Once Upon a Dream

That small hut couldn't even fit the three pieces of furniture and the magic devices properly, what about four people? The most efficient alternative was to let Merlin and Rashid sleep in the cramped house, while Ben and Mal slept outside. However, if there was one thing the two young men could not do, it was sleep.

Mal was awake thinking about everything she had heard. How could it be that her whole life was already written? Furthermore, why make her suffer so much? What was the point of making her grow up in such a dark place as the Isle of the Lost? Now it seemed that every time she thought of a memory, she wondered if it had already been described. As she looked out over the lake, she realized that it wasn't just her that was awake.

Ben had always wanted distance from magic and now he realized he was right. His parents were only together because of a spell and all he ever wanted to avoid was becoming dependent on magic and the useless belief of the Enchanted World. Now, knowing that his life had always been around a magic book, he wondered about his whole life. What fun was it to have to live if even what he thought was already written on a page? What if he could be the son of an ordinary man? What if his only concern now was graduation? He could have that doubt, since, the mess only started with his father and the Enchantress. He could have a totally different life...

"Thinking too?"

A voice asked, and when he turned around, he saw Mal sitting next to him.

"Yeah, no matter how hard I try to forget, I think that story is going to stick in my memory for a long time."

He confessed, still looking at the murky water of the river.

"I think that story is so absurd that it will be impossible to forget."

"Do you think what they said is a lie?"

"No, of course not. Although, if it were a lie, I would feel a lot better."

"I still have my doubts, but after they talked about the dreams, I found it hard not to believe."

"And how are you with that? I mean, knowing that someone knows about your whole life."

"It's not much different from my normal life." He chuckled thinking about his reality. "The one time I did something no one knew about my father found out and well, the rest you already know. And how are you?"

"Knowing that someone already wrote my whole life and that I never had the power of decision? So far so good."

Ben laughed at her irony and at how she seemed to deal humorously with his problems.

"Power of choice. I guess we never had that. And here I thought falling in love with an Island girl was just my heart's choice." Ben said, however that line was meant to stay only in his mind. "I'm sorry, I didn't..."

"It's okay." Mal turned almost as red as him. "It had to be magic. I would never like a prince, let alone the king's son."

"Hey!" He pushed her lightly, feeling offended. "Just so you know, compared to the other princes in the books, I don't turn into a beast and I don't let a maiden sleep for a thousand years waiting for me."

"And I, well, I'm not really a princess and I don't know if as a villain I should have kissed the good guy if I'm the villain."

"I guess that's why the Book chose you."

"Why?"

"You are not like the other princesses. Everyone already knows the classic naïve girl who falls in love with the prince without knowing he is a prince or is wronged by her family. You, on the other hand, fight back if you think you're being wronged, you don't just stand around waiting for your prince to come along, in fact you almost killed me when you met me, I guess that goes against every fairy tale I've ever read."