You have to admit, all of the events from the end of KQ3 through to the end of KQ4 must have been an emotional roller coaster for Daventry's royal family. So how did each of them cope with the return to normal (or a new normal, in Alexander's case) after Graham was healed?
There will be five chapters: one for each family member, and a group chapter at the end.
Author's note: My KQ stories, in the main, are based on the original seven games. Though I have been playing with a story idea involving Gwendolyn and Gart.
Chapter One: Rosella
Rosella emerged from the cave at the top of the mountain. With more bravery than she felt, she put her hands on her hips. "All right, I'm here. What do you want?" she demanded.
The three-headed dragon looked at her for a moment. Then it shut its eyes - all six of them - in agony.
"I was trapped in this hideous body," the dragon said. "I will not be freed until a youth and a maiden, born of the same family but long separated, are reunited."
The scene shifted, to Graham falling to the floor in a slump as Valanice screamed.
"Help me…"
"The king is ill. Fetch the healers at once!"
The scene shifted again, to Lolotte's throne room.
"Are you a peasant girl who was foolish enough to wander here by mistake?" Lolotte demanded in a voice like nails grating on slate. "Or are you a spy sent here by my enemy Genesta?"
And again, to Genesta's beach.
"Lolotte was not my mother," Edgar said. "That castle was never my home."
"So where will you go now?" Rosella asked.
Edgar frowned. "I'm not sure. I keep having dreams, of some distant sky kingdom with rainbows and floating castles and…"
Everything faded again, whirling and swirling until it faded to black, then blue.
Rosella's eyes flickered once, twice, then opened completely.
The blue she was seeing was the canopy over her bed. She was back in her room at Castle Daventry.
What time is it, she wondered sleepily.
It had been dawn when Genesta's homing spell deposited her back in the great hall. It was late morning outside now, with bright sunlight flooding in through the window and birds chirping in the trees outside.
After giving her father the magic life-saving fruit and telling her family about her strange odyssey through Tamir, she'd come back to her room and promptly collapsed on her bed.
Rosella rolled over onto her side and started to push herself upright, muttering and wincing. She felt sore all over, and she groaned as the memory of climbing up mountains, swimming to Genesta's island and getting out of a whale's throat came rushing back.
Then she realized also that she had been lying on top of a book. She pulled it out from underneath her and stared at it for a moment. It was one of her favorites, a book of legends from the kingdom of Hyrule. She'd been midway through the story about the magical ocarina when…
She didn't remember when her reading had been interrupted, to be honest. The last few days had been a blur.
She was home. Her father was alive. And her brother, whom no one had seen since he was a baby, was home again.
It was almost too much to take in.
Setting the book to one side, Rosella slowly sat up on the bed, leaned up against one of the bed posts and let her eyes travel around the room.
It was exactly as she'd left it: cluttered. The wardrobe door hung open and a few pairs of shoes spilled out, and the dressing table was covered with its usual jumble of combs, jewelry and bottles of scent. The writing desk held a confusion of books, quills and parchment, and there were even more books stacked on the floor next to the bed.
And a quick check of the night table - yes, the magical glowing crystal that she used for reading under the covers at night was still there.
Rosella smiled wanly. She'd had to explain to her mother and the servants many times over the years that she could find things just fine in the clutter.
The walls held the array of colorful posters that she'd collected whenever traveling musicians came to play in the castle town or at Castle Daventry. The old wooden sword and shield she'd played with as a child still stood in one corner, with the smart little bow and arrows that she'd been given on her eighth birthday.
Everything was familiar and friendly, and yet at the same time, all vaguely surreal: a world far removed from the monsters and zombies and other demons she'd just battled. There had been many moments in Tamir when she thought she'd never see Daventry and her family, let alone this room, again.
Is it all really over now? Rosella asked herself. Or are we all just getting a breather before our lives get turned upside down again?
Somehow, she guessed it was the latter.
The growling of Rosella's stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten much in the last twenty-four hours. Maybe she'd go down to the kitchen and see if there was a late breakfast to be had. And see how the others were doing.
The blue and white court dress she still had on would do, she decided. She went to the washstand in the corner, splashed some water on her face and cleaned her teeth. As she did so, she heard the door creak open and felt a tug on her skirt.
"Woof?" It was Maisie, one of the royal family's dogs. The shaggy old hound was a few generations descended from a dog that Graham had owned when he was a boy. "Woof!" Maisie repeated.
"All right, Maisie, I'm coming," Rosella laughed. She gave her hair a quick run-through with a comb and followed Maisie out into the corridor.
xKQx
Reviews welcome! But this is my first - published, anyway - King's Quest fanfic, so please be gentle.
And yes, judging from Rosella's reading matter, it would seem that King's Quest and Legend of Zelda take place in the same universe...