The Ugly Prince

The Tale of Rosa and the Witches' Trade

Chapter Eight

The tale of Rosa and the witches’ trade

The night was long and the journey seemed never ending, but in the morning Juliana was woken up by Rosa tagging at her sleeve. Calling her name until she had awoken completely and when see opened her eyes she saw Rosa’s smiling face as she said, “where here”.

Juliana looked at to see whether Drake was still where he was last night, but he was gone she heard Rosa’s voice once more and said “he’s unpacking dear”.

She started to get out of the carriage to look outside to see where they were, and when she started to get out. The sun’s ray of light blinded her for a moment, and when she stood up on her two feet she could feel her feet sink and felt a strong chill of wind that made her shiver, and when she opened her eyes all she could see was snow.

The trees had shed there leaves and all that could be seen was the dark brown empty branches, that was now holding snow and the ground and the high hill that was in front of her was covered by a cold blanket of it. She cradled herself as the coldness grew stronger “get in” said Rosa “you’re shivering all over we do not want you catching a cold”.   

“In where?” said Juliana and before her eyes a large boulder covered in snow moved itself before her, and there revealed a dark cave. It seemed like a tunnel from the outside that got even darker when she looked to see the very end of it, and when she stepped inside small orbs of light appeared one by one, going all the way down the tunnel. As she was walking to get to the end of the tunnel, she looked up and saw that the small orbs were actually floating candles that never moved an inch. It amazed her that such small candles could give that such a bright light, but then she thought that maybe Rosa’s magic must have something to do with it. She carried on walking until she saw a brighter light that was even brighter then candles, and she could feel the warn rosy heat coming from it.

The warm heat drew her closer and closer to it and before her eyes was comforting scene, there was a huge fireplace caging a giant rosy fire and beside it was a chair covered in patterns of flowers and giant cushions of green and purple. Covered by a knitted large quilt with different square colors. And behind it was a wooden cupboard and table, and on the opposite side was a wide double chair that nearly looked the same as the one near the fire but with two larger quilts over it. The room was covered by a red glow which the fire had created, and right near the fire was Drake putting the logs that he had cut from yesterday into it. Juliana felt cozy as she sat at one end of the wide double chair, she couldn’t help but put her legs up as well as she had herself comfortable in the corner of the chair. It was so comfortable that it made her feel like she could fall asleep again, but she soon felt energetic when Drake had sit next to her and said. “Are you alright malady?”

She sat back up to be polite and replied, “Yes. I am alright but why are you always calling me malady, if I may ask?”

He was shocked at her question and said back, “it is polite to call a lady as such, do you not like it”.

He looked at her with sadness in his eyes and Juliana felt a little guilty as if she had hurt his kind curtsey. “Please I did not mean to upset you, and I do like your kind manner. But please call me by my name as I would like to be your friend”.

He nodded feeling nervous as no- one had ever said such a thing to him before, the only friends he had was from the palace and Humphrey who he had met the day before his enchanted began. For he had no other friend from outside world.

Then Rosa soon appeared into the cozy room as the lights from behind her had put themselves out. “It feels more comfy as the last time we were here”, she said as she walked to the chair next to the fireplace.