(Everything here belongs to the stupendous Sherwood Smith. I am merely
borrowing everything. I have not created anyone or anything in here.
Basically, I only wish I did.)
(Well, I'm back again! Thank you to everyone that has reviewed so far... seven people! Whoo! And thank you to everyone that voted for me. Two people. One being me. But hey! I'm not greedy! Go read the other writers and vote for them! I would... if only I hadn't voted for myself... *Breaks down onto hands and knees* I just wanted to feel special! Is that a crime? *Sob*) (By the way: I wouldn't vote for me if I were you.) (Is it just me, or is that sentence very confusing?) (Too many I's and me's...)
(I dedicate this chapter to Liz and Dayna; heroes... er... *cough* heroines... to those of us with time on our hands aplenty, an abundance of imagination, and no maturity whatsoever.)
Last Chapter
I sat at my writing desk, a silly smile on my face, humming an untitled tune of my own. 'He loves me,' I thought as I plucked another petal off the daisy. The vase on the desk looked forlorn without it's centerpiece. 'He loves me not.' I stuck my tongue out at the petal.
'He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me.' There were no more petals left. I sighed and sat back in my chair, smiling and humming.
"My lady," Mora said, entering the room. "You have a visitor."
Tamara brushed past Mora, her cheeks flushed as if she had just run to the room.
"Is it true?" she demanded.
"What?" I asked, taken aback.
"Are you truly Shevraeth's date to Russav's get-together?"
"Well," I said, squirming a little, "more like companions than dates."
Tamara sort of hopped a little, clapping her hands with glee. "Oh, that makes me so pleased! I knew Russav was holding something from me. Oh, and he was being so cruel, holding it over my head. I'll wipe that smirk off his face when I tell him I will indeed not be joining him as his date-"
"Why not?" I asked concernedly.
Tamara just smiled. "I admit, it was the gentlemanly thing to do, taking you under his wing, but that does not give him the right to completely ignore me for months on end."
"But you-" I stopped midsentence, not wishing to annoy Tamara.
"I what?" she asked, still wrapped in her own dream world.
I took a deep breath. "But you acted in exactly the same manner when you thought it would be beneficial to marry Vidanric."
The wrapping came undone, and Tamara turned her eyes towards me. "I know," she said unhappily. "But I have learned my lesson, and I am tired of these goings on behind closed doors. I want him to just explain to me why he was doing this. I want him to tell me what will happen next rather than him telling his friend to tell their friend to tell me."
"He does that?" I asked, shocked. I thought that had ended when children learned to read.
"Unfortunately," she replied bitterly. "And Vidanric was usually the friend to tell my friend. I would never seriously chase after him. Never."
I nodded sympathetically. "I'm sure everything will be sorted out in the end."
"You can't blame me for wanting power."
"I don't. I tried to take the crown, remember? I wanted power too."
Tamara smiled distantly. "I know."
Suddenly I had an idea. "What if we had a plan?" I suggested.
"What sort of plan?" Tamara asked. She pretended to be disinterested, but her fan was waving a mile a minute.
I smiled. "A plan to put both Vidanric and Russav in their places."
Tamara clapped her hands in delight. "Oh yes! That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Tamara and I spent the greater part of the morning deciding what exactly we would do.
Our final plan was brilliant.
It took a greater portion of the morning, and much of the afternoon, but eventually, all the kinks were worked out of our plan.
I stretched and yawned as Tamara did the same. We smiled at each other. I felt a bubble of laughter rise up in my throat. I giggled. Tamara held it in longer. But then she let out a giggle herself.
"What's so funny?" Bran asked, entering. We told him our plan.
He roared with laughter. Wiping tears from his eyes, he said, "They have it coming to them. That's all I can say."
