Chapter 25 Kookaburra

So much for keeping this a secret, but me and Nightingale both knew that this day was going to come sooner or later, but to be honest, I was rather relieved that the others now know about the relationship it was a real load off my shoulders, we now had much less to worry about, all we had to worry about now was keeping this from the king and the soldiers.

The next morning, we were all having to get up pretty early as the king had some important news to give us, me, Gildar, Nightingale, Crocness, Thorne and Shaiden were the first ones outside the king's quarters, me and Nightingale had walked down here together and we were pretty much expecting what some of them were going to question us about, and we were right, the second we walked around the corner, Crocness was the first one the notice us.

"Here comes Romeo and Juliet." She said.

I groaned, we're never going to hear the end of this.

"Why didn't you guys tell us about this?" Thorne asked.

"We just didn't want anyone to know, we knew that you were going to be like this if we did tell you." Nightingale replied.

"Plus we thought that most of you may go and tell the king." I added

"If you didn't want us to tell anyone we wouldn't have, we're really pleased for you two, we both know how much you both wanted to be together." Said Crocness.

Crocness and Thorne weren't the only ones to question me and Nightingale about our relationship, Skabb, and Tinkor also asked us a few questions, Knightriss wasn't speaking to us much, I take it that she's still a bit mad at us, it's fair to say that she's like to lead defender, and so was a bit mad at us for breaking the rules and for lying this whole time.

When we walked inside the king's quarters he was stood by the window behind his desk with a letter in one hand and another piece of paper in the other hand which seemed to be a painting, it was hard to tell what his emotions were for two reasons, one his face wasn't really showing any emotions and two we couldn't see his face that well anyway.

"Morning your highness." We all said bowing and curtseying.

"Morning everyone, I have some very good news." The king replied.

This is a change, normally when the king has important it's mostly bad, so what could be so good and so important that we had to be here at this early?

"As you all know, we're now free from any more attacks from the kingdom of Splazzer City, well we have decided to bring the peace between our two kingdoms forever, and the king of Splazzer City would like me to marry his daughter, the princess Beatrice."

"Congratulations sire." Said Ballista.

We were over the moon with this news, the king is to be marrying the princess Beatrice, and I must say, she is a real beaut, I've seen her painting before. The wedding was already planned and was going to be in 3 months time, there was lots to get through leading up to that day.

Three days after the king had given out the news that he was to be married, the stocks in the kitchen were getting rather low, so some of us were sent out into the woods to collect more stock again, me, Nightingale, Gildar, Ballista and Skabb were sent into the woods, Gildar, Ballista and Skabb were going to be hunting whereas me and Nightingale were going to be collecting what we could find of the fruits, nuts and berries around the woods, it was rather early in the year so there wasn't that much to collect, but we did quite well considering.

We had been wandering around together for around two hours when we came to a clearing, the sun was shining bright above us, and flowers covered the grass, we were rather tired from walking around all this time, we put our baskets down and went to lie down, I took Nightingale's hand and walked her to the middle of the clearing, we both sat down on the soft grass, I turned to face the opposite way as Nightingale and leant back slightly so I could still see her face, the sunlight lit her face up perfectly and shone bright in her eyes, I must have been looking at her around 5 minutes before having a look around us, birds were singing in the trees and butterflies were fluttering from flower to flower, I leant back further laying down completely looking up and the sky, there wasn't a cloud in view, turning my attention back to Nightingale, she was looking at her hands, she had a few stains on her fingers from when she'd been picking some of the berries, she reached into the pouch on her belt and brought out a small handkerchief, but as she pulled it out a battered and bent envelope also fell out.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Oh, I forgot all about this. It was given to me yesterday while I was waiting for you to get back, I said that I was going to open it later."

"Who's it from?"

"I don't know yet."

"Well open it and see."

Slowly Nightingale opened the envelope and brought out a small piece of paper, she had a look of confusion on her face first of all, but that look soon melted away and changed to a look of shock and surprise.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's from my ex-boyfriend, Raven."

"What does he say?"

Nightingale swallowed and sighed deeply before reading out the letter.

"Dear Nightingale. It's been a long time since we've spoken, and even longer since we've seen each other, I heard from your sister about where you are now, and I thought that I might visit you so I could finally see your face again, if you don't want to see me then just let me know, I won't mind, but it would be nice just to hear from you again, even better if I could see your face and actually hear your voice. Just think about it. From Raven. X." She read.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked.

"I don't know. It's been so long since I've seen him."

She put the letter back in her pouch and lay down on the grass looking up at the sky, I did the same laying in the opposite direction but made sure that my head was level with hers.

"Why haven't you spoken to him for a while?"

"I don't know, he just suddenly stopped sending me letters."

"Was that when you broke up when he stopped talking to you?"

"No, we were in a relationship for around 5 months, we then decided that it wasn't going to work between us, plus my dad had scared him off, when we broke up we didn't speak for around a month, but he then sent a letter one day out of the blue, we continued sending letters to each other for around another 5 months, then he stopped talking to me, and not that long after that I met you, that made me feel loads better."

I smiled. "So why don't you send him a letter back, it might cheer him up, he must be missing you, that's why he'd like to see you, don't you feel the same way?"

"Yeah, to be honest, I do. But I don't feel comfortable with seeing him."

"Then just send him a letter."

"I don't know."

"Well whatever you do babe, I know that you'll be doing the right thing."

