Sleep Story Series: The Princess Of Time

Once upon a time, the Princess of Time and Pecky, her loyal bunny, set out on a whimsical adventure, playing with magic to craft a mysterious spell in search of happiness. But when the magic goes awry in an unpredictable way, the princess must find a way to set things right to save her kingdom and love. Will she ever break the spell? As she embarks on this gentle journey, you’ll be lulled into a peaceful slumber, carried along by soft metaphors and reflections on life, long before the tale comes to an end. Sweet dreams.

Transcript

Once upon a time lived a beautiful and smart princess called Tess,

Who had what most would describe as a perfect life.

All her family,

Friends and the people of the kingdom admired her because she brought happiness everywhere she went,

And was always willing to help the ones in need.

She married a beautiful and courageous prince who came from a distant land,

And whom loved her more than anyone ever could.

They spent almost all their time together,

And every day they shared interesting conversations about their studies,

Improbable adventures and joyful laughter.

Maybe the only one who was as close to her almost as much as the prince was her loyal bunny,

Pecky.

He grew up with her and they were inseparable.

It was never clear where he came from.

Some stories said he was no regular bunny,

As he seemed to understand people just like a real person.

And sometimes even better than they would understand themselves.

This was not preventing the princess from getting mad at him when he stole some of her favorite food from her plate when she was distracted.

But she knew she could not stay mad at those big eyes for too long,

And he certainly knew it well too.

The princess enjoyed spending her days studying and practicing any skill that one day would have made her become a wise and beloved queen.

She was in no rush though.

The more she learned about new subjects,

The more she was using her newly acquired knowledge to benefit not only herself,

But also the people around her,

Whether they were family,

Close friends or just acquaintances.

Tess was happy and felt accomplished in her life and with good reason.

She had been the best student in all the schools she studied and her mentors could not stop talking about her wit.

There was just one thought that sometimes was finding its way into her mind and troubling her.

It was only a far thought years before,

But year over year it became more frequent.

As she got into her mid-age years,

The thought became more and more frequent,

To the point that it made her sad sometimes.

When she looked at herself in the mirror,

Despite being in great shape due to all her activity and care for her body,

She could not avoid thinking of how she looked many years before.

And she could not make peace with the natural effect of time on her body.

Her room in the palace had a nice terrace with a private garden accessible just from her room.

She loved to spend her time studying there and sitting on the border of the round fountain,

Looking at the people passing by in the street.

When she was seeing women many years younger than her,

She would look at her reflection in the crystal clear water of the fountain and could not find her usual smile.

She knew how pretty she was and it was not infrequent for people to mistake her for a way younger woman.

But still,

She could not put that voice in her head to rest.

One day,

As her tenth anniversary of meeting the prince was approaching,

She decided to solve this issue once and for all.

The prince was traveling and would have been back in a week,

Right on time to celebrate the anniversary together.

This was the perfect time to enact her plan.

She would find the most powerful wizard known,

One who had no fear of binding time to rejuvenate her.

She imagined it would feel like the breath of the wind on the desert at dusk,

Removing the first layer of hot sand to uncover the fresh one lying beneath it.

So she would feel great about herself and the prince would also be in for a great surprise at his return.

The next day,

First thing in the morning,

She sent all the palace's messengers to spread the voice in every kingdom.

Princess Tess was summoning the best wizards for a magic challenge and whoever was selected and able to deliver on it,

Would be compensated with more than they could ever imagine.

She knew this was no easy feat,

Because in the last few years,

When she happened to talk to magicians and sorcerers,

She always asked casually about the feasibility of her desire.

And every time she was told it was something they were not familiar with,

Or that it was a business everyone should stay away from,

Or that it was simply impossible.

But she was motivated and,

As usual,

Nothing would stop her.

When she woke up the next day,

There were hundreds of tents outside the palace.

Magic experts were coming from everywhere,

Some to impress the future queen,

Some because they wanted to help the good princess,

And most just for the desirable reward.

For the next few days,

Tess tasked some local wizards she had known for years to organize difficult screenings for the candidates to perform and show their abilities.

In her experience,

Wizards often had big egos.

So if the ones she trusted were willing to concede that some colleagues could succeed where they could not,

That was a good indication that those may actually achieve the goal.

That revealed to be a good strategy.

Maybe too good.

On the evening of the first day,

She noticed from her terrace that the hundreds of torches outside of the palace were already half than the previous day.

And the next day,

By midday,

The tents were disappearing one after the other at an incredible speed.

She kept hoping for the best.

But by the end of the third day,

All magicians were gone as fast as they came.

A messenger came to her that evening to let her know that only two of all candidates might have the relevant skills,

Preparation and experience to pull off what she was asking for.

But they needed to know more in detail what her challenge would be because she had never shared the details publicly thus far.

The princess was surprised to hear that she was already down to two options even before starting.

But she asked for the candidates to be received the next day in the palace for the last evaluation.

When the next day came,

She looked down from her terrace and saw the two carriages come.

They looked very different,

Even from the distance.

The first one was completely white,

Drowned by four white horses.

It was moving slowly because it was surrounded by what seemed to be well-armed knights in white armor who kept an eye out left and right as if they were escorting a coach full of the most precious gems.

This could have been the case since it was impossible to see inside the white wagon because it had no windows or openings on any side of it.

The second one,

Which was following,

Was also going slowly probably because there was not enough space to pass the white convoy.

But this one was very different.

It had big windows on both sides and if one were close enough,

She could certainly see who was inside,

Also because of the lack of any escort around it other than the two big grey horses who drew it.

The princess did not even have breakfast that day.

She ran down the stairs looking forward to meeting them.

Even Pecky had a hard time following her jumping down the stairs.

She was full of hope and excited to hear good news.

After all,

If these two were the only ones who passed the hard selections,

Out of the hundreds who tried,

They had to be up to the task,

She thought.

When the big doors of the room opened,

The first ones to enter were a multitude of white knights in a circle.

They seemed to be in some sort of defensive formation to protect what was in the center of it.

After they confirmed the room had no visible threats,

The ones at the front opened up to expose their leader.

