Finding the Wisest

Chapter Twenty Five

Sahlee joined the five friends sitting in the garden bearing. She was bearing good news for one of them.

"Hello everyone." She waved them
"Sozee, I have good news for you."
Sozee turned to her, blinking slowly.
Maya had to laugh as she remembered the same expression Sozee gave her the first time they met.
Sahlee clapped, looking for all the world like Sozee's big sister not her aunt " You can come and live with me! "
Sozee jumped up, ecstatic.
" Really!??! "
Sahlee nodded" I didn't know my sister was being such a bully. Forget about Sunnee, she has her hands full anyway taking care of her other irritating children. Birds of the same feather flock together anyway. Come and let's flock together my little Sozee."
She flashed a smile to Sozee which Sozee returned.
Maya was happy, one more thing going right in this place. She couldn't believe she had been so selfish at first, just wanting to get her mom and go home.
Aunt Sahlee was a good person, she had helped them even when she didn't need to and she had kept on bringing more help to them. She had been so nice to them and Maya had no doubts that she and Sozee would have fun in that large house of hers.
Maya had noticed the similar nature of their names and she chuckled to herself. Was it a trend in their family? Sahlee, Sunee, Sozee

Aunt Sahlee snapped her fingers as if she had just remembered something. "Oh, Maya, The Queen wants to talk to you."
Maya looked up from the flower she was inspecting. "Queen Faye?"
Aunt Sahlee frowned "No. Your mother, the Queen of this kingdom. She requested your presence, she wants to talk to you."

Maya nodded once, feeling foolish for forgetting that Faye was no longer queen.
Maya left the presence of her friends wondering what her mother - the queen, wanted to talk to her about that she had to summon her that way.
                        
                                X
It was just early afternoon. Most of the fight had happened in the morning.  That was less than four or five hours ago. For Maya it felt like lifetimes behind her. She had crossed the lawn and courtyard and found her mother sitting there right beside a ledge.
Around the same place they had seen Nebbia sitting.
The queen's eyes were closed and she was basking in the sunlight. Maya's feet made a crunching sound on the grass and sticks as she got closer. Her mother didn't open her eyes but opened her mouth instead to take a loud audible breath " Maya, you've seen the best of both worlds as Hannah Montana brilliantly put in her song. What are your plans now?"

This was it.
This was it.
Since the beginning, Maya had only been waiting for one thing.

"Mom, I still want to go back to Winslette and go to College in about two weeks"
She ended a bit uncertainly.

"But why!"
The older woman cried. It sounded like she had wrenched the sound from her soul.

"I just don't understand what you want, Maya. Have I not been a good mother to you? I tried my very best Maya, it was so so difficult. At the other place you wanted to leave and even after all this adventure and finding a new magical home, you still want to leave. Why?"

Maya had never seen it this way. Seen it from her mother's point of view. Her mother was blaming herself for Maya wanting to leave.
Maya got closer and held her hands.

"Mom, you were a great mother, you still are and I'm even more impressed after hearing what happened to you and what you went through taking care of me.
It must have been so difficult to take care of everything but you did it.
You were only overprotective because of Faye's curse and threat hanging over our heads and for this I thank you mom.
Thank you for taking care of me."

She paused, unsure of how to continue without messing her awesome speech up . 
   
"I still want to go to college but I'm not going because you were a bad mother, no. I just want to have my own story Momma, I want to live my own life and not do things because I'm being forced or because an evil queen will destroy my relative if I don't do it. I just want some me time. All this is great but I'm used to the real world and at least for now I'd like to go back ."

She ended. Her mother stayed silent for a long time, digesting all the information.

" No, you still stay here!"
" Mom! " Maya yelled, outraged
Her mother burst out laughing clutching her sides as if the joke was too funny. She sobered up.
"The outside world is not too safe but I trust in your judgement Maya. "

Maya looked up, suddenly feeling small and inexperienced.
"I thought you said I trusted people too easily, mom. That someone would hand me candy in the park and carry me away."
She scowled at her mother playfully as she said the last part.

 "Oh the park part was just to disturb you. But listen, he who does not trust people does not get trusted himself." She gave a silly look in response to Maya's questioning one.
"Look dear, I read that somewhere. I don't remember where." She dismissed with a wave of her hand.
"Anyway, you and your friends trusted each other and you saved the kingdom. Forget about all that kidnapping nonsense..but I didn't say don't be careful when you go back. If you allow yourself to get kidnapped it will be 'Off with your head' for you, young lady."
Maya rolled her eyes, a stubborn smile trying to slip onto her face" Ha ha mom. Very funny red queen. "
Her mother rolled her eyes as well "I have graciously allowed you to go to your King's college. I have improved from the suffocating mother, haven't I? What do they call it in your books, oh a Character arc ?"

Maya shook her head and laughed at her mother's enthusiasm. She, soon was brimming with the same enthusiasm. She couldn't believe she could actually go back home and get back to the real world.

That enthusiasm reached an all level high when Will approached her with his wooden sword "Spar with me Maya!"
He had actually demanded that she spar with him at the drop zones but then she had vehemently denied.
She didn't see the problem in it now. She picked up a stick, waved her mother and went to the middle where she started to 'Spar' with the boy.

" So Will, are you excited about being my brother?"
Maya questioned the boy with a small smile.
He stopped playing abruptly and looked up at her.
"What do you mean?" He asked in a small voice. She dropped the stick as well, confused about his reaction.
Had no one told him that he was the prince of the land?
Oops, her bad.
"Are you saying Ash doesn't want to be my brother again?" The boy asked, his eyes quickly filling with tears, showing how attached he was to Ash.
"No, Will, wait..."
But he had already ran off, leaving his wooden sword in the dirt.

Maya felt silly for using that as a conversation starter and then she felt bad for making him cry.
'Good one Maya'
She bent down about to pick the sword from the ground when she heard a shout from behind her.

"It's the King!!"
The voice announced and even though she hadn't met him before, her heart pounded a little in her heart as she saw the way her mother reacted.
She was up and running, hot on her mother's heels as they raced through the corridors to the source of the voice right outside a normal room.
She didn't think she had even seen her mother run before.