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
(A/N: I wondered what to write as an ending. A grand finale. Something that would shock you to no end. Something you would never expect.) (Okay, some of us would expect.) (But before you read the last installment, let me just say: you don't have to do this. You can pretend you read the last part, and make up your own conclusions about the ending.) (Live blissfully oblivious.) (Or you can continue on and find out how it really ends. In my twisted mind.)
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"Vidanric, they're lovely," I crooned. He had given me flowers. Daffodils. "Unfortunately I'm... I'm... Aaachoooo!"
"Allergic?" Vidanric supplied, grabbing the flowers and chucking them out the window.
"Very much so," I said, rubbing my nose.
Once I had gained my bearings, Vidanric escorted me outside to my waiting horse. Everyone else was already there. They whispered to each other, staring at me. Tamara winked. Bran wiggled his eyebrows as Nee elbowed him in the stomach. I just smiled at them serenely.
"Are we ready to go?" Russav asked everyone, not waiting for a reply before starting off down a trail. Naturally, everyone followed him.
"Come this way," Vidanric said, leading his horse down a different path than the others. I followed him, smiling to myself.
We passed beautiful flowers, rabbits digging a hole for their home, deer eating leaves off the trees... it was gorgeous. Apparently, Vidanric was leading me to a surprise he had in store.
"Mel," he said seriously, turning to me in his saddle, "I just wanted to tell you something."
"Oh?" I asked. "What's that?"
Vidanric opened his mouth to reply just as we were interrupted.
"Hello, dear cousin," a voice behind us said. Vidanric and I whipped around, and there was Flauvic, dressed to kill, lounging against a tree.
"Flauvic?" Vidanric said uncomprehendingly.
Flauvic sighed. "You anger me, Vidanric. You turned me into a tree. The blue slippers I wore will never be the same." I looked at his feet, and there were his slippers... brown and looking kind of barky.
"You cannot have Mel!" Vidanric said, moving in front of me to protect me.
Flauvic smiled. "I think I already do."
I smiled at my savior, dismounted my horse, and ran into Flauvic's outstretched arms. Behind us, Vidanric sputtered words that sounded little more than stuttering.
"You're turning me down for... for..."
"Flauvic?" Flauvic supplied.
"What?" I said innocently. "You can't expect me to hang around with sticks- in-the-mud all my life."
"But I thought you loved me!" Vidanric wailed.
I clucked at him. "Au contraire. I pretended to- key word pretend- love you. But that was all before I realized how powerful my dear Flauvic was. You can't expect me to spend my life with a man that cannot color coordinate his own stockings!"
Flauvic smirked. "Blue, red, and white on the top of the drawer, green, purple, and black on the bottom."
Vidanric shook his head. "You're leaving me for this... this joke?" he exclaimed.
"Well, at least I'm a funny joke instead of a dry, icky stick-in-the-mud who just lost their girl." Flauvic countered challengingly.
The party we had originally set out with reached us.
"Flauvic?" Savona said in wonder.
"Savona," Flauvic smiled. "Your expression right now looks so much like Vidanric's."
"Savona?" Vidanric said.
"Bran?" Savona said.
"Mel?" Bran said, enjoying the game.
"Tamara," I shrugged.
"Russav." She said, sighing.
"Vidanric?" Savona said.
"Flauvic?" Vidanric said.
"Okay," Flauvic said irritably. "Now that we have completed the name game, I'll be collecting the crown right about now."
"But I like the name game," Bran grumbled.
"You'll never get past me!" Savona stated defiantly.
Flauvic kicked him in the knee. Whimpering, Savona hid behind Tamara.
"Oh, stop that," she said angrily. Swinging off her horse, she walked towards Flauvic and me.
"Go beat him up," Savona whined.
Instead of beating Savona up, she linked her arm with one of his, and I linked mine with his other.
"Tamara?" Savona whimpered.
Tamara just smiled at him.
"We can beat Flauvic!" Vidanric shouted to the party. "There are more of us then him!"
Everyone looked at each other uneasily.
