NIGHT, I Rin [classic book list txt] 📗

his duty! And what about love; I would not say anything after seeing how he had looked at you today.”

Joy filled Angelica’s soul. She remembered Edward's eyes and smiled.

In about two hours our heroes came to the mountains. Very near there was a wide entrance to the cave.

“But there is no moonlight,” the girl said quietly. “How can we go in total darkness?”

“I saved some oakum and took a flint with me. And we could find some sticks right now!”

Henry quickly found two sturdy sticks wrapped them with oakum and set on fire. He gave one torch to Lica and the other left for himself. They put baskets at the cave entrance and went inside. The ceiling and the walls of the cave were covered with a thick spider’s web. Wrapped into spider cocoons birds, small animals and bats were hanging from the top.

“Well at least it’s good that there are no people!” Angelica said.

And she and Henry passed on. First the entrance narrowed then widened again and travelers came into a large room. There they saw a lot of bones lying around and some gnawed bodies.

Suddenly they heard some rustle behind. The girl and the old servant looked back and saw a huge house size spider was quietly creeping towards them.

“Run!” Henry shouted and pushed Lica into the side aisle.

They were running but the spider did not want to leave their victims. He spit a few balls of web chasing our heroes. Five minutes later Angelica and the Prince’s servant ran into another room where a fairly wide stream was flowing in the middle.

“Web is afraid of water! Jump!” the old man shouted.

He grabbed girl’s arm and pulled her along. She had no choice and obeyed. While they were running and jumping over the stream the spider’s web, following them, appeared. It rolled to the stream but did not jump over it.

“Thank God, you had been right,” said Lica barely breathing.

But suddenly they heard ramble in the cave and at that moment a strange gray-haired man in a black cloak appeared in front of the girl and the Prince’s servant.

“Hello, Henry!” he said. “We haven’t seen for ages! You are getting old...”

“Greetings, Wizard! And you've changed for the worse!” the servant parried. “By the way, Angelica, this is the Wizard who kidnapped the Princess from Prince Edward.”

“Yes, I am!” the old man giggled. “Many years have passed... I see the Prince has managed to find someone who is madly in love with night!”

And the villain began to examine Lica with curiosity.

“She is very beautiful!” he said finally.

“You do not get distracted,” Henry pulled him. “We have fulfilled your condition, so you must return the Princess!”

“Princess? Oh, yes, please! I am not interested in her anymore! But the girl... I need a ransom!” the Wizard croaked.

“What ransom?” Angelica said.

“I want something that you haven’t had yet!”

“Please, take it!” the girl surprised. “If I do not have it and feel quite normal then why I need it?”

“Are you sure?” the Wizard laughed in his beard.

“Of course I am!”

The villain clapped his hands and they heard boom again.

“All right, take your Princess! But she is not the same as she used to!” the old man burst of laughing.

He whistled and the side wall of the cave moved apart. Lica and Henry saw a tall thin woman who tried going by touch to them.

“What happened?” Henry asked.

“Since being here in absolute darkness she has gone blind!” the Villain giggled.

“What a rascal you are!” Edward’s servant wiped at the Wizard.

“Henry!” the Princess shouted. “Stop it! Anyway you can change nothing.”

Laughing the Wizard had disappeared in the air.

“Have you recognized me, Your Mightiness?” the old servant said with tragic voice.

“Of course, because your voice has not changed at all! Come on, I'll get us out of these caves!” the Princess replied. “I have explored them well enough.”

She was leading Angelica and Henry some known only to her way. And our heroes came out quite far from the place where they had left their food baskets.

“We had better not to come back!” Edward’s servant said. “I don’t want to meet with the spider again.”

Lica and Princess agreed with him.

Without any incidents they got to Sleepy Lake and crossed it. Then Henry untied the horses from the tree, sat with the Princess and Lica mounted on the other. Riders pulled the reins and went across the wide valley to the Nightmare Forest. When they got to the edge of the forest the moon was on the other side of the sky again.

“Hooray!” the old man shouted. “One day has passed! My magical power went back to me! Angelica, I'll turn you into an owl and I will ride with the Princess through the forest. I would have bewitched the Princess but unfortunately she wouldn’t have seen where to fly.”

“But it is very dangerous!” the girl said. “I will not leave you!”

“The less we are, the less we will have nightmares haunting!” Henry said emphatically. “And never ever argue with the old!”

He muttered something quickly under his breath then took a feather out of his coat pocket and stuck it into Lica’s hair.

The Wizard’s Curse

The girl felt how her body was getting shrunk again. And a minute later she turned in to the owl and she went up the sky and flew towards the castle. The Nightmare Forest, fields and valleys were had left far behind her. Lica was flying in the dark starry sky and her wings seemed to touch the clouds. Soon on the horizon she saw the spires of the tall building. It was the castle of Prince Edward, who Angelica nicknamed "The Prince Night." Edward was sitting in his room and looking through the open window. Suddenly the owl flew in to. She sat down on the chair back and rubbed her head on it. The feather dropped from her head and the bird had turned into the girl.

