At dawn the princes were beside themselves when they discovered that the princesses had gone missing. Their custom of delivering breakfast to the princes is what raised the suspicion as they did not show up that morning.

The princes tried to conjure up a plan on how they would retrieve the princesses from wherever they had been taken without letting the king know. They did not know where to start. A long time passed and nothing came to mind. Whoever had taken the princesses had been careful enough to leave no clues behind. There were signs of struggle but not much was given away. They agreed on the thought that telling the king would mean cowardice and negligence on their part. So, they said nothing to the king until Violet said something.

"He is their father. He needs to know about this. He has to. We can only hide it so far." Violet reasoned. His voice rang through the hall in which they sat breaking the stilly silence that had taken over.

"Oh, come on! We agreed not to bring the old man into this." Yellow tried to argue.

"But he is their father." Violet stubbornly said again.

"You already said that." Silver replied quite agitated. What were they going to do?

"I did. So, are we going to tell him?"

"I don't know."

"If you are not ready for this, I am. I will go for you."

"Violet, can we not be divided at this point?" Brown spoke.

"We are not. I am trying to do what all of us are running away from even after understanding its inevitability."

They turned to Violet and he shrugged off their shocked expressions. Having given the idea deep thought, it was agreed upon unanimously that they were going to tell the king about his daughters going missing. Ego aside, the princesses' lives could be in danger. They doubted if this was another game because all of them could not have disappeared at once.

Brown was to speak for the lot.

~*~

Pink-White was sitting on a golden chair close to a medium sized shelf. He was staring thoughtfully at the portrait on top of it. It was of his Evalene. He smiled to himself. Times like this when he was not giving commands or talking to his subjects, he spent them with her through photographs. Bittersweet memories. It was understandable that now when his daughters were about to leave him behind, he needed something to hold onto.

Only memories of his late wife, gave him strength. He was not the selfish kind. His daughters' livelihood came before anything else. When the princes approached him as regards marrying his daughters, the mixture of melancholy and exhilaration could not be helped.

"I'll be all alone Evalene. I miss you. All I have is these photographs."

In the portrait he was staring at, Evalene had her hair down and was wearing a white gown with loose strings that accentuated her neck bones. He recalled coercing her into having this portrait drawn on that particular day. The ailment was at its deepest during that time. She could barely walk, let alone swallow food.

She had woken up tired but beautiful nonetheless. Tired, because the illness had finally showed up and was claiming her life at a terrifying speed. He reserved these last moments by having lots of her portraits drawn. When called in, the palace artist wore a wearied expression the entire period of his activity. He had tried reasoning with the king but he would not relent.

The artist gave in because any living being would understand Pink-White's plight. The deep sorrow that came with watching your most cherished friend die was something that could never be compensated by another form of pain. It was on its own octave of torture.

The queen's cheeks were pale, the same went for her chirped lips. She had reluctantly agreed to sit on her bed idly to have it drawn. She liked being busy. Any time that found her alone and quiet, tormented her mind. During the times that she was ill, the hardest instruction to follow unlike all patients, was to rest. Even when her legs had lost strength, she asked her servant girls for thread and knitting needles. She would knit while sitting on her bed with a light dirty green blanket covering her bony knees.

Pity was her least favorite concept. Each time Pink-White walked into the room he would recall this and try his level best to smile. Laughing through pain. Pain. Laughter. Laughing pain? Oxymoronic but life had given them no choice. Blame the moronic curse and its witches. One of the reasons he had fallen in love with Evalene, was her resilience.

She refused to give up even after understanding that marrying into a family of immortals when as a mere mortal is what caused her quick death—as punishment for mixing blood that should not be combined—she did not pass blame. Evalene took it on as a warrior. Pink-White's heart broke.

His mind was still meandering when he heard fast heavy footfalls. There you are. He thought. He had been waiting for them.

"Your majesty-" Brown spoke and was cut off by the king.

"Ah, there you are. I was wondering when you would show up."

The princes stared at him in confusion, then at themselves.

"Your majesty, we come with urgent saddening news." Brown added quickly despite not understanding the king's reaction to their appearance. He had been waiting for us? Why?

"Speak up my boy! We have no time to waste." He seemed relaxed as he interrupted Brown's turbulent thoughts. He did not stand up from where he sat by shelf.

"It-it's-uh-about your daughters, your majesty." Brown's response broke, suddenly he was nervous.

"What about them? Come on, speak up, do not stutter. I already told you, we do not have time to waste."

"Your majesty, they have gone missing. We-are-sorry it was – " The last sentence came out rushed. He did not get to complete it because the king interrupted. Again.

