Once upon a stormy, dark winter night, Aric was born to Nicolas Barton, the emperor and king of Lavanselia. Tragedy struck as his mother passed away during childbirth. The devastated king fell into despair, leaving Aric in the care of his confidant maid Lusi. Little did they know, Aric’s evil uncle Joseph Spellsman had sinister plans to seize power.

On Aric’s first birthday, Joseph plotted to kill the king and Aric by having a chandelier drop over them while they would be cutting cake. Joseph would then be crowned king of Lavanselia. To make sure no one would suspect them of murder and instead think of it as an accident, he planned to do this in front of the whole kingdom.

Lusi discovered their wicked scheme but couldn’t warn the king in time. But because she was a sincere maid who had been in service at the palace from her childhood, she decided to take risk of exchanging her son with Prince Aric, so if there’d be any tragedy, Prince Aric must not face it; therefore, she dressed her son in a fancy costume which covered part of his face too.

She decided to tell the king about Joseph’s wicked plan when she’ll be giving the prince to him, but destiny had different plans. One of the guards came and took the supposed prince from her hands and gave it to the king to initiate the cake cutting ceremony. She tried her best to reach the king, but she was stopped.

Just then, she saw the chandelier falling. She screamed but it was too late. She lost her son in saving the life of the little prince. The king and her son succumbed to the injuries and died.

Unaware that Aric was not the prince, Joseph took control of the kingdom, while Lusi, grief-stricken, raised Aric in secrecy.

Lusi made the decision to wait until Aric turned 16 before telling him the truth. Joseph didn’t suspect anything and took over the reins of the kingdom. Time passed, and all the while Lusi continued to work at the palace. She often brought Aric with her so that he would be familiar with what belonged to him and not to his uncle.

As Aric grew older, he developed a love for reading and a passion for learning. He would sneak into the palace library and read books there. One day, as Aric was browsing through the shelves in the library, he discovered a dust-covered book that had words engraved in gold on the cover page that he could not understand, and there was a green stone in the middle.

The book fascinated Aric. He tried to decipher the meaning behind the words, but it seemed like gibberish. It didn’t make sense, and when he tried to open the book, it felt as though it was locked by a spell or something. He visited the library every day and tried hard to decipher the meaning of the words on the book cover, but he failed every time.

Finally, he decided to sneak the book home with him. On the way to his home, he saw an old man was about to fall down from his house’s stairs, so Aric rushed to save him. The old man was grateful and thanked the boy.

When Aric got home, he saw that one of the words on the book’s cover had begun to shine. The word was ‘Astrantia,’ representing bravery and courage. Startled, Aric remembered what he did with the old man was an act of bravery and courage and then he thought maybe all the words on the book cover were names of flowers symbolising virtues that must be attained to open the book.

The next day, he saw another word, ‘Rudbeckia hirta’ which represented justice, glowed when Aric defended a stranger over his friend. Aric discovered that the last word needed to open the book was ‘Water lily,’ symbolising rebirth. He couldn’t fathom how to attain that.

Since it was his birthday week, he reasoned that he would figure it out after turning 16 years. So when his birthday, came, Lusi decided to tell him all the truth. She called Aric and told him the tragic past and the truth about his identity, Prince Aric Barton of Lavanselia.

Aric was dumbstruck. He was lost in his thoughts when he saw a glow appearing on his table. He went near and saw that the mysterious words on the book were glowing, creating a pattern connecting the glowing words to a green gem. He unintentionally, traced the pattern with his finger, and suddenly, some smoke appeared and Aric was transported to Flowerfield — a magical world of vibrant flowers.

He was mesmerised by the colours and beauty of the Flowerfield. Then he saw a real fairy sitting on a tulip. She introduced herself as Pitilia, the pink tulip fairy.

“You must have passed through a portal from your world to Flowerfield — our magical world of flowers. The last human to visit our land was King Radolf Barton, decades ago. Our King Frederick gave him the magic book that you must be having in your possession.” Pitilia explained.

“Oh, he was my grandfather,” Aric replied.

Pitilia continued, “King Radolf was friends with our King Frederick, but after Radolf’s death, King Frederick felt alone and befriended Faustaus, who plotted against him and imprisoned him in the most potent magical dungeon, from which there is no escape. Ever since, Faustaus has brutally ruled Flowerfield. As Faustaus is not a member of the royal family, he is using dark tactics to gain power, causing the fairies to lose their magic and get weaken.”

Aric decided to help the fairies and free their king, so he asked, “How can we defeat Faustaus?”

Pitilia explained, “Faustaus obtains most of his magic from the black tulips that grow in a cave, where he has also kept King Frederick. No fairy can enter the cave because passing through its tunnel burns their wings. Two of the most powerful beasts guard the entrance.

“If you really want to help, we, the fairies will guide you. So when you reach the entrance of cave, we will distract the beasts, you must sneak into the cave immediately and destroy the flowers.”

Their plan worked, and Aric was able to sneak in and destroy the black tulip flowers in time. As soon as the flowers were destroyed, Faustaus’ power vanished and he fell down and died. King Frederick was immediately freed. He was very happy, so he granted Aric one wish as a token of gratitude and bestowed him with the power that would allow him the freedom to visit Flowerfield whenever he pleased. Aric wished that his evil uncle be exposed in front of the whole kingdom and held accountable for his actions.

Thus when Aric returned to his world, everything was changed. Joseph had been imprisoned after being found guilty of killing the king and everyone hailed Aric as their rightful king.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 27th, 2023