She stopped herself from staring and smiled nervously. "Oh sorry, I just didn't expect how many tattoos you would have. I always thought royalty kept their skin clear. Anyway, Good night! See you in the morning!" She walked back to the house and I watched her leave. 'Yeah right. I saw your gaze glued to my abs, not my back.' I then turned to the flower, realizing that I didn't know how this thing worked. I tilted my head and then cautiously sat down in the center of the flower.
A moment later the flower straightened its stem and took me up to its natural height. "Woah-!" I felt so imbalanced and vulnerable without my armor and tried to calm my nerves. Then the petals started to close around me and I had to stop my automatic response to try and defend myself. The flower closed completely and I focused on my breathing to get used to the sudden feeling of claustrophobia.
I then relaxed to the realization of the incredible softness surrounding me and laid back as a petal moved to rest on me like a blanket. My nerves settled completely as I felt every part of me being cradled warmly and fell asleep right after. I had the best sleep of my life in that flower, and before I knew it the flower had opened again to the warm sun shining overhead. I was still half asleep as May flew over me with her normal cheerfulness. "Wakey wakey sleepy head!"
I moved my arm to grab a petal and wrap it around me again. "Go away." She laughed and pulled the petal off. "It's breakfast time! Come on, we have a big day!" I sat up while irritated and noticed that the flower had already lowered to the ground again to let me off. I then stood up and followed May back to the house tiredly.
*
The queen of Reinthoria sits quietly on the windowsill at the top of one of the towers of her castle. She sat there with an expression of melancholy as she felt the soft breeze flow through her orange hair. She is silent facing the view of her kingdom until the king reaches the top of the spiral staircase to where she is sitting. "There you are, April! I've been looking everywhere for you! Why are you all the way up here?"
The queen says nothing as she lowers her head to sob. The king's expression shifts to surprise and he walks over to her to sit down next to her. He takes her hand and she tries to stop crying as he speaks. "April... What is it?" She tightened her grip around his hand as she answered. "...A-Are we bad parents, Isaac?"
The king shook his head. "Of course not! What would make you think such a thing?" The queen continued to look down and tears fell down her face as she spoke softly. "Well, after everything that happened with Dedrin, I couldn't help but wonder if... We were the ones who drove him to this." He raised an eyebrow. "What were we supposed to do? Just give him the kingdom-?"
April then interrupted, now turning to face him. "No. I didn't mean that. I meant, we always knew he was different ever since he was born. He was determined and strong, but there was also darkness inside him which made us distance ourselves. And when Dymas was born, you have to admit that we always favored him." Isaac's expression became serious. "It was a smart thing to do, considering what a monster he became."
The queen shook her head. "What if that's the reason he became a monster? What if instead of pushing him away, we held him closer? Why couldn't I have seen his behavior as a cry for help instead of fearing him?! Now my baby's probably-!" She sobbed more at the thought, and the king sighed. "...I suppose you're right. We could've done more to make him feel loved, but what's done is done. Either way, nurturing can only do so much when it comes to a dark heart."
The queen then stood up and pulled her hand from Isaac's. "He's our son! And you could have thrown him in the dungeon instead of banishing him! That way I could've at least seen him again!" She then ran down the stairs continuing to cry, leaving the king to sit alone. He shook his head in thought for a moment and looked out the window to the wall surrounding his kingdom. "If only dark hearts could change."
*
After I put my armor back on and we had breakfast, May took me on a tour of her village despite my protests. The village was a lot more active in the daytime, and there were fairies everywhere as we walked down the main path. There were more houses made from mushrooms, along with large flowers and inside trees around us as we walked. May introduced me to what felt like every single fairy in the village, and I felt my impatience rising. Every one of them couldn't keep their hands off me and were as relentless as May when it came to touching, especially the girls.
Every woman we would meet would be all over me like butter on bread, and even May had to pull them back from touching every part of me. I rolled my eyes. "Fairies." Once the tour was coming to a close, May became more excited and pulled my arm so we would walk faster. "That just leaves Damien! His house is on the other side of the village! I can't wait to introduce you!"
I really couldn't care less and only wanted to leave, but I knew it was pointless to get her to listen so I just let her drag me along. Once we reached the top of a decline in terrain, May stopped suddenly. "He lives just down-" She froze as her eyes focused on one spot, and her smile disappeared. I raised an eyebrow after a couple of seconds and walked up beside her. "What?" She didn't answer me and I waved a hand in front of her face. "Hello?"
She continued to look ahead with the same expression as her wings lowered slowly. She then raised her hand to point in front of us. "That's Damien..." She said it so quietly I could hardly hear her, and I turned to follow her line of sight. At the bottom of the decline, there was another house made from a large tree. The door was open, and a fairy with black hair and red wings was leaning against it.
He had no shirt on and the arms of a girl fairy were around his neck as he shoved his tongue down her throat. Their clothes weren't put on straight and it appeared obvious that we were lucky we didn't arrive sooner. I raised an eyebrow in disgust and turned back to May. When I turned to her she had already started to fly away and was in the air before I could speak. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?!" She was out of sight a second later and I put my hands on my hips in annoyance. 'Well, that's just great. Who knows when we're going to leave now.'
Suddenly, a group of girl fairies noticed me as they walked by and flew towards me. "Hey, it's CherryMay's human friend!" I then tried to run away, but they surrounded me and started touching me as much as they could. "He's so cute!" "And he's a prince!" "Why don't you come home with me sweetie?" I tried to push them off and started to panic. "May!! Help!! I'm under attack!! Get your ass back here and help me!!"