Thunderbolt of Laurels

Chapter 22-Ever After

The music is loud. Super loud. People are dancing all around the ball room, waltzing, prancing, spinning. The scene brings me joy. Everyone's having a good time, big smiles on their faces. Snow White is dancing with her father, laughing. She's been so much happier since they've reunited. Hans dances with his new fiancé, Sleeping Beauty. I was there when they met. The F7, Snow White and I were on a camping trip. He was in charge of the food obviously and she gave us a scare as she crawled up to the pot of stew, filled a bowl and wolfed it down. Hans took it as a compliment and the two hit it off. Now, Hans and Pino are the only other members of the group that has had their curse broken. The rest are still scrambling to find a girl to break their curse. The island knows of their curse. Many damsels trying their best to win over the boys hearts, but most fail. Even though the rest of the F7 haven't found their true love yet, they will. And they're a lot happier now that they're out of hiding and back amongst society.  

Pino met his fiance, Belle when he was her town one day. Her contraption malfunctioned and blew up outside her home. He went over to help fix it and she appreciated it. Apparently her father was an inventor and after he passed she took on his role. The two inventors I would say, make quite the pair.
"This party is bigger than I thought it'd be," Merlin says as he walks up to me. 
"I know. I had to make it as big as possible, maybe Arthur, Jack, Noki or Kio will find someone here."
"You're really trying to set them up?" He laughs.
"In a way." I shrug. My sister, Bianca skips up to us. "How's 'queen training' going?" I ask her. 
"It's fine. Ruling a kingdom is going to be fun; I will never understand how you never wanted to do it."
"Seems stressful."
"Yeah but you get to tell people what to do. And I want a piece of cake, go get me one," she orders me.
"Um, manners?"
"I'm the future queen, I don't need manners." She giggles. I roll my eyes, oh boy. 
"I can get you a piece of cake, if you come along with me," a deep voice rings. I turn around. A green eyed, strawberry blonde young prince from a nearby kingdom holds his hand out for Bianca. Uh oh. She looks at me and smirks.
"Alright, let's go," she says and takes his hand. I hear a bit of their conversation before it becomes inaudible. "I'm going to be the future queen you know," she boasts.
"That's awesome. I will end up being stuck on the council. My older brother will be my kingdoms future ruler," he says. 
"But you'll be involved in the decision making, so technically you still have power and say in your kingdom." I watch the two walk side by side towards the large stack of cake. I may need to keep an eye on this one. 

 I look at Merlin who has his eyes wide. "She's too young," he says.
"She's the age I was when I met you," I counter. He chuckles. My fathers on the other side of the room, talking to Char. King Char, I should say. His coronation was a few weeks ago and my father has been helping him out left and right. As prepared as he was to take the throne, he's still inexperienced but he has been handling it very well. 
  Char has let go of the past. We can now converse and be in each others presence without a lingering awkwardness in the air. It's very nice. I've always loved Char, he'd done me no wrong, I was just never in love with him. He is currently on a mission to find a maiden in his kingdom that he danced with during his coronation ball. He told me there was an immediate spark but she ran off in a haste, leaving behind a single shoe. It is the only clue in finding her. The guy didn't even ask for her name. 

 "Look at that," Merlin says as he points in the direction of Arthur. He's talking to a girl in a red cloak, consoling her I think. They head towards the door. 
"Ten gold coins says he's coming back with a broken curse," I say.
"You really think? They just met."
"Well in every Fairytale Land love story I know, there is always an instant connection."
He scratches his head. "Seriously? Give me an example."
"Seriously? Char, Pino, Hans, you and I."
"Ah, okay fine. But I still think it's too soon." A few moments later, Arthur walks back in with the girl in red, but he is still green. I frown in disappointment. Maybe I got a little too excited. "What did I say?" I turn to Merlin. 
"I owe you ten coins," I sigh in defeat. 
"Yes, yes you do." He crosses his arms with a smug face. I roll my eyes.  
"Okay well, 20 coins says that in the next month, at least, Arthur's curse will be broken."
"Fine, you're on with that one. You and I didn't have our first kiss until years after meeting," he counters.
"That was different. But it was within days of meeting again," I defend. 
"Fair point." He smiles. He scratches his head. "Do you want to dance?"
I grin from ear to ear, recollecting the first time he asked me that. "Of course."
"Here, I have an idea." 

 We walk outside in the dimly lit night. The moon full but hidden by a few grey clouds. He holds me close and grabs my hand. He starts humming the song we sang the first night we met. I laugh as I remember how out of tune we were. "No, I'm not singing this time."
"Why not?" he pouts.
"I think we deafened a few animals," I say. He chuckles.
"That is a possibility." We both hum instead of sing, making our dance a lot smoother. He grabs my hand and inspects it. He frowns. "You don't have it on," he says. 
"I didn't want to lose it," I tell him. I pause and admit my mistake. "And I may have forgotten to put it on tonight," I murmur. 
The F7's back in the world, fighting monsters, dragons and other creatures. And I'm helping them. I'm not part of the F7 of course, I am their 'featured'. Similar to a song created by an artist, and they have another artist featuring in their song. They have a verse, sing the chorus maybe once or twice. But the song is still the main artist's. I am in the action occasionally. I do not obtain their years of experience or expertise. I mostly deal with thieves and criminals in villages caught in the act, but I do what I can to help others. Anyways, that's why I don't wear it. It's priceless, valuable and a symbol of our future. "Do you want me to go get it?" I ask.
"Very much yes." 
 We head upstairs to my room. I may be stripped of my royal status, but my father put me on the royal council. I deal with grand problems that occur in our kingdom, mainly battle plans. I also get to teach a few children in the kingdom archery. 

We step inside and I walk straight to my vanity, that's where I keep the small wooden box. I open it and take out the small content inside. 
"Allow me," Merlin says. I stick out my hand as he takes the ring. He slides it onto my left ring finger. It's beautiful. It's a small subtle topaz on a gold band. It matches the clip I had given him all those years ago. I smile as my mind goes through all our memories, our obstacles, everything that led to this moment.

 He proposed in the most Merlin way. It was during a fight against a beast. The rest of the group fought valiantly, I was in the middle of shooting my arrows and he finally zapped the beast unconscious. He then bent down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. To promise me a future. Of course I said yes without hesitation, but almost immediately regretted it when he told me I got 'Merlined.'

We walk back outside and sit on our hill looking at the night sky. "Here I wanted to give you this," I say as I hand him one of my arrows, not just any arrow. I carved our initials in it. It was trickier than I could ever imagine, but determined, I managed as best as I could. He looks at it in adoration.
"I love it." He reaches to his side. "I have something for you too." He takes out a wreath and places it on my head. 
"A wreath?" I ask.
He nods his head. "A laurel wreath." Like my name, Alaura. "It represents victory. We're victorious. Our love won. And now you're crowned with it. You may not be queen or ever wanted to be but you're my queen and we can start our own kingdom, hypothetically speaking." He chuckles and I smile. I love this boy with everything I am. Fate brought him to me and I will never let him go again.
"Where in the world were you keeping this?" I ask.
He opens his mouth but hesitates, holding out a finger. "Good question." I chuckle and we lay on the soft grass, watching the stars sparkle. Here's to our happily ever after. 

*A/N~ We've come to the end of the story and I just wanted to say thank you so much for reading! I absolutely love the characters from Red Shoes and grew with my character, Alaura. Let me know what you guys think of the story, I'd appreciate it. And I appreciate all of you for reading my story. Until next time. *