The Royal Hall Decorated

Tracy flew past the royal castle hall, which was unusually open. Something caught her attention. The hall looked somehow different from the outside, and she needed to know why it looked that way.

She flew inside and saw that the whole place looked breathtaking. She was amazed at how a beautiful place could be transformed into something more beautiful. A flower fairy must have done this, and she was sure that her father had ordered some maids, who were flower fairies, to do this.

She tilted her head sideways, and her eyes caught sight of a sleeping feminine figure on one of the long benches. She flew closer to the person, and the curious look on her face turned into hate and anger when she realized that the person was her sister.

Her sister was a flower fairy, which meant she was the one who designed the hall. Tracy was truly amazed at how much her sister had mastered her magic.

She had to do something to get rid of this parasite called her sister. If she had already out-learned how to bloom flowers and could now create these beautiful...No! Useless flowers within just six months, that meant she was faster at learning things than Tracy.

It took Tracy a year and six months to master her powers, but it only took Ariel six months. How embarrassing!

Tracy saw the royal bracelet on her sister's hand and smiled evilly.

“Well! My birth right knows its owner and came back to me easily,” She muttered. She reached out to her sister's hand to remove the bracelet, but as soon as her hand touched the bracelet, a mighty power forcefully pulled her away. She found herself on the floor.

A light that was so bright emitted from the bracelet, almost blinding her. She stopped up abruptly in shock. The energy that came from that bracelet was the strongest she had ever felt. Since the bracelet now was hers sister, that meant her sister was more powerful, and she would be queen instead of Tracy. But Tracy wasn't going to let that happen. She would get it back, whatever the cost.

Tomorrow was the day to go that both of them would display their power to fairies from within their kingdom and other kingdoms. Kings, queens, princes, princesses and other fairies of high caliber would be in attendance and Tracy couldn't afford to be humiliated by her sister in their presence. She had to disgrace Ariel and make her a laughingstock tomorrow. She took one more look at Ariel and flew out of the hall, angry and determined.

*********

“What do you mean by you couldn't bring the bracelet, you fool?” a female fairy yelled at her maidservant.

“I'm sorry, mistress. Before I could get to it, the king took it,” the maidservant explained, trembling.

“The king? That means he has given it to his heir. How could you be so late?!” she yelled and slapped the maidservant.

The maidservant cried out in pain and knelt before her mistress, pleading for mercy.

“Please spare my life, mistress, I promise to bring it back to you, I swear with my life.”

The mistress stretched her hand towards the maidservant, and the maidservant got suspended in the air and held her neck in pain as she choked.

“If you fail again, I won't spare you. I will feed you to the vultures,” the mistress threatened and withdrew her outstretched hand. “Now leave!”

The maidservant fell hard on the floor, stood up, and ran out of the cave where her mistress resided.

“ By the time I am done with you, Sabastine, you will curse the day we ever met!.” Beatrice, the evil enchantress uttered, and smiled evilly.

Beatrice was a blond, green-eyed beautiful fairy. She used to be one of the most desired fairies in the kingdom until one day she was caught practicing black magic and was banished from the kingdom.

However, they still didn't know why she ventured into black magic. She came from a very wealthy and influential family in the kingdom. She was also one of the most powerful water fairies in the kingdom. Furthermore, she taught many other water fairies struggling with controlling their powers how to control and use them. Yet, those ungrateful people chose someone else over her to be queen.

After she was banished, she found shelter in a cave on the mountain. She hated Fairyparadise with everything in her. She was going to do everything in her power to dethrone the king and take over the kingdom.

Last year, she killed the queen, but no one knew it was her. She left no traces that led to her; she made it look like the queen had an ailment she hid from the king, which eventually claimed her life.

For eighteen years, she had lived in the cave. Her dark power grew stronger, and her heart became darker. Even the strongest of fairys couldn't defeat her. Thankfully, the cave she resided in faced a stream that formed from a waterfall close by. It made it easier for her to practice, and eventually, she became perfect.

She almost would have achieved her aim, but she couldn't because the queen cast a spell that prevented her from entering the kingdom again. Each time she got to the border that separated the kingdom from her, and tried to enter, a sharp pain always hit her, and she would black out.

Even in her death, Mitchell still made things difficult for her. She had already prepared a potion that could destroy the magic blocking her from entering the kingdom if it was sprinkled at the entrance, but she and any other ordinary fairy couldn't do it; only someone from the royal family could. Since the spell was strong and cast by a Queen, only a person from that family could break it.

She needed a way to access one of the princesses; that was the only way to achieve her goals. Tomorrow was the day the princesses would demonstrate their power.

She had a magical mirror that showed her everything she wanted to see. Although her maid servant also told her about the event, the mirror had informed her earlier. She had waited years for the princesses to grow and display their powers, so she could use one of them as her bait.

*********

King sabastine was on his way to his daughters' room to check on them, as he usually did, when he noticed that the doorway to the hall was open. He entered the hall, alert in case a thief had broken in, but surprisingly the hall looked breathtaking.

He smiled with pride when he saw his daughter on a long bench, already asleep. He knew it was her doing. Oh! How she made him proud. She was just like her mother - beautiful and industrious.

She muttered some funny words as he gently carried The Sleeping Beauty and headed to her room. After putting her in her room, he went to Tracy's room but found her bed empty. Where could she have gone to at this time of the night? He knew she often came back late when she was angry, but this was strange. It was midnight and she wasn't in bed.