Adopted by the Avengers

Chapter 17 - The Men in Black

I have to say, eating near to one of the most intimidating people I have ever met, it something I never want to do again. I don't want to say that I am an insecure little imp, but I felt really judged when I saw the Queen watching me eat. The food on the table was like nothing I have ever seen before. It consisted of many different colors and different shapes that made me scared to eat any of it. I loaded my plate with a tan food that didn't really have a shape. It kinda looked like mashed potatoes, but from what I saw, it was the safest looking thing there. I bit into the food that was piled on my fork and saw the queen looking at me. I tried not to make faces at the food, even though it was dry and gross, knowing that I was being observed. But it was hard. 

"I missed you" she finally said. 

"I could say the same thing." I told her. She welcomed this statement with a broad smile that communicated gratitude. With this, she piled her plate high with many different colors of food and began to eat, at the same time, talking to the person seated next to her. 

I took this time to look down the table and do some more observations. There were many people seated at the table. Each one of them looked the same and I was definitely the youngest person there. The person across from me would probably have been in his late 40's when we were back home, but with the time running differently I didn't have any idea as to how old he was. Lyric was no where to be seen which made me fear for him a little bit. 

"So you're Julienne's daughter huh?" I started and looked to my left to see an older elf looking at me.

"I....Julienne?" I stuttered nervously. The elf just friendly laughed.

"I guess I didn't mean to say her name allowed, but your mom is the queen and her name is Julienne." 

"Ohhh, yes I am her daughter." I smiled. I kinda liked this elf. Already, he reminded me of the grandpa I never had. I chatted with this elf for the majority of the meal and found out a couple things about him. His name was Hagen and he had been loyal to the queen for as long as he could remember. He lost his wife when they moved here and has 5 kids, two of which decided to leave the colony and go out to experience the world for themselves. I was a little bit sad that I couldn't tell this friendly elf the truth about my life, since he told me so much about himself, but I kept strongly to my lies. From the lies, I was Asta, who lost her mother and hopelessly wandered the old planet, getting scraps of food from other people, before being captured and brought to a strange planet that I was then disguised as a human. As I spoke, the old man would shake his head in pity and sympathy, and said comments like; "You must have been so scared." or "I'm certainly glad that you escaped and came back home." I felt more than awful, lying to this friendly elf, but I decided that it was for the better good. I was going to say something else to him, when the queen interrupted me. 

"Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining me again at the table of dining. I would just like you all to meet my long-lost daughter, Asta." She gestured for me to stand up and I was greeted with polite applause. I waved, in a careless way, and then sat down again. The queen continued. "I don't want to ever lose her again, so just make sure to keep an eye on her for me." She smiled at the crowd and winked at me. I had to say, this made me a little bit nervous. How am I supposed to escape when I am called back to the Avengers if everyone always knows where I am? Despite my worries, I smiled back. 

She then kept talking about quite irrelevant things that had to do with the government and military of this place. I tried to pay attention, but my mind kept wandering. Where was Lyric? Did they take him away? Did he get in touch with Nick? This reminded me, I still had the earpiece in my ear. Once, I remembered that it was there, I was desperate to leave the table so I could get it out.