Title: Bedtime Story
Author: Valerie Y. (indiana266@hotmail.com)
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Roswell is not mine although it is on top of my Christmas wish list
Rating: CHILD
Pairing: Liz (with AU M/L thrown in just for fun)
Spoiler/Notes: Pre-Pilot
This was written for the Roswell Muse #2 - Use the following words: Frivolous; Sorcerer; Enchantment; Punishment. If you are familiar with the Muse you may have read it there.
Summary: Little Liz is just about ready for bed. But before Grandma Claudia can turn off the light, Lizzie asks, "Please, just one more story!"
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Bedtime Story
"Oh, please, just one more!"
"Aren't you tired, honey?"
The little girl shook her head vehemently, and at the same time attempted to stifle a yawn that was threatening to give her away. Her grandmother smiled and smoothed the girl's hair.
"All right, but just one."
The child nodded and, sighing happily, cuddled closer to her grandmother on her bed.
"Which book do you want me to read from, Lizzie?"
Liz looked at the books spread across her bed and pondered her choices for a moment. Grandma Claudia had been visiting for almost a week and they had already read from most of them. Finally she looked up at the older woman.
"I want one of your made up stories, please," she said.
"Okay," Claudia agreed. She tucked the blanket tighter around her granddaughter and put an arm around Liz's shoulders.
"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, lived a Prince. He was very handsome, as most princes are, and very kind. Girls all over the kingdom wanted to be the one the Prince would choose to be his bride, but this honour would belong to the only one the Prince had ever loved."
"Who's that?" Liz asked, interested.
"A beautiful young woman called..." Grandma Claudia paused and waited for Liz to look at her.
"What?" Liz whispered with anticipation. This was her favourite part.
"She was called Lizzibeth." Grandma Claudia smiled when she saw Liz's face brighten up. Every one of Grandma Claudia's made-up stories included a heroin whose name was a variation on Liz's name. It thrilled the little girl to no end and that made her grandmother happy.
"Lizzibeth," Liz said thoughtfully. "I like it," she decided. "Was she kind like the Prince?"
"Oh, she was very kind, and very smart. Everyone who knew her loved her. She lived in a little house with her mother and her father. They were innkeepers, and travellers always stopped by on their way to and from the castle where the Prince lived.
"One day, when the Prince was young, his parents travelled to a nearby kingdom and, on the way back to their castle, stopped by the Inn Lizzibeth's parents owned. It was a great honour for Lizzibeth's family to have the King and the Queen in their home. Everyone was terribly excited when they heard that the Royal family was coming. Lizzibeth had never seen a member of the Royal family, so she was also very excited.
"They finally arrived. The King got out of his carriage first, and was greeted warmly by Lizzibeth's parents. Then the Queen came out and she too was welcomed in the Inn. Then came out a little Princess and finally, the little Prince.
"The Princess curtsied like she had been taught and everyone thought that she was adorable. Lizzibeth was watching from the side and wondered if maybe the Princess would like to play once her family had finished their meal. But she forgot all about the Princess when she saw the Prince.
"The Prince was very shy, so he didn't look around much as he came out of the carriage. The Queen scolded him gently, telling him it wasn't polite not to look at their hosts. So the Prince looked up and his eyes met Lizzibeth's.
"Lizzibeth had never seen such a beautiful boy. He had dark brown hair and big amber eyes that just seemed--"
"What's amber?" Liz interrupted her grandmother, curious.
"It's kind of a yellowish brown," Claudia answered patiently. When Liz nodded thoughtfully, Claudia continued. "When the Prince looked at her, Lizzibeth had the feeling that he was seeing right into her soul and all she wanted to do was—"
"To go over to him and ask if he wanted to play but he and his sister disappeared before she had a chance," Liz said so softly that Grandma Claudia wasn't sure she had caught all the words.
"So you know this story?" Grandma Claudia asked, amused.
Liz shook her head and said, "I saw a boy with amber eyes." She hesitated a long moment and then asked softly, "Was the Prince sad?"
Grandma Claudia frowned and turned Liz's head to look into the child's eyes. "Was the boy you saw sad?"
Liz contemplated her answer for a moment and finally just shrugged. "I don't know. I only saw him that one time. So when the Prince saw Lizzibeth, and she saw him, they fell in love?"
Claudia decided to let go of the subject of the mysterious boy with the sad amber eyes. If it was bothering Liz too much, she knew the girl would mention it again later. She resumed her story.
"Yes, they did. From the very first moment they saw each other. They were soul mates, you see, and they recognized each other immediately even though they had never met."
Liz's little brow wrinkled in confusion. "How is it possible if they had never met before?"
