Hi guys, I actually have a copy of this deleted story by MissAly_, at ngayon ko lang ishi-share. Matagal ko nang gini-gatekeep to. 😅
DANIEL PADILLA x LIZA SOBERANO
"i never wanted to be a queen, elias. i never wanted to be a luna.
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Daniel Padilla as Elias Monteverde
Liza Soberano as Aylin of Lykaos
Arjo Atayde as Azriel Monteverde
Sue Ramirez as Lady Cleo of House Velgar
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Beside her house were the Tikaani Woods – the woods where children were warned never to enter, the woods where monsters of all sorts lurked. Where faeries danced in the mist, waiting to charm their next mortal. Where witches would have one wish their innermost desire for a price too great. Where the juice of apples was the sweetest of poisons. Where darkest magic tainted the darkest of souls. Where snow fell even in the warmest of summers. Where the wolves – the creatures who rule over her home – hunted their prey.
The night breeze blew cold against her skin. She often stared out the window, particularly on days when sleep was out of reach. Sometimes, she wondered what it would be like beyond the towering trees. If the other kingdoms hid behind them. If magical things really did happen in those woods. If the stories were true.
But maybe she would soon find out when she heard the ruffling of footsteps, the quiet movement against the wind, the careful hurried run of a shadow against the night darkness, under the moonlight.
Excitement and curiosity bubbled in her stomach. That was the night little Aylin – but a child of only ten years – crept silently out through the window of their small cottage to follow one little boy – right into the heart of the woods.
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"Why're you crying?" She asks, looming over him. The boy is crouched up against a tree trunk. He knew she was following him but after a while thought she'd run off eventually.
When the boy looks up, her curiosity piques. Her eyes grow wide.
She knew who he was. He was the boy who always carried around a silver dagger beside him. He was the boy she'd thought rather handsome, especially when he smiled. He was the boy that would stand beside their monarch.
"Mama," she had asked, tugging at her mother's cloak, "will he be king one day?" She pointed to the boy with shadow-tinted hair, amber coloured eyes, standing on the podium beside the Queen. He was littler than the other boy, and far gentler looking. The other boy was taller, and oddly enough watching her with ebony tinted eyes.
"No, my darling," her mother replied, smiling sadly at her, "he will never be king."
Is that why he is crying? She wonders. He will never be king because he was the youngest prince, the one with no claim to the throne. Her mother had told her that she was far too young to understand, but one day she would.
She hardly thought that fair though, so she bends, her dress grazing against the moss-covered ground to level her gaze with his. The wind blows. It is quite chilly, so she rubs her palms against her folded arms.
The boy still looks at her wide-eyed, tears rimming his eyes and staining his cheeks. Tentatively, she reaches for the stray locks of his hair and pushes it back behind his ear, just so she could see his face fully.
"There, there," she smiles, her voice sweet and soft, almost like a lullaby, "you should not cry, Your Highness."
He furrows his eyebrows, his eyes crinkling, "You know who I am?"
"You're the youngest prince," she quips, "Your name is Elias."
"No one calls me that except my mother, my father and my brother. Everyone else calls me Prince Elias. But," he considers for a moment, but she seems harmless, "but you can call me Elias."
She sits beside him and he scoots to make room. She thanks him with a small nod. They in silence for a moment, both staring out into the dark distance. Something shifts and she jolts in surprise. The Prince turns his head to her and he lets out a breath.
"Why did you follow me, if you are so easily frightened by the slightest movement?" He says, "And it's dangerous in the woods."
She shrugs, and then frowns looking to him, "Then why are you here?"
"Because my father is scary when he is angered," Elias snaps his head up to face the sky, clear with scattered stars.
"I should think the woods are scarier than the King's anger."
"Believe me," Elias sighs, "My father's anger is much more terrifying than the darkest of the Tikaani woods."
"Why would he be angered so?"
"My brother and I disobeyed his orders."
"Oh," she says, and quiet shadows them. Elias gaze falls back to the peculiar girl sitting beside him. She is pretty – beautiful, more so. He looks to sky once more, finding what he searches for and snaps his gaze back at to her.
Yes, he wonders. She's not pretty as the noble girls – those girls, his companions, are like stars. But this girl, odd as she is, is like the moon, with her bright smile, her curious grey eyes. She is ones against the many of his friends.
Stars are many, his mother had told him, but the moon is only one – the greatest beauty of the night.
The girl hums a familiar tune, before her face lights up as she remembers something. She reaches into her pocket and pulls the sweetest red apple. She had nicked it from a tree while following him. She smiled to herself proudly, wiping it on her dress.
His eyes widen immensely in fear. Before she can take a bite, he hastily shoves it from her grasp. The apple rolls several feet from them, and she's quick to snap a look of irritation at him.
"Have your mother and father never told you? Have you not heard the rhyme? Never you eat from a Tikaani tree, lest I bid farewell to thee. Look," He recites, as he points to the blackening fruit, "it's been laced with poison. You would be dead, had you sunk your teeth into it."
A sickly feeling in her stomach at the suddenly blackening apple flesh, rotting away.
"Who would do such a thing?"
"Those outside Lykaos," he answers coldly, "those who want its people dead. Witches. Pagans. Outcasts. Don't ever come into the woods by yourself. You'll die if you do. These woods are dangerous."
"So, if ever I want to run from my father's wrath as well, I mustn't run into the woods alone?" She asks.
"Then where am I to run?"
"You may run into the woods. With me."
Confusion clouds his young face. He did not know this girl, but the peculiar, instinctual need to protect her crawls through his veins, that if he tries to resist it or even think against it, it would hurt.
"And how am I to inform you when I want to do that?" She asks.
"I don't know...yet," he shrugs, "but I will find a way."
"Why must you carry your dagger with you at all times?"
At the sudden change of subject, he frowns and sneaks a peek at his dagger, slotted by his waist, "My father says I am not yet strong enough to wield a sword. This is my mother's dagger, the one I train with."
She begins to nod when the piercing howls of wolves growl against the wind. She tenses immediately, scooting closer to The Prince. She wonders why he shows no fear.
"Don't be afraid," he says, pushing himself up before he holds his hand out. She reaches it for it instantly, and he pulls her to her feet. She is still terrified and he smiles, albeit sadly, to assure her, "It's just the palace Knight's. That is the search howl. They're searching for someone."
"Who?" She asks but she already knows the answer.
"Me. I ahould go back. Come on." He tugs at her hand, his hand wrapping around the small of hers, as they run back to her cottage.
"I still don't know your name," he breathes, when they arrive at her cottage front.
"Aylin," she smiles, letting go of his hand to sneak pass the gates, making sure not to step on their strawberries, "Aylin of Lykoas."
"It's pretty." He says, and she promptly blushes, her already pink cheeks from the run back turning a shade darker.
"May I visit one day? For strawberries?"
She nods, excitement bubbling in her stomach for their next meeting.
"Til then, Your Highness," she curtsies.
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and that's it. hanggang dito lang yung chapter, then after not updating for a long time, she unpublish this story.
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