Royal Rules

Part 7

I could feel the warmth of sunlight on my skin, and I opened my eyes slowly. I was looking up into the sky, my head hanging back on my neck. Grimacing slightly, I tilted my head back forward, looking around me. Everyone was staring at me buzzing maybe twenty feet above the Elder tree's roots, and I just realized that my wings were holding me up. Slowly, I descended until I alighted onto one of the tree's big trunks. A force rushed through me from my feet up as I made contact with the tree, and I thought I heard a soft voice in the recesses of my mind.

"Follow your heart..."

I smiled secretly to myself, looking up just as Mother approached me.

"Did all go well Daughter? Has our King been chosen?" Her voice was anxious, but somehow I felt calm and collected. I nodded as gracefully as possible, and she turned to the crowd. "Our King has been chosen!"

The crowd boomed, but this time I didn't flinch. I was looking over the sea of faces for my spouse, my future king. There were so many people closing in on me with outstretched hands reaching to kiss my own, but still I searched over the crowd for that familiar head of messy hair that I would get to see every morning thereafter. I finally spotted the top of his head, and my heart did a giant somersault in my rib cage.

"Daughter, you must not keep us waiting, who shall our new King be?" The roar died down, and I kept my eyes locked on that head of hair. He was already on his way out of the crowd, facing the opposite direction and slowly heading in the opposite direction of the Elder tree. A slow smile took over my face as I caught the lightly-shaded blue wings, and I looked at Mother. "Daughter?" She looked at me with real worry, and I looked to the Elders for a brief moment before looking back at Jacob. He was just reaching the edge of the crowd, and I wanted to scream his name.

"Your new king is... Jacob." I watched as he paused at the edge of the crowd, his shoulders stiff from shock. There was a collective gasp, and everyone instantly turned to him, examining the back of his head like it were an exotic animal. His wings twitched nervously, and hesitantly he turned to face me. I stared into those dark grey eyes, which were clouded with confusion, and my nervousness died down in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly, everyone was on their knees. Jacob backed up a little in surprise as everyone fell to the ground excluding my parents, myself, and the Elders. Jacob looked back at me as if wondering if I were serious or not, and I couldn't help but laugh at his confusion.

"Jacob..." I said his name in a softer voice, not even bothering to hide my feelings for him. He heard it in my voice, and he visually shuddered. Cautiously, he let his wings carry him to me, alighting about two feet away from me.

"Amelia... are you sure it's me?" I smiled at his proximity, looking up at him. Slowly, I reached for his hands and held them in mine, gripping them tightly.

"The spirit of the Elder tree spoke to me Jacob, and she told me to follow my heart. My heart chooses you." He searched my face one last time to calm his last doubts, and when he was satisfied he finally smiled and returned the same amount of pressure to my hands as I was to his.

"Let it be known then, until their child becomes of age, that Amelia and Jacob shall be our new rulers!" One of the Elders announced, causing everyone to rise to their feet and start to clap for us, and I grinned like a child.

The same Elder fairy took the crown from atop Father's head, placing it onto Jacob's (which caused another thunderous applause) and did the same for me and my Mother. Just after the crown was placed on my head, Jacob took me in his arms and kissed me like no one was watching.