Thank you to everyone that takes time to review. I truly appreciate it! The name of the tea Teela drinks is just something I made up; as far as I'm aware, it does not exist in real life. I didn't think they'd have peppermint on Eternia (though as Sarah pointed out, they had potatoes and corn in the old 80's cartoons so why not?) so I made something similar up. I like to challenge myself by coming up with unusual names. Enjoy...
Adora bade her friends goodbye and told them she would see them when she returned to Etheria before they stepped through the portal that would take them back to their home world. As soon as the portal closed, she turned to Hawk and smiled. "We can head back to the palace now," she told him. "I'm so glad you decided to stay on Eternia with me."
"I'm glad your parents don't mind my staying," he replied, returning her smile.
They stopped long enough for Adora to thank the Sorceress for everything and then made their way back out to the Attack Trak and climbed in. They didn't speak much on the ride back to the palace, both of them lost in thought. When they had returned the Attack Trak to its place in the hangar bay, Adora looked at Hawk.
"Would you like to walk with me in the gardens?" she asked.
Hawk nodded and followed her to the palace gardens where they strolled side by side.
"Hawk, may I ask you something?" Adora asked tentatively.
"Anything," he told her.
"Where do you see our relationship headed? I mean, do you see us one day getting married or do you think that what we have now is all we'll ever have? I don't want to put any pressure on you, but we've been together for a year now and I've been wondering about it."
Hawk took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. "I've actually been giving that a lot of thought in the last couple of days," he told her, leading her to a bench near the palace fountain and turning to face her before taking her hands in his. "Adora, you're a princess and with that comes a lot of expectations and responsibilities. As long as you remain on Etheria as a leader in the rebellion and you're fighting the Horde, you don't really have to worry about what's expected of you here on Eternia too much. When you come home to visit, even though there are things that your family asks of you as the princess, I think that they also try to shelter you from a lot of the things that they wouldn't if you were living here permanently."
Adora blinked at this and nodded slowly after she'd considered it for several moments. "I think you're right," she agreed quietly. "Go on."
"Someday you are going to come back to Eternia for good and when that happens, those things are going to become an everyday part of your life," Hawk told her. "There will also be expectations and responsibilities placed on whoever you end up marrying and so that person has to be ready, and willing, to accept that. I care a great deal for you and I don't want to hurt you Adora. Not ever. I have to consider that if you and I were to get married, I would have to eventually leave my ship, my crew and my home world and live here~ on dry land~ for the rest of my life. I have to be sure that if I accept all of the duties that come with being the husband of the princess of Eternia and leave everything I've ever known behind, that I am not going to someday regret doing so and wind up resenting you for it. It has to be something that I am ready to do as much as it is what I'm willing to do. Am I making any sense?"
Adora smiled at him softly. "You are making perfect sense," she assured him.
"Adora," Hawk said looking into her eyes, "you are worth the sacrifices; I want you to understand that. I just don't want to make any hasty decisions that I'll someday wind up being angry and bitter towards you for. You deserve better than that."
Adora blushed and looked down with a shy smile. "Thank you Hawk," she said looking back up at him. "Thank you for being honest with me. I want you to be sure that you really would be happy if you left Etheria and came to Eternia with me for good, too, so I can give you all the time you need to think about it and make your decision."
Hawk gave her a grin. "I'm a salty old sea dog and I'm not good with emotions," he told her. "But I…" he took another deep breath. "I love you Adora. I love you and I only ever want you to be happy."
Adora's face lit up and her smile grew wider. "I love you too, Hawk," she told him, "and you make me happy."
Hawk leaned forward and kissed her gently.
They separated from the kiss and smiled at each other before Adora placed her head on his shoulder. "I was going to go see if Man-At-Arms needed any help with anything today," she told him quietly. "With Adam and Teela both gone, they're going to be short-handed around here."
"Would it be all right if I came along?" Hawk asked. "I'm very curious about the technology they have on this world."
"I don't see why it wouldn't be," she told him, standing.
Hawk stood as well and they began to make their way towards Man-At-Arms' workshop.
When they arrived, Adora looked at her father's oldest friend and most trusted advisor and smiled. "Man-At-Arms we're here to see if you could use our help with anything. I know with both Adam and Teela gone you probably could use the extra hands."
Duncan smiled fondly at the princess. "Did Adam ever teach you to fly a Wind Raider?" he asked.
Adora's eyes widened and she shook her head in the negative. "We never seem to have the time when I'm here. He only taught me how to work the Attack Trak and even then, I always just tell Trak where to go and it drives itself."
"Well, now is as good a time as any for you to learn," he told her. "I'll teach you both to fly the Wind Raider."
"Duncan, the idea was for us to help you, not for you to spend all of your time teaching us," Adora protested. "How are you supposed to get any work done if you're not here?"
"It just so happens that I am caught up on everything of importance that needed to be done and have a bit of free time," Duncan told her, "and the best use of free time is to find something productive to do. Teaching the two of you would be productive, so let's go."
Adora grinned at Hawk as they followed him out of the workshop and back to the hangar bay to a Wind Raider.
