Happily Ever After (The Lunar Chronicles story continuation)

Chapter 9: The Banquet

Wolf loved how a simple banquet could make Scarlet so happy. Then again, Wolf loved anything Scarlet did. It was unusual for her to be so excited concerning a social event, as she was the type who would prefer to stay at home, but this town really meant something for her and she had really gotten her hopes up concerning getting the town's approval back. They'd invited every single member of the town, including all the morons. They'd hoped that the latter would not come, but he would make sure they stayed as far away from them as possible, for Scarlet's sake. He had first encountered some of these idiots when he visited the café, where he first tasted carrots and Scarlet's divine tomatoes.

They had decided to have the banquet in the barn, which had been fully decorated, with some decoration reused from the wedding. There were small round tables situated here and there without chairs, so people could move around as they pleased and change company once in a while, or get rid of people if that was their wish.
There was a buffet with all kinds of foods. Some guests had brought some food with them. Wolf knew that Sam the farmer, competition of Scarlet, had brought vegetables. Laurel, the owner of the fish shop had brought some tuna and some mackerel.  Old Suzan had brought loaves of bread.
People could take as they liked and eat at the same small round tables. There stood some high chairs in the corner, which could be used while eating. On each table stood a glass of water with a few flowers in it. Scarlet had plucked them that day, but she didn't have any proper vases.
Scarlet wore a beautiful navy blue dress with a white embroidery on its body and hem. The blue colour of the dress enhanced her red hair and mixed nicely. Wolf wore a tuxedo, much to Scarlet's amusement.
The first guests arrived . Then more and more arrived, the place was packed by late afternoon. People of all ages were present. Children ran around chasing after each other while their parents stood at one of the tables talking together about market prices or political changes.
Scarlet and Wolf stood while they judged the entire situation.

Chatter went on and Scarlet dragged Wolf around like a dog on a leash. They moved from table to table, just until evening was starting to creep in, when Wolf and Scarlet finally took a break and paused for a while.
A child ran up to Wolf and poked him on the knee. He had blonde hair, brown eyes and looked like a puppy. He couldn't have been much older than 5 or 6. Three other kids, two girls and a boy, stood behind him. It looked like they were one group playing together, but none of the three others had the nerve to go ask Wolf a question.  "Mister Benoit?" He asked like a little angel, who had no clue that Wolf's last name was still Kesley.
Wolf looked at the little boy and smiled, making sure not to show his ferocious teeth. It had taken him some time to having gotten used to them, and he had sometimes forgotten to hide them, which had resulted in strangers either running away or not wanting to ever talk to him again, sometimes both.
The boy continued: "Will you come play with us."
Wolf must have looked very puzzled, even the children saw it. "We're playing knights and princesses, but no one wants to be the dragon, because they always get shot"
Wolf wanted to say something about the fact that there were no guns in the medieval times of the second era, but thought it better not to. Instead, he looked at Scarlet, his glance showed his confusion while asking for advice on what he should do.
"Get out there or I will personally shoot you." Scarlet said jokingly while she shooed him away.
Wolf was dragged outside, where the enthusiastic children had gathered some sticks, which they planned on using as guns. Wolf had to hide, so he sat behind a brick wall, pretending he had kidnapped the two girls, who were pretending to be princesses.
Wolf wondered whether they had hidden themselves too well, it took for ever for the boys to come.
"Is it true you know real princesses?" One of the girls asked after a long moment of silence.
Wolf smiled, "I even know an emperor and a queen." Technically, Cinder wasn't a queen any more, but he decided to leave that out.
The boys finally arrived. Wolf pretended to attack. Both boys jumped backwards in surprise. It was too late that Wolf realised that he had revealed his sharp teeth. The boys broke out laughing. Luckily.
Wolf was supposedly shot soon after that and fell to the ground. The children cheered as the game had drawn to an end.
Wolf stood up and looked at his watch. They had been gone for a while and should probably return to the farm soon. The game had gone on for a while and had moved to the nearby forest. These children had clearly not heard enough ghost stories, because Wolf was more creeped out by the dark forest than the children were.
Just as Wolf was about to return to the banquet with the children, there was a large rumble, the entire ground shook so hard, Wolf was thrown down to the ground.
"Scarlet," he whispered as he jumped up and sprinted back to the banquet.

Just after Wolf left, Scarlet had stayed and talked with whoever was there. She had seen the girl with the blonde hair again, Sara Sand, the newest inhabitant of Rieux. Scarlet had tried talking to her for the first time, but all reactions had seemed stone cold and rejective. Had Scarlet done anything to upset her?
Scarlet had been chatting with Laurel from the fish stall at the market when Sarah Sand climbed on top of a table. Everyone turned to look what this was about. Scarlet was about to say something when Sarah Sand bellowed: "Citizens of Earth, the sovereign state of Luna sends their regards."
Within seconds, Sarah Sand had jumped from the table and had vanished. No one understood what was going on, but soon chaos erupted. Scarlet saw the building crumble and fall before an abyss of black covered her eyes.

Wolf felt his heart pound in his chest. He had no idea what had happened, an earthquake? An explosion of sorts? He had never run so quickly before. His stomach dropped as he saw the pile of rubble that had previously been a barn.
"Scarlet!" Wolf screamed.
He took blocks of stone and pieces of wood, threw them away piece by piece. A hand. Wolf lunged broken planks away until he found a man he didn't recognise, but still breathing. Wolf kept going.
Others had rushed to the scene to dig others out as well, but no one as efficient as Wolf.
Wolf saw a shoe. He knew the shoe on the foot wasn't Scarlet's, but dug out the woman beneath. She wasn't breathing, dead.
Slowly, in his search for Scarlet, blood had drenched Wolf's tuxedo, he didn't know how many different people the blood belonged to. His anger transformed into strength, systematically freeing person by person, but there was no Scarlet so be seen.
So many corpses spread over such a small area. Scarlet weren't part of them, she couldn't be dead. That was the only thought keeping Wolf going.

A lock of red hair caught Wolf's eye. He lunged forward to force away a part of what had formerly been known as the roof. A shimmer of blue fabric drove Wolf to continue. Soon, Scarlet's face was visible again. Wolf pushed away the last pieces covering the fierce, but fragile girl. Blood covered her body, but Scarlet's chest was slowly moving up and down.
Wolf sat beside Scarlet until the ambulance came.