Realizing the fact that he has tamed the beast in this beauty, he put his lips near her left ear and whispered "What do you wish for your birthday, my Princess?"

And as if those words sent back the energy that was lacking in her body, she pushed him back once again with a jolt, only to notice that this time he was neither offended nor looking at her with confused eyes.

He chuckled a deep, reassuring laugh.

"I see I made you uncomfortable again, I hope you'll forgive me."

And it became harder for her to hide the flush that had just settled over her cheeks and made her turn away from him.

"A gift you asked?", she asked, realizing the reason why she pushed him away for the second time.

"Yes, a gift."

"Can it be… anything?", her senses started to hit back, and slowly things started to make more and more sense to her.

"Anything", unaware of what the Princess was about to say, The King replied, "Your Wish, My Command."

But it didn't take long for him to realize the mistake he made when she turned her face and her eyes fell on his chest instead of his face.

She pointed at a circular green stone that was attached to his jacket and then looked at him. 

His eyes were already wide open with surprise.

"You don't really mean it, do you?" This was the first time she noticed his voice was a little shaky.

"You promised to give me anything that I ask for. If you aren't capable enough, you shouldn't make promises." With a pretentious hint of disappointment in her voice, she turned to face the door of her room from where the guard had appeared earlier and through which her friend had found her way to the world she wasn't allowed to roam.

"I'll take you there tomorrow." heard her ears at which she turned sharply.

"But tomorrow never comes," she replied, clearly irritated by his reluctance to grant her the wish. It was the first time she ever believed that a man was capable of granting her wish but that man too turned out to be hollow with his words.

"Princess, you have my word. If you want anything else right now, tell me and I'll get you that." The voice of the King dropped. It was more like he was pleading and feeling sorry at the same time. After all, she wasn't the only one who felt disappointed in not being able to have what she asked for.

There was no way for him to take the princess to another dimension when there were less than 9 hours left for their marriage. It could become a conundrum that they won't be able to avoid if anyone gets to know about it.

But her eyes; her brown eyes were fixated upon him, not blinking once. She was just staring at him and with every passing moment that gaze was becoming tenser.

"Maybe that's why they say you can jinx it if you see your bride on the same day before the marriage." mumbled the King under his breath.

"What you are asking can lead both of us into trouble, Princess. However, the moment you become my wife, there's no one asking us what we do. Can't you just trust the person you are getting married to?", the King took a step closer to Lara and raised his hand to caress her cheek, but intendedly Lara stepped back making the King stop in his tracks.

"How can you expect me to trust you when this is the first time we are ever talking and I don't even know if you're anything like what you're telling me?", hearing the genuineness in her voice the King took another step in her direction, but this time holding her hand to refrain her from stepping back.

The stiffness and retraction in Lara's gestures showed that she wasn't happy. Her brows furrowed and her eyes became pointed as if she had just found a new enemy to shout at.

"Leave my hand at this very moment. I am GOING to be your wife, you ARE NOT my husband already." Sharp. Sharp is the word that comes to one's mind while hearing the tone with which Lara spoke.

If it were a common person or even Sharon who grew up with this Princess, they would have backed out. However, it wasn't the intention of the Aether King. While every particle in her body was revolting against the hold of the King, he brought her closer to him with their faces just an inch apart from each other, making Lara startled.

Even breathing seemed enough movement to her that could close the distance between his lips pressed to each other forming a straight line, and her, which she didn't know she was biting.

"5 minutes."

Not understanding what the King meant, Lara's eyes widened to imagine what those 5 minutes could mean.

What does he even mean by referring to those five minutes?

And suddenly, the urge to set herself free made Lara sweat. A tiny drop of sweat dripped through the hairline from the left of her forehead and started to roll down slowly from her temple, coming down to her cheek.

"I can take you there but just for 5 minutes.", noticing the sweat on the Princess, the King said it out clearly.

Clear enough for her to understand that he is going to grant her wish. Her eyes beamed at the thought and a smile formed on her lips. 

This was the first time her fiance saw her smile, and that smile was enough to take away his worries. 

"Are you ready?", with a soft and concerned voice he asked. And without wasting another moment Lara nodded, quickly.

He unpinned that green stone he was wearing on his jacket and took it in his palm. 

"You need to hold my hand and at no cost, let your hand drift away. If the stone gets lost, it will become impossible for you to return on your own."

"And what about you?", it wasn't fear that was there in her voice, rather it was excitement, curiosity…. This was the first time she was going to step out of the palace premises. And not just the palace, but the entire Kingdom of Wincia.

"I don't need this stone to travel through space. Being a King comes with some perks.",  there was excitement in his voice too. Not for what he had already said, but for what he was about to say. "And once you become the Queen, you will have it too."

Lara stood there awestruck, realizing what the King had just told her. She was lost thinking how happy it made him when he referred to her as the Queen-in-becoming when he took her hand in his left hand and placed it on his right, where the greenstone was now touching both of their palms. 

"Remember to hold onto the stone as your life depends on it.", said the King with a slight smile on his lips to see the blank expression on his fiance's face, and then he closed his eyes and mumbled a few words, inaudible for Lara to figure out. 

"Now.", he said softly and Lara noticed a white light surrounding them. Never in her 18 years of life had she seen such an exemplified wormhole.

The light was blinding and it was pulling them in. For a moment, she even thought that if it weren't for the King holding her in his left hand, she would have been sucked in by that force stronger than gravity.

Suddenly, the King held her closer and leaned backward into the light. Before her mind could process anything or stop him, she was into that light and the blinding white covered her, absorbed her into it.

She no longer knew if they were still moving backward or forward. And then suddenly, the thought of the person still holding her hits her.

With a little force against the motion, she shifted her gaze to the face of the man, who had kept his promise.

Those golden eyes were fixated on her as if capturing every emotion that came and left that face. At that moment, Lara realized that not all men are the same.

"Than--------"

*THUD*

Before she could thank him, they landed on a hard surface. And so "Ouchhh!!" was what came out of her mouth when her head bumped into the head of that "not-so-same-man" and she closed her eyes, wincing from the pain while rubbing her head.

"Apologies, Princess. I forgot to tell you about the inertia part.", he said, rubbing his own head and making his way towards her. Gently, removed her hand from her forehead and said, "Good, you don't have a bump."

Lara jerked backward realizing how close his face was to her once again and turned her face to the other side.

It was only then that she realized she was no longer in that huge room of hers. There were apple orchards around them and the fresh scent of dust and wet soil.

The air had a pleasant touch when it slid through her skin and the sun was shining brightly here.

The sky seemed different. There were white cotton-like structures in the blue sky. The sound of birds was reaching her ears.

"Wha … what's that?", she pointed towards a little brown-furry thing by the side of a tree, sitting on hunches while eating something really quickly with both hands. A tail going upwards and then turning inwards again. 

"They call it a squirrel on Earth.", The King replied, having his hands behind his back looking at her as if she was a little baby of 2 or 3 years old who came to a park for the first time and raising questions on everything.

"Oh! That's how the Earth's squirrel looks like."

It was just the start because after that she pointed towards the white floating cotton in the sky, the chirping creatures looking very different from the "squirrel" as mentioned by the King.

She asked questions for everything she couldn't recognize and her fiance answered all of them with patience and sometimes he added one or two sentences of extra knowledge, which left her amazed until she finally exclaimed with a loud scream…..
"I AM ON EARTH."

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