It was past midnight the night before, when Oriana found herself unable to fall asleep. Something that was slowly becoming a common occurrence for her. It was hard to say if it was the result of kidnapping or maybe the mess in her head from everything that happened, and didn’t happen, between Valeria and her.

  To make the matters worse, the only person that could have provided comfort to her shaken heart, was currently running around the streets of Lucetta risking her life.

  Oriana was well aware that logically speaking, Valeria was the best person for the job and one with the highest probability of returning unharmed in case the patrol runs into danger.

  That being said, ever since she became aware of her feelings for Valeria, her heart became an impenetrable stronghold against logic and reason.

  Not that she was especially friendly with them before…

  With little options left, Oriana decided to do what any reasonable adult would do. She chose to get herself a cup of warm milk from the kitchen.

  The moment she stepped out of her room, she was met with a realization that maybe wandering around the Pace alone in the middle of the night might not be the best rexation method.

  Lucetta’s royal residence was most certainly an architectural pride and accomplishment during the day. At night, however, the Princess would beg to differ.

  Long dimly lit hallways, ancient armors eerily veiled by shadows, people on portraits who’s expressions suddenly became grotesque and unsettling. No amount of gold, marble and aurelianite was able to make Oriana perceive it as anything other than utterly creepy.

  She wrapped the gossamer robe tighter around herself and stepped into the corridor enveloped in darkness.

  The small ntern she held in front of her provided little light, and on more than few occasions the shadows caused her heart to nearly jump out of her chest, but the Princess clung to it, bravely traversing the corridors.

  More than once the Princess cursed the Pace for being so big and even more times she reprimanded herself for wanting to run to Valeria every time she got startled by something. However, by the time she reached the kitchen, the sheer amount of vases that she took for a monster lurking in the shadows rendered her mostly numb to fear.

  She left the ntern at one of the tables and then encouraged by her own bravery, went to search for the milk jug.

  That’s when she heard it.

  At first, it was just a faint noise she deemed to be wind blowing through the cracks in the wall. With every moment the sound was becoming stronger and stronger.

  A loud, bone-chilling wail echoed through the kitchen.

  The reaction was immediate.

  Oriana dropped the cy jug and, at a speed she didn’t knew she was capable of ran out of the room…

  …Straight into Valeria's arms.

  "MONSTER! LET GO OF ME YOU GLUTTONOUS THIEVING FIEND!"

  "Oriana, it’s me…"

  Hearing the familiar voice, the Princess stopped flinging her fists and opened her eyes.

  "Oh thank the Ten it’s you!" She clung to Valeria.

  "It’s alright, you’re safe now," she pulled her closer. "I won’t let anyone hurt you."

  The Princess hid her face in the curve of Valeria’s neck, allowing for the familiar warmth to soothe her shaken heart. The relief of being in the safety of her embrace brought tears to her eyes.

  "But wait…" the facts started slowly connecting in Oriana’s fear-fueled mind, "what are you doing here? I thought you were on the patrol in the city?"

  "I was, but I came back earlier," Valeria expined softly.

  The Princess narrowed her eyes.

  Suspicious.

  "Prove it," she pulled away, making sure to keep a safe distance.

  "Prove what?"

  "That you’re you. Prove that you are Valeria."

  The Commander folded her hands on her chest and gave the Princess one of her ‘what-crazy-thing-you-came-up-with-this-time’ signature look.

  "And how am I supposed to do that?"

  Oriana had to admit that alone was almost enough to convince her. However, when ghosts and monsters were on the table, there was no such thing as too careful.

  "Tell me something only the two of us know."

  "I’m a shape-shifter. The st one," Valeria answered without hesitation. "Did I pass the test?"

  The Princess nodded approvingly. As far as she knew, there were exactly three people who knew about her real identity and it was highly improbable that Kyra was walking around the Pace masquerading as Valeria.

  She was about to accept the answer, when an arming idea popped in her head.

  What if the ghost is able to read minds, so it knows all of Valeria secrets?!

  "Not yet! I’m going to need more proof," Oriana pointed at her and lifted her chin with a grace worthy of a future queen. "Shift."

  The Commander opened her mouth to protest, but if there was anything she learned over the years she spent by the Princess’ side, was that if she sets her mind on something, there was no way out.

  Resigned to her fate, she sighed and in a blink of an eye her form started warping and changing, until Valeria disappeared and her pce was taken by a majestic white wolf.

  Being less distracted by being kidnapped, Oriana had this time an opportunity to have a better look at the Commander’s animal form.

  The very first thing that caught her attention was that Valeria the Wolf was definitely much more expressive than Valeria the Beautiful-But-Annoying-Commander. Oriana could almost hear her thoughts by just looking at her. And right now, she appeared to be asking:

  ‘Happy now? Can I change back, before someone sees me?’

