In the morning Iliana jumped out of bed and ran over to the row of flowers. Now two were alive and blue. She allowed herself a smile. It still seems to be working. She almost reached out to pick up the flower, thinking to tuck it behind her ear, but stopped herself. No, she wouldn’t do that anymore.

Iliana quickly got dressed and stoked the fire, eating some oatmeal for breakfast. She wondered if she could go to the farm without Kel. He did say I could go anytime I wanted. After waiting around for another ten minutes, she decided to go. Grabbing her sewing box and her coat, she went to the front door, opening it and looking out. Empty and cold, just like the day before. She closed the door behind her and followed the red ribbon down the many corridors. Iliana walked softly, but she could still hear her footsteps. She looked around, noticing things she hadn’t noticed before. Cobwebs hung from the walls. A heavy layer of dust and dirt covered the stone floor. She could see footprints where she and Kel had walked before, two sets for her and one for him. The ribbon led her around a corner and kept on going.

Suddenly, she had a feeling that she wasn’t alone anymore. She looked to her right, and screamed.

“Aahhh!!” Kel clapped a hand over her mouth, stifling the scream.

“Jeez! Sorry, I didn’t know I was going to scare you that bad,” he said. He took his hand away. She stood against the wall and tried to slow her heart. “Sorry,” he said again, looking at her sheepishly.

“Next time could you make a little more noise so I know you’re there?”

“Yes, yes of course,” he said reassuringly. Iliana sighed, exasperated. She hated being so frightened in this place. They stood there for a while until Kel spoke once more. “So, are you on your way to the farm?”

“Yes,” she said, not managing to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

“May I join you?”

“Yes.” We have to spend some time together today, or else another flower won’t come back to life, she thought. They walked in silence, following the ribbon.

That day Kel showed Iliana how to milk the cows. Then they watered the garden and played with the dogs. When both of them got tired they laid down in the grass. Iliana watched the clouds move across the sky again, still wondering if it was all an illusion. Kel had to leave shortly after that, and Iliana set to gathering eggs. She wondered what he did when he wasn’t with her, but she didn’t ask him. Once all eggs had been gathered, except for the ones under Miss Fanny, she brought the one chair in the cabin outside along with her sewing box, some fabric, thread from the shelves. She began to make collars for the dogs first. She cut a strip of fabric and stitched the name on it, then she sewed the ends together and started on the next one. She got both dog’s collars done before she had to leave to make lunch for herself. She left out a pan of milk for the dogs and took the eggs with her.

After lunch she decided to go back, and made two more collars, for Nibbles and Melvin, before deciding to go back to her house for the day. Every time she entered the cabin it felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and every time she re-entered the castle with its hall of mysterious doors she felt that same weight settle on her once more.

The days went by pretty much the same. She woke up to find that one other flower had come back to life, and resisted the urge to tuck it behind her ear. Then she went downstairs and put three logs into the giant wood-burning stove and ate breakfast using the eggs that she had gathered the day before. Then she went to the farm.

Kel didn’t sneak up on her ever again, for which she was thankful. Sometimes he was waiting outside her door, sometimes he came even before she woke up, and sometimes he was at the farm when she got there. Every day they were together for at least the amount of time she was with Dray, almost always a little more. They would milk the cows and Kel would check the pregnant animals and the baby pigs. Then they watered the garden and played with the dogs. A couple times it turned into a game of tag, which Iliana always lost because she was slower than both the dogs and Kel. Then he would leave and she would collect the chicken’s eggs and make some more collars for the animals, and she would go back to her house and eat and sleep. Then it would start all over again.

Iliana became more and more accustomed to being with Kel, and began to notice more and more differences between him and Dray. Kel was much more reserved. His laughter was rare yet genuine, and his movements and speech less boisterous. Of course, Dray had to be boisterous, as he was an entertainer. Iliana again wondered at the timing of him being hired on for the ball. Had Elise, the rude, rich woman that had sat next to her, simply been mistaken? Or had Dray actually taken that job so he could stay in Abelton longer, and take her to the ball to further win her affections? Had he used magic on someone to get the job? But these thoughts always brought down her mood, and since there were no answers to those questions it was just frustrating to linger on them. Iliana did her best to put them out of her mind.

Instead, she thought about what she could do to escape. After Kel left for the day, she’d wander in a random direction and walk as far as she could. The dogs always followed her and seemed to get more and more anxious the farther she went. They especially didn’t like it when, on one of those days, she went near the woodlands. She got close enough to make out individual trees before Alena started grabbing the skirt of her dress and tugging on it to make her go back. If this is a way out, I’ll need to find a way to get away from the dogs, she though as they led her back the way they had come. Or it could be dangerous, and that’s why they won’t let me go that way. She always tried to keep either the cabin or barn in view when she went on these excursions, but she felt she didn’t need to with the dogs following her. They always seemed to know the way back.

One morning, when eight flowers had come back to life, Kel came pounding on her door.

“One of the sheep is going into labor,” he said as soon as she opened her door. “I thought you might like to come help me?”

“I’ll get my coat,” Iliana said excitedly. She went and got it and followed him to the door that led to the farm, hen out to the barn. The sheep was standing in one of the three stalls along with a little lamb. “Aw, I missed it,” she said, disappointed.

“Actually, it’s pretty common for sheep to have two or three lambs,” Kel explained. “We’ll wait and see if there are any more on the way.” The lamb bleated, and Kel got a blanket and dried the baby. Then Iliana held it while he checked the mother, Nibbles. “It’s so cute and soft,” she said, petting the baby. “I’ll name you Furball. You have a cute baby here, Nibbles.” Nibbles bleated. Kel had been right, and they were soon joined by another bleating lamb.

Both sheep and both goats gave birth to all girls within the next five days. By the end of it Iliana was exhausted, but insisted she not be left out of any of the births, even if they occurred in the middle of the night. She was too excited to be able to take care of all the little animals. She hadn’t thought of names for them yet, but was sure she’d come up with some as they got older. Chores became more demanding then, with checking on the babies and the mothers multiple times a day. Kel spent more time there to help out, and Iliana was grateful not for the help, but for the company. While she didn’t yet know him very well, he hadn’t yet given her a reason to mistrust him. 

The days began to blend together in a swirl of chores, cooking, and sleeping. Every morning another blue flower would spring to life. Iliana was grateful for them, since without them she would likely have lost track of time days ago.