Other Side of The Rainbow

Chapter 5

Second day of their adventure started way too early for Isobel, who woke up in the cold fog of the morning, long before Amis. She opened her left eye at first, the way she did every morning, and when in the first moment she couldn't say where was it that she was sleeping, she was thrilled. The princess opened her right eye and jolted up, quietly enough so that her companion wouldn't wake up and pout all day long for being brought back from Dreamland so early in the morning.

She decided to walk around the place, now that she had some time for herself.

The first thing Isobel noticed was that it was incredibly chilly, and yet the sun was already going up, so it must've been about 5 o'clock in the morning. Undeterred by the cold, she draped a blanket around her shoulders and started to walk away from the camp.

The fog and the sunrise played a visual symphony before her eyes, Isobel's thoughts got swept away by the wet, heavy cloud surrounding her, reflecting the most delicate shades of pink and orange. It felt like she was in heaven.

Walking slowly, the princess took a path that must've been ending somewhere in the deep, dark forest.

- What was the problem with it again? - thought the girl. The forest has always been terra prohibita for her and any person who was new around these lands. It held a dark secret, although she never got around to discover what it was exactly. All she knew was that the forest was too dangerous for her, or anyone who went deep into it unarmed.

The princess frowned, and went even deeper into thought. The forest has been holding dark secrets ever since she remembered. When did it start, though? What was it, hidden inside, and could it really have caused all of those tragedies, including the crops and the people dying? And most importantly – was the so called true love going to stop it from going any further?

Isobel didn't believe that anyone could ever just cross her way and sweep her off her feet. Love could've been a myth created by the mages of the world for all she cared, so that the folk would believe in the lack of it in their lives, and meekly purchase all kinds of love potions the magical folk had in their inventory.

But there was another problem, still hanging right above her head like a dark cloud – how on Earth is she going to end this whole situation with true love? Where?! Where is the one that could possibly help her do that? It wasn't going to be Amis, the two knew immediately. And pretending to be in love wouldn't work either, right?

The only way to get out of this, somewhat embarrassing situation, was finding a young lad somewhere around the forest, and have the prince fall in love with him one way or another.

Was is possible though? She heard so many times from the stories that she's read, that you cannot make anyone fall in love.

But then again, what about the love potions?! - a voice in her head shouted. - It might be too late to visit a mage and ask him to brew one just-in-case, but maybe she could think of brewing something herself?!

... Not that she knew how to do that. She never even thought about educating herself in the field of herbology, so this idea could as well be discarded right away. Her only achievement of this sort was making mud cakes when she was 6, and sprinkling them with some grass, wherein the mud was literal mud she collected in front of the castle after a rainy day, and the grass came from under her windowsill. Come to think of it, it was quite surprising that nobody stopped her, even though both the royal couple and the servants went past her in the corridor, and she left very visible mud trace that got lost somewhere in the kitchen. But, luckily or not, the experiment has failed so miserably that Isobel vowed to herself never to even try cooking ever again. It has resulted in her being capable of doing so much as boiling an egg, but for a woman of her position that much was quite a lot already.