A beautiful royal carriage, in shades of blue, swiftly crossed the forest.
Two tall and powerful immaculate white steeds pulled it, their hooves striking the ground and lifting bits of grass as they galloped at full speed.
Inside the carriage, King Harold and Queen Lillian peered through the gaps in the curtains with some anxiety.
The king looked at his wife, a little uneasy.
"Darling… this is very suspicious, shouldn't we turn back? What if it's a trap?" he asked, his expression nervous and wary.
The queen turned toward him with narrowed blue eyes—eyes that made her husband sweat.
"No, that letter is obviously from Fiona, and if she's in trouble, then we must go all the more!" she said with steel in her voice, which left her husband powerless, and he could only nod helplessly.
Sighing, he looked through the curtain's slit once more, feeling that they weren't far from the place where the meeting was arranged.
'At least it's fortunate that it's daytime and bright, which makes it easier to see the forest…' he tried to reassure himself, already beginning to regret a little not having brought guards along—aside from the one driving the carriage—to defend himself and his wife in case of an ambush.
While he was lost in thought, his gaze out the window suddenly caught sight of a small orange outline.
Narrowing his eyes to see more clearly, he realized it was in fact a cat dressed in swordsman's gear.
The carriage slowly decelerated and stopped a short distance from the orange figure. The king and queen stepped out, eyeing the feline cautiously.
The king, taking the lead, looked seriously at the animal, then at the surroundings, but saw no one else there.
His mouth tightened a little, and though he wasn't sure if the cat understood human speech, it seemed there was no other choice.
"Where is Fiona?" he demanded in a heavy voice.
But the scene that followed nearly made his eyes bulge.
The cat suddenly smiled and opened his arms in a gesture of warm, eager embrace.
"Mamá, papá, soy yo, Fiona! Don't you recognize your daughter anymore? The spell started failing, and now I transform by day into this handsome and charming male cat, the very one speaking to you now," he said with confidence and affection.
Lillian's jaw dropped, staring in shock and speechlessness at the scene.
Harold, for his part, froze, but then snapped out of it.
"No, impossible! It's one thing to turn into a cat… but where did the Spanish accent and being male come from? That clearly makes no sense at all!" he replied quickly, latching onto an important point.
The cat only laughed softly, while a gentle feminine voice came from the side.
"Mother, father, he's only teasing you. I'm here."
At the call of the voice, the two immediately turned, and saw a red-haired, graceful young woman, breathtakingly beautiful and with a gentle face, step out from behind a tree.
Some leaves drifted down from the tall treetops around her, falling gently, giving her an even more radiant and enchanting appearance as she stood amidst the forest's embrace.
But in the couple's eyes, what stood out the most wasn't her beauty—it was the uncanny resemblance to the little daughter who had never left their hearts, night and day.
This time the couple's eyes widened with surprise and joy.
"Fiona!" they called their daughter's name together.
Lillian was the first to react, and taking measured steps, she approached her daughter much faster than her royal bearing usually allowed.
Harold also quickened his pace to keep up with his wife, and soon, the three were locked in a tight embrace.
The queen gently placed her hand on Fiona's face, smiling softly as she looked at her and saw the years she had lost away from her daughter.
"You've grown so much…" she whispered, her heart torn between the happiness of seeing her daughter again and the sorrow of having lost so many years.
Fiona also smiled at seeing her parents after so long, tears staining her face and smile, though she did not sob or anything of the sort. She held herself strong as she conversed with her mother and answered her questions.
After the embrace, Harold took a step back, watching the two most important people to him talking—not like it was a reunion after years apart, but as though it had been only days since their farewell.
That was something he admired about his wife. She could suffer every day in the dark for their daughter, but when before others, she returned to being that strong, confident, and kind queen, who let no one hear her sobs of grief, nor her cries of sorrow.
And now, seeing his daughter's composure, it was clear to him that she had inherited that from her mother.
But he was not as strong as the two of them, and his guilty heart made him take another step back. His regrets toward his daughter had always been as heavy as a mountain, and sending his little seven-year-old girl away had always been a dagger twisting in his chest.
As a king, perhaps he was good, but as a father, he felt himself a disgrace and a failure.
