Golden: The Collection

Chapter I: Different

While Aureate could see hundreds of stars in the sky, there was no moon that night. This was the easiest way she could tell her dreams from reality.

"Are you coming?" asked a voice belonging to a small sunflower in front of her.

"You aren't real." Aureate shook her head, and the world around her began to melt. "Of course I'm real," the sunflower said, giving her an outstretched leaf, "but you don't remember."

"Leave me alone!" Aureate retaliated, and the stars came crashing down. Right before they crushed her, the dream came to a close.

-

As if she had been electrocuted, Aureate Solarex woke up with a jolt.

"It was just a dream. Just a dream," she told herself. As long as she could remember, she'd been having this strange, reoccurring dream about an orange-petaled sunflower telling her to remember. But Aureate had never seen that sunflower in her life.

Now, with her head laid on her pillow, she lay wide awake, staring at the ceiling from her canopy bed. Being royalty had its perks. Gold was one of them. Being a princess, Aureate had plenty of golden coins to spend on therapists, psychologists, and even on dream interpreters, oneirocritics, but nothing worked.

As a result, she dealt with the dream on her own. The weird thing was, every time the dream reoccurred, it was in a different setting—somewhere she'd never been, or even seen. Aureate sighed. She lifted her restless self off her bed, drowsily crossing her room and entering the hallway.

What time is it?

Light pooled in from the windows of the castle, suggesting it was about midday. Aureate didn't usually sleep so late, but the past couple of nights had been a struggle.

She strode through the castle halls, gazing at the portraits of her parents as she passed. Her real mother had wilted when she was very young. Her father, Quynn, remarried to Aureate's stepmother, Shine. Her adoptive mother was the only motherly figure she's had so far. Yes, because of that, she treats Shine as if she were her sproutage mother. With no siblings or known relatives, Shine and Quynn were the only family Aureate had.

As she continued through the hall, which seemed endless at this point, she stumbled across her favorite painting. The only one of her mother. Aureate felt a smile find its way onto her face. Her sproutage mother, Gleam, had pale yellow petals, a pale green stem, and emerald green eyes. Aureate closely resembled her mother, but there were a few key differences. Her stem was darker, and her petals were a strange, golden-ish color. But their eyes were the same. Their eyes were always the same.

"Aureate! Aureate, it's time to come greet the new villagers," called the voice of her father. "Come to the throne room, dear!"

Oh, right! Aureate had forgotten all about that. A new batch of citizens were due to arrive that day, as she was told last week. She wanted to welcome them to the kingdom instead of her father, who usually does it, because they're around her age. "It would be a chance to make new friends," was what her mother, Shine said. Aureate didn't have many friends. Not at all.

Because there were others who yearned for her status and, daresay, beauty, the Sunfall Kingdom's citizens often talked about her behind her back. It made Aureate sad, sure, but she was.. used to it. Just one of the many drawbacks of being "different."

"Coming, father!" Aureate yelled down the hall. With one last longing look at her mother's portrait, she made her way to the throne room.

Not much time passed before she reached the destination, flicking her gaze across the new citizens. A peashooter, snapdragon, and acorn, she noted. Out of the three, she recognized one—the acorn.