Last time on Green Maiden!
Black - ...
BC-...
Butch-...
Uhhh... guys?
BC- We... we got nothing.
Oh... uuuuuhh... Prin-I mean- Himeko?
Himeko - Eeeeeerrrr... you know how many people probably reread the last chapter?
You're right, let's just go. Just read.
The Stables
Buttercup wandered the halls, bored out of her skull. Butch had been gone for three days on "business", that she was not privy to.
"It's not anything for you to worry about, just a delivery is due to arrive soon and I want to check it as soon as possible," Butch said as he readied a small bag.
"But you're taking Black, so why can't I come?"
"Black's not injured-"
"I'm almost fully healed!"
Butch continued as if she hadn't spoken "-plus I promised her that she could come with me long before you came here. I promise to explain more when I get home," the tall dragon gave her a light kiss on the forehead (despite her flushed protests) and hurried out where the overly excited dragoness was waiting.
And the two still were not back. Whatever that delivery was, it was so important that Buttercup wasn't told what Butch was expecting. So, the girl had resigned herself to wandering about the palace and, avoiding the North corridor, familiarizing herself with the servants.
As it turned out, Butch has a plethora of servants employed under him. Some of which were humans, but many were yokai. Already, Buttercup had met kitsune, tengu, yuki onnas, Kappa, and so many others. They worked in the shadows, guarding the palace and tending the grounds. Once she introduced herself, many began to welcome her.
The next day, Buttercup found that the castle was bustling with life as the servants stopped hiding and began approaching her. The hallways ceased being so quiet and she didn't feel nearly as alone. One of the maids, a girl named Miyuki, even offered to help her dress earlier that morning.
Buttercup declined.
Now, if only she could find something to do.
"Ahhhh! I'm going to die of boredom if I don't do some-"
"YOU MANGY RAT!"
"...thing?" Buttercup looked down the West corridor and blinked.
CRASH!
"GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE-!"
I... better check that out...She thought as she hurried down the hall. It quickly turned into an outside walkway and Buttercup vaguely realized that she was passing by a field. She blinked, staring in surprise.
Were those... horses?
In fact, there were several horses out in the field, strong and beautiful as they grazed happily on the grass and hay. She saw a few with dapper coats and one looked like it was made of pure gold.
"WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON-"
Aaaaand we're moving... Buttercup hurried over to where the shouts were the loudest, the stables. It was here that she immediately saw what was the problem.
"Of course," Tar was the problem. The slimy ink creature had decided to wreak havoc on the stablehands as she antagonized what horses were there, as well as stole their caretakers' supplies. Once the stablehands had decided enough was enough, Tar began to mess with them by stealing all the brushes and keeping them out of reach while dropping horse shoes from the wooden beam she had perched herself on.
An impish look on that naughty ink cat's face, Tar snickered as she dropped another horse shoe. The stablehands below her, a young boy with brown hair and green eyes, yelped as he dove out of the way.
Well, I'm not bored anymore, Buttercup thought as Tar continued her chaos. "Tar!" Buttercup's sharp tone made the creature freeze as her red eyes turned to her.
"Nyyyyaaaaor..."
"Give them their brushes and come here," Tar whined, "Now!" The slime creature oozed through the beam, dropping to the ground. All the horse shoes and brushes followed. The stablehands gave Buttercup a grateful look (and Tar an irritated one) as they collected their tools.
"Meorrrrrrgggllll."
"I don't care if it was fun," Buttercup scooped her up, trying not to cringe as Tar's cold body began to ooze through her fingers. Tar's slime reminded Buttercup of the skin of a frog or fish, slippery and chilly. "Stop bothering them... are you just bored because Black didn't take you with her."
"Nyaarp."
The reason Tar was left behind, which happened very rarely, was because Butch wanted someone to keep an eye on Buttercup. He wanted to make sure she would be okay on her own, plus Butch still needed to make sure Buttercup didn't try to run off. So, Tar was given the task of "babysitter".
Tar couldn't talk, but if she could, she still wouldn't tell her that.