  There was, however, something the Princess had to do before she could allow it. The opportunity was too good to pass and she wanted to do it since the moment she learned the truth.

  Oriana slowly approached the wolf, its silver eyes watching her intently.

  She carefully reached out her hand. And gently and with complete seriousness…

  …patted its head.

  "Who’s a good girl? You are. Yes, you are."

  Now, it is important to say, that it wasn’t an impulse, a fleeting urge that she fulfilled on a whim. No. The Princess made sure to thoroughly think her actions through. She calcuted every possible outcome of every possible action she could take in that moment. It was an in-depth, meticulous analysis, that even an Elder wouldn’t be ashamed of.

  That being said, there was one problem with it.

  As the fate had it, Princess Oriana was absolutely terrible at math and she was about to learn that this miscalcution had a hefty price tag on it.

  It took her a blink or two to notice that the wolf’s image started blurring and shifting again, and by the time the information reached her nervous system, occupied by the rexing sensation of fluff, it was already too te.

  The Princess still had her hand over a head, however, that head didn’t belong to a fluffy wolf anymore.

  It belonged to a very unamused, significantly annoyed and, most certainly, very done with the Princess’ antics Commander.

  She grabbed Oriana’s hand and slowly rose to her full height.

  Being over a head taller than her, it effectively hindered any further patting attempts, but most importantly reminded the Princess one very important detail about Valeria’s transformation. It does not include clothing.

  At first, Oriana eyes were fixated on Valeria’s, the silver orbs usually calm and unreadable, now radiated with a full palette of emotions. Mostly violent ones.

  That in itself made the Princess experience a flood of contradicting sensations.

  One was telling her to run away from Valeria.

  The other was telling her to run towards Valeria.

  But both emotions did agree that no matter what, she really shouldn’t look down.

  And the Princess understood that as well.

  She focused all of her body strength into keeping her gaze on the Commander’s face. She even stopped blinking to make sure that no effort is being wasted on anything but the task at hand.

  Do not look down.

  Do not look down.

  Do not…

  She looked down.

  The moment her eyes dropped it was over. The sight before her made her paralyzed, unable to move away. It also made her discover a whole world of things about herself, but that was something The Princess wouldn’t be eager to share for a long time…

  "Would Your Highness be so kind and stop staring?" Valeria’s voice could freeze a volcano.

  Of course! I’m deeply sorry about my complete ck of manners and such uncultured behavior. Please forgive my impertinence, Valeria. Is what Oriana wanted to say. What actually came out of her mouth, was… well.

  "I… yes… I’m just… I… woah…"

  The Commander had enough.

  In one swift move, she pulled Oriana’s wrist and turned her around in the spot, after which she hastily began putting back on her clothes, leaving the Princess to contempte her behavior in silence.

  Being forced to look away, Her Highness was also able resume her thought processes undisrupted again.

  That had its good and bad side.

  Good, because she was finally able to think clearly and comprehend what she did.

  And bad, because she was finally able to think clearly and comprehend what she did.

  Met with the full weight of her outrageous behavior, Oriana slumped by the wall, praying to every single one of the Ten Gods to make the ground open and swallow her whole. When that didn’t help, she simply began to recite meditation scripts.

  "I am a graceful lotus flower on a perfectly calm waters of the ke…"

  "Since you seem to be in a more coherent state, Ms Graceful Lotus, can you tell me now what got you so scared?" Valeria asked once she got fully dressed.

  When Oriana turned around, she noticed that the Commander was almost back to her usual indifferent state.

  Almost, because her shirt was buttoned up just slightly bit lower than normally and there was a faint trace of pink around her cheeks and ears.

  If she didn’t know better, Oriana would assume that the experience made an impression on Valeria as much as it did on her!

  Nevertheless, with the distractions gone, and the Princess being reminded of the horrifying experience in the kitchen, it was like a switch being flipped.

  Tears welled up in her eyes and her lips quivered as she spoke.

  "There’s a ghost in the pantry."

  "…A ghost?"

  "Yes."

  "In the pantry?"

  "Yes!"

  Valeria studied her closely, before giving a sigh of relief mixed with resignation.

  "I’ll go check it out."

  Oriana was fully expecting a lecture on how ghosts didn’t exist and how she was being unreasonable, so hearing her answer took her aback.

  We live in a world where people can shape-shift into animals and gods can walk among mortals. Are ghosts really that far off?

  A shiver shook Oriana, making her realize that she didn’t necessarily want to know the answer to this question…

  "Wait!" she grabbed Valeria’s arm. "What if it’s dangerous? What if it can eat us whole in one bite?!"

  The Commander turned to look at Oriana. A suspicious smirk curved her lips. Her eyes pulsed with a shine.

  "It’s fine," she smiled, showing sharp, not-quite-human, fangs. "I can bite too."

  DannyTheDaikon