The scene of Fiona, placed into a carriage, being comforted by himself before leaving, while she was sent away—that was not something that could simply be erased just because she had returned years later.
The contrast of seeing her—once a little girl disappearing from his sight on the streets of Far Far Away, and now grown—made him feel unworthy of her love, and guilt gnawed at him.
Unable to hold her gaze, he turned toward the cat he had seen earlier, and now saw him sitting on the shoulder of a beautiful blonde young woman, with dragon wings, dressed in a gown of red dragon scales, and a crown on her head, who had appeared out of nowhere.
'A princess? But what princess is this?' he wondered, confused, not recalling ever hearing about such a unique princess. 'And how many more people are hiding behind those trees?' That doubt also arose.
The blonde princess at that moment was rubbing her nose against Puss's belly affectionately, but the cat had a strange expression, placing his paw on her forehead and stopping her actions, leaving her puzzled.
"Err… it's better not to rub your face there, Aurora, or else you might awaken something you won't like…" he said helplessly. Seeing the girl's face flush, as if she understood what he was referring to, Puss couldn't help but roll his eyes in amusement. "Ahem… well, knowing you, you might actually like it," he teased, whispering those words in her ear, making her blush even more fiercely.
Harold looked speechless at the cat flirting with the dragon girl, and immediately turned his gaze away from the strange, youthful scene, back to his family.
His wife and daughter still seemed to have much to say, but recalling the letter's contents, he could only interrupt.
"Lilian, Fiona, I hate to interrupt the reunion, but what did you mean about danger in your letter?" he asked awkwardly, in the midst of seriousness.
Fiona paused and turned her gaze to her father, her eyes complicated.
"Well… it's like this…"
…
Later, under Fiona's explanation, everything was revealed—from being rescued by Puss, to Aurora's origins and her return to human form, and finally, the strong suspicion that the fairy godmother was the witch who cursed her. Everything, except for one single thing.
Harold wore a dark, stormy face when he heard about the possible culprit, and the reasons for suspicion. If not for Fiona stopping him, he might have gone back right away to gather the royal guard and arrest the woman on the spot.
But at Fiona's request, he calmed down and decided to follow the plan she had already devised with Puss.
As for Puss being the one who had rescued Fiona, he had complex feelings in his heart. After all, he had expected a knight to break her curse, and the cat had ruined that—but at the same time, he was the one who saved his daughter from being locked in that tower for many more years. He was indebted to him for that.
Who knew how long Charming would take to grow up and fulfill the agreement made with the fairy godmother that guaranteed Fiona's rescue and the breaking of the curse? And now that he knew it was all the fairy godmother's own scheme, he couldn't be more grateful to the cat.
And of course, his self-blame grew again, and he wondered how he could have been so blind.
Meanwhile, Lilian didn't have such complicated thoughts.
For the fairy godmother, she had anger and fury; for Puss, gratitude and affection—and she was completely in favor of him and Fiona being together, if that was what they wanted.
As for her opinion of Aurora, she also felt affection for that ancestor of hers, even though she had previously been the dragon imprisoning her daughter. But that wasn't her fault. The queen even intended to care for the poor girl as if she were her own daughter, even though Aurora was a few hundred years older than her.
Thus, the conversation lasted for several hours, with some plans being made.
At last, Fiona and Aurora boarded the carriage with the king and queen, and they departed to return to the royal castle.
Puss and Tornado stayed behind, watching the carriage leave with thoughtful eyes.
'Fiona didn't want to touch on the subject of her father being a frog. She must have seen the guilt he felt, and knowing that his daughter turned into an ogre because her father was a frog would only make things worse. She probably kept silent to protect her poor old father's heart.'
He thought, a complex expression in his eyes.
When he could no longer see the carriage, he opened a map in his hand and looked at one particular place.
Tracing the name with a claw, the words written in black in beautiful calligraphy read:
[Fairy Godmother's Potion Factory]
Puss raised his head and smiled at Tornado beside him. Sensing the look, the horse turned to face him, tilting his head in confusion.
"Come on, mi amigo. Time to steal some things, like the old days… and have a chat with a certain fairy who's been a very bad girl."
He spoke, a playful gleam sparkling in his green eyes, as he leapt into Tornado's saddle.
Puss in Boots was ready for some action.