“Oh my God, Angelica!” the Prince exclaimed. “If only you knew how I had been worried about you! What happened? Where's Henry? Where is the Princess? Have you saved her?”

“We have saved your Princess! But, unfortunately, because of spending many years in the dark, she had gone blind. So Henry had to ride with her through the Nightmare Forest. However, he turned me into the owl. I think your friends will be here in just a few hours.”

“Thank God! She's alive!” Edward said. “Or I would never have dared to tell you what I am going to say now. Angelica, I think, no, I'm sure that I love you! I am going to talk with the Princess about it! I hope she will understand and forgive me!”

The Prince Night came to Lica and kissed her on her lips gently. Before she had not even dreamt about it! But at that moment they heard familiar hoarse ha-ha and the evil Wizard came into the room.

“Alas, Prince! In the caves to save the Princess, this girl had refused to you!”

“It’s not true!” Angelica protested.

“Do you remember you had given me what you hadn’t had in your life yet? It was the Prince’s love. So - sorry!”

And the villain rubbed his dry hands snidely.

“Edward, no!” Lica screamed and ran to the Prince.

“It’s time for the last dance,” the Wizard mumbled.

Suddenly the Prince Night and Angelica saw themselves in a huge bright room and heard beautiful music. Lica was wearing a great white ball dress, the one in which she had danced with Edward for the first time. The Prince offered her his hand gallantly and they whirled in a waltz. When the music was over the young man bended over to kiss Angelica but she suddenly disappeared...

 

“Young lady, how do I have to understand this?” Lica heard her mother's voice.

She opened her eyes and saw that she was in her room.

“Mom, what a wonderful dream I had!” the girl said stretching herself.

“This is good! But why were you sleeping in clothes and where did you get such a luxurious ball dress? I don’t remember that I or your father had ever bought something like this!”

Only then did Angelica see her lying on the bed wearing the white dress, in which she had been dancing at the Prince’s ball.

“Is all that has happened true?” Lica asked herself amazedly and joyfully.

Since now every night the girl stared out the window for a long time waiting for news from the wonderful Kingdom of night, where she had been lucky enough to visit.

Part 2

Henry’s comeback

It was a full moon night. As usual Lica was standing and feasting her eyes on the starry sky through the window. A year has passed since she attended the Prince’s Night ball. But as yet hasn’t she been able to forget Edward. However, sometimes it seemed to her that it had been only a dream. But doubts vanished as soon as Angelica, opening the wardrobe, saw her beautiful white ball dress, which she was wearing at the Prince’s ball. The dress was absolutely real and the girl began to hope that one day she would meet Edward again!

“Lica, you are not going to bed again?” she heard her mother's voice behind the door.

“I am… I am going to!” the girl answered.

She was about to lie down when suddenly something large and dark struck the window outside and then slipped down onto the sill. It was the eagle-owl!

“Henry?!” Angelica whooped.

She immediately opened the window and brought the bird into the room. The owl had no signs of life. The girl put it on the carpet and began to sob:

“Henry! What have you done? How could you beat into the glass with all over the fluff?”

Some of her tears fell on the owl’s head and it suddenly started up. Then he shook his head and one small feather fell to the floor. At the same moment the Prince Edward’s old servant appeared before Lica.

“Henry! You're alive!” Lica was happy.

She rushed to the old man and hung around his neck. The Prince’s servant smiled but then said with serious face:

“Angelica, a young lady ought not to behave like a cur! In addition I'm not feeling very well after a collision with your window.”

“Oh, Henry, I'm sorry,” she apologized. “I was just afraid that you had died. And when I saw that you had been alive, I was so happy that I could not resist! But why didn’t you notice the closed windows?”

“Tonight the moon is so bright that apparently it had blinded me. So I had miscalculated a bit.”

Lica offered the old man to sit down on the chair and began to interrogate him:

“Well, how are you? How is the Princess? Because I was not there when you had returned from the Nightmare Forest.”

Then a little girl hesitated but then continued:

“How is Edward?”

The Prince’s servant stared at Angelica and began to speak:

“I and the Princess got out of the forest safely; although we had met some nasty nightmares, we reached the castle without any incidents. And then the Prince told us everything. He explained the Princess everything and asked her to let him go. Admittedly, the Princess held with dignity. She promised not to hinder Edward. The only thing that she regretted about was her blindness. And my lord is the man of honor. Therefore, he vowed that he would return the Princess the ability to see, whatever it would cost him! So Edward went to a very powerful witch, who lived on the edge of our kingdom after Goblins’ City. And we had not received any news from him for ages. But recently he had come back. The witch gave him a magic potion that returned the Princess her eyes. The girl can see now and has gone back to her country. But strangely something has happened to the Prince. He has completely changed. He does things that he didn’t use to before. He became arrogant, sarcastic and cold. His thirst for power began to frighten me! The other day he told me that he would like