A True Hero

22 - We Meet Again

"Up and at 'em, guys!" Amai yelled from the cockpit. Yawning and groaning, I wiped a hand across my face and blinked the water from my sleepy eyes. I had been in such a deep sleep I temporarily forgot where I was.

"What time is it?" Galeren moaned from behind me.

"Time for us to meet the royals," Jecra replied, and pushed a few buttons on the dash to bring the ship's speed down. "You all have been in hypersleep for a while now, but we're nearly there."

"Royals?" I asked through a yawn and glanced out of the long window next to me. Fast approaching us was a large, red, heart-shaped planet with a giant smiley face. A large ring that looked like a ribbon supported two yellow bow-shaped rocks that orbited the planet.

"Aww, it's so cute!" Falspar exclaimed with sudden energy and pressed his gloves and mask to the window.

"Ew, no, gross. Who lives on a planet like that?" Garlude mumbled.

"Happy people," Amai responded.

Innocents, I thought.

"I wonder what kinds of adorable creatures live there!" Falspar continued.

"And how they're going to help us fight," Ren commented. "You think a cute little planet like this is going to harbor creatures capable of fighting?"

"We'll see," Jecra said, and turned to me. "Nicolette, you're familiar with galactic royal greetings, right?" The question startled me, but I forced a nod. Almost no one in the GSA had ever asked about my capabilities as a princess. Most of the soldiers thought my life before the army was all fluff. "Good! You'll introduce us then."

We flew the ship into the light pink atmosphere around the happy heart, and I remembered how my father used to take me on diplomatic trips every once in awhile. He claimed the trips were in the name of unity and peace, but I was old enough to realize, being in my early teens, that most of the planets we visited were heavily militaristic. They were also major allies of the Galaxy Soldier Army. None of them were fluff planets like this.

Did...did my parents know something was going to happen? I thought, thinking of their telepathic power and ability to know events of the future before they happened, but I was interrupted by a sudden flutter in my peripheral vision. Quickly jerking my head towards the sight, I caught a glimpse of a girl slightly smaller than me with pink ribbons flowing from her brown hair and small white wings and a red dress.

"No way!" Falspar gasped, seeing the same thing I did, and smushed his face harder against the glass so that his speech was comically muffled. "Fairies!!!"

He was right. Soon, thousands of them were flitting around us as we glided safely down to the soft, lush green grass in front of a pink stone castle. They swarmed us, waving flowers over our ship as we settled to a halt and chanting, "GSA! GSA! GSA!"

"I LOVE YOU ALREADY!!" Falspar screamed from against the glass and rushed out as soon as the door to the ship was opened. We stepped out onto a soft plain full of flowers with petals of varying shapes and sizes. The garden in front of the castle was full of cute red heart-shaped roses and white daisies with butterfly-like petals.

"Oh..my..stars..." Garlude stuttered as fairies flew around us, bringing gifts of flower wreaths and lacing them into her ponytail. They were treating us like heroes even though we hadn't done anything to save them yet. Then I had a sickening thought: did they even know that there was a deadly monster coming to take everything they loved away from them? I shuddered and dismissed the thought. Surely they had to know; maybe this was the way they greeted newcomers.

"You're not one for cuteness, are you?" Val asked Garlude as we paraded to the castle.

"No," Garlude said, "I'm not one for fluff."