The next three years were anything but peaceful for the castle household as they had to keep an eye out for a certain troublesome princess with boy troubles.
As a result of Eliza's undying will to see Tristan again, she couldn't let the castle walls hold her back from her dream; she plotted escape plans. Lots and lots of escape plans.
But they were all failures.
She could be scaling the walls at night to leave the castle, and all of a sudden, the space around her erupts in flames, or digging the ground, then she hits a hard object, a trap, and she is found in a net, dangling from a tree a few seconds later. This continued on and on for three years, coupled with the constant funny arguments she had with her parents on the subject of her leaving the castle, especially her mom, from whom she got her ridiculously energetic nature.
Most of Eliza's plans failed because of her mother; where Eliza thought she was smart, like hiding in the midst of trash to be thrown out, she found that her mom was smarter, she instructed the servants to put a bee hive with the trash, so when her daughter's scream echoed throughout the palace, a sinister smirk plastered on her mom's face.
Her dad was fun; he taught her how to fight, how to use a sword, a bow and arrow; how to prove she was better than any man. Eliza, unusually, had male interests like swords and duels, but for some reason, she still managed to remain as girly as they come. She could disarm a trained knight in seconds, but still cried and screamed for the slightest things. Also, she was scared to death of rats. She was quite the funny character.
There was also Mercy, her pet elephant and best friend in the whole world. Both she and Tristan spent hours playing with Mercy while they were growing up. When Tristan disappeared, she spent more time with Mercy than with anyone else in the castle and included her in a lot of her plans. Have you ever heard of a flying elephant? Well, they were going to make it happen; they made a huge catapult on the rooftop and attached Mercy to it while Eliza rode on her. The intention was to fling Mercy so high up and so fast that they were able to reach Tristan's kingdom in just a few seconds. They were quite young at this time, and they were barely thinking at all. Yes, both of them, you'd be surprised by how smart an elephant can be when it comes to Mercy. Luckily, they were caught and punished by the guards before they really hurt themselves. They both made messes around the castle whenever they played together, upset a lot of staff, and got punished a lot. Eliza remained a childish mess till the end.
Not to lie, Eliza's presence in their life brought them a lot of fun; she was their bundle of joy and happiness. And just like they loved her, she loved them. It got to a point that she tried escaping more often, not because she felt a pressing need, but because she loved the attention it gave her, and she loved the fact that they were always thinking about her.
Yet, the sad truth grew more certain. They were going to lose her soon. They were reminded of this each day as they watched her battle with the curse. Her once radiant skin had now lost so much of its life. Sometimes she appeared as a walking dead person, so terribly pale. No matter how tough Eliza proved she was, she could never hide how bad her condition grew. They couldn't save her no matter what they did, and it would be cruel of them to leave her to die locked up in the castle without at least fulfilling her one wish. Her eighteenth birthday made it all too clear to them that they had to let her go.
As always, Eliza tried to make use of the blissful and harmonious atmosphere of the party to bribe her parents into letting her leave the castle. Her parents usually spared no second to tell her that she could only leave in her dreams, and Eliza would get so displeased by this, she would start an argument with them, which would continue on till they all bid each other good night. Everyone else would laugh hysterically at them. But this year, unlike other years, her parents suddenly paused after Eliza asked the usual question, they looked at each other and gave each other confirmatory looks, "You can go". her mom and dad said in unison. What followed was a scream with the highest pitch. Eliza couldn't believe it. She looked back at her parents; they looked serious, so it wasn't a lie. She let out another scream to get it out of her system and jumped at them to hug them.
Her parents had already prepared everything she would need for her to leave the next day. They wanted her to have at least a full year to herself. When they all fell to the floor because of Eliza's hug, her mom instantly protested while her dad laughed, but all the same, she rained kisses on them both. "What made you agree this time?" Eliza asked, still in shock at the whole thing.
"Well, we just thought you should enjoy your last year to the fullest by fulfilling your heart's desire rather than being locked in this old castle," her dad said sweetly. Eliza was elated by this.