"Stop right there!" The king bellowed.

"But your ma--"

"I said stop right there!"

"You-"

"Stop already boy!" Pink-White spoke with finality this time which signaled to Brown that if he dared to speak again, there would be consequences. Terrible consequences.

Pink-White felt the anxiety that filled the room. He looked over his shoulder to check the look on their faces then without raising an inch from where he was sitting, he looked at his late wife's picture and asked them.

"Isn't she beautiful? Sometimes I wish she had not left me so soon. We would have enjoyed such moments together," he breathed out leisurely while gazing at Evalene. His quick changes in personality were something the princes could not keep up with.

"Your majesty," intruded another voice that sounded angry. It was Yellow. "It is a matter of life and death." Remembering whom he was addressing, he quickly apologized and fell silent.

The king's failure to react fast angered him to his last nerve, he matched out angrily, slamming the door on his way out.

Yellow's reaction surprised the rest but it did not serve to annoy them either. They were on the verge of doing so themselves. As their eyes followed him out, they turned to see the scene unfold before them.

"Let him go. In fact, join him. Do not worry yourselves too much. Go and relax. Eat some bread. I love bread, don't you?"

"But your majesty," Brown pleaded.

"I said get out of here," the king's serious tone at this point shocked them out of his sight.

Fate was playing a dirty trick on them and they hated it so far.

~*~

As the knights dragged the princesses, they came to a stop, a door opened of its own volition. Therein were more doors. It was morning outside of this room, no not room, cove. They were sure of it but the ambience let off by it depicted a never-ending serene dusk. Water lillies swayed on top of the lush green baby pond at the center of it. Bubbles popped at the top of the water surface breaking it in tune to drippy purple trinkets that sat in the corners of the scintillating and alluring cave.

If it was a home, whoever lived there was in an everlasting bliss. The trinkets shone from the pointy sun rays that snuck through the jagged cracks of the rocky walls laid as the roof.

In sync, their captors, let the princesses go. As they lay down for the night the previous day, their captors had rid them of the gags and ropes that held them captive. Waking up this morning, they could have sworn it was a likely possibility that they were letting them go. It was not so.

Despite, being free of barriers, their captors were strong enough to bind them in tight holds on their shoulders. It had all led to this place. Where were they? And what was this place?

"The silent cove." Shinja let out on a whisper, providing an answer to many of the like thoughts running wild in her sisters' minds.

"What was that?" Queried one of her sisters.

"The silent cove, grandma used to tell me about this place."

"Oh wow!" Her sisters uttered together.

"It's beautiful."

"Tell me about it. Well, we will not bask in its silence by gawping out here like hungry lizards. Let's get in." Shimi spoke and the sisters laughed at that.

But why here? Shinja thought to herself. Who could ha—she halted that thought...One person came to mind but she waited for the right moment when this would be revealed to them. For now, she was going to enjoy or bask in its silence like Shimi had put it.

The door being ajar, revealed a dizzying aroma of roses and daffodils. They yearned to embrace it. Their lips dropped open and a 'wow' was heard from each of them at different intervals, they shook free from their captors whose grip had loosened. They too were enthralled by the sight before them.

Most importantly, their mission was next to complete. Holding the princesses captive had been a lot of trouble. None of them could keep still, not until they escaped into the arms of Morpheus. That was the only time, their captors had got it easy.

What was this place? The Silent Cove.

They continued deep inside the cove ready to explore its other room till they came by a door. Shinka pushed it open. Inside of it, the room had colorful curtains which were shaken by the wind causing the golden trinkets on their purple edges to shimmer in the rays of hazy yellow sun piercing through the tiny ventilators. Five hot baths were steaming teasingly accented with flowers in each corner of the pentagonal room.

Pictures from when they were little girls were strewn everywhere on the walls. It then dawned on them that this must have been their father's doing.

Father? Shinja thought.

Next thing they knew, servant girls were coming out of every corner. Where had the doors come from? Are those curtains? Those were not there before now. Amazing.

The servant girls that cherished them with massages were as beautiful as a peacock and as silent as a graveyard. The princesses were fed on unique food, that left their hearts churning and yearning for more every minute. Their hair was dressed in different styles, pony tails, braided, and many others. They washed in exotic herbs that left their skins glowing. Flawless.

"Who ordered for our awesome kidnap?" giggling Shimpi with a mouthful of berries, asked to be sure it was their father who had ordered this. No one else could have thought of this so well in perfect precision. Only Shimpi would call a kidnap awesome.

"It was his majesty, the king of Green kingdom, Pink-White."

