our guest,” the King said the moment we stepped inside, and I couldn't help but smile, seeing now the way his sister beamed at him. I was just happy that she had at least one person in her life that made her feel good about herself, even though I could still feel a slight wave of doubt coming from her. It was as if she believed his compliment was only said because he loved her and wanted to make her feel good, not because it was actually true. It was in this moment that I couldn't help but grab her hand and hold it out to put her on display and say,
“I totally agree, in fact I don't think I've ever met a girl so beautiful in all my life!” After I declared this the King granted me a soft and grateful look, as if my words had touched him as deeply as they had touched his sister, someone who was now looking astonished by my admission. Then she quickly announced with that runaway mouth of hers,
“I wish you could marry her, brother, she's so lovely and other than you, the only other person that's kind to me here.” At this my heart broke for her.
“I agree with you, she is most certainly lovely, but as you know it doesn't work like that, my dear sister. Besides, she has her own King.” At this a whirl of raspberry hair blurred as she whipped her head around quickly to look at me, now astonished.
“You do? Well, you never said.” I tried not to laugh.
“We have had more of a conversation about the piss pot, so I didn't really get chance,” I replied winking at her.
“I'm starting to see now why you two get along so well,” the King said clearly amused.
“Well, whoever this king is, I hope he's nice to you, oh is he the one that doesn't mind your…”
“Runaway mouth?” I finished for her.
“Yeah, that.” She blushed, making the pink freckles on her face deepen in colour.
“He's the one.” At this she gave me a dreamy look and then turned to her brother and said,
“Then we must help her get back to her one.” I grinned and looked back at the King in a judging way, as it was clear he hadn’t told his sister everything about the reasons we were here. He cleared his throat after a moment of having me making him feel uncomfortable, then he said,
“And that we will, sister. Now, I hate to dampen your happy mood, but mother is looking for you.” At this she groaned, rolled her eyes and let her head fall back, before she turned to me and said,
“Do you have a horrible mother?” I laughed as her brother scolded,
“Alvena!”
“No, I don't, I'm sorry, my mother is… well, she's wonderful,” I told her feeling the pinch in my heart and tears pricked my eyes at the thought of how worried she must be. How worried they both must be! It made me think of how badly I’d treated my mother believing what her and Lucius had done. It was in that moment that I'd never wanted to hug my mother so much in all my life and how grateful I felt to her for giving me all of those wonderful memories of what a real mother should be like.
She never made me feel downtrodden or inferior and she always had my back whenever I argued with my father about being human and allowing me some freedom. She never once made me feel less of who I was just because I was different than everyone else around me. No, if anything she made me feel like the most special person in the world and I know that if I hadn't had my mother growing up, then I would have felt even more alone than I was. Because she had lived her life as a human, she knew what I was going through and how important certain things were to me. Simply put, she was the best mother I could have ever hoped for and now I missed her so badly my heart ached.
“Well, I guess this is my cue to leave, either that, or my brother has a crook in his neck… or he will if he keeps trying to motion for me to leave… which I get now that he didn't actually want me to actually say that out loud, instead just leaving quietly without bringing attention to it…okay, well I'm going