Shane was his name.

He was small and the immaculate white of his clothes made him look even more chubby.

He had a short white beard and his eyes were quickly moving in all directions as if they were scanning for possible dangers.

Right after,

The white group,

A single person came in.

He was dressed in grey,

From the tip of his long hat to the toes of his worn shoes.

Such uniformity made it difficult to focus on any part of his outfit as it was all blending together.

The only detail that stood out was a tiny medallion with a green stone that he carried around his neck.

When the princess noticed it,

She thought it was very peculiar not only because of its small size and the thin chain,

But also for the delicate style of the design which did not seem to have anything to do with the rest of his outfit.

His face was carved by deep wrinkles,

Especially underneath his eyes.

Despite the outline of a smile on his lips,

He seemed someone who had known his share of suffering.

Maybe that had something to do with him changing his name.

The princess was told that he used to be called Agarar,

But just recently he was introduced as Agast.

Both wizards saluted the prince bowing in sign of respect and waited for her to shed more light on this challenge she has been so secretive about.

Tess was succinct and clear.

She wanted them to find a way to rejuvenate her body so that it looked ten years younger.

But in the process,

She did not want anything to interfere with her mind.

Her memories,

Personality and behaviors should remain untouched.

As a result,

She would look ten years younger,

Just like back when she had met her prince.

But all the memories of their time together would still be with her.

So that their relationship with him and everyone else could continue staying exactly the same.

The first one to react to her words was Shane.

His face started becoming pale while the princess was talking,

Even more than when he came in.

It seemed he was horrified about what he was hearing,

But did not dare interrupt the princess.

Yet at the end of her speech,

He looked scared and moved a few steps back towards the door as if he were to leave.

When Tess asked if he was alright,

He briefly asked to be excused and that he could not be of any help.

All the most renowned academies of wizardry were very clear on the risks of playing with any magic,

Alchemy or enchantment that could alter time in any way.

He was already afraid of even talking about it.

And in fact,

If he had known that would have been part of the assignment,

He would not even have come to the palace in the first place.

Tess tried to explain that she meant no harm to anyone.

The spell was supposed to affect just her,

So nothing bad should have come out of it for anybody.

But Shane's resolution was clear and immutable.

This was against the ethical rules of the Supreme Board of Wizards,

Of whom he was part,

And he would not be able to help.

Although disappointed,

The princess respected his beliefs and allowed him to live.

While the white wizard bowed and turned on his heels,

The princess sent a brief look at the bunny.

He knew she was getting nervous already at the idea of being down to one option.

When the last few white knights left the room,

Closing the door behind them,

The silence that filled the room was indicative of the tension in the air.

August was looking down at his own feet,

Avoiding eye contact with the princess.

When she asked if he was able to perform what she requested,

His expression let transpire He did not have good news,

But was carefully choosing the right words to say it.

Then he finally spoke.

He explained that he was not new to that kind of magic.

Many years before,

As a young magic practitioner,

He was curious and confident in his abilities and he practiced all kinds of magic,

Permitted or forbidden.

He just wanted to learn as much as he could about that discipline he had been loving so much ever since he was a kid.

The princess was initially happy to hear he had experience in the type of magic needed for the spell,

But as she continued talking,

Her hope began to fade.

August continued saying that at some point it became apparent to him that humans could not be entrusted to tamper with delicate things like weather or time,

And that he learned the hard way those were better left alone.

The princess insisted on being very motivated to still perform the magic,

And that all the precautions he would have suggested would have been placed to make it safe,

And that he would be rewarded beyond his imagination.

At this point,

A veil of deep sadness covered the wizard's eyes as he spoke with a broken voice.

He said that bad things could happen outside of our control.

He added that as much as he wanted to help Her Majesty,

In his attempt to dominate forbidden spells,

He had already lost something very special to him that could not be brought back,

And he would never risk that happening again.

As he spoke,

His hand raised,

As if it had a life of its own,

To grab his medallion,

And he held it in his fist so strongly that his knuckles became white.

Pecky and Tess exchanged a mutual look as they noticed his gesture.

Then the princess quietly asked if what he had lost was not something,

But rather someone.

When he hesitantly unsealed his lips,

The silence which came out of them answered her question,

And the princess understood there was no way to change his mind.

Now it was the princess who was sad.

She saw her dreams shatter in front of her.

She thought of the hundreds of wizards who were there just a few days before,

And how in that big room there was now only one of the best standing before her,

And even he could not do anything to help her.

She was just about to dismiss the wizard when the big doors of the room suddenly flew open as if a hurricane was trying to get in.

When the dust settled,

A tall figure became visible.

He was already tall,

But his long hat made him seem even taller.

His thin body also added to that perception,

Together with the dark cape that covered his black clothes.

Behind him,

Outside of the room,

Stood an open coach tied to one big black horse with red eyes.

Before the princess even had a chance to ask for an explanation for such a rude entrance,

He started to speak.

He apologized for joining the challenge late.

However,

He said he was glad,

In a way,

Because he did not have to waste his time during the prior days competing with the other wizards who were not even close to his league.

The princess was shocked by such arrogance and jumped on her feet.

She was just about to ask her guards to escort him out of the palace when he confidently stated that he had the solution to her problem.

Her curiosity won over her disappointment,

And she found herself instinctively asking him how could he know a solution to her problem if he was not even there when she explained it.

He looked her straight in her eyes and replied that he was the most powerful wizard anyone had ever known.

One that had no fear of creating for her the breath of the wind of the desert at dusk,

Removing the first layer of hot sand to uncover the fresh one lying beneath it.

The princess was speechless.

He might have overheard part of the conversation from outside of the room and then pretended that he had just arrived.

But the words he used were the very same she had in her mind a week before when she started this quest.

And she spoke them to nobody,

Not even Pecky.

So at the very least,

This individual should have mastered some powerful magic.

She then decided to challenge him using the new knowledge she had just acquired that morning.

She asked him if there were any risks in the process she wanted to undergo,

Since many wizards thought things like time were not to be tampered with.

He briefly replied that everything in life comes with some risk,

And this was no different.

