The bathrooms in this place were nicer than anything in Bow's entire house, and by the time he'd washed off his face, he was already starting to feel much better. There was a nice grown-up in charge of the situation now and that already made it a 100 times less stressful. He wasn't dead, nobody had thrown him into a cell, someone was working on getting him back to his family, and Queen Angella had even promised him she'd get him some new bread from the kitchens to replace the squashed rolls.

In fact, now that it seemed like things were going to work out, he was actually starting to enjoy this little adventure.

He got to meet a Queen, some kind of special angel queen in a magic castle. It was like something out of a book! And this place was amazing. He could spend the rest of his life exploring it and never get bored. Wait until he told the rest of his family, they'd all be so jealous.

He couldn't believe his dads never told him about any of this. Maybe they didn't even know there was a cool castle with a nice angel queen right through the Whispering Woods. Wouldn't that be neat, to get to be the one to surprise them with something for a change?

Queen Angella had Queen business to do, so she'd told him he could play in the garden while they waited for news of his brother. There were guards out here watching him everywhere he went and giving him a look that was not exactly friendly, but as long as they didn't come near him, he didn't mind. The garden itself was beautiful, but the coolest part was that the whole thing was on a balcony. He leaned against the edge and took in the view. There were tiny floating islands up above and the sea stretching all the way to the end of the sky. He'd never seen the real ocean before, and for a while he just stared at it and watched the sun glint off the waves.

Then all he could think of was that this must be what it's like to be a pirate, up on the deck of your ship, looking out over the sea. And then he was a pirate, and he was going to get his ship back from these mean guards who'd stolen it from him at the port where he'd stopped to restock because they didn't understand that he was a good pirate and he only stole from bad people who deserved it. He found a stick to be a sword and was sneaking his way past barrels (flowers) and carefully stepping over curls of rope (more flowers) and was just executing a cool roll to sneak across to the Captain's cabin where he kept his trusty musket when he realized he wasn't alone.

There was a little girl, probably about his age, sitting behind one of the small shrubs. She was wearing a frilly purple dress which was completely covered in dirt and drawing on the ground in front of her with a small stick.

"Who are you?" She looked as surprised to see him there as he was to see her.

"Bow." He came a little closer. "What are you drawing?"

"Battle plans," she said matter-of-factly, going back to the lines and crosses that she'd sketched all over the patch of mud where she'd settled herself. She doodled a stick figure getting his head blown off. "Well? Sit down or something or they're going to figure out I'm back here."

Ah, so she was playing something too. Cool. He never really got to play with anyone his own age. It was usually just his siblings, and they were all older than him. He found a slightly cleaner patch of ground and sat down next to her. "Who are you planning to battle?"

"The Horde." That tangled mess of hair that hung down past her shoulders was pink and sparkly up close. That was kinda cool. He'd never seen anyone with hair like that before.

"The Horde doesn't bother you unless you bother them." He'd said it automatically, out of habit, but immediately regretted it. Not just because of the way she whipped her head around to glare at him, but because the memory of why he was even here right now came rising back up in a flash of fear from where he'd nearly forgotten it. He hugged his knees to his chest. "I mean. That's what I've heard."

"Yeah, well, they killed my dad. And I want to make them pay." She went back to drawing in the mud, pushing so hard that her stick snapped in half. She held it up and made a frustrated little growl before throwing it away.

"I'm sorry. About your dad." He handed her his stick. She went back to tracing lines. When it seemed like she wasn't going to say anything else, he added, "Hey, you never told me your name."

She looked up at him, her eyes narrow. Did he say something wrong?

"It's Glimmer."

"That's a nice name," he said, because she was looking at him like she expected some kind of reply. She furrowed her brows a little more at him.

"I'm the princess?"

"Cool! I'm a pirate. Wanna play?"

She stared at him for so long he was going to retract the offer, but then she shrugged, dusted off her skirt and rose to her feet. "OK."

Turned out, Glimmer was a lot of fun to play with, way more fun than his siblings were, anyway. He let her in on the plan to steal his pirate ship back from the guards. She added that the guards were Horde soldiers who'd captured her, but she escaped. She promised to help him steal his ship back if he agreed to join the rebellion. And while Bow wasn't sure his dads would be super keen on him playing Horde and rebellion, he didn't say anything because Glimmer was really excited and when she got excited her eyes got all twinkly. He liked that.

They snuck around for a while, but they were giggling too much to be properly stealthy and a guard spotted them. She looked surprised to see Glimmer. She started towards them and Bow tensed, remembering his last interaction with the guards, but Glimmer only giggled.

"Oh, no, they've spotted us, we better run!"

She took his hand, and they raced around the garden, Glimmer laughing so hard Bow couldn't help but laugh too. The guard followed and then seemed to decide it wasn't worth it. She went back to her post, keeping them in sights but otherwise letting them play.

Then their ship was boarded by sea zombies, which Bow wasn't entirely convinced was a thing, but he was willing to go with it. They had an epic battle, and he sword fought a hundred zombies at once and Glimmer made them blow up with her princess magic, which was mostly just her throwing handfuls of grass in the air while making cool explosion sounds. Princess was another thing they never played at home, but he was going to change that because it was a lot of fun.

He had no idea how long they'd been playing when he noticed Queen Angella watching them from the archway, a small smile on her face. She called over to him.

"Bow?"

He turned to Glimmer, but she'd already run over to the Queen. Bow started over to join them, but he was dragging his feet. As much as he wanted to get back to his family, they'd been having a lot of fun! He wasn't ready to say goodbye to Glimmer yet. Maybe she was thinking the same because she was facing the Queen with her arms on her hips, looking simultaneously cute and absolutely terrifying. He was sure glad he wasn't on the other end of that look.

