So this story is my most popular story and accounts for more than half of my hits and visitors. It's also gotten a lot of story alerts, favorites, and kind of a lot of reviews. I will try to update as often as I can(I have the entire story figured out so don't worry about writer's block), but I'm not a loser who has nothing better to do than write fanfiction all day. I have a life but will never forget about this story and will work on it as often as I can. I love you all and hope you stay until the end!
Lily walked into BPRD headquarters behind the two men and was shocked when the floor started to go down. When the floor below became visible, she saw a balding man standing there waiting for her. Lily prayed that he was not the prince or she would remove herself from this contest immediately. The lift they were on stopped when it was level with the floor and the balding man stepped forward.
"Hello Miss Golden. I am Thomas Manning. I am the director of the BPRD. If you'll follow me I'll show you where you'll be meeting Prince Nuada." He said, turning and walking away.
Lily followed him, giving strange looks to creatures she saw as she passed.
"Will they hurt us?" Lily asked about the various creatures.
"Those ones will. But that's why they're being locked away!" Manning comforted her.
They reached two great gold doors and he pushed them open. Inside was a giant room with books lining shelves and tables to read on and chairs to the left and a big empty tank to the right. In front of them on the far wall was a fireplace. There were two women inside the room. One of them was sitting in one of the chairs reading a book and had a pale appearance and looked like royalty, most likely the princess, and the other was sitting next to the first one and had short black hair and looked at the beginning of her pregnancy, probably this Liz she overheard the two men that had escorted her over talking about.
"This is Abraham Sapien's room, but I'd much rather you meet the prince in a wide open space with witnesses than his own room. He doesn't like humans." Manning added. He began into the room. "Watch your step now, there's steps here-"
He was too late and Lily fell face first onto the floor. Everyone rushed to her.
"Oh Miss Golden!" The princess exclaimed, putting her book down and coming to help.
"It's a good thing your brother wasn't here to see this." Liz told the princess. "Or else he might disqualify her for not being princessy enough!" She giggled at this.
"Are you alright?" Manning asked Lily, helping her to her feet.
"I'm fine." Lily told him.
"Right then." Manning looked around nervously. "I'll leave you to talk before the guys get back." With that, he left and closed the doors behind him.
Lily stood there in an awkward silence before the princess offered her the seat to her right. Liz was to the princess's left.
"I am Princess Nuala of Bethmora. My brother and I have become symbols of the Unseen Realm nowadays though." The princess explained.
"And I'm Liz Sherman. I have the ability to control fire and am 4 months pregnant with Hellboy's child." Liz told her, patting her stomach.
"Good for you." Lily smiled at her.
"We were looking at your file and noticed how good a candidate you were, so we arranged for you to meet my brother, Prince Nuada, and see how he responded to you. He and the others are away on a mission at the moment. Liz is here because of her pregnancy and I am not much of a fighter." Nuala explained.
"Well I guess you know me already. All I want to know is, how was I a good candidate for the queen?" Lily asked.
"It's your background. Your life and family history. It all amounts to enough qualifications to be the future queen." Nuala explained.
"Enough talking. We have to get her ready to meet the prince." Liz told Nuala.
"My brother will look for the smallest chance to say no to you or any other human girl. This contest was not his idea. But it must be done to prevent war between our kinds." Nuala said. "I will quickly teach you different ways to impress him and not give him a reason to say no."
HBHBHBHBHB
Dr. Krauss, Hellboy, Abe, and Nuada reentered the BPRD and were on their way to Abe's room so Nuada could meet Lillian when Dr. Krauss was stopped. An agent quickly talked with him, handed him two files, and left.
"It seems that after going through all of the candidates these two are also in the lead. We have our top three!" Dr. Krauss explained. He turned to Nuada. "If you do not like any of these three, then we will go down the list until you do find one."
Nuada looked displeased at this, but didn't say anything. They continued their journey to Abe's room.
Nuada was the first to open the large doors, he wanted to get this over with, and see the unfamiliar face talking with his sister and Liz. The woman had long dark hair and fair skin. He noticed that she had light brown eyes and seemed to not be able to stop smiling.
"Human!" He said. Her head snapped up and she stood from her seat.
"Yes, Prince Nuada." She said, bowing her head.
He was surprised at this gesture, but one glance from Nuala and he knew what was going on.
"You are this Lillian Golden?" He asked.
"Yes, I am." Lily said, standing up straight.
"And why do you think you should be my queen?" He questioned, walking down the few stairs and towards her.
"Well I'm not an idiot, for one, and I have just enough playfulness in me so I can be serious when the time calls for it. I have always liked solving arguments because I feel it's challenging like a chess match. I know two languages and am willing to learn more. And I'm not racist or prejudice in the slightest." She finished, looking pleased with herself.
"All humans are greedy and selfish. How do I know that you're not only in this contest for the riches?" Nuada sneered at her.
"Well I'm not greedy. I grew up in a place where you were taught to be grateful for everything you had. I've always wanted to be a princess my entire life, but I'll go right to being a queen, so I'm not in it for that." She explained.
Nuada was getting frustrated. All of her answers were good. He could find almost not reason to reject her. Except . . .
"Your life will be in danger every minute of every day of every year for the rest of your life which, believe me, will be an eternity. Both humans and fae alike will hate the idea of our marriage. You will have to live in fear of being killed." Nuada said with a smirk on his face. He had her now.
Lily's face fell at that information. Killed? She thought about quitting now, but she knew deep down inside that she had to see this through. But Nuada took one look at her face change and interrupted her from responding.
"I see that this is not agreeable to you. But that is one of the terms. It was nice meeting you." Nuada said with a mischievous smirk on his face. He motioned to the open doors.
Hellboy was about to yell at Nuada for his unfairness when Lily started talking.
"Now wait just a minute! I never said that I was quitting! Sure it's not what I had in mind when I agreed to this, but it has to be done by someone! I can take self-defense lessons or something to protect myself from harm! But I am NOT giving up!" Lily yelled at Nuada. Everyone seemed shocked at this outburst.
"You filthy human! How dare you-" Nuada's angry rant was interrupted by Dr. Krauss.
"Miss Golden, maybe it is time for you to go back home?" He asked her.
Lily suddenly remembered about Deedee still being with Mrs. Birns.
"Oh yes! It is!" She hurried out of Abe's room, following Dr. Krauss. She waved goodbye as she ran.
"Well she was a nuisance." Nuada muttered to himself.
"Brother!" Nuala's raised voice surprised everyone. "You must give them a chance! She fared very well. And I have read her and found her to be a good person."
"Yeah. She can handle you." Hellboy added.
"And you must learn to give them all chances. You have two more to talk to." Abe added.
"Two more?" Liz asked.
"Yeah. Krauss found two other candidates high up there. Don't know when the prince meets them though." Hellboy said.
"Now, brother, you must choose from those three or I will choose one for you!" Nuala said with an air of finality. Nuada knew there was no disagreeing.