But he added that he entertained many experiments with regular and forbidden magic.

And he realized that the forbidden one was called as such only because of the fear of people who did not understand it.

He finally mentioned that if she were to apply exactly what he would say,

There would be no risks and the positive result was guaranteed.

Finally,

He stated they should start right away if she wanted to get it done before the return of the prince.

At this point,

Pecky and the princess looked at each other and they knew that this was an act of faith.

Looking for his opinion to August was superfluous at this point,

Even he was looking down and resignedly shaking his head.

And there were no other options available anyway.

When the princess agreed,

The face of the black wizard remained unchanged.

It was unknown if it was because he already knew how things would have turned out or if he felt no emotions about it.

The grey wizard instead made no mystery of how he was feeling and could only wish the best of luck to the princess,

Whispering she would need it.

Then he left.

The princess told the wizard he could stay in the palace in a room near hers so she could be quickly available to help his preparation for the spell anytime he needed her.

Indeed,

He said that first of all he needed to observe her during the next day before being ready to perform his magic.

And so he did.

The next day,

Tess woke up with a mix of tension and excitement,

And she did as she was instructed by the wizard.

She simply did what she usually did on a regular day.

She had breakfast,

Caught Pecky stealing a piece of her pancakes,

And then studied on her terrace sitting on the fountain's border.

The bunny was resting on the border of the fountain as well.

And now and then he checked the window of the room where the black wizard was staying.

He was there,

Watching them,

Like an old statue consumed by time.

Pecky could not see it clearly,

But it seemed he was writing something,

As if he was taking notes.

The princess invited the wizard to have lunch with her family,

But he refused,

Stating he was not to interfere with her routine to ensure his observations were as objective as possible.

So he sat on a table in the corner of the big dining room,

While Tess was having lunch with her family.

They talked and laughed as usual,

Then she went back to her room and again to her terrace.

She loved music and was an amazing dancer.

She spent most of her afternoon singing out loud while dancing around the fountain with the little bunny following her footsteps as much as he could,

Trying to avoid bumping into her.

Just before dinner,

The princess happened to look down at the palace door.

That door was very special to her.

It was the place where she and the prince saw each other for the first time when he came to the palace ten years before.

She was on her terrace and he came to visit the palace from a far land.

They just looked at each other for a moment,

But they did not greet at the time.

Later that day they met and fell in love shortly after.

Ever since then,

Every time he came back from a trip,

She would wait for him on the terrace and he would look for her while crossing the palace door,

So she would be the first one in the palace he would salute by raising his arm from the distance.

This brought her back to the thought that her prince would be back in a few days and she hoped the wizard was ready to perform his magic in time.

He was.

During the dinner,

He explained that he had gathered all the information he needed and he would prepare the spell for that very night.

The only thing he asked for was to get a few drops of the water from the fountain on the princess' terrace,

As he realized how of the whole palace that very spot was the one that was permeated the most by her life essence.

He got what he asked for and went back to his room,

Working all night under the curious eyes of the bunny who stayed close to him,

As if he could help with his presence to guarantee his princess got what she was looking for.

A few hours later,

The room did not look like a bedroom anymore.

Books of magic were scattered all over the floor.

They were of every size and color.

Some had pictures and some had just big pages full of text,

Written in an extremely small copy.

There was one book that the wizard was keeping on top of the others and he kept consulting frequently.

It was peculiar in the fact that the pages were black and the text was written in gold letters with some expressions in purple.

This was not the strangest object on the table,

Though.

The bed was covered in tools,

Elixirs and instruments Pecky had never seen before.

The wizard was going back and forth from the books to the tools,

Checking every detail several times before taking any action,

As if he was dealing with the most dangerous of all tasks.

The next day he had his spell ready.

The potion was contained in a little glass bottle.

The liquid could have been mistaken for water if it weren't for its greenish color.

And if one looked at it for long enough,

Tiny sparks of green light could be spotted randomly appear and disappear just as quickly.

The instructions to use it were simple.

The princess had to pour the bottle's contents into her fountain on the first night of a full moon.

When the moonlight hit the water,

She would see it glow with the green light.

Then she would have to walk around the fountain in a counterclockwise fashion.

At the end of every cycle she completed,

A circle would appear in the water.

It would look like a ripple,

As if a rock was thrown in the very center of the fountain,

But it will not move.

Instead,

A new circle would appear after every complete cycle the princess would perform by walking around the fountain.

The wizard explained that she should walk one circle for each year she wanted to be rejuvenated,

Up to a maximum of ten circles.

When the circles were ready,

Whoever touched the glowing water would be rejuvenated by ten years.

When the circles would be gone,

The glow would disappear and the spell would be complete.

He then added there was one last very important rule.

And when saying that,

He paused to stress the importance of what he was about to say.

His spell was meant to be stable only for rejuvenating a maximum of ten years,

The ones the princess had requested.

His voice turned even graver and more serious than usual when he warned her.

If she were to exceed that amount of years,

The consequences could be terrible and unpredictable.

In that case,

Not even he would be able to fix the problems that would arise.

He repeated this rule one more time to make sure he was understood.

If she were to exceed the limit of ten circles,

She would have been left with only years and tears to overcome her sorrow.

The princess quickly confirmed that she understood and was not concerned about it.

There was no reason she would want to get more than she had asked for.

At this point,

She asked the wizard to name his price for his services and that it would be granted right after the spell was completed and the results would be the expected ones.

In the meantime,

He was welcome to stay in the palace as a guest and treated with anything that would make his stay comfortable and happy.

He agreed,

Stated he needed nothing more and went back to his room.

The first night of the full moon was coming up right before the day the prince was expected to come back.

This was not a coincidence since the prince liked to travel on those nights because of the improved visibility.

So the first time she saw him crossing the palace door was at dawn right after a full moon and therefore the anniversary of their first sight had followed that tradition for the last ten years.

This one would be no different.

She would be waiting to see him cross the door at dawn,

Wait for his arm to rise to greet her and then meet him in the big room where everyone would welcome him back.

Only this time he would be in for a big surprise,

Seeing her rejuvenated by ten years.