"Ok, now, bed head, you have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. It's best if you sleep early." Her mom suggested. She hugged them once again and kissed them good night. The halls were filled with her squealing as she went to bed. Her parents were in disbelief at themselves, but couldn't hide their smiles from Eliza's joy. Much to their surprise, they went to bed happy that night. But how was this possible? They had just done the abominable act they swore never to do.
Now Drustan, Tristan's homeland, was very far away, almost a full month's journey on foot, but she had Mercy as her locomotive, whom she had been riding on for as long as she could remember. Her parents wanted her to carry a whole crusade of knights along with her as escorts, but Eliza would have none of it; the last thing she wanted was the entire kingdom in disarray because of her. So, they settled with just her, Mercy, and a bunch of gold as currency, which they knew she would obviously lose quite early in the journey. What else could they do to help this determined yet unwise child of theirs?
Eliza woke everyone up excitedly the next day. She had, of course, woken up much earlier and gotten ready, which was very unusual; she was a heavy sleeper and always woke last. She went to all their rooms, pushing them out. They all got to work immediately after this, as they had no choice; she had enough energy to pester them the whole day. Eliza then did another outrageous thing: she went to the kitchen and forcefully assisted the kitchen crew in the food preparation. It was very strange; Eliza hated chores of any sort and knew how to do close to nothing around the castle. She was full of surprises today. She made work around the castle rowdy, going from corner to corner, lending a hand. She actually made things much worse, turning all of it into a song and dance affair.
Breakfast was terrible; it made the eyes of all who tasted it pop, but Eliza thought she had done well, so they smiled not to diminish her spirit and lied to her. She did the cleaning up after breakfast was done. They heard the sound of plates breaking shortly after she entered the kitchen. When they rushed over to check on her, they found she had made a mess of the place, breaking most of the glassware. Her excuse was that she didn't know how plates were cleaned; she tried scraping the dirt off with anything she saw. Hearing this made them laugh; she couldn't understand why they were laughing, but joined anyway.
Her dad came over with a soap and sponge; he had one more lesson for her. He picked up one of the broken plates, dipped it in some soapy water along with the sponge, and started scrubbing. He brought her in close to scrub along with him, they sang together, making everyone else join in, and getting the kitchen cleaned up. Her mom found the whole thing ridiculous, but was dragged along in the fun when she tried to leave. How were they to part with their bundle of joy? Wasn't fate being too cruel? What had she done to deserve all that was happening to her?
Soon, it was time for her to leave. They all gathered and watched as she mounted Mercy, ready to say goodbye. Something about that moment made it so right for her to stumble and fall flat on her face. She got up to see everyone in the castle—her mom and dad, the maids she played with growing up, the kitchen staff who chased her and Mercy when they stole sweets they weren't supposed to have, the guards she tried to impress to show she was stronger than any man, and the gardener she once tried to trick into throwing her out with the leaves he raked. They were her family, all of them. She stood up and ran straight to give them all a big hug; tears welled up in her eyes because she couldn't thank them enough for everything they'd done for her. She wished she had more time, but she knew she had to go; just a year was left. She needed to see Tristan at least once before her time ran out. She held back from their embrace and turned to leave. But before she did, her mom called out, "Be sure to be back a day before your birthday, let's at least have some time with you before you—" her mom couldn't finish her sentence because the weight of her words made her tear up, and she buried her face in her husband's side. It affected Eliza just as much when she mounted Mercy in tears; she couldn't hold back her emotions. She turned around to face the open gates and slowly rode Mercy through them—slow enough to be the only thing on everyone's mind who saw her. Then she gradually picked up speed, racing into the open field with a bright smile. She had a light touch of orange in her hair, maroon in her eyes, a pretty face, and was moderately blessed in everything that makes a woman desirable from the neck down. They would miss all those features of hers; they watched them fade away until she was no longer in sight in a long shot. Then the guards locked the gates.
Her mom's expression then turned serious, "She's going to get herself killed if she wanders out there all alone," she suddenly said. She felt her husband's eyes roll, but she didn't care. In the next moment, she assembled the black crusade, an order of knights that carried out stealthy operations in the dark. "Do everything you can to keep my daughter safe, but don't interfere with her journey. And don't let her find you out". She gave the order, and just like that, they were gone, tailing after Eliza with just a few meters.