"His knee looks pretty painful," Deric said uncomfortably.
"And he's right," Renna said awkwardly. "You really are a stick in the mud."
Russav and Vidanric looked around. "You can't do this to us!" Vidanric cried.
"Yes we can." I said. We all turned our backs on them and returned to the castle.
"But you're our friends!" Savona cried. "Trishe? Nee? Bran?"
Bran shrugged. "Hey, you snooze, you lose."
All the doors were locked against the two of them. The last we heard of them, they were headed for Eriv-El-Erval to find someone to support their cause.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"Thank you!" Flauvic cried the next Christmas as he opened my gift to him. Faux-fur footie pajamas. In pink.
I smiled distantly.
"Are you alright?" Flauvic asked, trying out Tamara's gift to him (101 Yoga Poses for Power-Hungry Rulers). It was rather hard to carry a serious conversation with him as he performed the Blooming Lotus position.
"No, nothing is wrong," I said, stroking his gift to me (a dainty crown crested in diamonds and rubies).
"I know that look," Tamara said, resting her crown on her head (diamonds and emeralds). "You're in love."
I smiled at her. "You're right. I have money, position, power. I know it's love."
"That's my girl...s." Flauvic said, making the word plural to encompass both Tamara and me. He grinned dreamily as he switched to Stretching Cat.
(Black Rose, you really should make those rules iron hard. Any mentally disturbed nutter could change their story at any moment and what appears to be a date between Mel and Danric could veer into something else... But, alas, that isn't in the rulebook, so I can warp characters here all I want. I haven't gotten many votes, and I didn't expect to get many votes. In fact, I'm surprised I got any.) (I just hope that this still counts as an entry into the contest.) (And you know what the scary thing is? I originally intended this to be a serious fanfic... too bad my maturity is shot... (For all those grumbling that I did it wrong, I told you not to vote for me! *Victory dance.* Told ya so... told ya so...) (There's still time to take back your votes.) (I'll still have a vote: my own!) (I have a vote!) (Oh yeah!) (I win!) (*Sigh*)
(Well, I'm back again! Thank you to everyone that has reviewed so far... seven people! Whoo! And thank you to everyone that voted for me. Two people. One being me. But hey! I'm not greedy! Go read the other writers and vote for them! I would... if only I hadn't voted for myself... *Breaks down onto hands and knees* I just wanted to feel special! Is that a crime? *Sob*) (By the way: I wouldn't vote for me if I were you.) (Is it just me, or is that sentence very confusing?) (Too many I's and me's...)
(I dedicate this chapter to Liz and Dayna; heroes... er... *cough* heroines... to those of us with time on our hands aplenty, an abundance of imagination, and no maturity whatsoever.)
Last Chapter
I sat at my writing desk, a silly smile on my face, humming an untitled tune of my own. 'He loves me,' I thought as I plucked another petal off the daisy. The vase on the desk looked forlorn without it's centerpiece. 'He loves me not.' I stuck my tongue out at the petal.
'He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me.' There were no more petals left. I sighed and sat back in my chair, smiling and humming.
"My lady," Mora said, entering the room. "You have a visitor."
Tamara brushed past Mora, her cheeks flushed as if she had just run to the room.
"Is it true?" she demanded.
"What?" I asked, taken aback.
"Are you truly Shevraeth's date to Russav's get-together?"
"Well," I said, squirming a little, "more like companions than dates."
Tamara sort of hopped a little, clapping her hands with glee. "Oh, that makes me so pleased! I knew Russav was holding something from me. Oh, and he was being so cruel, holding it over my head. I'll wipe that smirk off his face when I tell him I will indeed not be joining him as his date-"
"Why not?" I asked concernedly.
Tamara just smiled. "I admit, it was the gentlemanly thing to do, taking you under his wing, but that does not give him the right to completely ignore me for months on end."
"But you-" I stopped midsentence, not wishing to annoy Tamara.
