise that she was jolted back into reality and frantically began to look around, trying to locate where the sound had come from.
"Hello...!" she yelled, her voice and face laced with terror as she suddenly realised how eerily quiet and desolated the place is. Her legs, at this point started to feel numb and weak and her chest began to rise and fall as her breathing increased. She slowly spun around, the hem of her skirt lifted up just in case she had to run. "Who is there? Who are you?" she called out and still got no response. "Whoever you are I know you are out there so it will be best if you stop trying to spook me and just show yourself."
Though Stormy was straight up panicking inside, she put up a brave front, acting like she isn't the least bit scared she was in danger and that something bad was going to happen to her.
In fact, she just stood there, her eyes on the lookout while she waited patiently for whoever or whatever it was to show itself even though she could hear a tiny voice in her head telling her to run and not look back.
"I'm still waiting for you..." Stormy cried out once again when several minutes have passed and still no one came out. She was beginning to get tired and impatient but being the stubborn girl that she was, she refused to give up and was still bent on her goal. With her eyes still scanning the place, she walked over to a tree that was standing at her right hand side and sat on one of its extended roots. "Trust me, my dear, I've got all day long so if you really want us to play this game then surely we will. I'm not going anywhere until YOU SHOW YOURSELF, whoever you might be..."
With her arms crossed over her chest, Stormy leaned against the tree, her eye still scouting the area.
A minute passed and nothing happened. Then two, three and four minutes passed by but still nothing happened.
Feeling bored at this point, Stormy wanted to get up and go back to the palace, but then she thought whoever it was might just be shy and decided to wait for a while and give him or her quite some time to overcome the shyness and come out.
However, after she waited another ten minutes without anyone showing up still, Stormy, feeling disappointed and angry at this point got up and without saying a single word, began to head back the way she came.
As she walked away, she could feel a pair of eyes watching her from behind and felt a little bit scared, however, she ignored it as she was seriously mad at this point to even bother about fear and just continued her walk.
Although she couldn't remember the exact way from which she came, Stormy kept on walking straight ahead until she finally came to a place that was bustling with a lot of people. A place she immediately recognised even though she had only been there once and never even got the chance to explore.
It was the Nightingvale market!
Without wasting any time , Stormy hurried out of the woods and quickly joined the crowd of passerbys going up and about all the while trying her best to stay hidden.
If there were truly people that don't want her there, then it means she is in trouble and so she has to be very careful.
Because who knows what they'll do to her if they were to find her outside of the palace all alone without anyone to protect her?
Slowly and carefully, Stormy managed to maneuver her way through the narrowy crowd of people and successfully made it out of there without even a single person recognising who she is then she continued to walk the rest of the distance avoiding people until she finally came to the palace gate.
Yet, instead of heading straight inside, she hid and waited patiently until she saw a group of people heading into the palace with loads of foodstuffs and sneaked into them.
After the normal search at the palace gate, the gaurds allowed the people to enter the palace and the instant they were inside, Stormy slipped out and hurried back to her chambers, hoping no one would see her, however it was already too late.
Before she could make it there, she met Ella on the way coming from the opposite direction and knew she had gone to look for her.
"My princess, where have you been?" Ella demanded, sounding worried and relieved at the same time. "You had me completely worried," she added as she got closer to her. "Where did you go to? I searched the entire palace looking for you. I was even worried something bad had happened to you."
Stormy smiled. "But it didn't, right? I'm here now and that means I'm safe so you can relax now."
Stormy tried to assure Ella that she was fine and that nothing bad had happened to her, however, the maid wasn't having any of it.
"Tell me, my princess, where were you this entire time?" Ella asked. She arched her brow, expecting an answer from her mistress.
"I was in the garden taking some fresh air," Stormy lied, however, when she saw the 'I know you're telling lies look' Ella gave her, she lets out a sigh in defeat and said," okay fine, I'll tell you everything when we get to my chamber."
With a shrug, Ella whispered a soft 'Alright' and immediately followed Stormy back to her chambers where she related the events of the morning and her adventures to her.
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Meanwhile, in the woods outside of the palace was the same pair of eyes that had been following Stormy the entire time.
Their gaze has been lingering over her ever since she walked out of the woods and they had kept watching her until she had gone inside and out of sight.
Full of excitement, they turned around only to land on a familiar face.
"What are you doing here?" asked Leah as she stared directly into the face of one of her pack members, a redhead. Female.
"What am I doing here?" she laughed, "I should be asking you that question, Leah. I mean does your brother even know you crossed the border and came here? Hmm, poor Blake, I'm sure he'd love to know what his little sister has been up to these past days. No wonder you barely stay in the pack with us nowadays. So, who was that girl? The one you've been following?"
"That's none of your business, Aliya, now if you would please give me way." Leah pushed past the redhead, and was walking away when she suddenly heard her say something and stopped. She slowly turned around to face her, a look of horror and fear etched across her face, causing the latter to smirk in satisfaction.
"I thought as much," she said, still smirking.
"What do you want?" Leah demanded, slightly annoyed and shocked.
She has no idea Aliya could be this vain. So she wants to use this as an opportunity to blackmail her, huh?
"Well, I only need just a small tiny favour from you, Leah. You help me with it and I promise I'll keep whatever I saw here a secret."
Leah tilted hear head to the side as she looked at the person standing in front of her with sheer disgust and boiling hatred, her brows furrowed.
What could she actually want from her? Should she refuse to help her and risk her brother finding out she's been coming to Nightingvale or just accept her proposal?
For the next couple of minutes, Leah carefully weighed her options until she finally came to a conclusion then she looked up at the redhead and said, "Okay, fine."
"Okay, fine, what?" she demanded, causing Leah to roll her eyes, displeased and vexed.
"Okay, fine... I'll help you out," she replied with a lot of struggle.
Leah knew the kind of person Aliya was and she knows how tricky and villainous she could be so it felt to her like she was getting herself into some kind of trap.
However, since it was the only way she could prevent her brother from knowing what she had been doing, she had no other choice except to take the ultimate risk.
The only thing she'd have to keep in mind though was to be careful with her if not she'd end up regretting that decision.