"Nyyyyaaarrrr." Buttercup sighed. If she left Tar here, she'd simply start acting up again. So Buttercup decided to babysit the troublesome slime creature until Black returned and the two resumed their studies. Placing the cat on her hip, Buttercup looked around. The stables were state of the art, with feeding troughs bursting with golden hay and the scent of fresh oats in the air. Now that Tar had been reigned in, Buttercup could watch as the stablehands began cleaning up the wreckage. They scrubbed at the left over ink spots and picked up rogue horse shoes.
The horses inside were calmed down as Buttercup walked in fully. "I didn't know Butch had a stable."
"Nyyyyaaarrrr?"
"His lordship doesn't ride at all," the young boy from before spoke up as he carried water to a fallen trough. He righted it and poured the water inside, "neither does Miss. Black or any of his friends...except Lady Hamasaki. The horses are for the servants' use." Buttercup blinked.
Butch made such a nice stable for his servants?
"The nearest village is such a long walk and often we have to bring a lot of supplies back, too much to carry. So, Lord Butch had horses sent here and allows us to use them for traveling and recreation." So these were Butch's horses. "He only has them eat the finest oats and hay and he has a strict cleaning schedule for their stalls."
"But he doesn't ride?" The boy shook his head.
"Lord Butch is a dragon, he can fly anywhere he pleases."
"Yeah, and I can walk anywhere I like, regardless of the distance. Plus, it's fun to ride horses."
"True, my lady, but the horses know that Lord Butch is a dragon. And, unlike us, they don't know that he's not going to eat them." One of the horses knackered and trotted up to Buttercup, who stood beside his stall. Buttercup stroked his nose as he snorted. "They fear him because of what he is, not for who he is...its sad, really. I think he'd like riding one."
Buttercup stared at the stallion as it whinnied for more attention, completely at ease now that Tar had been subdued. Said cat gurgled up at it, bored.
She remembered the horse her uncle owned, who rarely ever scared. She had even seen it stomp a snake once. The only time Buttercup could remember that horse spooking was when...when she last visited her parents' grave.
Had Butch been there? He must have been, he had been spotted in the woods by that farmer.
She stared at the horse again, conflicted. Such a strong creature was so scared of what his owner was that his owner couldn't learn to ride. Even though its owner cared so much for it.
Kind of like a wife who was so scared of what her husband was that she couldn't see the love he had for her. Buttercup looked down at Tar, who gazed up with eerily intelligent red eyes and purred. "...Do you... think I'm like this...?"
"...Mrrrrrrrraaarrrp."
"...Let's...let's go get lunch..." Buttercup hurried from the stables, trying to forget the horses that lived in such luxury, given to them by a master that they fear so blindly.
Late that night, Butch returned to his palace. Black snored as she laid on his back and he carried her by piggyback to her room. Butch had been gone for three whole days, but he had finally received Buttercup's wedding present. He couldn't wait to give it to her.
It was perfect, since he remembered that (besides fighting), Buttercup loved horses. He thought back to the years past, when he watched from afar as she rode her family's horse and cared for it tenderly.
What better way to ease her into a marriage with him than to buy her a gift she'll truly love. He'll try jewelry later, this gift was a shoo-
"You're back." -in. Butch turned to see Buttercup staring at him from down the corridor. She was dressed in a dark green jinbei with her hair loose. Feather patterns covered nearly every inch of it.
"Uh... yes, I am. I just got in."
"...Welcome home."
"...Thank you..." The silence that permeated the air was heavy as they remembered how close they had become. Black sneezed, a small plume of black smoke leaving her nostrils. Butch chuffed.
Buttercup smiled, "you'd better get her to bed before she catches a cold."
"Right!" Butch choked when his baby sister stirred for a moment before settling back down. "Right," he said quieter, "you should get to bed too. I have a surprise for you tomorrow morning." Buttercup stared at him. Butch purred as he caught the scent of fresh water.
She had just bathed. Darn, if I had just been a bit quicker, I could have sneaked a peek.