They spent the rest of the morning, and all day after lunch, learning how to fly a Wind Raider.
Duncan called a halt to the lessons when it was time to go to dinner.
"How are your lessons in flying a Wind Raider coming along?" King Randor asked Adora and Hawk as they all sat around the dinner table enjoying their meal.
"Wonderfully," Adora told him. "I'm very confident that I could handle one on my own if I needed to."
"That's very good," her father said approvingly. "Captain Hawk?"
"It's easy as catching a scrimp fish in a net," he said with a smile. "I think I could easily handle flying one on my own."
"Glad to hear it," King Randor said unsure of the pirate's phrasing.
They spent the rest of the meal listening as Duncan, Adora and Hawk shared about their lessons, her parents' eyes widening when Adora told how she'd narrowly missed a large rock formation because she had been watching Duncan and not in front of her.
"Thank the Elders you're safe," her father said. "That could have turned out very badly."
Adora nodded. "At least I learned my lesson without anyone getting hurt."
"True," her father replied.
"Are you going to continue your lessons tomorrow?" Queen Marlena asked them.
"If Duncan has time and still wants to risk being in the same vehicle with me," Adora said with a grin.
Duncan smiled at her. "Of course we can continue tomorrow," he assured her. "You only had that one minor mishap and you learned your lesson. My schedule is clear after lunch tomorrow so we can continue then. Once I feel the two of you are proficient enough in the Wind Raider I'll teach you how to manually operate the Attack Trak."
They finished their meals and then Duncan went back to his workshop and the queen invited Adora and Hawk to join her and the king in their sitting room for a while.
They had all settled in the sitting room and were engaged in conversation when there was a loud explosion and the alarms began blaring.
"What's going on?" Hawk asked as the king jumped up with a curse and moved to look out the window.
"Skeletor," Randor exclaimed. "He's attacking the palace!"
Adora and Hawk stood. "Hawk, would you please go see if Man-At-Arms needs your help? I'll be down soon."
Hawk nodded and dashed out the door to go find Man-At-Arms and as soon as he was gone, Adora pulled out her sword and raised it in the air.
"For the honor of Grayskull," she said and was surrounded by flashing lights. "I am SHE-RA!"
Her parents watched the transformation in wide-eyed awe and when She-Ra stood before them they both blinked.
"Father, please get Mother to safety," she said in the deeper tones that was She-Ra's voice. Then she ran out the door and through the corridors of the palace towards the courtyard.
Hawk had been halfway to Man-At-Arms' workshop when he realized that it wasn't likely that he would be there and he didn't know where else to look for him. Deciding it would be best to just get Adora and have her lead him to wherever the battle would be, he headed back towards the king and queen's suite.
He saw She-Ra race out of their suite and frowned slightly in confusion as he stepped into the shadows, especially when he saw the king lead the queen out of the same door and down another corridor. When Adora didn't appear after a minute, he headed in the direction he'd seen She-Ra go and found himself exiting the palace onto the courtyard, right into the middle of the battle.
He quickly scanned the courtyard and saw the palace guards, Man-At-Arms and She-Ra along with several robots and odd creatures engaged in battle, but there was no sign of Adora.
"Hawk, look out!" She-Ra yelled and he rolled just in time to miss being hit by a blast of some sort.
Realizing he didn't have time to look for Adora, Hawk moved quickly to She-Ra's side and began to engage in battle.
A red-colored creature that reminded him a bit of Grizzlor ran towards him and Hawk engaged his power ring before hitting the brute with a blow that sent him flying backwards to crash into a wall, knocking him unconscious. He saw a blue colored man with a steel jaw aiming his arm~ which looked like a laser blaster of some kind~ in his direction and he managed to dodge the blast of energy that shot towards him. Grabbing his laser cutlass he ran towards the creature, dodging the blasts from his arm, and when he reached him he sliced his blaster arm in half and rolled as the thing exploded, knocking the creature out.
Hawk was suddenly wrapped in some sort of white, sticky rope-like material and he struggled against it as he saw a creature that looked like it was part spider heading for him. Angling his laser cutlass just the right way, he cut through the web-like material and punched the creature in the face with the hand that bore his power ring just as it reached him and it sent the creature flying backwards to crash into the red creature that had first attacked him.
She-Ra was using her sword, which she'd converted to a shield, to deflect the blasts from Skeletor's and Evil-Lyn's staffs and she finally managed to deflect one back at Evil-Lyn, freezing her in place. She turned her full attention to Skeletor, still deflecting his blasts, and began advancing toward the evil sorcerer. "Give it up bone head," she said. "You're the only one left standing."
Skeletor did a quick scan of the area and realized that she was right and he became furious. "Where is He-Man?" he demanded as he shot another blast at She-Ra and took a step backwards.
"Oh, he's around," she assured him. "I'm sure he'll be flattered that you asked about him."
"Curse you, you muscle-bound menace!" he said angrily. He raised his havoc staff and in a flash of light blue light, he and his minions disappeared.
"These villains all sound exactly the same," She-Ra muttered as she made her way towards the wounded soldiers and began healing them. She had finished healing the last one when she turned around and saw Hawk standing there.