I leant over to her and kissed her gently on the end of her nose, she giggled and ran her hand through my hair, I leant forward a bit more to her lips, we sat up slightly so we could embrace this moment, I ran my right hand down her right arm and onto her waist, time suddenly stood still, with my left arm I wrapped it around Nightingale and placed my left hand against her back she groaned as I pressed my body against hers, she tilted her head to the right and wrapped her arms around my neck, I could feel her heart beating faster and her lips slide against mine, my tongue pressed gently against her lips as she opened her mouth inviting me in, her tongue gracefully moved along with mine, I've never felt this way before, the thoughts going through my mind were hard to explain, my heart was pounding and my palms began to sweat, moving my left hand from Nightingale's back to the ground, I leant forward even more making Nightingale lean back until she was lying flat on the ground, she moved her arms away from my neck and ran her hands through my hair once more, Nightingale sighed as our lips finally parted.

We were lying in the clearing for around 30 minutes, Nightingale lay with her head resting on my chest while I was holding her hand.

"I've decided that I'm going to let Raven visit." She said suddenly, breaking the silence.

"What made you change your mind?"

"I was just thinking that it's been a long time since I've seen him, and I might as well see what he really wants, he might want to get back together with me, I'll need to tell him face to face."

As long as Nightingale feels comfortable with her ex visiting, I was also fine with it. After another ten minutes we picked the baskets back up and walked back to the castle, hand in hand, Gildar, Ballista and Skabb were also walking back to the castle, they'd had some success too with their task, we caught up with them and walked back to the castle with them.

"So what have you two been up to apart from your given task?" Ballista asked.

"Nothing important." I replied.

"Kook, is that lipstick in the corner of your mouth?"

"What?"

I quickly wiped the corner of my mouth, when there was no lipstick left on my hand I realised that it was a trick.

"Gotcha." Said Gildar smiling. "Come on, what else have you been doing?"

"We were just relaxing in s clearing not that far from here for forty minutes or so."

"But what were you really doing?"

"Just talking."

"Oh, and I got a letter from my ex boyfriend." Said Nightingale.

"We didn't know that you have an ex."

"Yeah, we stopped communicating a while, and he sent me a letter yesterday, I've only just opened it now."

"What did he say?"

"He said that he really wants to see me again and was wondering if he could visit the castle to see me, I've decided to write back to him saying that I'd like to see him too.

"What's his name?"

"His name's Raven."

"Cool name."

The thought of Nightingale's ex coming to the castle made me feel weird, what if he tries to get back together with her, she might go with him and leave me, I couldn't live with that.

Nightingale sent her letter the next day, it was going to be a while until she heard from Raven again, but at least it would give us enough time to prepare for him, and sort of know what he's like. The reply to Nightingale's letter came three days later.

"He's replied." She said that morning.

"What does he say?" I asked.

"Dear Nightingale. It was so good to hear from you again, and I can't wait to see you again, by the time you're reading this, I'll be around 3 days from arriving, your sister told me that you've got yourself a new fella, I wouldn't mind meeting him, he seems like a good guy from what your sister told me about him. See you in a few days, Raven." She read.

"Three days away?" I asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about him, he may seem like a really tough guy at first glance, but he's a really friendly gentle guy once you get to know him."

I hope that Nightingale's right, if he's bigger and stronger than me I'm going to be like a mouse to a cat, vulnerable.

Those three days came and went sooner than we expected, the morning that Raven was going to arrive me and Nightingale were both stood by the castle gates, Nightingale was very impatient and nervous and was pacing up and down.

"Babe, just calm down, you're getting too worked up." I said wrapping my arms around her.

"I know, it's just that, I've not seen him for years, what if he's changed?"

"I'm sure that it's not going to be that bad if he has."

Nightingale wasn't the only one who was nervous, I was as worried as she was, I didn't even know the guy, I didn't know what to expect, but my curiosity was soon dismissed when he finally arrived, he looked exactly the way Nightingale had described him the day before, he was wearing black clothes, he had a black cloak draped over his shoulders, he had black leather boots and leather gloves, and the neck of his top was decorated with black feathers, he wasn't that much taller than me so that wasn't a problem, he looked tough but was he really, I guess that I'll be finding out soon enough.

Knightriss and Madeva let him into the castle and he slowly walked over to us, he put his case down and walked over to Nightingale, threw her arms around her, Nightingale didn't move a muscle, her arms remained at her sides, the only change was her eyes, they were now wide with shock.

"It's so good to see you again Nightingale." Said Raven.

"You too Raven." Nightingale replied.

"I've got to say though Nightingale, this is a really impressive place."

"I'm glad you think so, I'm really proud to be working here, I'll give you a tour later if you want."

"Yeah, okay."

He turned towards me.

"You must be Nightingale's new boyfriend." He said holding his hand out.

"Yeah that's me, the name's Kookaburra, but you can call me Kook if you want."

"Well it's wonderful to meet you Kook."

He smiled, his teeth were pure white, even whiter than Nightingale's, that most definitely wasn't natural, but I smiled back not wanting to be rude.

"Wonderful to meet you too Raven." I said shaking his hand.

"So, how about that tour then?" Nightingale asked.

"Okay." Raven replied picking up his case again.

I watched as Nightingale and Raven walked back into the castle, they looked almost identical, they could easily be mistaken for brother and sister, I would if I didn't know them. raven seems like a really nicer bloke, maybe there really is nothing to worry about, but I just had a feeling down in the pit of my stomach which made me think that something bad was bound to happen over these next few days.