Orchid

I Friend a Royal-Ish

Kaylen dashes away as fast as she came, covering her glimmering brown eyes. "Yuck! Why did you just torture me with that?"

 Kc smiles. "Oh, Kaylen." She adjusts the cap on her head. "She reminds of the great goddess Artemis. Ever since she was a child, she had sworn her life in a Hunter's."

 "You talk of her as if she were a little kid," I cut in. "You're barely older than her. What--you're fourteen or fifteen? Kaylen has gotta to be at least twelve."

 Kc sniffs disdainfully. "I am queen here. I must act rightfully."

 Listening to her snobby and smug tone of voice makes me angry. Just because she's this high and mighty honored ruler of the elves, she's not my ruler. I remind myself again. Heck, she might've even developed this stupid traditional knock. "Oh, yeah?" I shout in her face. "What kind of queen wears a holey old hat like that? Hmmm?" My stubbornness takes over. Maybe even my selfishness. A half of me envies her status as a royal. Half of me wants to tear my hair out and spit in her face.

 Kc instinctvely pats her cap. "It's better than some old silver crown," she counters. "Which hurts my head instead of making me feel royal."

 I roll my eyes. I'm used to attitudes like this. Jenna is the mother of these attitudes. My arms tingle with rage and curiosity. Then I leap forward.

 Kc yells, only once, as I snatch the very old cap from her head and immediately toss it far away. Then I take a good look. 

 Kc immediately covers her head. "No! By the name of Shira, don't!" 

 Nira stares at her queen. "My lady, you cannot hide the truth from the Orchid herself. She has a right to know." 

 Kc lifts her head. "Fine. But I do it with utter regret." She removes her hands.

 Immediately long, cascading dark hair flows down like a stream of water. But it's not that detail I focus on. It's her ears. My eyes dart from Nira to her. Nira hangs her head. 

 "You see?" she says.

 I do see. While Nira's ears are elegantly curved and beautiful in their own exotic way, Kc's are straight like a human's.

 "How could this be?" I ask softly.

 "A while ago," Kc starts, "I was found hugging the Tree of Protection, like you. I was loyal to Lycaeon before she kicked me out. She would've killed me, but I was a child and she valued lives of children who served her. The queen of the elves then, Shira bless her, took me in with open arms. She was kind, generous, and graceful. But Lycaeon took her away."

 Her voice grows quiet and she's on the verge of tears. 

 "Every elf agreed that I should take the throne, since she had no children or relatives. She had been the last of her lines. But in the short time I got to know her, she had treated me like a daughter, regardless of my human blood. So I disguised my ears and took Talor, the only other human here, as my advisor."

 Talor takes the story from there. "And you know the rest."

 Instead of seeing the snobby young spoiled queen's face, I see a pretty girl with a tragic expression. I immediately apologize. "Sorry about insulting you. I guess I was um...."

 "Provoked," Xander finishes. Nira immediately beams at him and Xander's cheeks redden.

 "You have such a smart mind!" Nira exclaims. "That's the guy I like. I didn't know humans were so intelligent."

 "Hey!" Talor and I exclaim.

 Nira shakes her head and mumbles under her breath about a human she'd met earlier in her life that was really dumb.

 Kc extends her hand. "So. Can we be friends?"

 A smile spreads on my lips and I take her hand. "Why not?"