Woodbridge Recollection : The Hidden Kingdom

Chapter 24: Makeup lessons.

You'd think that in the case of being a warrior in an order, you'd be doing a full time job without any days off. I was rather glad that that wasn't the case. It felt great to wake up late and lie around in preparation for a full day off from the order. I felt as though I had been on my feet non-stop since I came here.

When I couldn't lie in my bed any longer, I got out of bed and slipped on my snug boots. As I moved around my room, I noticed things that I previously hadn't explored. I started with that box inside my closet. I picked it out of my closet and then went through it again to see if there was anything else that I hadn't found the first time. When there wasn't anything else to find, I picked out the enchanted rose.

I must have been desperate to get over Mathew if I put everything he gave me in a box. However, this rose was far too pretty to be locked away in a box, especially if it was still alive.

I stood up and walked over to the dressing table. I put the rose down on it and then hurried back to close up the box. I slipped it back into its place and then continued browsing around the room. After rummaging through the bookshelf for several minutes, I came across a thick photo album.

"Hmm," I hummed as I opened it. Baby pictures.

I walked over to the bed and sat down on it. I put the album on my lap and began paging through the album. Was this me? This tiny infant with a dark tuft of hair and large eyes. One of the first photographs was of Georgina and Maximus in a hospital, a much younger version of themselves, holding the infant.

I turned through the page. There were several different pictures of two blond toddlers holding up a baby together. Vincent, Kelian and me, I guess.

I smiled and chuckled as I continued through the album. There were so many photos, old photos, of these three kids. As I turned the pages, the kids in them grew. I took a liking to a picture of Maximus holding me up on his shoulders. I looked about two years old, smiling wide and laughing. At this point, it was easy to pinpoint that the baby was me by the short, but wild, brown spiral curls.

I continued to flip through the album until I approached the awkward pre-teen years. Missing teeth, messy hair and braces – I was getting rather bored with it. I closed the album and knocked it off my lap. I stood up, leaving the album on the bed, and continued to look at things around the room.

I noticed a small bag between the desk and the dressing table. I bent down on my haunches and reached between them for it. When I pulled it out, I saw it was a laptop bag.

I carried the bag over to the bed and put it down. I opened the zip and opened it up. Inside it was a brand new HP laptop. Hmm. Good to know I had one of these.

I noticed the power cord in one of the pockets. I slipped it out and plugged it into the closest outlet in the room. I plugged the other end into the laptop and then opened it. I pressed the power button on the keyboard and the laptop purred smoothly.

I waited as it started up. The screen lit up and shuffled through several start up pages. It then ended on a bright blue screen which required a password to log in.

I gave it an annoyed grunt and then reached out to the keyboard. I typed in the most obvious of ideas, trying my own name. The laptop presented a red alert sign with the words incorrect password beneath the slot. I tried Zacarias' name and again, it alerted me on it being incorrect. Taking a leap of faith, I typed in password and, still, it failed.

I breathed in deeply and then turned it off. I'd have to ask my relatives about it later. Maybe they knew the password. I unplugged the laptop and packed it away again. When I put it back in its place, I noticed that I hadn't checked the desk drawers as of yet.