A Tale Of Shadows and Emeralds

Chapter 6: At the castle

Dear Diary. And then?

I've heard scary stories about the castle. The queen hated any feminine person younger than her, unless it was her daughter, and the king was a drunk, but everyone worth half a grain of salt knew they weren't true, since that rubbish was usually spouted from the mouth of drunk racists.

We arrived at the castle, and it was huge. Varian had to step out of the car and verify his identity at the gates, along with the rest of us in the car. Apparently, Mamma, Dad, and Bubba were already being expected, as well as me, since the guards saw me in the window, and bowed.

We got in through the massive doors, and were immediately in a throne room. At the end, in a wide recess, clearly where the royals would sit, there was a man in his 50s with black hair with a couple of grey hairs, grey green eyes, wearing a crown and a suit, doing stuff on a laptop, while sitting in a chair at a desk. Near him was a younger woman with long, curly honey-blonde hair, blue eyes, and a kind face, she was wearing a dress, and reading a book. In the corner of the recess, there was a little girl, about 11 with darker hair, but still blonde, who resembled the woman, but with blue-green eyes, wearing sneakers, leggings, and a hoodie, while playing on her phone.

I had never seen the royal family, but by the way these 3 people looked, I knew that they were them. Varian had cleared his throat, and the king had looked up from his laptop, smiled, and got up. "Varian, Skye, Thomas, Jeff, you're here," he got up, and walked over, then looked at me, "Is this Leo?" I nodded. "You look exactly like your mother, Leo," he said in a slightly sad voice. I knew this, and nodded. "I kept him safe, King Lumine, like you asked when I was a kitten!"

This brought a smile to the man's face. "Stupendous! Rosalie, my dear, come over here! You too, Dagny!"

The woman and the girl came over, the girl glaring at me. "Hello, Leo," the woman presumably named Rosalie said, "I've heard some amazing things about you, from Skye!"

The girl looked at me, and in a deadpan voice, she said, "Why do you look like you're going on a date?"

Mamma laughed, "He does look like that, huh, Dagny?"

The little girl, Dagny, rolled her eyes, and went back to her phone. At this point I felt exhausted, due to the long ride, and wanted to sit.

King Lumine looked at me like I had suddenly turned upside down. "Leo, bud, why do you look so grumpy?"

At that point, I was tired, overwhelmed, and felt like I was gonna cry. "Why do you care? You never sent me presents, you don't know a damn thing about me, and if you did, this news wouldn't have been sprung on me the same fucking day as my 21st birthday!"

The whole room looked at me like I had grown a pair of wings. At this point, I wished it was true. Fern got up around my neck, and began purring, a move which I knew was meant to calm me, but I just felt even more like crying.

I don't remember much, everything went black.