I sat in my father's office for a little while longer. As I closed my eyes, I relieved countless visits with my father in his office.

~ Maria's Memories~

"Father?" I asked as I peered through the door.

"Mhm?" He said as he was busy writing down in one of his many books. "What is Maria?" He asked me as he placed his quill back in its holder, removed his glasses, and focused his attention on me.

"I was wondering if you would join me for an afternoon stroll around the kingdom," I asked him as I walked into his dimly lit office.

He smiled, "I have time; let your guard know so we can depart soon." He said as he got up from his chair and pushed it in. The way he looked at me as he waited for me to lead him out of the room, he glinted in his eye, like he sensed something was off. But not in a bad way, in a good way. He had one of those smiles on his face that spoke of pride.

"What is it, father?" I asked him as I finally brought my attention back to his office. My conversation with Theo lasted a bit longer than it needed to.

"He'll be waiting at the castle door, won't he?" He asked me with a curious look on his face.

"Yes. How did you know?" But then again, how could he not know, with those damn visions of his. Part of me wondered what he saw. And part of me dared to even think about all the events he could have witnessed. Father always said his abilities were a curse and a blessing.

"It was a guess. Shall we get going?" He said as he moved past me and out of his office. The lights flicked off as I exited, and the door shut itself.

As he predicted, we met Theo by the front door waiting for us. The day was beautiful. There was no cloud in the sky, and it was a warm temperature, as it was just the start of spring. It was truly a gorgeous day for a walk.

~Present~

This was one of the last few conversations I had with my father and thinking back on it made my heart ach. The hurt didn’t last long as the ring absorbed most of the emotion.

Once back in my room I slipped off my black dress and slipped on Theo’s shirt and curled up in bed.

What time are we meeting tonight for our date?

I questioned him as we had not discussed the details of our date.

Eight, I have a table and room reserved for us. What you wear doesn’t matter as we will be in a cloak of magical disguises.

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Another disguised date?

Yes, I have the spell ready. So, think of your disguise ahead of time and have it in mind.

The disguises helped us blend into our surroundings and allowed us to have a somewhat normal evening. We did this at least once a month where we would go to a tavern in a disguise and enjoy dinner.

The disguise spell also allowed me to experience what creatures like Theo experienced, since they could change their form if they wanted to. The spell was less extreme than those creatures that shifted. All the spell did was cloak our bodies, showing a different form on the outside but we remained our true selves underneath the magic.

A few of my own personal favorite disguises was that of a shorter, plunky blonde with blue eyes and freckled skin. Another one was a vibrant red headed, with dark skin and brown colored eyes, this disguise had me around the same height as Theo.

For Theo he would appear human, jet black hair and black eyes, with a cuddle-like build. He was often shorter in this disguise. The other one that he sometimes used was where he appeared a foot taller, silver eyes, and blonde hair. His build with this one was roughly close to his current build.

We often paired both disguises. My plunky blonde with his cuddle-like build and my red-headed with his charming blonde look.

With our disguises meant a change of names. My redheaded look was named Sienna and my blonde haired disguise was named Elowen. Theo called himself Alexander for his black haired disguise and Arthur.

Let’s do Elowen and Arthur tonight.

Feeling feisty? Theo remarked as I often was a bit rough when I was Elowen.

Perhaps. You will just have to wait and see now won’t you?

I’ll take that as a yes.

I smiled, I knew he loved the red-headed look as much as I did.

I love you just the way you are Maria.

My face flushed red. There’s nothing better than the original is there?

You got that right.

I let the conversation fall silent so he could focus on his work. By this point it was around 11 in the morning. If we were meeting at 8 I had all day to get ready.

My initial look may not matter right away but for any fun afterwards it will. However, I didn’t want to start my process yet. So I decided to relax in my bed and take a brief nap.

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When I woke up from my nap it was in the middle of the afternoon. I had a two hour nap which meant I had six hours until my date. Instead of getting out of bed I just decided to rest against the comfiness of my mattress and enjoy the warm breeze that was slowly blowing through my window.

After four more hours of laying in bed, I was utterly bored. I was surprised with myself that I was able to stay in my room this long without bugging Theoden to peer through his vision or leave my room for a short time. Yeah, this was never going to happen again.

I started the process of getting ready even with two hours to spare. I took a warm bath to freshen up. Grabbed some lace undergarments and slipped them on once I was out of the tub and dried. I decided to wear a purple dress, Theoden’s favorite color on me, and slipped it on.

I ran my wire brush through my hair a few times and grabbed one of my hot rollers and curled my hair. My hair was naturally curly as it was but using the hot roller added to the curliness of my hair. If I knew one thing, I knew Theo loved my hair down and loved it curly.

An hour and a half had passed as I slipped on my belt and bag of holding. My heart raced in excitement as I was about to go on a date with the man I loved.