She was lost in these thoughts when the bunny grabbed her dress to remind her the moon was almost coming out of the clouds.

Tess looked at the tiny bottle in her hand and promptly poured all its contents into a fountain till the last drop.

Nothing happened.

Her heart started to race.

At that very moment the clouds uncovered the moon and as soon as it lit the fountain the water started to glow with a bright green light.

The princess immediately started to walk around the fountain counterclockwise with the bunny following her.

As soon as she completed the first turn,

A circular ripple appeared on the surface of the water close to the center of the fountain.

She had never seen anything like that before.

It looked as if the ripple wanted to continue its natural course,

Getting bigger and expanding towards the outside of the fountain.

But it did not.

It seemed it was suspended in time.

Tess repeated the process and every time she walked a complete circle,

A new concentric ripple would appear.

When she got to ten circles,

She stopped and looked at the fountain's water.

She counted ten ripples.

The spell was ready.

All she needed to do was to touch the water and her dream would come true.

Her body would become ten years younger.

She would be happier with herself and impress her prince.

She started to move her hand toward the water and as she did,

She happened to rest her gaze on the palace door.

She pictured the prince coming in and an idea crossed her mind.

What if she could show him something he had never seen before?

If instead of becoming ten years younger,

She were to add just a few more years to the spell,

The prince would see her as young as he never did before.

Also,

She thought,

After all the difficulties in achieving her goal of creating the spell,

It was very unlikely that she would do it ever again.

So why not make the best of it this one time?

Pekky looked at her,

Then looked at the door,

Then back at her face again and knew what she was thinking.

He shook his head and put himself before her on the path she would have taken around the fountain.

But it was not enough.

She had made up her mind and jumped above him and quickly ran for five more counter-clockwise circles around the fountain.

Now there were fifteen ripples in the water.

At last she thought about the warning from the wizard and recalled he said how exceeding the ten years could have been terrible.

He said could,

So it was not a certainty.

She decided to take her chances and before Pekky could jump to stop her hand,

She touched the water.

And looking at him,

She thought this was something so precious she wanted to share it with her best friend.

So she sparkled a few drops of the glowing water on her loyal bunny too.

Just as the wizard explained to her,

The green glow passed from her hand through her whole body and the bunny's too.

But contrary to what she expected,

A big spheric wave of green light came out from the fountain like an explosion and expanded in all directions toward the horizon as far as it could be seen.

Maybe the wizard did not share the detail because it was not as relevant to the spell,

She thought.

Then the ripples disappeared and the glow went away in an instant.

So this part went splendid too.

There was just one final thing to check.

The princess put her hands on the fountain's border and leaned in until her reflection was visible in the still water.

The moonlight painted her smile in the water witnessing that incredible moment.

She could not believe her eyes.

She knew in her mind she was still herself but struggled to recognize that young girl in the fountain as her own image.

She was almost hypnotized by that reflection so much so that she kept watching it for a few minutes.

She checked every detail and she now knew she looked 15 years younger.

The small beauty spot on her cheek which appeared the year she had met the prince was not there anymore.

The spell had worked just as expected.

She instinctively hugged Becky,

Started to dance with him and she noticed how his fur was softer and had a lighter color.

Even his cute ears looked a little smaller.

They had done it.

She was so happy now that all she wanted was for the night to go by quickly to see the surprised face of her prince at dawn.

She went to bed right away but she was so excited that it took some time for her to fall asleep.

The bunny jumped on her bed as usual and he was surprised at how much energy he had.

The bed seemed to be so low now.

He was not able to sleep right away too and before closing his eyes he gave one last look at the horizon thinking at how it all unexpectedly turned green before.

Then he fell asleep.

He almost fell on the ground right before dawn when Tess woke up and jumped out of bed throwing the sheets away.

The sun was about to rise.

She quickly dressed and went outside to the terrace looking at the palace door where her prince should have shown up soon.

The bunny followed her quickly too.

He was happy to feel all the new energy after his 15 year rejuvenation.

When they got to the terrace the sun was just coming out.

A few merchants crossed the palace's door but there was no sign of the prince.

He have never been late before.

His heart skipped a beat thinking that something might have happened to him.

Soon enough her anxiety grew even bigger when she looked around and she felt that the palace seemed to be strange in a way she could not describe.

She could not quite understand why.

The reflection of the young lady looking at her in the fountain lost the smile from the prior night.

The two looked at each other and started to run downstairs to understand what was going on.

In opening the door of her room she almost bumped into the lady that used to clean her room every morning many years before.

She stopped doing that a long time ago because as Tess grew up she did not like anyone to touch her things and she would rather clean the room herself or better yet get help from her patient bunny.

When the two women looked at each other Tess was in shock.

The lady before her wasn't the older woman she talked with just the day before.

She was way younger than that and,

Incredibly,

She did not make any comment on the prince's rejuvenation.

The lady asked the princess if it was okay for her to make her room and if she was well since it seemed she had seen a ghost.

Tess was afraid to ask the question in her mind but she found the courage anyway and questioned the lady about the prince's whereabouts.

The lady exploded in a burst of big laughter gone from being concerned to amused.

She told the princess that she might have had a dream about some prince and she was probably still half asleep.

She told her to go downstairs and have breakfast so that she should have helped her feel better.

Tess felt lost and so was the bunny.

They went downstairs and they could not believe their eyes when they got to the big room.

Everyone looked so much younger than the previous day.

At that very moment they started realizing that something might have gone wrong with the spell.

Maybe that giant green light flash was not supposed to happen.

That was probably why the black wizard did not mention it in his detailed explanation.

He certainly was the only one who could help with this and thankfully,

They thought,

He was still in the palace since he did not get paid for his services yet.

On that thought,

The two ran upstairs again to look for the wizard in his room.

But as soon as they got to it,

The door was open and there was no sign of him.

Even more strangely,

There was no sign of all the books,

The magical objects or anything the wizard had with him just a few days before.

Why would he have left before being compensated?

As they were wondering about that,

The bunny jumped around the room and stopped in front of a painting on the wall.

It was a painting they had not seen in a while.

