Discover L (Book 2) | Complete |

~ Minding Their Own Business ~

The queen remained silent during their exit from the palace, leading the way from the building without looking at them. Her guards flanked her, while L and the guys followed. L was still struggling to contain the emotions roiling inside of her. Relief, surprise, anger, confusion, each one vying to burst forth. Why did the Supernatural community think they could decide things for her? Was it her age? Was it because they thought she couldn't make her own choices? Or was it purely to keep her around for their own selfish reasons?

Whatever it was, it needed to stop, if she had to make a public announcement when she returned, she would. The idea of giving them all a piece of her mind was satisfying to imagine; she tried not to wonder if her parents would be standing beside her while she did it. She didn't want to get her hopes up, they had to actually get to Paguea and find them first- something nobody seemed to want to happen. L had faith that she'd get there though, it was everything else that troubled her.

The goldenseal was just another obstacle to overcome, there was a week at the Elf Kingdom to endure after that. L had a feeling Bryce's parents weren't going to make it easy for her, stalling and producing problems wherever possible. She needed to be ready to deal with whatever they threw at her.

They started to veer towards a scattering of trees set apart from everything else; the queen slowed her pace when they reached the first tree. To L's surprise, she dropped to her feet. L felt a different emotion upon seeing the queen walk ahead of them with her head bowed and wings low. She felt sympathy, knowing exactly what her race meant to the community, L did understand why they'd want to keep her safe. But it was still no excuse to try and make decisions for her.

L pushed aside her warring emotions and followed the queen into the circle of trees. The world outside was suddenly blocked out, L assumed it was on purpose, to keep whatever was in there away from prying eyes. She was proved right when they appeared in the centre to find a Fairy guarding a flower bed. L saw the small red buds of the goldenseal peaking out from behind the Fairy's dress.

"Here it is. You will each take a snipping of the berries and press them to your lips before attaching your face coverings." The queen was neutral and straight to the point.

The Fairy guarding the flower bed held out a pair of silver gardening shears and stood aside. L took the shears and kneeled down, glancing back up to the Fairies watching her.

"Your Majesty, we won't be able to talk after this, so I just wanted to say, thank you for your help... in the end," she added the last part under her breath.

Queen Elisie inclined her head, her expression still neutral, "You are most welcome, and again I apologise for my actions, they were underhanded. I should have spoken plainly with you regarding my concerns."

"I appreciate that," L didn't know what else to say. She still hadn't forgiven the Fairies for what they'd done but they were trying to make it right, that had to count for something.

She nodded her head to the guys, making sure they were ready to go. Retrieving her face covering with her free hand, she snipped the berries of the nearest plant with the other, catching them in the covering. L sighed with relief that she didn't drop them, everything had to go right from here on out. She swiftly placed the buds to her lips before tying off the strings to keep the mask in place.

She passed the shears to Robbie, who did exactly as L had done. She could see him smiling triumphantly under the mask when he turned to look at her, passing the shears to Bryce. Once he was done, the three of them stood in front of the queen of the Fairies and bowed, she reciprocated and gestured out to the trees.

"My guard will show you the way back to your world. I would attend to you myself, but unfortunately I have some... mistakes to clean up and a security measure to tighten. Once you return, the spell that shrank you will fade and you will resume your original size. It was nice to meet you all, despite the circumstances."