"That is what soul mates are, honey bear. In Heaven, every soul is paired with another soul. When a baby is born, he or she gets a soul. When people who were together in Heaven see each other, they recognize their soul mate even if they never met them on Earth before. Does that make sense?"
Liz nodded and Claudia continued.
"The Prince and Lizzibeth grew up. Often, the Prince would leave the castle and run to the forest where he would meet Lizzibeth and they would spend time together. They would talk or they would play. Sometimes they would go for a swim in the creek. Those were very happy times for both of them.
"Finally, it came the time for the Prince to choose a bride. Every girl in the Kingdom wanted to be the one he would prefer."
"He picked Lizzibeth," Liz said with conviction. "You said so at the beginning."
"That's what the Prince wanted to do, but the King had a different idea."
"Was the King mean? Didn't he like Lizzibeth? You said everyone loved her," she started to protest.
"Yes, everyone loved her, and the King wasn't mean. But the Prince was supposed to marry a Princess. And Lizzibeth—"
"Was not a Princess," Liz finished. She sighed. "Then what did they do?"
"The Prince kept telling Lizzibeth that it didn't matter what he was supposed to do. He wouldn't give her up for anything. Not his Kingdom, not his father's wishes, nothing. He loved her too much. He decided to talk to his father the King and make him understand."
"You said the King wasn't mean. He'll let the Prince marry Lizzibeth, won't he?"
"Well, it won't be that easy, no," Claudia shook her head.
Liz eyed her grandmother dubiously. "Does this story have a`happy ever after' at the end?"
"Yes, I promise it does," Claudia reassured her.
Liz nodded still a little sceptical but decided to trust her grandmother. "So?"
"So, the Prince promised Lizzibeth that he would talk to his father and then meet her that night under the moonlight at their secret meeting place. When he returned to the castle, he saw that it was bustling with people. He asked one of the servants what was going on. The servant answered that a Princess from a far away land was coming to visit and they were preparing to welcome her.
"The Prince didn't give it a second thought and went through the castle in search of his father to make him understand that he would marry Lizzibeth no matter what. It took him a long time to finally find his father, and by the time he did, the visiting Princess and her entourage had arrived.
"When the Prince walked into the throne room where his parents were talking to the visitors, he felt that something was wrong. He wanted to turn around and see Lizzibeth immediately, run away with her and marry her without even telling his father. But the King saw him enter, so he couldn't turn back. He slowly walked to the front of the room and was introduced to the Princess.
"She was pretty, with blonde curls and big blue eyes, but the Prince hardly even glanced at her while mumbling his greetings. He asked for an audience with his father but was denied.
"`I want you to meet Princess Avalina', the King said to the Prince. `She will be--"
"What was the Prince's name?" Liz asked suddenly.
"Er.. didn't we give him a name already?" Grandma Claudia asked, momentarily caught off guard.
"No, we didn't," Liz said with certainty.
"Okay, well, what do you think is a good name for a Prince?" Grandma Claudia asked.
Liz thought for a moment. "Maximillian," she answered confidently.
Claudia looked at her for a moment searching her face but decided to play along without asking questions.
"Okay, Maximillian it is. So the King said to his son,`Maximillian my son, I want you to meet Princess Avalina. She will be your bride.'"
Liz shook her head. "He'll never marry her. He loves Lizzibeth."
"Yes he does, and it's important you remember that, okay?" Liz nodded and Claudia went on.
"Prince Maximillian started to ask his father again for a private audience. As I said, he was very kind and didn't want to hurt Avalina's feelings by telling his father in front of her that he wanted to marry his true love. But the King wouldn't hear of it and he said, `It is decided. At midnight tonight, you will marry Avalina.'
"Maximillian didn't know what do to. He turned to his mother for help. `Mother,' he asked, `Have I ever done anything to displease you?' His mother smiled sadly and shook her head. She knew of her son's love for Lizzibeth, but she also didn't believe in soul mates. She thought it was just a phase Maximillian was going through and that soon enough he would learn to love his new bride."
"He'll never love her," Liz said with conviction. "Never."
Grandma Claudia smiled and squeezed Liz's hand. "Maximillian was angry that no one would listen to him. `If I've never done anything to displease you, why this punishment?' he asked desperately.
"He heard a gasp behind him and realized that saying that marrying Avalina was a punishment had hurt the Princess's feelings. He turned to her to apologize and that's when he noticed who she was travelling with.
"It was a man who seemed to be the King's age. But he wasn't a King, like Maximillian had expected. He was a sorcerer. He could tell by the pointy hat and the dark robes. Unconsciously, Maximillian took a step back. Something in the sorcerer's eyes scared him. But before he could run, Maximillian looked at Avalina again and noticed that she was beautiful. He couldn't take his eyes away from her. He took a step in her direction and kneeled in front of her. `Marry me, Princess Avalina,' he said slowly."
