ERABELLE’S TALE:
PART TWO: THE FUTURE
Era could barely contain her excitement. Lady Aurora had asked her to meet with her at the border between Loyalland, the capital city and Porphyta, the nearest city at midnight. Era was just about out the door when Regent Bellows found her almost leaving.
“And where is my lovely bride to be off to at such an ungodly hour?” he asked her suspiciously.
“I’m going to the Temple, Regent Bellows. To pray for our marriage to come,” she replied confidently.
“The Temple, you say? Why so late? Could it not wait until a more… proper hour, my love?”
“I have too many preparations to do during the day, as you are well aware of, my lord that necessitate my leave for the Temple at this time,”
Regent Bellows strutted to her and tagged at her hair aggressively forcing her to face him. He ferociously claimed her mouth with his own before releasing her and saying, “Just a little word of caution to you, my darling. I know where your precious little sisters are and I have men ready to slit their throats on my orders at my beck and call. If anything happens to me or if you try and escape, these men will definitely carry out my orders. My demise would also lead to the total collapse of this country, as you are well aware of, my precious bride. Tread carefully,”
“As I have already told you, I do not wish to escape nor have you killed. I wish simply to visit the Temple and pray for our impending marriage. That is all,” she responded firmly.
Regent Bellows smiled and caressed her face. “Wouldn’t you rather carry out your other duties so fervently, darling? For instance, you should be so determined to ensure that I, your future husband, is merrily satisfied in every comfort a wife can supply to him,”
“Be rest assured that after we are married, you shall not lack of any comfort but I must hurry to the Temple now,”
Regent Bellows nodded and said, “Well now, hurry back, my darling. The night is still young and I am overcome with the anticipation of a groom,”
Era rolled her eyes as she turned away from him and rushed outside immediately mounting the unicorn besides Osbertus’s who had insisted on tagging along on her journey. They rode all the way to the border where sure enough, Lady Aurora was waiting for them with a handsome gentleman besides her. Era’s heart sunk when her fairy gift revealed that the two strangers shared a Protector’s Bond.
“My princess! You are well. Oh blessed be!” Lady Aurora said and rushed to warmly greet both she and Osbertus or Os as he was well known as.
“You have a Protector,” Era said sourly trying to hide her jealousy unsuccessfully.
“Oh yes, I do. Please allow me to introduce my husband, my princess. Lord Leal Grayson,”
“It is an honor to meet you, Princess Erabelle of Medula. My wife speaks highly of you,” said the gentleman taking Era’s hand in his own and planting a kiss at the back of her palm.
“The honor is all mine. Well, I am here as agreed but I suspect that Regent Bellows shall send spies to ensure I really am at the Temple,”
Lady Aurora and Lord Leal exchanged a knowing look and then smiled at Princess Era . “Let that not bother you, my lady. I assure you, the Regent shall be none the wiser of our exploits. Now, shall we leave, my princess?”
Princess Era turned to look at Os who nodded and then quickly scanned the area. There was no one following them thus far so she nodded and got into the carriage the two strangers had brought with them after securing their unicorns by the hillside. Lady Aurora muttered a spell that Era had never heard of before thus concealing the unicorns.
Princess Era then suddenly noticed that the carriage they were in had no horse or unicorn and was about to ask how they’d travel without them before Lady Aurora pulled out a golden watch.
“Are you ready, my princess?”
Princess Era held Os’s hand and nodded.
“I apologize in advance for the discomfort this will bring but it wears off in time, I assure you,”
The Princess could only nod and then the lady wound her clock several clicks in a clock-wise motion and suddenly the carriage was filled with great light and the next thing Era knew was that she felt like she was being pulled and tagged in all possible directions at the same time. Everything seemed to hurt and she had the vague feeling that her organs were being turned inside out as the carriage moved across the light until at long last , after a long while, everything seemed to be calm again.
It took a while for her organs to catch up to the carriage’s sudden lack of motion and there was a terrible ringing noise in her ears and her eyes had yet to adjust to the light but when she did suddenly, she was no longer in the carriage but in some form of transportation she had never even dreamed was possible. The seats were made of some kind of foreign hide and there were some kind of eerie doors affixed to the strange carriage.
