The kingdom and the castle are separated by a forest that circles around the castle. People thought this was weird at first, but then they came to be informed that the forest was supposed to buy some time for the king when there was an evasion of intruders. Though the forest was meant for protection, no one had really tried to take over the castle.

 Well, it was this one time that someone did try, and when I say someone, I really mean only someone. A couple years ago, when Elias’s father was still alive, a poor fellow from an unknown clan tried to take over the castle to get ahold of jewels that were rare to the land. To put it simply, that fellow was stupid. How can he try to take over the castle by himself? No army, no partner, no horse, nothing When he marched into the gates that surrounded the forest for extra protection, even though they weren't really needed, the two knights standing on each side just laughed at him. They laughed until they were wheezing halfway to the floor. The poor dude just stood there with a big frown, turning bright red from embarrassment, yelling that he should be taken seriously. After the guards stopped laughing and wiped the tears from their eyes, they told him to go away and to stop with his childish dreams. The failed mission really made the boy open his eyes and not do it again( he was too embarrassed to pull that stunt again).

Charlie chuckled at the memory. At this point, he had zoned out, thinking about the brave but stupid boy from all those years ago. While he zoned out, he hadn’t realized that he had accidentally taken a wrong turn, leaving the trail to the castle. Elias hadn't noticed either, probably because he was sound asleep. When Charlie looked up to see if they were close to home, he panicked after realizing they were not on the trail. Charlie looked back to see if the king had woken up, but was horrified to see he wasn't behind him anymore. How could his horse escape? It was tied up pretty well to Charlie's horse, right? Charlie frantically called out for him, not knowing what to do. Meanwhile, Elias was still catching z’s until he started shivering from how cold he was getting. Elias grunted awake, blinking slowly to allow his eyes to adjust to his surroundings.

 "Charlie I'm cold; give me your  jacket."Elias scratched his side, trying to look for Charlie, but instead he saw fog. Dense fog, to be exact. The kingdom is usually a gloomy place with fog, so it wasn't a surprise to see fog, but it isn't usually this dense. "Where did he go? Wasn't I tied to him?" Elias squinted his eyes, looking around, and tried to look through the thick fog. "I can’t see jack shit; ugh, where did he go? Don’t tell me he finally abandoned me." He quickly got rid of the thought. Charlie wouldn't do that, would he? Just as he was about to flee and do his best to navigate through the fog, he saw a figure with a lantern coming his way. Was it a person? To his relief, it was.

"Hey, hey, you come here; I need your assistance." He was so happy to finally see a person who could help, but why were they in his forest so late at night? Actually, Elias didn’t care; he just wanted to go home already. As the person came up to him, he could see them more clearly. It was a lady with a worn-out cloak with the hoodie over her matted long gray hair covering most of her face, only leaving her chapped lips exposed. She was shivering from the coldness of the night, barefoot on the ground.

 Charlie stared at her in disgust. He was desperate to get home, but was he that desperate to ask this thing for help? He simply wouldn’t allow himself to do that; he had an image to uphold even if no one was there looking at him. Just as he was about to dismiss her, the sketchy lady spoke up.

 "Your highness, please, I am in need of your help; I am lost in these woods. You see, my eyes are far too weak to see in this fog; it is getting late, as you can see. I was wondering if I could seek shelter in your home," the small, fragile lady said desperately to Elias. Elias flinched away from her as if she were a spider ready to bite him. He was repulsed that such a revolting thing could ask him a favor. Before he could harshly dismiss her, she spoke up again.

"I offer this white rose as a token of my gratitude if you allow me to accompany you home." The lady’s thin, pale, and brown-spotted hands reached inside her coat and pulled out a perfect, singular, pearl-white rose.

Elias was offended, to say the least. More like on the verge of grabbing the loose rope that was clinging onto the reins and tying it onto a tree, making a noose, and hanging himself. If anyone else were able to hear his thoughts, they would think he needs mental help and should be put in a lab to be studied because why the fuck was his reaction to an old battered woman asking for shelter to kill himself? In Elias’s mind, his reasons for such thoughts were justified by the fact that he’s too high and proper to be seen, or even within a 100-mile radius, with someone who looked like fleas were their pets. After staring at her in disgust for a good 30 seconds, he burst out laughing, not caring if it would offend the witch-looking creature; in fact, he hoped it offended her.

"Me? Help you? You should learn your place, hag; someone like me wouldn't want to be associated with the likes of you." Elias wiped his tears from his eyes, looking back at her with a deep scowl. "Please, if I were to help you, my pristine image would be tainted; even you looking at me right now is making me crawl with the need to scrub my skin with sandpaper because your filthy eyes dared to look at me."