"Two questions."
"Eh?"
"First, does this present have anything to do with why you were gone so long? And second, why are you such a pervert?"
"First, my lips are sealed. And second, how do you do that?" Butch chuckled before Black yawned.
"Big siiiiisss... don't dance with... mangos..." The two snickered at Black's sleepy order.
"Yeah, don't dance with mangos."
"Shush you, go put her to bed."
"Right, right. Night, Joji." He walked off and, this time, Buttercup stared after him. As he got further away, the stable boy's words echoed in her head.
"They fear him because of what he is, not for who he is..."
Alright, Maidens and Dragons, this is the last chapter talking about Buttercup's recovery process because I can not possibly think of any more fluff right now.
Butch - Well, we can-(gets mouth covered)
SHHHH! That's for later. Anyway, the next chapter will be a return to drama as well as a new character being introduced into the mix. She'll be the catalyst for a lot of stuff concerning our favorite blondes, so be ready.
Brick- Didn't you want to?
Oh, right. I get to use my RANT CARD! So here we go. Now, I like writing stories. The twenty five-
Bell - Twenty seven.
Twenty seven stories on my profile are only a few of the stories that I have planned. I've already got a basic outline for the next story of this series (spoiler: Bell and Blare the main otp) and the one after that (we might be seeing some purple soon). So, I really like to write. I also really love that people enjoy my writing. It brings me immense pleasure that you all are so pumped to join me on this whimsical journey about an alternate universe with our favorite Powerpuffs. And because I appreciate you guys, I want you the best of my stories. I want to pour my heart and soul into these stories just for you. I always have. But sometimes, my best is NOT the best. You may think of it as the best, but you're looking at it from a reader's perspective, not a writer (half the time. I have read a lot of you guys' stories and I am impressed). And because I want to give you the best of what I can do, sometimes I will go back and rewrite a story.
I understand it's frustrating.
I understand that you like the previous version of said story.
I understand your disappointment for having to wait longer to reach a conclusion.
But rewriting a story is not something I choose willy-nilly. I think about it for months. I weigh the pros and cons of rewriting a story. Is it worth it? Can I simply just pick up where I left off and complete it?
It's not easy, I liked the old version of Green Maiden too, but I knew it could be better. So, this brings the question...
HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL WHEN PEOPLE CONTINUOUSLY ASK ME TO REPOST THE OLD VERSION OF GREEN MAIDEN!? AND TO NOT EVEN COMMENT ON THE ACTUAL CHAPTER?! WHO THE FUDGE THINKS THAT'S COOL!?HONESTLY, MOST OF THIS UNSCHEDULED BREAK WAS BECAUSE I GOT PISSED OVER THAT REVIEW! SERIOUSLY, IT'S LIKE YOU DON'T EVEN CARE!
Needless to say, that guest review was deleted. I read your reviews a lot, so don't think I don't know your wants or concerns. In fact, many times I even reply to your reviews. But when someone just blatantly starts demanding that I repost the old version of a story when I said a while ago that it was going down, that brings mymy creativity down. I suddenly don't want to write the next chapter and you all are stuck until I decide to start again.
So let's clear some things.
1. The old version of Green Maiden is GONE. Completely and totally gone. It's not being reposted and it's not in my files, so don't bother asking me again. Glad you liked it, embrace the change.
2. If anyone, and I mean anyone, asks me to repost any old versions of new stories (this includes Red Canterella when I began rewriting that), I will push back the next chapter update by TWO MONTHS. I will set a calender and ensure it. Final warning.
3. Sorry if I seem harsh or salty (or that my rant took up most of this chapter), but I'm getting tired of saying that the repost is not coming back. Both in my chapters and my PMs.
So, now that my rant is over. Enjoy the next chapter.
Black-...uuuhh...N... next time on Green Maiden, Buttercup gets a pet and then she gets emotionally battered by the Overly Obsessed Girlfriend...
Bell - See you next time... And can someone bring me some meatballs...? And maybe a chocolate bar for Ice Cream Queen, I think she needs it.