It is a sunny, breezy day in the kingdom of Essex. The royal family had woken up and decided to stroll around the town, greeting the local businesses.

Auryn had woken up and was already downstairs serving the guests and taking orders.

Lily, the owner of the inn's little daughter, follows Auryn around, trying to help with Auryn's job. “Can you let me help? So you can finish faster and tell me the story!”

The little girl made the guest that Auryn was serving to start giggling.

Auryn is refilling the guest’s cup with tea, “This job has to do with a lot of heavy lifting, so you can't help me, but I promise you the story after, okay?” 

“Okay, Auryn! I'll go over here and wait!"

Most guests had left for their jobs, so Auryn only had fewer people to serve. “Lily! I can tell you the story now!” She says with a smile on her face.

Lily ran over to Auryn, and they sat on the steps of the stairs near the door. “Once upon a time, there was a princess named —”

Lily loudly said, “Alice! I love this story. 

It's my favorite one! Because you wrote it!”

“Hehe, Yes, I did write it just for you! Let's continue, shall we?”

“Yes!” Alice said with a big smile on her face.

“Okay… Princess Alice was a furious warrior of her country who loved her people unconditionally and would do anything to protect them.”

“One day, she disappeared and was claimed to have been lost in an invasion and was held captive… But she isn't and was found by two townspeople who adopted her and took care of her until she is well to return.”

Lily leaned her head on Auryns shoulder while looking up at her with her glimmery eyes as she told her the story.

“And she hopes one day her prince charming will come to find her and bring her ba--” Lily fell asleep, leaning on Auryn's shoulder.

Auryn notices Lily has fallen asleep. “Let's go bring you back to your bed,” She whispers as she picks her up and brings her to bed.

The royal family walked into the inn. “Good day! We have been going on a stroll around the town and are hungry. Any chance you have a free table?”

The owners of the inn had bowed for the royal family." Yes, we do. Our waitress should be here soon. "

Auryn is walking down the stairs,  “I just put Lily to bed, and she fell asleep while I told her the stor–” Auryn looked up and saw the royal family. And bowed to the royal family. “Your royal highnesses, how may we help you?”

One of the guards looked at Auryn, “We would like food, and the townspeople recommended your inn.”

“Come right this way” Auryn pulls the chairs out for them.

The royal family had sat down in the chairs, and Auryn looked at their order and gave it to the cook.

“Would you like a drink while you wait, your highness?” 

“We will take three glasses of water.” The Queen said, looking at Auryn. “Right up, your highness.”

Auryn returns the three glasses of water on a tray and gives each royal family member the cups.

Lily woke and ran down, “Auryn, are we going to finish our story about the lost princess and the royal family?” She says excitedly. “Oh my gosh! It's the royal family from your book!!!”

“Calm down, Lily, that's just a fictional book….” 

A guard walks into the inn, “We best be going now, your royal highnesses. The royal ball is going to start soon….”

“Thank you, Captain Zane. We best be going now! You guys are invited to the royal ball because of the hospitality you have shown us.”

“Have a good day!” The Royal family leaves

“Auryn, you should be the one to go to the ball as we need to stay here. I have a dress I can hem to fit you, which you can wear too.”

“I'll go then” She smiles.

The 2nd prince of Essex, Ronan, walked into the royal throne room, “Do you guys think that Auryn is the lost princess?”

“Why would you say such a thing? She is missing, and we will not speak of it, end of the story,” The Queen says, guilty as she shouldn't have let Alice help with the invasion.

Ronan is thinking in his head. “Something here is weird, and she looks just like us! She has to be the lost princess! No matter what, Alex has been searching for her when she is here.” Ronan walked out of the throne room and got dressed for the ball.

The Royal family is sitting on their thrones while people are dancing.

Auryn is wearing a light teal ballgown with a soft teal mask, “I'll be back after!” Lily runs over and hugs Auryn before she gets into the carriage.

 “I love you so much, Lily. I'll see you after; I promise” She gets into the carriage and sits down, waving to her adopted family as the horses trot towards the castle.

Auryn arrives at the castle, gets out of the carriage, and walks into the palace. “This place looks familiar,” She says as she walks in.

She arrives at the entrance to the ball, and a guard asks her, “What's your royal status and name?”

“I don't have any royal status… But the Queen invited me from the inn I work at… My name is Auryn.”

The guard checks the list of names for her name.

“Please welcome Auryn.”

Auryn walked in, holding her skirt up so she wouldn't trip while walking down the steps.

Auryn finished walking down the stairs and greeted the royal family.

“I want to show you something, Auryn. I think you might be intrigued.” Ronan grabbed Auryn's wrist and brought her to the gallery. 

Ronan had let go of her wrist and opened the doors. “Come on in.”

Auryn followed Ronan into the gallery, “Am I allowed in here? Cause im pretty sure it's against royal policies for a commoner to be wondering a castle.”

“Not unless you're the princess! You are the lost princess, at least I think….. so you can be in here.”

“How could I be the princess?”

Ronan grabbed her wrist and pulled her to a portrait of the princess and her family.

“You look just like the lost Princess Alice and Queen Carissa! And if you are, you could have hurt yourself in battle and lost your memory….”

“There's no way! Im just a girl who works at an inn!” She has a face that shows she thinks there's no way she could be the lost princess.

“Can we at least see if there's a chance you are? The lost princess's birthday is tomorrow, and if she is at the castle, this wither rose will blossom.” 

“Fine…I'll stay till tomorrow… But it's not going to bloom!”

“Thank you! I'll have a maid bring you to her old room after the ball… Let's head back now.”

“Yeah, before anybody sees us.” 

Ronan leads Auryn back to the ballroom, and they stand around and talk.

“How long has this lost princess been gone for?”

“She has been gone for five years, and her prince, who she dated, has been searching for her….” He said sadly as he missed his big sister.

The ball had been going on for 6 hours, so a maid came and led  Auryn to Alice's old bedroom.

“Thank you, miss. Please wait a moment.” She walked over to the desk and wrote a note for her adopted family, who were wondering where she was. 

“Here, can you give this to a guard to leave at the inn I work at?” She walked over and gave her letter to the maid.

“Right away, miss!” She took the letter, left to find a guard, and closed the door behind her.

Auryn walked over to the dresser, opened a drawer, and saw her crown. She lifted it out of the drawer and stared at it. After staring at it awhile, she walked over to her vanity, holding the crown. 

“This is such a beautiful crown,” She said while looking at it in the mirror. “I don't think they will mind if I put it on….” She looked at herself in the mirror and put it on her head. ‘What if I am the lost princess….’

During her moment somebody knocked on her door. So she fastly took the crown off and put it on the vanity.

“You can come in!” She said very innocently. So they don't know she had touched the crown.

Carissa walked into Auryns room. “Im sorry to bother you… But if you are the lost princess... You would come live with us in the castle, not at the inn.” She notices that she found the crown.

‘What about Lily…’ she thought as she was standing there.

“I see that you found Princess Alice’s crown….” She said a tear fell as she had never seen it in so long.

“Im so sorry I touched it. I found it in the drawer. I will put it back and not touch it again!” She said she worried that she would get kicked out.

“No, don't worry! You did nothing! I just never seen it in such a long time….” She placed her hands on Auryns shoulders. “You should get to bed. It's late, and you have an eventful day tomorrow..”

“Okay” She puts the crown away.

“Goodnight, Auryn, don't worry about tomorrow! You're going to do great!”

“Goodnight, Queen Clarissa” She crawled into her bed.

Clarissa closed the door and went to bed.