He shivered at the thought but was actually going to consider it if she kept staring at him. But the scary part about it was, yes, the overall aura and fashion choice, but her eyes always cast a shadow even though she was looking right at him. "And what's with the flower? You have at least offered money; I guess poor people have no standards." With that being said, he picked up the rose and threw it in a random direction.

Wiping his hands on his brown pants, he looked focused back onto the witch,scoffed again, and looked ahead. As he was about to leave, he heard a low, angry mumble from the creepy lady. Not caring what she was saying, he tried to continue leaving until, all of a sudden, the witch magically stood 2 meters in front of his horse, standing up straight, unlike her slouched posture earlier. Her hoodie was half on her head, but her eyes were still covered by the shadows; only her mouth was showing, which was again a bit odd. Elias was surprised by how fast she moved; he didn’t even notice her moving. Wasn’t she just an old, crazy lady?

"What do you want, old lady? I already told you no; now let me through, and I’ll spare your head!" He crossed his arms over his chest, practically yelling. The lady just stood there for a solid 10 seconds, and Elias was getting more irritated by the second.

"You," she pointed a spotted, thin finger at him, stepping back one step.

"You are a bad person filled with hatred, foolishness, arrogance, cowardice, and immaturity; you are not fit for a king." The witch raised her voice angrily with each word while she took one hand and took off her cloak, revealing a beautiful, gorgeous lady with golden long locks, a flowy white dress embroidered in golden leaves, soft features with pink lips, long luscious eyelashes, and thin eyebrows.

 Elias was taken aback by how this situation turned out. The crazy witch lady who dared ask him for a favor suddenly is not a witch but a beautiful, gorgeous lady. How could this be? I could’ve sworn she was this old ugly hag, not this beautiful ‘she should have my children’ type of woman. Elias was in awe of the gorgeous woman in front of him; how could he have refused this hot chick? Elias just stared at her with his mouth on the floor.

 "Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, madam. I should’ve known better than to be so rude to such a fine and majestic being." Elias suddenly switched personalities to that of a gentleman; he had sparkles in his eyes; he hit the jackpot; he hoped that he could take her home to his bed and do unholy things to her.

 "HOW DARE YOU, ONCE YOU SAW MY TRUE APPEARANCE YOU CHANGED YOUR PERSONALITY, YOU SHOULD BE PUNISHED FOR ONLY LIKING LOOKS AND ON TOP OF THAT YOU TREAT YOUR PEOPLE LIKE SHIT ONLY WORRYING ABOUT YOURSELF," the angel-like lady cursed at him, turning red. All Elias could do was just stare at her mouth open, but not for her looks this time; he was more enraged than anything. No one has ever yelled at him like that in all the years he’s been alive. He also started to slowly turn red. He didn’t care that she was the sexiest lady he'd ever seen; at this point, he was mad that she yelled at the king himself.

 "Oh fuck you lady, I don’t give a flying fuck about you or the people; you don’t know me. All they ever did was hurt me, so all I’m doing is returning the favor." He rolled his eyes, sneering at the person in front of him. For fuck's sake, he’s tired and just wants to go home; why is that so hard to do?

 "Enough, you need to learn a very good lesson; you need to learn to love and care for another person, not yourself. If you don’t learn to do both of these by the last petal, you will forever be trapped." She glared at Elias, pinning him in place. He was scared that if he moved, she might actually send bullets through her eyes and kill him. And what did she mean by trapped? Trapped where? By the last petal? What is she talking about?

He was soon about to find out. While Elias was in his thoughts, the angel picked up the flower that Elias threw and held it in front of her. She let it go, and it just stood in the air. How was she doing that? Before he could run away from being scared by how she was doing that, The rose sparkled so brightly that it blinded Elias; it shone like the sun itself. Elias closed his eyes, his arms in front of his face, trying to cover the blinding light. Just as the rose was shining, he also did. He looked down at his chest, suddenly feeling a slight burn. His eyes turned wide, not knowing what was happening to him.

 "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME, YOU WITCH!?" He scratched at his chest, wanting the feeling to go away. "WAIT, WHERE ARE YOU GOING? COME HERE. STOP DOING THIS TO M-." And just like that, Elias and the white rose disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving only some golden sparkles in the foggy air.

 "That boy will finally learn, but I feel bad for what is going to happen to him; maybe I shouldn’t have been too harsh and sent him there, especially like that," she sighed with a small frown, retreating into the trees. "Oh well, I’ll just see what he will do now and how well he’ll do there." And then she too disappeared in a puff of smoke, but unlike Elias, she returned to her kingdom in the sky.