"Oh my God! Father! You know what take away my first reaction. I am not surprised at all. Father can be so sneaky sometimes." Shimpi spoke elatedly.

"That you are right about sister mine." Shinka agreed. They all fell silent after being assured that it was their father, then burst into laughter almost immediately.

"Tell me this Bolton, what was my father thinking?" Shimi asked.

"I cannot tell you that your highness. We were just following orders."

"And you," Shinka signaled to the other guard whom her sister had nearly ruined his chances of ever having children of his own.

"Cletus, milady."

"Yes, Cletus. Are you alright? What do you have to say of this matter?"

"Nothing milady. I am perfectly alright. Thank you."

"You could have revealed yourselves to us. You know? It would not be so bad. But now look what you made my sister do." Cletus remained silent. Bolton spoke in his place.

"There is certainly nothing to worry about milady. We were just following orders. Now, if you'll excuse, we would like to let you enjoy your exquisite pre-wedding pampering."

"Pampering you say?" Shinka queried, doing some giggling of her own.

"Yes, milady." Bolton answered and turned to leave.

"He is an odd sort that one." Shimi spoke once Bolton and Cletus were out of earshot.

"Which one sister? Both of them look pretty odd to me." Shinka asked, her eyes glued to the backs of the exiting guards.

"Bolton." One word spoken by one of the sisters, Shinka could not tell who it was exactly but it shook her to the core. Bolton.

How had they not recognized them? It must have been the masks they had over their faces and lack of Green kingdom armory. They had worn black cloaks as it had come to her realization this morning. Being sleep-addled should not be flippantly excluded from that list.

Bolton watched from a distance thinking to himself if it had not been the king who had sent him on this mission, he would have beaten the fire crackers out of princess Shimi because of what she had done earlier. Jen. The name came to his mind like a whisper.

Why had he not thought about how big this opportunity would have been for the two of them?

"I will not jeopardize her trust in me by telling her about a missed opportunity. Besides, the king had been so random when making this happen. She already doubts my wit. This would sum it up nicely. I still need her for this to work right. She will lead the way."

"What was that?"

"Nothing Cletus. Let us get those horses ready. We'll be out of here in no time."

~*~

The sun sloped home on the other side of the horizon, away from the quiet cove with unfazed princesses, away from the dazzling purple trinkets. Away from all that were the gloomy princes who returned to the castle with nothing to show for their vain search but flaring nostrils. They stormed into the Green castle with the intention to blow and reason. How the two worked together, this moment was when to tell how possible it was.

Blowing and Reason? Odd. They went in to meet with Pink-White. The second meeting with him that day. The first encounter had been fruitless like knocking sense into a doorknob. Senseless.

Seeing the army of raging but controlled princes, Pink-White smiled. He was quite impressed by how well they were handling the matter. Quite impressed.

"We are all thinking that you are right. We should relax and wait for what the guards will tell us on their return from the search. Since the wedding day is tomorrow, you will not hesitate in fighting anyone for them. Will you, your majesty?" Silver spoke on behalf of the others with a controlled tone.

It nearly spiked a bit with the last question part of his statement but he fought to hide it well.

Pink-White grinned and went on humming his tune of 'love never ends'. The same tune from when Silver and Shinja were in the Secret Garden. It was a magical bird song. Men learnt it if they paid close attention. Women only marveled and enchanted by it, be it from the birds or the men.

"Your majesty please. At least, do tell us this one thing. We shall be out of your hair once and for all. Are all the wedding preparations ready, your majesty?" Violet asked.

Still in the rhythm of his humming, the king answered, "See for yourselves, my loyal princes. See for yourselves." He repeated abruptly and looked away hiding his jolly expression.

The princes were tired of the king's weird and unsatisfying answers. Yellow was seething so he bothered not to speak. He did not trust himself one bit. They had no way of getting the king to talk so they asked one of the servants.

Robinson Quad, was his name, he was twenty-six years. He had grown up in the castle and knew every corner of it. Silver trusted that he would provide them with reliable information. Quad served as his footman ever since he stepped foot in the Green kingdom. They had a mutual relationship he liked to believed.

Having found him after no-so-long a search, Quad without a word led them to a secluded part of the castle. While there they realized that everything was ready. More ready than the king had clued in. Their astonished gazes met with each other. It gave them hope of seeing the princesses soon. They never doubted the king again.

"I think we have ourselves the answer my good men!" Violet exclaimed.

"Yes indeed." Yellow spoke for the first time. "This has to mean something. It better does."

~*~

A/N: 

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Quick question: Which of these 3 are you? A;
1. Silverian?
2. Shinjanian?
3. Or a Shiver?