"I what?" she asked, still wrapped in her own dream world.
I took a deep breath. "But you acted in exactly the same manner when you thought it would be beneficial to marry Vidanric."
The wrapping came undone, and Tamara turned her eyes towards me. "I know," she said unhappily. "But I have learned my lesson, and I am tired of these goings on behind closed doors. I want him to just explain to me why he was doing this. I want him to tell me what will happen next rather than him telling his friend to tell their friend to tell me."
"He does that?" I asked, shocked. I thought that had ended when children learned to read.
"Unfortunately," she replied bitterly. "And Vidanric was usually the friend to tell my friend. I would never seriously chase after him. Never."
I nodded sympathetically. "I'm sure everything will be sorted out in the end."
"You can't blame me for wanting power."
"I don't. I tried to take the crown, remember? I wanted power too."
Tamara smiled distantly. "I know."
Suddenly I had an idea. "What if we had a plan?" I suggested.
"What sort of plan?" Tamara asked. She pretended to be disinterested, but her fan was waving a mile a minute.
I smiled. "A plan to put both Vidanric and Russav in their places."
Tamara clapped her hands in delight. "Oh yes! That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Tamara and I spent the greater part of the morning deciding what exactly we would do.
Our final plan was brilliant.
It took a greater portion of the morning, and much of the afternoon, but eventually, all the kinks were worked out of our plan.
I stretched and yawned as Tamara did the same. We smiled at each other. I felt a bubble of laughter rise up in my throat. I giggled. Tamara held it in longer. But then she let out a giggle herself.
"What's so funny?" Bran asked, entering. We told him our plan.
He roared with laughter. Wiping tears from his eyes, he said, "They have it coming to them. That's all I can say."
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
(A/N: I wondered what to write as an ending. A grand finale. Something that would shock you to no end. Something you would never expect.) (Okay, some of us would expect.) (But before you read the last installment, let me just say: you don't have to do this. You can pretend you read the last part, and make up your own conclusions about the ending.) (Live blissfully oblivious.) (Or you can continue on and find out how it really ends. In my twisted mind.)
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"Vidanric, they're lovely," I crooned. He had given me flowers. Daffodils. "Unfortunately I'm... I'm... Aaachoooo!"
"Allergic?" Vidanric supplied, grabbing the flowers and chucking them out the window.
"Very much so," I said, rubbing my nose.
Once I had gained my bearings, Vidanric escorted me outside to my waiting horse. Everyone else was already there. They whispered to each other, staring at me. Tamara winked. Bran wiggled his eyebrows as Nee elbowed him in the stomach. I just smiled at them serenely.
"Are we ready to go?" Russav asked everyone, not waiting for a reply before starting off down a trail. Naturally, everyone followed him.
"Come this way," Vidanric said, leading his horse down a different path than the others. I followed him, smiling to myself.
We passed beautiful flowers, rabbits digging a hole for their home, deer eating leaves off the trees... it was gorgeous. Apparently, Vidanric was leading me to a surprise he had in store.
"Mel," he said seriously, turning to me in his saddle, "I just wanted to tell you something."
"Oh?" I asked. "What's that?"
Vidanric opened his mouth to reply just as we were interrupted.
"Hello, dear cousin," a voice behind us said. Vidanric and I whipped around, and there was Flauvic, dressed to kill, lounging against a tree.
"Flauvic?" Vidanric said uncomprehendingly.
Flauvic sighed. "You anger me, Vidanric. You turned me into a tree. The blue slippers I wore will never be the same." I looked at his feet, and there were his slippers... brown and looking kind of barky.
"You cannot have Mel!" Vidanric said, moving in front of me to protect me.
Flauvic smiled. "I think I already do."
I smiled at my savior, dismounted my horse, and ran into Flauvic's outstretched arms. Behind us, Vidanric sputtered words that sounded little more than stuttering.
"You're turning me down for... for..."
