By the time he got to the forest, the sharp vines immediately started moving and parted ways for him. No doubt they're under the control of Maleficent. As a matter of fact, this entire enchanted forest is.
After tracing the familiar road and paths, he found himself back in Maleficent's habitat. At this moment of the hour, the moon is about to pass by and daylight is coming.
"Good. You're here." Maleficent suddenly interrupted him from behind, coming out of nowhere as she walked past his shoulders. Diaval was no longer perched on her staff as usual, instead he's nowhere to be seen, which made Henry curious as to where the raven could have gone off to late at night.
'And here I thought ravens were supposed to be nocturnal or something. Or was it Owls?'
Henry recovered from his deep thoughts and asked, "What kind of bad news? Aurora got kidnapped? Lost? Or what?"
Maleficent ignored the fact that at the first hearing of bad news, Henry immediately knew it was about Aurora. All she could think of right now was Aurora and why she was being brought back to the Kingdom three days earlier than her birthday.
She shook her head and replied, "No…She's being brought back earlier than expected." She paced back and forth, Henry's head following her figure.
"So you want me to keep up and follow her back to Ironmere? Not to brag but perks of being the Crown Prince of a Great Kingdom, anything I ask for, will be hard for Stefan to refuse lest he offend me…" Henry tried his best not to sound as arrogant as possible.
Maleficent scoffed at his words though truth be told, she couldn't deny what he just said, "Alright, since you said it yourself, then go. Infiltrate that castle of his and keep a very close eye on Aurora. Make sure nothing happens to her until her sixteenth birthday…"
All while forgetting the fact that she's not supposed to show care towards the princess.
Henry didn't bother to ask why he had to protect Aurora from anything bad that might happen to her—he already knew the answer anyway.
"So that's why you brought me out here? In the middle of the night, and made me sneak out? No offense but you could've just told me in our Mind Message earlier." He scratched his head and said.
Maleficent rolled her eyes at him, "Do you always complain about little things like this? I wonder how your magic teacher was able to put up with that kind of attitude."
Henry raised both of his hands, "Master Elias is a very patient old man, albeit a little bit annoying."
As if the world had turned to a halt, Maleficent froze and turned to him slowly, there was something mixed in her expression, "…Who did you say your teacher was again?"
Henry blinked several times, "Master Elias? Why? You two know each other?"
Maleficent hesitated for a moment, as if contemplating whether to give a detailed explanation or not, in the end, she decided on the latter.
"We just…go way back. That's all." With that being said, she cleared her throat and continued while returning to the previous subject, "Anyways, you should go back now. From what I know, they're bringing her back as soon as the sun rises."
For some reason, Henry couldn't help but feel like her tone took a smooth but slightly unnoticeable turn. It's as if it turned softer and less cold than before.
And Henry had all the reason to suspect that being Master Elias's student had a play on it.
"…Alright."
Just as Henry was about to leave, he heard a whisper from behind, "And be careful."
He didn't stop on his tracks and yet he still replied loud enough for her to hear, "I will, thanks, Teacher." He didn't bother to hear what she had to say and quickly left the scene.
Meanwhile, Maleficent was frozen on the spot. She just stared at Henry's disappearing back, only when it faded away did she finally mutter softly.
"How lucky can you be, Elias. Another talented student under your tutelage. Or dare I say more talented than all the previous ones combined?"
———
If there is something that was supposed to happen when she woke up first thing in the morning, she was not expecting her three guardians to suddenly start packing her things as if they wanted to throw her out of the hut.
"Aunts…what's going on?" When she looked outside the window, she noticed the sun had barely risen yet, "And it's barely sunrise yet. What are you guys doing?"
For some reason, she has a very bad feeling thumming inside her chest right now, "…Was it about Henry from yesterday?" She felt herself choking from her emotions, "Is that why you guys are kicking me out?"
However, even though she wanted to be sad—to feel sad, there's something invisible faintly stopping her from doing so. She doesn't know why but throughout her entire life, whenever she felt sad, it would magically and mysteriously fade away when she gave it time, as if feeling such emotion besides being happy is forbidden to linger for more than a few hours.
Even now, she has no idea why she feels that way. One time she asked the three fairies and they simply brushed it off as her being blessed by kind fairies when she was but a babe.
At that time, she instantly thought of her Fairy Godmother as the perpetrator behind it. However, Maleficent refuted her words which just left her more confused than before.
Knotgrass instantly dropped the clothes she was stuffing inside a heavy bag and slowly approached her with the look of warmth and love coming from her aunt that has taken care of her the past fifteen years of her life, "Oh, Briar, we're not kicking you out…It's just that. I think it's time for you to know the truth."
