Return to the Underland

Chapter 18

I awake to the sudden brightness cast in my room. I groan and lookup to see a maid.

"I am she who is called Nene, and I am tour personal maid, sir," she bows, "Her Royal Highness has requested your presence sir at her private living room, sir," she says still bowing, "Here are the clothes she prepared for you," I get out of bed and grab the clothes from the maid

"Please, call me, Gregor," I say, "Thank you, Nene. Could you wait outside and lead me to the living room,"

"Certainly, Gregor," she bows and walks out the door. I quickly strip off my old clothes and put on the clothes, made from silky grayish-purple material.

"Okay, Nene, lead me to the living room,"

"Follow me sir,"

She lead me through winding corridors. There were large paintings along the walls. She looks back, seeing me looking at the beautifully crafted portraits. She stops

"These are the portraits of past kings and queens" Nene tells me. Underneath all of them have names. I know the last two, Queen Judith and Queen Luxa. I assume the one before Queen Judith, King Richard, is Luxa's father. I stare at Luxa's portrait, she must have been 14 in this portrait, she looks so young. She was dressed in a black dress, she looked beautiful, her silvery blonde hair cascading in waves down her shoulders. Her bright purple eyes, looked dark. She looked like a true queen, despite her age. I look over at her mother, she is almost and exact replica of Queen Judith.

I realized I've been staring at the paintings for far too long.

"We should get going," I tell Nene. She nods her head. She starts walking and I follow.

"Here you go sir," she pauses, "Sorry, Gregor,"

"Its okay Nene and thank you,"

"Your welcome. Find me if you ever need me. Im usually in the kitchen," I nod my head. She bows and walks in the direction we came from.

I pull back the silky red curtain. Luxa sits on a couch. She looks behind her and sees me. She quickly bolts up and walks to me. I notice there was only a fireplace to light up the room.

"My queen," I joke. She pulls me into an embrace.

"I see you have just woken up, your hair is all over the place," she started smoothing down my hair.

"Yeah, I did," I say giggling.

"Come sit. I will have food prepared for us," We sit next to each other on the couch our hands clasped together on her lap, our hips now touching as she moved closer.

She calls in a maid and orders a some food, I couldn't catch hardly any of it. The maid bows and leaves. She rests her head on my shoulder.

We sit there silently for a few minutes.

"This is kinda like a date you know," I say remembering our "picnic date"
that we told Howard. She bolts up. Her face pink. She releases my hand. She moved over a little bit

"Stop teasing me about that," She said pushing me away. I had brought it up when we were in the library and she didn't talk to me for a few minutes after that.

"Im sorry," I pull her closely. Kissing her forehead.

"Well, if it isn't the lovebirds," I look and see Ripred in the door.

"Good thing I didn't catch you doing something worse," My face gets hot.

"Ripred get your head out of the gutter," I say throwing a pillow at him. He dodges it.

"Im just saying,"

"Why are you here?" Luxa asks her face bright red.

"I heard you in here and I wanted to make sure you weren't-,"

"Ripred im about to hit you,"

"Both of your faces are bright red right now," He starts laughing. I throw another pillow at him. It hits him right in the nose.

"I know when im not wanted," he says rubbing his nose, "No naughty stuff you too," he says before walking out of the doorway.

"Ugh," I say, "He ruined the mood,"

"He is nosy, buts him just being protective," I remembered the story he told us about the orchard and his pups.

"Yeah, I guess so," She moves closer to me our bodies pressed up against each other. I put my arm around her and she rests her head on my shoulder. Everything was perfect. We sat there for what seemed like forever, enjoying each other's company and warmth.

"Your highness,"

"Come in," She moves away, out of my grasp.

"Your food," a cart of food gets wheeled in by Nene.

"Thank you," Luxa says. Nene bows and walks out of the room. I grab a plate and dig in, starved.

I cleaned my plate, enjoying every last bite of the wonderful food.

"Will you go back to the Overland?" Luxa asks

"No, not to live there. I don't belong. I've waited 6 damn years to come back here. To come back to you,"

"Why," she pauses, "Why come back just for me. Surely there are other overlanders you can choose from,"

"You are right, there are other overlanders but, none of them are you," I look her directly, a look of insecurity passes over her face. I pull her into an embrace, "I love you," I whisper in her ear

"I love you too," she says. I pull out of our embrace and kiss her, fiercely. She pulls away, "I have a question for you,"