"Flauvic?" Flauvic supplied.
"What?" I said innocently. "You can't expect me to hang around with sticks- in-the-mud all my life."
"But I thought you loved me!" Vidanric wailed.
I clucked at him. "Au contraire. I pretended to- key word pretend- love you. But that was all before I realized how powerful my dear Flauvic was. You can't expect me to spend my life with a man that cannot color coordinate his own stockings!"
Flauvic smirked. "Blue, red, and white on the top of the drawer, green, purple, and black on the bottom."
Vidanric shook his head. "You're leaving me for this... this joke?" he exclaimed.
"Well, at least I'm a funny joke instead of a dry, icky stick-in-the-mud who just lost their girl." Flauvic countered challengingly.
The party we had originally set out with reached us.
"Flauvic?" Savona said in wonder.
"Savona," Flauvic smiled. "Your expression right now looks so much like Vidanric's."
"Savona?" Vidanric said.
"Bran?" Savona said.
"Mel?" Bran said, enjoying the game.
"Tamara," I shrugged.
"Russav." She said, sighing.
"Vidanric?" Savona said.
"Flauvic?" Vidanric said.
"Okay," Flauvic said irritably. "Now that we have completed the name game, I'll be collecting the crown right about now."
"But I like the name game," Bran grumbled.
"You'll never get past me!" Savona stated defiantly.
Flauvic kicked him in the knee. Whimpering, Savona hid behind Tamara.
"Oh, stop that," she said angrily. Swinging off her horse, she walked towards Flauvic and me.
"Go beat him up," Savona whined.
Instead of beating Savona up, she linked her arm with one of his, and I linked mine with his other.
"Tamara?" Savona whimpered.
Tamara just smiled at him.
"We can beat Flauvic!" Vidanric shouted to the party. "There are more of us then him!"
Everyone looked at each other uneasily.
"His knee looks pretty painful," Deric said uncomfortably.
"And he's right," Renna said awkwardly. "You really are a stick in the mud."
Russav and Vidanric looked around. "You can't do this to us!" Vidanric cried.
"Yes we can." I said. We all turned our backs on them and returned to the castle.
"But you're our friends!" Savona cried. "Trishe? Nee? Bran?"
Bran shrugged. "Hey, you snooze, you lose."
All the doors were locked against the two of them. The last we heard of them, they were headed for Eriv-El-Erval to find someone to support their cause.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
"Thank you!" Flauvic cried the next Christmas as he opened my gift to him. Faux-fur footie pajamas. In pink.
I smiled distantly.
"Are you alright?" Flauvic asked, trying out Tamara's gift to him (101 Yoga Poses for Power-Hungry Rulers). It was rather hard to carry a serious conversation with him as he performed the Blooming Lotus position.
"No, nothing is wrong," I said, stroking his gift to me (a dainty crown crested in diamonds and rubies).
"I know that look," Tamara said, resting her crown on her head (diamonds and emeralds). "You're in love."
I smiled at her. "You're right. I have money, position, power. I know it's love."
"That's my girl...s." Flauvic said, making the word plural to encompass both Tamara and me. He grinned dreamily as he switched to Stretching Cat.
(Black Rose, you really should make those rules iron hard. Any mentally disturbed nutter could change their story at any moment and what appears to be a date between Mel and Danric could veer into something else... But, alas, that isn't in the rulebook, so I can warp characters here all I want. I haven't gotten many votes, and I didn't expect to get many votes. In fact, I'm surprised I got any.) (I just hope that this still counts as an entry into the contest.) (And you know what the scary thing is? I originally intended this to be a serious fanfic... too bad my maturity is shot... (For all those grumbling that I did it wrong, I told you not to vote for me! *Victory dance.* Told ya so... told ya so...) (There's still time to take back your votes.) (I'll still have a vote: my own!) (I have a vote!) (Oh yeah!) (I win!) (*Sigh*)