Aurora frowned in confusion, "Truth? What truth?" She noticed that her three aunts were exchanging looks.
"Briar…Your real name is Aurora and you are…"
———
By the time Henry got back to the castle, once again sneakily getting back to his room, he instantly stopped in his tracks and stared wide-eyed at the person sitting on his bed.
"What the fuck?" He couldn't stop himself from cursing.
He was staring at a direct replica of himself. A fake Henry clone was sitting on the bed, arms crossed, eyes staring back at him, and devoid of emotions.
In an instant, magic exploded from Henry, coating both of his arms in deep blue flames, "Who are you and what are you doing in my room? No, a better question is, why do you look like me?"
Henry, or the fake Henry, simply tilted his head and replied, this time the voice was quite different from his, "Is that how you greet a friend?"
The real Henry found the voice slightly familiar, he doused off the flames from his forearms and pointed at his fake clone, "Is that you, Diaval?"
Fake Henry smiled and nodded his head, his body then turned disfigured and compressed, before eventually turning back in his raven form, all in a manner of a second. It was only Henry's sharp senses and fast reaction that he was able to see the entire process of Diaval's shapeshifting.
"No wonder you weren't with her earlier in the forest."
Diaval nodded his tiny dark-feathered head, "Mistress sent me here just in case someone gets to your room while you're absent. And now my job is done, so I'll take my leave."
He didn't even wait for Henry to reply, nor give him a few treats. Diaval simply flapped his wings and left through an open window that closed on its own as soon as he flew out.
Henry sat on the bed and rubbed his face, "Hah~ things just got a little bit interesting…"
Seeing that the sun was already nearing the sky, Henry realized there was no point sleeping anymore. So he simply took out the books of Enchanting that Master Elias gave to him and turned to practicing.
He didn't know how many hours had passed, only a knock on his door snapped him from a trance-like state of reading the books. He stuffed the book back into his satchel and stood to open the door.
Creak!
"Yes?" When he peeked outside, he saw one of the female servants standing with her hands holding each other in front of her.
"Good morning, Prince Henry. Breakfast is ready, and His Highness, King Stefan wishes to have an audience with you."
Henry already had an inkling as to what their discussion in this upcoming audience is going to be about, "…Alright, give me a few seconds. I'll get ready."
———
When he got to the dinner hall, King Stefan was already eating at the head of the table. For some reason, Henry scanned the dining room, looking for Aurora but found no sign of her. He wanted to ask about it but he refrained from doing so—it would be suspicious to ask about her in such a coincidental manner when she just got back for the first time in years.
"Good morning, King Stefan." Henry casually strode inside, took a seat, and started eating. As for the supposed respect for the King?
Henry knows no respect that should be given to the likes of King Stefan. There's a reason why most nobles in the Lioncrest Kingdom fear him and see him as someone cruel rather than the good Samaritan that most common folk know him as.
King Stefan didn't react to the blatant disrespect, or rather he just ignored it. It's not like there's anything for him to do about it anyway.
He cleared his throat and flashed an obvious fake smile, "How was your night, Prince Henry?"
"It was okay. The bed is okay, so are the bedsheets and all that."
Sensing that there's nothing else for Henry to say, King Stefan gulped his saliva and forced a strained smile, "I see…" It seems like the King was hoping for Henry to praise his Kingdom, his castle, and all those things.
A servant silently walked beside King Stefan and whispered something in his ear. Thanks to Henry's sharp hearing, he was able to hear their conversation loud and clear.
"Princess Aurora is ready, Your Highness. She's ready to present herself in the dining hall."
"Good. Make sure she acts like a proper princess and don't forget to have her sit next to our dear guest."
"I understand."
As soon as Henry heard those words, his chewing stopped and his hands which were holding the utensils and about to scoop another bite, froze on the spot.
'Is this guy…for real?'
——————————
[Just got the news about GTA 6 and my reaction for it is quite a bit…disappointed. I mean, I understand the price being 100 dollars but locking behind certain shops that can only be accessed in ultimate edition, wouldn't that basically ruin the immersion and lock content behind a paywall, basically making standard edition a lite version instead of full?
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't remember that being a thing even in RDR2. And then there's also the matter of only being digital and no physical disc. Don't hate me for this but I think they're forcing us to be happy without owning anything. For me, having a disc is not just for show or display, but they're also assurance that the games you buy actually belongs to you and can't be taken away.
Making it digital is like saying, we only give you the key to your newly bought house but you don't actually own the house and even the land themselves. Again, this is just my opinion, don't hate me for this.
But if the gameplay itself is truly worth all of these, then I'll take it all back but for now, I'll remain on the fence and see what happens.]