Disclaimer: Same as the other three, except I don't own the Queen of England or Buckingham Palace.
Chapter Four
The Queen of England
BUCKINGHAM"This place is bigger than I expected. Isn't it lovely, Sara?"
Sara looked up from the bush she and Kurama were inspecting. "Sure." She turned back to the bush.
Aragorn put his arm around Faythe. "What does she know? I think it's cool."
Legolas came up behind them. "Just ignore her."
They were all interrupted when Kurama and Sara started yelling. Hiei was shocked. Kurama never yelled! "I'm telling you, you're wrong! That's not the name!"
"Yes, it is!"
"No!"
Sara thought for a moment. "Wait. We're both right. It goes by both names."
"Oh, yeah."
Faythe came up and hit them. Or, she tried to. Both ducked at the same time and glared at her. Sara pointed at the castle. "Go bother the guards or something."
"Okay." Faythe ran off.
"No! I was joking! Come back!"
GUARDS
Faythe was poking a guard in the chest. "Blink or something!" The guard was just staring at her.
The others came up behind her. "Faythe, maybe we should go inside," Legolas said, giving the guard a nervous glance.
"But…"
"Now!" Sara ushered them all inside.
INSIDE THE CASTLE
Hiei was examining a suit of armor when Jake came over. "Check it out!" He was swinging a sword around.
"Jake, that isn't a-" Hiei cried out in pain and stumbled backward, crashing into the armor. Sara was there in an instant, yelling at Jake and checking on Hiei.
Just then, the queen came over. She stood there, her hands on her hips. "Stop bleeding on my carpet, dammit!"
Sara calmly bandaged Hiei's arm before turning to the queen. "Who the hell do you think you are? My husband is bleeding, possibly dying, and all you can say is 'STOP BLEEDING ON MY CARPET'?" She breathed heavily and glared at the queen. "If it's not okay for him to bleed wherever he so chooses, then I'M THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND!"
Faythe laid a hand on Sara's shoulder. "Sara, hon, that is the Queen of England."
"I don't care! The Queen of England can-" She stopped. "The Queen of England?" Sara flushed and bowed her head. "Please accept my apologies."
The queen smiled and waved a hand dismissively. "Nonsense. Even if you were rude, you have spunk. I admire that."
A short silence followed that line. "You…admire that?"
"Absolutely."
Sara was frozen. Then, she snapped out of her trance and shrugged. "Whatever," she said, walking away. "Come on, guys."
Legolas walked up to the queen, flashed a debonair smile, winked, and kissed her hand. "M'lady," she said in a voice thick with honey, "may we meet again on better terms."
The queen smiled. "You have manners. I wish all the men of you generation were as you are."
Legolas pretended to blush. He bowed to her and walked out, following the others.
The queen smiled to herself. "Even if you are as queer as a pink picnic basket."
The group had found the library. They were searching for something else to see. After about half an hour, Sara slammed her book down. "I got nothin'!"
"Here's something! No…wait…that's in China. Never mind."
Hiei was asleep in the corner and Kurama, Legolas, and Aragorn were pouring over book after book. God only knew where Jake was.
Faythe put her book back on the shelf. "What are we going to do?"
Sara went to the corner and sank down next to Hiei. She put her head on his shoulder. "I don't care. One of you find something." She yawned.
Faythe was reading a book called, Touring London. She ran across an interesting article. "Hey! It says here that every house where an interesting or famous person has lived is marked with a blue plaque!"
"Oh yeah, we're gonna walk the streets of London, looking for houses with little blue plaques on them?" Hiei said, waking up enough to make fun of Faythe. "That's not going to happen."
THE STREETS OF LONDON
"I can't believe we're doing this!" Faythe and Aragorn had managed to drag Hiei out of the palace and into the street. Kurama had followed, but Legolas had gone off to find Jake.
"Bright light," Sara whispered and she buried her face in Kurama's neck. Hiei glared at them.
Faythe smiled at him. "I'm sure if you were tall enough, she would do that to you." Hiei didn't have a chance to comment because, at that moment, Aragorn pointed to a house.
"There's one!"
Faythe squinted. "Oh my God! It's Edgar Allen Poe's house!"
Hiei cocked an eyebrow. "Who?"
Sara snorted. "He's one of Faythe's favorite authors. I can't stand him myself."
"Well no one asked you."
Sara yawned and sat down on the curb. They all looked at her.
Kurama got down on one knee and felt her forehead. "Maybe you should go to bed."
"No. I'm fine."
He sighed and handed her a blue plant. "Here. Eat this."
Sara ate and smiled. "Thanks. It's probably jet lag or something anyway…"
Faythe stared at them, horrified. "Did you just eat a blue plant?"
"Yeah…"
"NEVER EAT THE BLUE ONES!"
"Why not?" Sara was perplexed, not for herself, but for her friend.
"Blue is not a natural plant color! There are no plants, that aren't hybrids, which produce blue fruits or flowers! Blue is a color of poison!"
"Yeah, well, it tasted all right to me."
"Do you really think I'd poison Sara?" Kurama asked, quietly simmering with anger.
Faythe looked down sheepishly. "Well, no, but I was concerned! I thought-"
"Yeah. That's your problem. You think," Hiei said.
"'All the world's a stage,'" said Aragorn, more to himself than to anyone else.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Sara demanded.
"It's from a song: 'All the world's indeed a stage/And we are merely players/Performers and portrayers/To each another's audience/Inside the gilded cage.' It's a good song." Everyone looked at him weird. "I was watching you argue, and it looked like something in a movie, so I said to myself, 'all the world's a stage.'"
"Okay…moving on…let's go to a pub!" Faythe exclaimed.
"You can't drink," Legolas pointed out. He had returned with Jake, but hadn't been noticed in all the commotion.
"At least, not by human standards." Everyone turned to Sara. She shrugged. "She can drink in the Makai."
"Unfortunately, you three are the only ones who have any idea how to get to the Makai."
This was followed by three responses of, "I'm not going."
Faythe sighed. "Fine." She thought for a moment. "Let's go to France!"
"What about the blue plaques?"
"Who cares? I want to go to France!"