Hellfire | Isle of the Lost

TWENTY-SEVEN: Rulers To Be

After his sleepover with Doug, Lonnie, and Jane, Ben felt a lot better than he did previously. Being with his friends made him remember that he was still a teenager and he should enjoy this stage of life. But it still didn't change the facts. Ben was due to take the throne of Auradon in a matter of months at sixteen years of age.

Of course, he had tried to get his parents to tell him the real reason as to why this was all happening. Adam had stuck to what he was telling the press, telling his son that it was due to tradition as well as the fact that they were ready to retire. They were looking forward to long vacation cruises, early-bird dinners, and playing golf (Adam), bingo (Belle), and generally taking it easy. Besides, Belle had a stack of unread bedside reading so high, it threatened to topple over on a huffy Mrs. Potts when she came to take away the breakfast tray every morning.

Belle at least provided Ben with some sort of answer. She told him that he would find out the real truth when he was older and could handle its tremendous burden. And regardless of what the real reason was, it wasn't going to change the outcome. Ben was still going to become king in a few months and he needed to figure out what kind of king he was going to be. The circumstances that led him there were in the past now, and his eyes needed to be on the future.

But Ben couldn't think, not while being in the palace. All he could hear were the news reports about the unfolding situation. All he could see were servants preparing for coronation. He knows to himself that he isn't ready to be king, but he was going to ascend the throne anyhow. He needed time for himself to clear his mind and process all that happened.

And that is how the young prince found himself in Auroria later that day with his girlfriend. Her mother was a famous beauty in a land of famous beauties, and so it was only to be expected that Princess Audrey, daughter of Aurora, was gifted with the same lilting voice, lovely thick hair, swan-like neck, and deep, dark eyes that could drown a prince in their warm embrace.

Like a kitten scenting catnip—or perhaps like an isle of banished former villains sensing magic—a young prince could hardly be expected to resist such sparkly, dimpled charms. In point of fact, Princess Audrey, like her mother before her, was exactly the sort of princess who gave princesses their rather princessy reputation—right down to her very last perfect curl and the last crystal stitched into her silken gown. And so it was to Princess Audrey that Prince Ben went to lick his wounds and seek some comfort after the waves of life-changing events —like the discouraged, catnip-seeking kitten he was.

"Everything's such a mess," he told her as they walked around the garden of the "Cottage," as Aurora and Phillip's grand castle was nicknamed after King Stefan had declared that the forty-room palace was a mere starter home for the royal newlyweds. "Starter home?" Aurora had said. "What are you possibly imagining that we'll start? A shelter for homeless giants?" The king had not been pleased to hear it, but Aurora was a simple girl and had lived as Briar Rose for eighteen years of her life in an actual cottage in the woods, so she found the castle more than spacious enough for her family. (And at least one or two stray passing giants.)

"I just wish to know the real reason why all of this is happening. I know that it has nothing to do with tradition and my parents are definitely not ready to retire, so why is this happening?" The prince then sighed, "Have your parents said anything to you? Anything at all?"

"You know that they can't," Audrey replied. "But I'm sure that whatever it is, the High Council had a good reason for making you king at such a young age."

"That's what I'm afraid of," muttered the prince. Audrey noticed the way Ben's face had fallen and thought back to her earlier conversation with her grandmother.

"I hear you have a guest coming over today," said Queen Leah as she entered the young girl's room.

Leah was mother to the current Queen Aurora, the famed Sleeping Beauty. Due to Maleficent's curse, she and her husband, King Stefean, lost more than they could've ever imagined. The couple missed out on Aurora's entire childhood, not being part of the very moments that they actively looked forward to since becoming parents. They would later be cursed to sleep along with the rest of their kingdom when Aurora was cursed as well.