The Ugly Prince

The Journey Through the Snow

Chapter Twelve

The journey through the snow

Rosa’s eyes began to open as her dreams of the past ended, she gave out along sigh and found herself nearly disappearing into her chair, as she found her legs near the edge of her seat. As her bottom sank into the cushions, the only thing that could be seen of her was her hands that where clasped together on her belly, and her head poking out. She wiggled herself free from her comfortable prison and began to wonder, whether they should stay in the enchanted spring into the middle of summer.

When she looked towards the two sleeping children she found herself wanting to laugh, as she quickly covered her mouth to stop herself from doing so. She saw that Juliana had moved places and found her head on Drake’s shoulder, and her arm around his snuggling up for warmth. She looked contempt the way she was, as she had a peaceful smile on her face as she slept, Rosa thought exactly how Drake would react if he was awake and giggled silently. As she looked at Drake who was silently asleep unaware about Juliana, she saw that his hand was pale. She got up to touched his hand and found him feeling rather cold, as he had given Juliana his red cloak to keep her warm. She went towards her bag and pulled up something that she kept for years, she puffed out the wrinkles and the dust from it and placed it over him to keep him warm. It was Martin’s old blue, patched work coat that still had silver stars on it. She sat back down and smiled at him and said, “I remember the day when Martin found out about you, he was overjoyed more than what your father was. On the you were born, when you were asleep in your cradle in the night, he visited you and held you in his arms wishing you pleasant dreams. And when you had tooth aches and were in pain he would rub whisky on your gums without anyone knowing. He even named you in his own way, as he placed your very name into your fathers head as further punishment. He never quite like your father very much, that’s why he kept that pricking spell on Lillian’s shoulders. He thought I never knew about any of these things, but he was wrong I knew every time.”

She smiled at him hoping to tell him more about his grandfather who loved him so, but she knew that she had all the time in the world to tell him. And as she fell back to sleep she found her dreams more calm and peaceful, as she wiggled her way back into the chair in her comfortable prison where she had awoken from. 

The rest of the night was peaceful and silent, the fire was still alight giving off its rosy warmth to banish the chill away. As time went by when it seemed that time itself had slow down as if time wished not to move.

The silence was broken however, to Rosa’s ears as she heard a distant sound without moving an inch or opening her eyes. She listened to it as it echoed in her ears listening its distinct sound, the sound of the melting snow dripping down the branches of the trees from outside the cave. She moved her head, blinked her eyes and rouse herself from her chair as she stretched her back and legs. She walked towards the entrance of the cave through the dark tunnel, as she walked into the tunnel the candles appeared from nowhere as they floated up from the darkness of the shadowed walls, and lit themselves one after the other as she walked towards them. When she reached the end of the cave she looked at the boulder that blocked the entrance, she looked at it and smiled at it. By her smile alone the boulder began to slowly move aside, as if it knew it was being nicely asked to move. As the boulder began to move the light from the outside rushed sharply into the cave, when it had moved aside she saw that winter was almost over. She looked among the trees and saw the blanket of snow slowly beginning to melt, as the droplets traveled down safely to the trees trunk. The sky looked more clearer and calm as the color was more bright and vibrant, and the clouds looked less furious and resembled more of big fluffy cotton balls. The blanket of snow that covered the lumpish ground, now had holes and tires, as the new fresh grass pierced its way through the pure, perfect snow. She took deep breathes of fresh but slightly cold air, before venturing back into the cave to wake Drake to start traveling to the enchanted spring.