Princess Era began to think that perhaps she had really just dreamed about this whole ordeal. She must have really lost her mind to think that such things were real. However, one look at Os was enough to know that she was not alone in thinking that she was crazy. Os was trembling in fear and then screaming that he wanted to get out of the strange monster’s belly. He fell out of the vehicle and immediately grabbed hold of the Princess and began to ran in a panic.
However, everywhere they looked from their high vantage point atop the isolated hill was filled with wonder- buildings unlike anything they’d ever seen had risen taller than any Palace they’d ever known. Then they saw a huge bird unlike anything they’d ever seen before fly above them. Os quickly dropped the princess and lay on top of her until the bird flew past them to protect her.
They turned to the two strangers before them that seemed to be having a hard time trying not to laugh at them. “What is this place?” Os demanded of them.
“I promised you a world of wonder, did I not, my princess?”
“But this place… this place is…”
“This place is my true timeline. It is my true home,”
“It… it is?”
“Yes, my princess. Please let me explain. My real name is not Lady Aurora Greaves but Mrs. Aurora Alison. The man beside me, my Protector, is Mr. Leal Grayson. This time, is not the year 1430 where you’re from, my princess, but the time I’m from, in the year 2018. During this time, you and your people can be happy and free and away from that monster. You and your people can be protected here and there’s not a thing Bellows can do about it,”
“We- we traveled to the future?” Princess Era asked shocked exchanging looks with the equally stunned Os.
Aurora nodded and smiled.
“This- this is the future?” Princess Era asked.
“Indeed, it is. And there is a lot to teach you- a lot for you to learn,”
“But- but if I’m gone too long, Regent Bellows will know I escaped and will kill my sisters- my people-”
“Worry not, my princess. We can travel back to the exact moment we traveled here and it will be as if you never came here,”
“You… you can do that?”
Aurora smiled and nodded. “And so can you, my princess. You have a rare gift known as the Traveler gift. This gift enables you to travel to any dimension you wish- any time you wish to visit,”
“I- I can’t-”
“You are more powerful than you know, my princess. All you need is a teacher and I am more than willing to help you discover your abilities. Let me help you,” Aurora said.
Era felt like she had no other choice. In this strange time, whom else could she rely on other than Aurora? She leaned on her as Aurora introduced her to her time- to her cars and to her planes and to the strange clothing worn during that time, to their strange devices; their ‘phones’ for instance. She was introduced to television and to computers; to modern charms and potions, to beverages that inebriated faster than the wine of her time.
Most importantly, Aurora taught her to fight. She taught her of her gift of Traveling and with it, Era traveled to other times; times where her father Ember and Lady Anna were truly happy. She observed snippets of her father’s life with Anna throughout different timelines- how complete and happy Anna made him. She was determined to give her father a fresh start- to travel back in time and forewarn her father before Regent Bellows killed him.
However, Aurora gave her a very sad truth- even if she could go back in time and forewarn her father, it would only create an alternate timeline and that timeline would not be her own- what had happened, had happened and there were only multiple possibilities shaped by choices made by the doppelgangers or ‘copies’ of herself and others… The multiple versions of Ember and Anna she saw were not her true parents… They were simply doppelgangers or alternate versions of them- possibilities of futures that could have been but that had been cruelly taken away from them.
It became clearer what Princess Era had to do. She had to shape her own destiny and those of her loyal subjects in her timeline. She had to dispose of the cause of her pain and claim her rightful place as Queen of Medula. She needed not to help her people escape from their land but to eliminate everything that made that land unsafe. She prayed for the Creator to have mercy on the souls of anyone that stood in her way of administering justice because she certainly would not…
TO BE CONTINUED…
Hey, thanks for reading! Don’t miss a beat… Here’s the link to the previous entries in this sub genre
- The Traveler Chronicles 3- Erabelle’s tale: Part One
- The Traveler Chronicles One: Aurora’s Tale
- The Traveler Chronicles Two: Ember’s Tale part One
- The Traveler Chronicles Two: Ember’s tale: Part two
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