Escape From The Ruins Of The Isle: A Descendants Novel

Chapter 3: The Story of a Bow (PreNaNoWriMo)

"Are you ok?" A calm voice asked as they helped Mal to her feet. Mal slowly looked up as she stood to see the Prince with a look of concern on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Mal said trying to pull herself together. "It was just a small fall"

"It wasn't small." Ben shook his head. "You're bleeding and you winced when you took my hand."

Mal was focused enough at this to realize that Fairy Godmother, the headmistress of Auradon Prep had taken over speaking to take the focus off of her and Mal. She slowly tried to take a step and fell into Ben, a sharp pain in her right ankle. Ben caught her effortlessly.

"I guess you have a knack for rescuing damsels in distress, huh?" Mal said her face red.

"There is a surprising lack of damsels." Ben smirked as he adjusted her in his arms and started to take her off of the platform.

"Where are we going?" Mal asked looking around. "You're going to be king. You can't just leave an event because I fell!"

"I wouldn't be the king I want to be if I didn't. Any of my people suffering is my duty." Ben looks at her. She can tell he's truly speaking from his heart with that.

"So where are we going?" Mal asks softly trying not to put pressure on her hands as she stabilizes herself.

"The infirmary. To see Flora, Fauna and Merryweather about your wounds." Ben explains. "They can't instantly fix them but thy'll make sure you are comfortable and able to heal as quickly as possible."

"That sounds nice." Mal says softly looking down. "On the Isle we wrapped things with crude splints and dirty rags and just hoped it would be fine until a mainland doctor could take a look at it."

Ben frowned. "Is that really how things are there?"

Mal's eyes met his. He genuinely had no idea how life was on the Isle. He wasn't playing dumb.... He wanted to know exactly how things were but no one had ever told him. Mal nodded slowly. She had spoken the entire truth and if anything she made it sound better than it was.

"Yes. And the power isn't always consistent. Our textbooks were missing pages and falling apart. Any books on the Isle were really. But I still did my best to read every page that I could find. I wanted to someday make my way here." Mal says letting her guard down. She can feel that she's met a true kindred spirit in the Prince.

"Wow, I had no idea. You are supposed to be treated as our equals without dark magic. The Isle of the Lost is supposed to be a place of rehabilitation. But instead, we've been treating you all like lesser beings." Ben looked disappointed. "But no one has been able to speak up because you're corralled on that island."

"Can we talk about something else?" Mal asks, whimpering as she accidentally moves her ankle.

"Right. Sorry. I just..... My goal is to bring balance and peace to my kingdom. And I'd like the Isle to not need to exist." Ben apologises as he tries to think of a good subject change. "Well I can give you Fairy Godmother's speech."

"You know it word for word?" Mal giggles. She notices his cheeks flush as she does.

"Unfortunately. As the future King, I'm there for every orientation. And yeah, you really aren't missing much." Ben laughs feeling at ease as he makes his way across the school's lawn.

"Well what are the highlights?" Mal asks him softly.

"In general, or for you?" Ben asks tucking her hair back from her face softly. He sees her bow and remembers a day long ago but very much like the current day. The sky was clear and perfect when the Royal family made Ben's first trip to the Isle.