The doorbell rang for what seemed like the hundredth time and Lily went to answer it. Peeking through the peephole, she saw it was her neighbor and he looked mad. She reluctantly opened the door. Before she could even get a greeting out, he was shouting.
"That blasted bird's keeping me up at night! Don't you know I have to get up early for work? Either keep it from chirping, or I'm telling the landlord on you!" He complained.
"Mr. Wilkinson, Deedee's been perfectly quiet for the past few nights for me and I live in the same apartment as her. She's just lonely for a mate during the day. And I can't very well stop her from chirping. What am I supposed to do? Put a muzzle on her? I don't think so." She only got this far in her explanation before he started shouting again.
"Yes! Put a muzzle on her! Do something!"
"I doubt they make muzzles that small."
"Hold her little mouth shut!"
"Mr. Wilkinson! That's going into animal cruelty!"
"Listen you lazy woman! I've kept your little bird a secret because you promised to keep her quiet!"
"You are the only neighbor complaining! I have another one on my right that doesn't complain in the slightest!"
"That's because she's a deaf old woman! Get rid of that bird by Monday or I'll get the landlord to get rid of her!" He yelled before stomping off.
Lily restrained from slamming the door and instead closed it nicely. She walked into the guest room where Deedee's cage was kept and found her chirping happily.
"You're not a menace, are you?" She chirped in response. "You just need a mate. All lovebirds do." Lily put a couple of seeds in the cage before closing the door as she left.
She sighed as she tried to forget her neighbor's threats and checked her email. To her surprise, an email from the BPRD was there. She opened it and it explained that she had to take an online quiz to help determine if she was future queen material. She decided that nothing bad would come out of it if she did it, so she clicked on the link the email gave her. To her surprise, the quiz was mostly little questions like 'are you an animal person?' and 'do you agree with Prince Nuada about the Golden Army?'. She finished it in 10 minutes and went back to thinking about what to do about Deedee and her neighbor. She smiled as a plan came to her and she quickly got up to do it.
HBHBHBHBHB
"The questionnaire has been sent out and soon the results will be coming in." Dr. Krauss proudly said.
"How will we know that they won't lie on this quiz to seem like they are queen material?" Abe asked.
"We have put in little questions like 'are you an animal person?' that seem like harmless questions that you can't know if you are answering right because that information has not been released about the Prince that actually have a double meaning. If they answer 'yes' it means that they are willing to accept and love creatures of a different species and therefore will accept the Unseen Realm." Dr. Krauss explained. "And with Prince Nuada telling us which answers he will accept, the computer will automatically toss any questionnaire that has not been filled out with those answers."
"How long will it be until we know how many candidates are left?" Princess Nuala asked.
"The questionnaire will only be up for three days, after that we will have our candidates." Dr. Krauss said.
"That's good. The sooner we find a suitable queen, the better." Nuala said.
"I only have one question: what will you do about her short lifespan? She will die and we will have to repeat this process again and again." Abe asked.
"Our people have developed a way to keep her young forever. There is only one side effect-" Nuala started to explain.
"She cannot have children." Nuada finished. "Which is fine because I will not have filthy half-blood children with her anyway."
"Brother . . ."
"No, Nuala! I will not! That is where I draw the line! I will not get into bed with that wretched creature!" Nuada said before storming off.
"I will try to change his mind. Heirs are important for them to have." Nuala said before scurrying after her brother.