Thunderbolt of Laurels

Chapter 9-Puzzle Pieces

I wake up in Red Shoes and my shared room. How did I get here? It looked like he was there, Merlin was there. Not the Merlin that we've been staying with but my Merlin. Unless I was seeing things. I sit up on the bed trying to figure out what happened when Red Shoes enters the room. "Hey, how are you feeling?" she asks me.
"I'm alright, I believe. What happened?" Maybe she has a clue of what happened last night.
"Merlin brought you from the forest. He said there was an army attacking you."
"Yeah, there was." So it was Merlin, little Merlin. He is a fan of the F7, so perhaps he learned to somewhat mimic Merlin's powers. But something doesn't add up.
"He does magic?" I ask her.
"Um, I don't know. I thought only the royal wizard bloodline could do magic," she says.
"I know, but yesterday. . .I thought I saw magic."
"What happened?" she asks. I explain all that I can remember in detail.
  "Hmm. . .well, maybe he's some sort of long lost descendant?"
"It's likely," I reply. "But I thought it was the real Merlin, from the F7, not the fan club."
"Why? Did you actually see him?"
"No. I just felt it."
"You had a feeling? Not too much proof there."
"I know. I just. . .I may be going crazy. . .missing him and all-" I confess without thinking. "I mean-"
"Missing him? Who, Merlin? What do you mean?" I might as well tell her.
 I tell her the story of how we met, I could remember it so vividly, the dream, or rather memory from last night was great help. "So, why didn't you ditch the prince and go with Merlin?" she asks.
"I almost did. I was going to. We met many times for a while. I'd sneak out of the castle some times a week just to enjoy his company. We tried many new things."
"That sounds fun."
"It was, until that last time. . ." I trail off. I don't have many regrets, but this is my grandest one of all. I should have done made the moment turn out differently.
"What happened?" I look at her and sigh.
"It was three years ago. We had kept this up for a few months, until he had to leave the kingdom. . ."

Three Years Ago

"Come with us. I know it's a lot to ask, to leave your kingdom and your family. It doesn't have to be for long, you can come back in a couple of weeks or even days, but we're needed in another kingdom, " he says. I was already planning on going with him. I hypothetically asked my parents what would happen if I met a boy and if I could get out of my betrothal I'd I fell in love. They refused. I talked to them several times trying to convince them, but it was no use. I was stuck. I told myself I was leaving this kingdom. It was the only way to be with him. He drew me in so much it made me mad.  Now, that he tells me in person, that it's happening in real life, I'm torn between the duty of my kingdom and love. I didn't think it was going to be this hard, I thought I had already made my choice. My heart is telling me to go with him, and so is my mind. But my conscience is telling me to stay. . . 
 He extends his hand out for me. I look at him and his friends in the distance packing their belongings in a carriage. I never got a chance to truly meet them. I look at his hand. "I can't," I finally say. He nods.
"I know. It was a long shot." He smiles at me and puts his hand down. "But you can write me."
"No, we shouldn't." My dad will see the letters come through, or Char. Nothing gets through those two. My dad already thinks of Char as his own son.
   Merlin tilts his head. "We shouldn't? What do you mean?" His eyes are sad, like he can already tell what's coming.
"I think we should stop-"
"No. Don't say it. I can stay. The rest of the F7 can handle whatever's happening by themselves," he says urgently. I shake my head.
"They need you Merlin. You're apart of them."
"But I don't want to leave you. I don't want this to end."
"Neither do I." He wraps his arms around me tightly. I hold him too, for the last time. I know what the right thing to do is. "Alaura, I lo-"
"No don't say it," I say quickly. It'll make this way harder.
"But I have to tell you how I feel."
"No. Please." I feel a single tear flow down my cheek. I don't want to let him go.
"Why is this happening?" he asks. I sigh.
"There's something I didn't tell you. Something I should have told you since the beginning. . ."
"Merlin, we're ready!" a voice calls, one the F7.
"I'm coming!"
"We have to go, NOW! Or that mangey beast would have destroyed half of Fairytale Island."
"Alright, alright. I'm coming!" He turns to me. "I-I've got to go." I nod.
"I know."
"Please tell me this isn't the end."
I look up at him. "Maybe it isn't." He reaches into his pocket and takes out one of his cards.
"Here, take this. To remember me by." I take the card from him and take off my hair clip.
"You take this. It's my favourite clip." I watch as he takes the beautiful orange topaz clip into his hands. 
"I'll always hold onto it" he assures me. 
"I will too. I'll miss you, Merlin."
"We'll see each other again, right?" I lightly smile at him.
"Perhaps fate will one day allow us to."
~~~
"That is so depressing," Red Shoes tells me.
"I know. I should have-"
"Gone with him?  No, I get it. You were torn, and you've been told all your life what to do and how your life is going to go. Princesses have less freedom than princes." That sentence holds so much truth.
"I miss him."
"Do you think you were imagining the lightning? From getting hit on the head."
"Possibly, but it seemed so real." Suddenly I remember I picked something up before I blacked out. "Wait." I look around my bed in search of the item. I can't recall exactly what it was.
"What are you looking for?" she asks me.
"I'm not sure, but I'll know it when I see it, I hope." She helps me looks for the item. I pick up my pillow, remove my blanket and look under my bed, but there's nothing. "Where can it- AHA!" I run towards the window sill where a piece of paper lays on the ground.
"That's what you were looking for? How did it get there?"
"I'm just glad it didn't slip into the forest when Merlin brought me back." I pick up the paper and turn it over to the front side. I recognize the symbols; the same ones Merlin had on his cards.
   I go over to my torn coat and fish around in the pockets, finding the card he gave me. I compare the two, an identical match. "This is the one Merlin gave me," I say. "And this is the one I took from the ground last night."
"He was there," she says. I look at her and widen my eyes.

 There was something odd about these dwarfs. They were hiding something. I joked with Merlin asking if they were under a curse. He kept coming to me, saying all these strange things like he knew me. He wasn't surprised that I was Princess Eira, yet he was shocked when Char said we were betrothed. His shadow at the lake was of a man, I could hold onto his waist when I closed my eyes on Chonkers, but when I opened them, he was short and I couldn't reach him.
"Do you think-" I start. "Do you think that they're under a curse?"
"Who?"
"The dwarfs."
"I don't know. Why?"
"Do you think. Do you think they're the F7?" She looks at me bewildered.
"Well, I don't know they are strange. . . they could very well be. They're just too similar to the F7." I start walking out of the room. I have to talk to Merlin. I have to see if he has my clip, if he really is my Merlin. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to find out the truth."