Looking at the rest of the room,

They realized it was a perfect picture of how that room looked like a long time before.

And that is when reality hit them as a cold sudden storm.

The spell was supposed to be affecting just the two of them.

But because they had exceeded the number of years,

The spell became unstable just as the wizard warned them about.

So the green light that was supposed to touch just the princess and the bunny extended everywhere.

And with her,

The time went back to 15 years not just for them but for all the places as far as they could see on the horizon.

This would explain why the prince did not show up on time.

Because 15 years before,

The prince was yet to visit that land.

That would also explain why everyone looked so young and did not have any reaction looking at the princess and the bunny being rejuvenated.

That was because the time went back 15 years for everyone.

The only difference was that Tess and Pecky were still aware of all that happened but nobody else was.

That was probably because they were the only two being touched by the water of the fountain when performing the spell.

And that water protected their memories just as the spell was originally designed to work.

This meant that it would have taken 5 more years for the prince to visit that land.

Also,

She could not rely on the dark wizards to help because even if she was able to find him,

He would probably not be as powerful and experienced as he was when he created the spell.

A deep sense of sadness and regret gripped her heart.

She had ruined everything.

Just a day before,

She had a perfect life.

She was happy and loved and now she was alone.

Nobody would even understand what was wrong with her because everyone,

But herself and Pecky,

Were just living their regular lives from 15 years before.

Nobody could help them.

She went back to her terrace and looked at her young face in the fountain.

How could she think this was worth the risk?

Her clear reflection was shattered by the rain of tears she was crying.

The dark wizard was right.

There was nobody who could help her now.

And all she was left with were ears of tears.

Or maybe not.

In the pitch black desperation of her mind,

She could find a faint and trembling light of hope.

She remembered that when she met August,

The wizard dressed in grey,

He mentioned he had experienced with forbidden magic in the past and that he decided not to do it again after he had lost something or someone important to him.

Since he would be 15 years younger now,

Maybe he would be in the time of his life where he was knowledgeable about dark magic and maybe he could help her make things right.

In that moment,

She also realized that she never asked where the grey wizard was from,

So she could not narrow down her search for him.

Thus,

She went to see the palace messengers and asked them to find a young wizard named August who was known for his talents in experiencing with any sort of white and forbidden magic.

The messengers left for their quest,

Toward the best schools of wizardry and magic labs in all the kingdoms they could reach.

She saw them leaving the palace on their fast horses and wondered how long that would take.

Meantime,

She was left alone again with only her thoughts and regret.

During the next weeks,

The princess did not do much.

She lost interest in studying and all the activities she usually enjoyed.

She would spend hours close to the fountain just looking at the palace door,

Hoping for the messengers to come back with good news.

And sometimes she even found herself daydreaming of seeing her prince cross the threshold of the palace door and come back to her as if nothing ever happened.

Then she would come back to reality and start trying again.

A month passed by and the messengers started to come back from the farthest lands they could reach with no good news to share.

Nobody had heard of August.

The princess's desperation was growing deeper.

And when the last messenger came back without any good clue to share,

She could not avoid venting in front of him and blaming herself for being in such a bad situation.

The messenger was moved by seeing his princess so sad and shaken.

He wished he could do something about it,

But he was just the youngest of all the messengers in the palace and if nobody else could help find August,

How could he?

When the princess dismissed him,

He left quietly but was still thinking of anything he could do to help.

He thought that maybe even if it was not going to solve anything,

He had to tell her something that would put her in a better mood.

He heard that she had not left her room ever since he left the castle,

More than a month before,

And she was always alone crying on the fountain on the terrace.

So he went back to the princess and told her that even though he was not able to find the wizard she was looking for,

There was one he heard of who was famous in the kingdom for having learned all about magic by himself.

And people would go to see him for any sort of trouble and he would always find something to help them.

The princess was grateful to the messenger for his attempt to alleviate her suffering,

But she knew only August could help her.

She could not explain to the messenger that she had met him fifteen years in the future after screening hundreds of wizards.

He would have thought she was crazy or delusional.

But to help the messenger feel better about his help offer,

She said she would think about it and to tell her the name of this magician he was talking about in case she decided to call him.

When the messenger said Agarar,

The princess lighted up all of a sudden.

How could she forget about that detail?

She remembered that the rumors were that he had changed his name at some point before she had met him.

And just now hearing it roll out of the messenger's lips,

It came back to her memory with a sparkle of hope.

She ran to the messenger and hugged him while Pecky happily jumped around them.

This was the first good news in a while,

And she was now even more grateful to the messenger,

So much so that she offered him to be her escort to bring her to visit Agarar.

The messenger was positively shocked by the reaction of the princess.

He just wanted to help out and make her feel a little better,

And he did not expect such enthusiasm.

So he immediately organized a coach to escort the princess to the wizard.

As they approached the small house,

The first thing that caught their attention was the dense purple smoke coming out of the chimney.

There was nothing natural they could think of that would release that smoke when burnt.

The bunny was also able to find a note of a weird and sweet smell in the air.

Once they arrived,

Their ride went to knock at the door to announce the arrival of the princess.

Her curious eyes explored the pile made of hard-to-tell objects,

Among which she could distinguish a few broken glass tubes,

Ampoules,

And cauldrons of different sizes with holes in them.

The door opened slightly,

And the messenger had to insist to have the owner open it fully and let them in.

They entered the house under the disappointed eyes of the wizard,

Who quickly jumped to close the door on the opposite side of the room,

From where a bright purple light seemed to be filtering through its cracks.

There he was,

But he looked so different from a month ago,

Thought the princess.

She still did not get used to the idea that the clock on her whole world went back fifteen years.

For her,

It had been only a month or so.

The thought made her sad,

And she had to fight it to avert it and focus on finding a solution.

She looked at him.

The host was dressed all in black,

He seemed to be more energetic than last time,

And he did not have the weird necklace on him.

He was quiet.

Looking at his visitors,

He asked what they were looking for,

And to be brief,

Since he had important matters to attend to.

He gave an instinctive brief look at the door he just closed.

The princess asked the messenger to please wait outside to make sure nobody came to interrupt them.