"What?!" Liz asked, shocked. "How can he do that? He loves Lizzibeth! He's loved her all his life, she's his soul mate! One look at Avalina shouldn't change that, no matter how pretty she is." She turned accusing eyes to her grandmother. "You said he loved Lizzibeth."
"He does," Claudia said simply.
"But then why—"
"Things are not always as they seem, honey bear," Claudia said gently.
Liz looked at her. "Not what they seem?" she repeated slowly. "What could make him change his mind so suddenly?" she asked suspicious.
"Well, he just met a sorcerer..."
Liz's brow was crinkled as she went over what her grandmother had said. "The sorcerer is making him believe he loves Avalina! It's a spell, it's got to be!!" she said triumphantly, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
Claudia hugged Liz, beaming with pride. This was a smart child.
"Yes, that's exactly what he's doing."
"But, how can they break the spell? What will Lizzibeth do?" Liz asked, concerned.
"You have to wait and see. Do you want me to continue?"
Liz nodded eagerly and Claudia resumed her story.
"Nobody had noticed what the sorcerer had done to Prince Maximillian. Nobody, except for one of the servant boys. His name was Kaael and he was a good friend of the Prince and Lizzibeth both. He sometimes acted as the messenger between them when they weren't able to meet or needed to get an urgent message to one another.
"He decided that he should go and warn Lizzibeth as soon as possible, but he was asked by his masters to start preparing the feast for the wedding and he had to do as he was told. It wasn't until much later that he was able to leave the castle and run to the forest.
"By that time, night had already fallen and it was very dark. The moon had not yet risen, and that is why Kaael didn't notice that he was being followed."
Liz gasped and looked at her grandmother with wide eyes. "Oh no! What happened to Kaael?"
"He made it to the forest just as the moon came out from behind the clouds. He wasn't sure exactly where Lizzibeth' and Maximillian's secret meeting place was – it was, after all, a secret – but he knew he was close. He heard a noise behind him and he turned around."
"Is it the person who's following him?" Liz whispered, clutching her grandmother's hand.
"No. What he heard was someone crying. He recognized her immediately."
"Lizzibeth," Liz said sadly. "She heard about the wedding."
"Yes," Claudia nodded. "Someone came to the Inn earlier that day when she was working and told everyone that the Prince was marrying Avalina."
"But doesn't she know that Maximillian loves her, and only her?" Liz asked hopefully.
"She does, but she also knows that he has to marry a Princess. She doesn't think that he has stopped loving her, or that he is in love with Avalina. But she knows that Maximillian is a good son and a good prince, and she thinks that maybe love isn't enough when you have a destiny like that."
"Love is enough, though, isn't it Grandma?"
"What do you think, honey bear?"
"I think it is."
"Let's find out, shall we?" Claudia looked at the clock and noticed the late hour. Nancy and Jeff wouldn't be pleased if she kept their daughter awake much longer.
"Kaael told Lizzibeth all he knew about the spell, but before they could run back to the castle, the person who had followed him came out of the shadows."
"Who was it?" Liz asked in a small, frightened voice.
"It was the sorcerer."
"No!"
"Yes."
"How can they fight a sorcerer?" Liz asked, worried.
"Neither of them knew, but they knew they had to try. So Lizzibeth got up and planted herself right in front of the sorcerer. `What are you trying to do?' she asked him. She was quite angry. `Don't you know that Maximillian is my true love and that nothing can come between us?'
"The sorcerer looked at her and said mockingly, `Don't you know that I'm the most powerful wizard since Merlin and that your love is frivolous? Avalina shall marry the Prince, and I shall keep him under my spell and rule the Kingdom once he becomes King. I shall be the most powerful man in the land!' The sorcerer started to laugh. It was a laugh that made Lizzibeth's and Kaael's blood run cold. They looked at each other. They didn't know what to do.
"The sorcerer stopped laughing. `I should kill you both,' he said, `for you know my secret.' He raised his hand in their direction and fire shot from his fingers. Kaael pushed Lizzibeth out of the way and then he ducked, barely avoiding the blast from the sorcerer's hand. There was no way they could fight back. Kaael yelled for Lizzibeth to start running, and she did, not knowing what direction she was going or where she would end up. She ran and ran and ran. She grew quite tired and it was becoming hard to breathe, but still she ran. She knew that the sorcerer was pursuing her and Kaael. She looked for a place to hide and saw none. So she kept running."
Liz was looking at her grandmother with round eyes, completely enthralled.
"Suddenly, she came to the top of a small hill and saw the castle in front of her. She had never actually been to the castle, having always met Prince Maximillian in the forest or at the Inn where she lived. She wasn't sure it was a good idea to go there, but she could hear the sorcerer closing in on her and she knew she had no other choice. She started running. She tripped and fell and started rolling down the hill. She got to the bottom with a lot of scrapes and bruises, but she got up and kept running until she reached the door of the castle. There, she was stopped by guards.