"...and I'm certainly not happy you gave them the slip again. And my goodness, you're a mess!" Queen Angella reached down and tucked a strand of Glimmer's pink hair behind her ear, just like she'd done to Bow. It was nice to know she was that nice to every random kid she met. She smiled when she noticed Bow. "But I am glad you made a friend."

"Can I play with Bow again another day?"

Could she? If he could come back, it wouldn't make leaving so sad.

"I don't see why not. Bow is welcome to come here whenever he wishes." Angella looked between them and grinned. Glimmer beamed at him, her eyes twinkling. "Now, young lady, you need to go clean yourself up."

Glimmer growled but trudged back into the castle. She was probably headed to that same bathroom he'd cleaned up in before. He really wished he'd asked her how she'd ended up here today. Maybe she'd been at the market too! For all he knew, they were both running around the woods today.

Hey! What if the woods had sent them both here specifically so they could meet! The thought made him feel all warm inside.

"Bye, Bow! See you later!" Glimmer called behind her as she disappeared into the main building.

"Bye, Glimmer!"

Angella watched Glimmer go and then turned to Bow. "Well, I'm pleased to say we've found your brother, and he's waiting for you down by the road. I've arranged transport to get the two of you back home." She put a hand on his back and handed him back his bag. He opened it and was pleased to see nice fresh unsquashed bread. Whew. "And I meant what I said earlier. You are welcome back here anytime."

Bow smiled up at her. Wait until his dads found out he'd made friends with a Queen! He couldn't wait to bring them all back here, show them everything. He was kind of falling in love with this place.

"Will Glimmer be here?" He asked. She was a big part of the appeal. Queen Angella laughed.

"She should be, yes."

Bow bounced on his feet as they took him through some kind of camp. Through the crush of people milling around, he saw Dirk standing at the end of the long line of purple tents, pacing. His brother's face immediately broke into a relieved smile when he saw him. Bow ran and jumped into his arms. Dirk laughed and pulled him into a headlock, which Bow struggled against but couldn't get out of until Dirk had knuckled his curls.

"You have any idea how worried I was about you, kid? Come on, let's get home. George and Lance will be freaking out, we were supposed to be back hours ago."

They climbed into the back of the small transport.

"Where I am taking you?" the driver asked.

Dirk chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Uh, I'll give you directions as we go."

As they started moving, Dirk told Bow about how the girl from the bakery, Sugar, had saved his life when the awning of her stand caught fire and nearly fallen on them. Then Dirk had managed to flip her wagon over and give them a safe hiding spot while the Horde ransacked the place. He'd spent hours under there with her until the rebellion and the Horde had finished killing each other.

Luckily the woman from the tech stand had found him then and let him know Bow was safe, though Dirk hadn't been too pleased when they'd returned to where she'd left him only to find him gone. Luckily, whoever Angella had sent knew the tech lady and shortly after that he was on his way here to get him. It sounded like they'd both had an adventure today!

They were getting close to The Library and Bow was struggling to stay awake against the rhythmic motion of the transport.

"Oh, hey, uh, you can just drop us off here." Dirk's voice startled him awake.

"You sure?" the driver asked. "There's nothing around here."

"Yeah, it's fine. We'll walk from here." Dirk said. He grabbed his parcels and pulled Bow out of the car. "Thanks for the ride!"

"But why—" Bow began, but Dirk shushed him. They watched the transport pull out of sight. "But we're still a mile or more from home!" He was tired!

"You think our dads would appreciate us bringing a rebellion transport right to their door?"

"But that transport wasn't from the rebellion, it was from Queen Angella!"

How could Dirk think that wonderful lady had anything to do with the rebellion of George's stories?

"Queen Angella? The literal leader of the rebellion? Come on, Bow. I don't know how the heck you even found yourself all the way out there, but one thing is for sure. We are not telling George or Lance about any of this, got it? We're not telling them about not the Horde or the rebellion. And we're absolutely not telling them you somehow ended up in Bright Moon, of all places."

Bow didn't know what to say. Queen Angella was part of the rebellion? The leader, even? But the rebellion was supposed to be as bad as the Horde and the Queen had been so nice! And the rebellion had been the ones to find Dirk and give them a ride and new bread and everything. He had this unsettled feeling as they walked, like he'd been in danger and hadn't even realized. George and Lance would be mad if they knew he'd been hanging out with the rebellion all day, but still...

"I thought they said we should never lie to them? Isn't this lying?"

Dirk sighed and stopped walking. He rubbed his forehead and looked at Bow for a long moment before answering.

"Our dads... you know how they get. Sometimes you gotta just tell them what they want to hear, you know? Because the truth… it would just get them upset. They'd worry and stress and they'd never let us go out like this again. It's… it's complicated. So sometimes you gotta tell them... maybe not the whole truth. To protect them. You understand?"

"I guess." He didn't like it, but it made a kind of sense. And Dirk was a lot older than him and if he said it was the right thing to do, then it must be. They were nearly to the door of the library when Bow stopped.

"Hey, wait! I made a friend today. At Bright Moon. And I promised I come back and play with her another day."

"Back to Bright Moon?" Dirk sighed. "I'm sorry, bud, but that's not going to happen."

"But my friend..."

"Look, Bow, I'm sorry. I really am. But you just need to face facts. You're never going to see the girl again."

Author Note:

And then he never saw her again... oh wait, just kidding. ;-)

Because there is a bit of a time skip before the next chapter of this, they'll be a temporary hiatus for a few weeks while I get some of my other fics up. But there is a lot more of this to come in the future!

In the meantime, while there is a continuous story I will continue to tell in this fic that spans many years, I'll also be posting more episodic content from this as well so you may want to subscribe both to this fic specifically and to the whole Glowing Up series here /series/1908214 so you don't miss anything.