She immediately followed her wish,

While Pecky thought,

If that other had not been interrupted,

She wanted to avoid him listening to the crazy story she was about to tell.

She explained the situation,

And the more she talked and got into the details of the spell,

The more the wizard's look shifted from being skeptical,

To interested,

To intrigued.

By the time she was done,

He was already sold on joining her in the palace and starting his investigation.

A loud burbling noise from the next door caught everyone's attention,

Interrupting the discussion.

The wizard asked to be excused and promptly left to take care of it,

Leaving his guests alone in the room.

Tess was already daydreaming of how they were going to find a solution to their improbable problem when Pecky drew her attention to a little portrait on the wall.

It was depicting the wizard hugging a young and pretty lady.

They were both smiling and seemed very happy together.

There was something that looked familiar in her that Tess initially could not identify,

But after taking a second look,

She recognized what it was.

The lady's neck was wearing a simple,

Though elegant,

Necklace with a peculiar medallion with a green stone in it.

This brought the princess's memory back to the day she saw the grey wizard for the first time,

And couldn't help wondering if the lady was indeed the precious someone that he had lost.

Or better said,

He would be losing,

By experimenting with black magic.

Her heart turned sad again,

Thinking of losing loved ones because of dark magic.

But before she could delve deeper into that thought,

A loud noise of an explosion followed by a sequence of metallic sounds startled both her and the bunny.

They stared at the door and no purple light was filtering through the cracks anymore.

The voice of the wizard coming from behind it reassured them that they did not have to worry about anything.

He reappeared,

Closing quickly the door behind him to contain the thick black smoke that was following him.

He said he was ready to go,

And once Tess saw he was okay,

She decided not to investigate further in what was going on behind that door.

The three left the house and boarded the coach.

While leaving,

Packy looked back at the house and the pile of objects outside of it.

There was one new object on top of the pile that was not there before.

It was a big cauldron that seemed still hot and steamy,

And it had a very big hole in its thick metal structure.

The bunny stared at the wizard for a few moments,

Wondering if he would be the one able to help them.

The room where Agorar was going to work was readjusted per his request to become his laboratory.

After only a few days,

It was already full of books of magic,

Potions and tools.

He daily used many peculiar instruments that he kept clean and very organized.

He spent his whole day in the room.

The only people he talked to were Tess,

Who was coming to visit him several times a day to ask for updates,

And the lady who was bringing him food.

He was very focused and did not like any distractions.

He ran all sorts of tests and analyzed samples of the fountain's water where all the sequence of events started.

But he could not find anything special,

As there was no trace of anything magic in it.

Days and weeks passed and soon enough it became clear to the wizard that the solution to his difficult problem was not to be searched in the palace.

As a matter of fact,

There was not such a place where the solution could be found,

But rather a time.

And since he could not travel to the future to consult with the black wizard who created the original spell,

He decided his best bet was to gather all the information he could from the sources where the spell creator might have been studied.

This new approach gave Tess a spark of hope and she immediately mobilized all the palace's messengers and sent them on a secret mission to gather all possible dark magic books they could find,

In all the close and the distant lands they could reach.

Agarar had an idea to speed up the time of the quest.

He prepared a potion for the messengers' horses that would make them go faster than any horse could without getting tired.

The presence of the new guest did not go unnoticed by everyone at the palace,

Nor did the sudden change in the mood of the princess in the last few weeks.

And now that the voice spread about the tireless fast horses,

The king could not help asking the princess what was happening.

She first tried to minimize her change in demeanor,

But when she saw that her father was just worried for her and wanted to help,

She was about to tell him the whole story.

Then she thought of the look of her maid and how she had thought she had had a bad dream about the prince and quickly realized that it was not a good idea to spill the truth.

The rabbits saw how she was suffering now,

Because of the inner conflict between telling the truth and putting the burden of her mistake on the shoulders of her family,

Who were not guilty of anything.

Tess ended up evading her father's questions and said she was just experimenting with some ideas to improve the palace and would never do something that would endanger her beloved subjects.

The king seemed only half pleased by the explanation and reminded her that he was always there to help her should she need anything.

The first messengers started returning in a few days with books,

Papers and scrolls containing all sorts of enchantments and instructions for new and untested spells.

Now Agar had a lot of work to do reviewing them to see if there was anything he could use to make things right.

The princess's mood improved as she observed all this activity,

Though several times a She could not help just feeling guilty and depressed and found herself crying alone on the edge of the fountain.

The bunny alternated between staying close to his princess,

Trying to console her and observing what the wizard was doing,

Wishing he could help him somehow.

The horses were running so fast going back and forth from all corners of the known world that in a very little time the messengers overwhelmed the poor wizard,

Burying him under so much paper he could not read even in a lifetime.

Tess and Pecky saw how he was doing his best and how dedicated he was.

He was committed to the point that he would spend entire days not sleeping and eating when he thought he was close to something that could help them solve the problem.

They offered their help but with no experience in magic,

Let alone in dark magic,

So they could not make as much of a difference as they wanted.

They could not even involve other magicians because,

For them to be helpful,

They would have needed to be made aware of the situation in detail.

The princess grew more depressed as she realized how the quick horses solved the problem but created another,

More difficult one.

As more and more papers kept coming in,

One day the maid who was bringing food to the wizard could not find him in his room.

She could not even enter the room because of the wall of books piled in front of it.

She called him several times but received no answer.

When Tess was made aware of it,

She immediately started to undo the books pile and asked for more help from the palace staff.

It was dangerous to move the base of the pile without jeopardizing the stability of it.

Many of the books were heavy and one could easily get injured or trapped should the pile collapse.

After a few hours,

They were finally able to create enough space not only at the entrance but also inside the room.

They extracted the biggest volumes and moved them elsewhere.

In removing the last collapsed pile of books in the corner,

Tess saw him and petrified.

Agerar was on the floor,

His still body half-trapped under a blanket of heavy books.

An extinguished candle was close to him indicating he had been there for quite some time.

Pekki saw the panic in her eyes.

In a split second,

She visualized the worst.