"A quick look behind her told her that the sorcerer was still running after Kaael. Good old Kaael was constantly changing direction, luring the sorcerer away from Lizzibeth, jumping this way and that to avoid the lightning bolts that were fired at him. The commotion caught the guards' attention, and soon they ran in that direction to see what was going on. In the confusion that followed their hasty departure from their post, Lizzibeth quietly slipped through the door and made her way into the castle.
"Even though she had never been there, she had listened to countless stories from Maximillian and had no problem figuring out where she was. She knew the Prince's chambers were at the top of one of the towers so she found a grand staircase and started climbing.
"She soon found herself in a long corridor brightly lit by torches. She paused and listened, unsure which direction to turn. She heard a voice she recognized as Maximillian's coming from her right, so she headed that way.
"The voice was coming from a large room on the left side of the corridor. The door was ajar, and she stopped just outside of it to listen. What she heard brought tears of pain to her eyes."
"What did she hear?" Liz asked apprehensively, not at all sure she wanted to know.
"She heard Maximillian make promises to Princess Avalina he had made only to her before. He was telling the Princess how he would love her for all eternity and that she was the only one for him."
"But it's the spell talking!" Liz protested. "Lizzibeth should know that!"
"In her heart she did, but it hurt her very much to hear it with her own ears."
Liz shook her head sadly. "She should listen to her heart. Isn't that what you always say?"
"Yes indeed. And that's exactly what Lizzibeth did. Following her heart, she wiped away her tears and stepped into the room. Only Maximillian and Avalina were there. When she saw her, Avalina's eyes narrowed and she tried to keep Maximillian's attention on herself. The sorcerer had been teaching her for a few years, and she knew a few spells of her own, so she tried to make the Prince believe that they were still alone in the room. But she hadn't counted on the fact that Lizzibeth had an even more powerful enchantment over Maximillian. Do you know what that was?" Claudia asked.
"Love," Liz answered, her voice full of wonder.
"Yes, love. No matter how hard Avalina tried to make him believe they were still alone in the room, Maximillian felt something was different. Almost as if the air had a different quality to it. He turned slowly and saw Lizzibeth. As soon as he did, the sorcerer's evil spell was broken and Maximillian ran to Lizzibeth and took her in his arms. `I'm so sorry,' he told her, `I don't know what came over me! Will you ever forgive me?' When he let go of Lizzibeth, there were tears running down his cheeks. Lizzibeth gently wiped them away. `Of course I forgive you my love,' she said softly. `The sorcerer put a spell on you. I know you love only me.' `I do' the Prince said sincerely and pulled Lizzibeth in his arms once again.
"'What is going on here?' They heard the thunderous voice of the King behind them. Almost at the same time, a small party of people came in through the room's other door. It was the guards, the sorcerer and Kaael, still trying to catch his breath.
"`Maybe I can explain' said the chief of the guards, a young man Maximillian's age and a close friend of the young Prince. He explained to the King how he and his men had caught the sorcerer while the evil man tried to kill Kaael. Having dealt with magicians and evildoers before, the guards knew a few tricks that sorcerers were powerless to stop and it had been fairly easy for them to catch the man. Kaael then explained why the sorcerer had tried to kill him when he had found out about the spell.
"The King was very angry with the sorcerer and immediately banished him and Princess Avalina from his land. They were to leave immediately and never return, or they would be sentenced to death."
"That's all they deserve," Liz yawned.
"Once they were taken care of, the King turned to his son and the young woman still in his arms. `My son, I am sorry for not listening to you when you told me about your soul mate. Young lady, I see that your love for my son not only saved him, but also my kingdom from the clutches of this evil man. With the rights given to me as King, I declare that my son is free to marry whomever he chooses, regardless of her rank. If it's your choice my son, you may marry your true love.' Cheers erupted around the room when the Prince kissed his bride-to-be."
Claudia noticed that her granddaughter was now losing her battle against sleep. She smiled tenderly and smoothed the child's hair as she properly tucked her into bed.
"And they lived happily ever after," she finished softly.
Liz yawned again and smiled sleepily. "So Liz married Max with the amber eyes?" she asked drowsily. "I like that. Thanks Grandma. It was a beautiful story..." Her eyes drifted shut and she was asleep.
"Goodnight, Lizzie."
As she watched the sleeping child, Claudia couldn't help but wonder if Max was the name of the little boy with the sad amber eyes that had made such an impression on her only grandchild. As she turned off the light and left the room, she hoped that if it was the case, there would be no evil keeping her Lizzie from her prince charming.
The end
Thanks for reading!