The Courtship of a Queen & Her Knight

Beanie in the Sky With Lightning: Part 1

There was no good reason why Bean should feel this nervous, but she was.

Her heart was thudding in her ears, her stomach was twisting into knots, and she could just feel her armpits getting sweaty. Ugh... though even worse than that, Bean could also feel some underboob sweat forming and that was just... just great. Stupid dresses. Still, this was her dad, after all. There really was no reason for her to be this rattled, except that she didn't really sleep the best the night before.

Okay, to be fair, she slept great in that she didn't have any nightmares. While that was true, she had tossed and turned a lot and woke up multiple times. As it turned out, the sleeping arrangements that Bean had felt nervous about weren't that big of a deal.

When she and Pendergast had returned to the camp, their return was more or less ignored as most of the men were too engaged with their poker tournament. The few men who were actually doing their jobs were watching and patrolling the perimeter and only glanced at the pair when they stepped into the firelight. It was then that Bean decided that she was going to sleep and that the game should be wrapped up soon, much to the groans of her knights. Once again Bean had to face the realization that somehow she had become the responsible one.

How the hell did that happen? Oh, right... at her coronation when she literally became the Queen of Dreamland. Being responsible sucked balls...

Just about when Bean was wondering how she should approach the whole "Pendergast is going to sleep next to me, but not in a suggestive kind of way, more of a keeping-the-Devil away kind of way talk," one of the men straight up inquired Pendergast if he was going to accompany the queen in the carriage to assist with her night terrors. Apparently word really had spread around the castle about Pendergast's "special duties." While Bean was thankful that an awkward situation was avoided... let's be real, it was still awkward as hell.

Fortunately, Bean had Luci watching her back. The black cat-thing conspicuously distracted the men long enough by directing their focuses back on the poker game so that none were really paying attention when Bean headed towards her carriage followed by Pendergast. From there, it was simple. Bean fell asleep onto one of the bench seats of the carriage and Pendergast settled on the floor in a sitting position with his back to Bean. That way, all she had to do was move her leg slightly forward to touch the back of his head. This had been her idea, of course, and much to Pendergast's silent joy was that it became his turn to use her leg as a pillow.

Of sorts, anyways, but he did see the similarity to their outing at the abandoned tower.

They bade each other good night and not long afterwards, the rest of the men also filed away to find their bedrolls or crawl into their travel tents. Luci returned to the carriage and reclaimed the opposite bench seat, making only a few teasing comments about the humans, before curling up and falling asleep.

That should have been it and for a while Bean had slept soundly, but she jostled and turned and woke herself up. The first time this happened, she encountered the worried expression of Pendergast, who explained that he thought she was having a nightmare. Nope, just nerves and her head wouldn't shut up. After reassuring the knight that she was all right, Bean tried to go back to sleep and met little success that night.

By the time the sun met the horizon, Bean was tired, she was grumpy, and she was nervous, which brings us back to where we started. The Dreamland entourage had been travelling for a couple of hours now and Bean's mood or disposition hadn't improved at all.

Fortunately their destination wasn't located in Twinkletown proper, but rather on the outskirts on the edge of Twinkle Twilight Forest. Perfect, in that Bean knew that there should be few encounters with other travellers on the road. In a perfect scenario she should be able to visit her father and leave without alerting the entire duchy that she was there. However, to be frank, the new Duke of Twinkletown probably already knew that she was in the area because people talk. Bean wasn't an idiot, she knew that word spread quicker than a venereal disease in Elf Alley. People paid good money for juicy information and a secret, personal visit from the reigning new monarch sure qualified as such.