Guilt invaded her stomach,

Making it feel heavy and empty at the same time.

The other people helping her clean the room carried the heavy wizard's body outside under her crying eyes.

The bunny looked at her and even he could not pick apart how much that sorrow was guilt and how much it was the lost hope of seeing her prince again.

When he opened his eyes,

He could not remember where he was or how he got there.

He just thought he had slept longer than he had in a while.

He felt rested and thought he might have overslept since the sun was already high in the sky.

The other thing that surprised him was that many people standing in a circle around him started to yell and call for the princess as soon as he awoke.

Before he understood what was happening,

He found himself being hugged by Tess,

Who was in tears and was thanking him for being alive.

In the next few days,

Agarar had to focus on recovering and this gave him time to think about the feat and how he was approaching it.

With his mind finally rested and his stomach full,

He quickly realized that by jumping straight into the work,

He lost sight of the big picture.

Looking to find something helpful in those books without even knowing what exactly he was searching for was not a good strategy.

Moreover,

Doing it manually by himself almost guaranteed that he would never find his needle in the haystack.

By continuing like this,

He thought,

The princess was better off just waiting for the years to pass.

At least that way he would not have fed her with false hopes.

Equipped with his experience in all sorts of magic,

He felt he would be able to do way better than that.

But how could he speed up the process of reviewing all those papers?

As he was thinking about it,

He noticed Pecky was sitting close by on a chair and he had a clear feeling that he knew what troubled the wizard.

So he smiled at the bunny for keeping an eye on him.

The bunny jumped off the chair and Agarar was startled and disoriented.

He saw the bunny jump on the left side of his bed,

But the noise he made came from the other side of the room.

So he realized he was just looking at the reflection of the bunny in the big mirror close to his bed.

At that moment he had an idea,

Followed by an even better one.

It took him a few weeks to implement them,

But it was worth it.

And when Tess saw the result,

She got hit by a sense of surprise and a wave of good mood.

She was on the threshold of the lab's door,

Looking at the bizarre scene inside.

The wizard was sitting at his desk.

He had asked for the big mirror to be moved from the other room to his lab,

So he could look at it sitting on his chair.

All the action was happening behind him.

Several other smaller mirrors and prisms had been strategically placed around the room.

There were several stations,

Each with its own organized set of books or documents of the same size ordered on their side.

Only one book was open in each station,

And its reflection would bounce around the prisms and mirrors to finally converge on a big lens in front of the big mirror at the main wizard table.

In this way,

He could easily see all the books and papers at once,

Without the need to be moving around.

This one was the first of his ideas.

But what made the real difference was to combine it with this second one.

Agarar noticed that Pecky was no regular bunny from the first time he saw how he interacted with humans.

He might not have been able to speak,

But it was clear that he understood everything they said.

When he asked Tess about him,

She had not much to say,

Since she had known the bunny since she was little,

And never knew why he was like that.

So the wizard did a few tests by himself on a few hairs of the little furry creature.

He discovered that he had something magic in it.

And even though he could not find exactly what,

He was able to extract an elixir from its fur that allowed other bunnies to be more receptive to human language.

None of them could come even close to how Pecky was,

But it was enough for them to greatly help with the project.

Pecky called as many of his bunny friends as he could find,

Who lived in the vicinity of the palace.

It was not as difficult to convince them once Tess offered them to have the palace cook create some special carrot dishes for them,

Which they would enjoy every day while helping the wizard.

Agarar instructed them on how to classify the books,

Papers and scrolls.

They developed a quick sign language to tell them when to open and close each document in any of the mirror stations.

This way he could focus on reading and recording only the most important information on the main big mirror to come up with the counterspell.

This new method worked well,

And soon enough they were able to catch up with the speed at which the fast messenger's horses were bringing the materials to be examined.

But it was still a titanic quest.

In the next few months,

The wizard got enough information from the books to start experimenting by creating potions and spells.

Some of them were just based on a special sequence of words,

In languages that nobody had ever heard.

Others required creating potions with rare ingredients that were difficult and time-consuming to find.

But Agarar would not give up,

And no failure was able to demotivate him.

Despite admiring his resolve,

The princess grew sadder and sadder as days,

Weeks and months went by.

She thought of her prince and the time he was missing with him.

She thought again and again of the moment she decided to draw the five more circles in the fountain and how much of a mistake that revealed to be.

She was about to have all she desired,

And for a small moment of greed,

She had lost it all.

Most of her days were sad and dull now,

As she could not focus on her studies or the activities that used to make her happy and entertain her.

She did not care about her looks anymore.

Despite being rejuvenated,

All the crying changed her nice-looking face,

Skin and expression.

She spent most of her days alone in her room or sitting on the fountain,

Crying and looking at the palace's door,

Hoping that all this was just a bad dream and her prince would just show up.

Sometimes she was going to see how Agarar was doing and offered her help too.

So she had a feeling of having some sort of control over the situation.

But those little moments of energy lasted less and less as the years passed.

The week before the fifth anniversary of the spell gone wrong,

It seemed clear that there was not much more to be done.

Tess was relieved that the time passed and her wait was over.

She went to say goodbye to the wizard who was packing up the contents of his room.

The silence was heavy in the room.

The usual activities of the bunnies ceased the night before and sadness and resignation were filling the room.

Tess thanked him for all his help and reassured him that he would be rewarded for his incredible work and his unwavering commitment to help her.

She told him that she had learned the lesson and now she would not aim for superficial things anymore.

She had learned the hard way what was truly important in her life.

Her only preoccupation was if the spell had not interfered with anything else.

She wondered if the prince would show up to visit her palace in a week and she asked Agarar what he thought.

He could not even look at her in the eyes as he started to explain what was likely going to happen.

And for the first time she realized how sadness and hope had been obfuscating her thinking for all these years to the point of missing a crucial detail.

Because the spell affected everyone's memory other than hers and the bunnies,

The prince who would show up at the palace door would not be her prince.

He would not know her because for him it would be the first time visiting and she could certainly not tell him what happened on their first encounter because he would think she was crazy at best or that she was responsible for all they lost and did not forgive her at worst.

He saw for the first time the resignation in the eyes of the princess and the wizard and he hated that there was nothing he could do to help.

The realization of having lost her chance to make things right hit the princess harder than ever.

She felt on her knees hiding her crying eyes with her hands.

When the wizard tried to hug her and console her,

She reacted badly,

Yelled at him that he failed,

Shook herself and ran away saying that the black wizard was right.

She had been left only with ears and tears.

Agarar was devastated.

He failed his princess and he failed as a wizard.

He had achieved many things and learned an untellable amount of things about magic but he was not able to find the solution to the one thing he was aiming for.

He looked at the bunny as if it was hoping for someone to tell him it was not his fault,

That he did everything he could and he could swear Paki knew what he was thinking as he jumped close to him to say goodbye.

The wizard took him in his arms and gave him the hug he wanted to give to the princess.

From that higher position,

The eyes of the bunny fell on something he had not seen for a long time.

The reason he noticed it was probably because the last time he saw it had been in that room several years before.

When he saw it,

He immediately got excited and jumped down to go get it.

The wizard thought that even the bunny was disappointed in him and grabbed his bag to leave the lab.

But Paki stopped him,

Making a lot of noise,

And brought him a book from the last batch which got in during the morning and was therefore not being read yet.

The wizard could not understand what was special about that book.

There was something off with the color of the pages though.

Once he opened it,

He confirmed that the pages were black and the text was written in gold letters.

Some of the words were written in purple.

After browsing it quickly,

His attention was caught by a sentence ending with the words he just heard a minute before.

Only left with tears and tears.

He looked at the bunny and suddenly understood why he recognized the book among all the others.

It was one he had seen in the hands of the black wizard during the preparation of his spell.

A few nights later,

The day before the expected arrival of the prince,

The princess could not sleep.

Agarar kept reading avidly from the book and immediately everything became clear.

It was all in there.

Now he knew what to do.

But Tess would not listen to him anymore.

So he decided to explain his plan to Pecky,

Who was looking at him,

Hopeful that this was the decisive time.

A few nights later,

The day before the expected arrival of the prince,

The princess could not sleep.

She kept walking back and forth,

Thinking about what to do when he came.

If he would come.

She had to conquer him back.

She wanted to believe she could.

She had to.

First,

She would be on the terrace like the first time.

He would come and see her,

But he would not wave.

Tess started to visualize how difficult it would be for her not to wave at him,

Round down the palace's main stairs and jump between his arms,

Telling him how much she had been missing him.

But she could not.

She had to make peace with the idea of taking things slow and just waiting for things to go like they did last time.

It was not easy to imagine a relationship with the prince in which she had ten years of feelings for him and he had only a few days.

All this,

She thought,

Assuming he liked her like she did the first time.

The last five years had been hard on her.

The first rays of the moon projected some light in the room.

That was the sign Pecky was waiting for.

He grabbed the princess by her dress and invited her out to the terrace.

She did not understand why he was doing that,

And the view of the full moon,

As always in the last five years,

Reminded her of her mistake.

She could not stop her tears,

And that was what the bunny was expecting.

He kept pushing and pulling her until she sat on the border of the fountain.

Now everything was in place,

Thought Pecky.

The black book with golden letters explained how if the spell was done exceeding the maximum amount of years,

The only way to make things right was with years of tears.

The princess had been sitting on that fountain,

Crying every day,

Regretting her choice.

The years of tears had been flowing in the fountain,

Mixing with the same water that created the original spell.

Now the full moon was marking the fifth year anniversary of it.

And the time that exceeded the original spell had gone by.

That's why the moment the first tear hit the water of the fountain,

It happened again.

Tess saw the fifteen rippled rings forming in the water like the first time.

But what surprised her most was that Pecky seemed to be expecting all this to happen,

And was now hinting at her to follow him walking around the fountain.

So she understood he had to be instructed by Agarar to do that.

This made her feel bad about the way she left him last time,

Almost blaming him for her own mistakes.

She decided that if this would work,

She would be a whole different person.

And with that thought,

She walked five times around the fountain in a clockwise direction.

Every time she completed a turn,

One of the fifteen ripples would disappear.

When only ten circles were visible,

Pecky spilled some drops of the water with this pause on himself and the princess.

Immediately a green light appeared all around on the horizon,

Coming from as far as they could see.

And it converged from all directions to the fountain,

Which swallowed it and made it disappear like a match falling in a deep well.

The bunny was ecstatic.

He was jumping left and right in a sign of victory and celebration.

Whatever he had been instructed to do,

Gave the expected result.

The princess looked at her rejuvenated reflection on the fountain's water and spent the rest of the night reflecting on what she had learned from this experience,

Hoping the nightmare was over.

At dawn,

Her eyes were glued to the palace's door,

And her heart almost stopped when she saw a few people coming in.

They looked like merchants.

They probably came early to set up their stand shop for the day.

But right behind them,

She recognized a group of knights with big horses,

And there he was.

Her prince.

She held her breath and only started to breathe again when she saw his arm wave at her like she always did.

Her heart melted,

And Pecky's too.

They did it.

She almost forgot about her new younger look and how the prince would react to it.

All she wanted was to hold him in her arms.

Tess went back inside,

Quickly got dressed and ran downstairs with the bunny following her.

Everyone was in the big room,

Waiting to welcome back the prince.

And when they saw her,

They could not help being astonished by her younger look.

More than anything,

They were curious to see how the prince would react.

They did not have to wait for long.

The big doors opened,

And he came in,

Followed by the other knights.

When Tess ran to him and jumped into his arms,

The room went silent,

Expecting his reaction at seeing his princess rejuvenated by ten years.

He stared at her and told her how much she missed her,

And asked her why everyone was looking at them in silence.

It was not the first time he was back from a long trip.

She then smiled and asked him what did he notice to be different in her.

He took a step back to look at her detainedly,

And then,

To her amazement,

He smiled and said how happy he was to see that she did not change a bit from the last time they saw each other,

Right before his trip.

That's when Tess realized it.

In his eyes,

She was always going to be seen like the very first time he saw her,

When he had fallen in love with her.