Chapter 3: I See You Flying Round Town WIth The Girl I Love

The ride back to Greenbrier took a really long time. Before that, I insisted on riding Carina, but Jace offered to ride her instead, saying, "We don't want to crash-land again, do we?"

After an hour or so of flying, the view of the Queen's castle was visible. I've always admired the architectural beauty of the Queen's castle. The way the emerald walls reflected the sunlight, the way the Faerie lights in the castle illuminated the entire structure when dusk arrives.

"Where do you want to go?" Jace asked, jerking me from my daze. Where did I want to go? Nod's place? The castle? Or maybe we could just stop by McLeaf's Fly-thru and get some cans of Nectar or something.

McLeaf would be good. "Are you hungry?"

He shrugged. My eyes scanned for a bright green signboard. Almost every McLeaf restaurant had a huge neon signboard that says: McLeaf; I'm leafin' it.

Don't ask me why. I'm not the one who suggested we open a tiny McDonald's rip-off right in the middle of the forest.

Finally, I found it. I tapped on Jace's shoulder and told him to land there.

Everyone was looking at us when we landed. What's wrong? And then, it hit me. Only Leafmen get to ride Hummingbirds. Most people of the Forest walk. Only some get to ride butterflies. But Hummingbirds were for the special authorities only. Neither Jace nor I looked like one of those special people.

I told Carina to explore the place and come back in an hour.

"Let's go in," I said to Jace, grabbing his arm and ushering him in.

McLeaf looked like McDonald's in the inside and the outside, except it was more… Nature themed. We sat on tree trunks instead of normal chairs. The tables were huge thick leaves. The food? Well, let's just say meat-lovers hate this place.

Most animals here were our friends. Who eats their friends for dinner, right?

Somehow, they made Flowgers – you guessed it, flowgers are flower burgers - really good, although the lack of meat makes it less appetizing than real burgers.

Jace looked around. "So, you've been here before? How's the food?"

I replied with a simple, "You'll see."

After a couple of minutes, we ordered two large cups of Fizzy Nectar and two Orchid Flowgers. I guess Jace was really hungry, because he finished his Flowger in 5 minutes, while I was still munching my first half of mine.

"Well, someone's a hungry bear," I teased, laughing.

Jace grinned and replied, "At least that's better than being a slow sloth."

I playfully bumped his shoulder with mine a little too hard, sending him off his trunk-chair-thingy and onto the floor. On his way down, I surged forward to grab hold of him, but instead, I smashed a packet of orchid paste. The paste flew everywhere.. including Jace's face.

Both of us burst into hysterical laughter. People around us were probably staring at us, wondering what on Earth we were doing, but I couldn't help it. I mean, what would you do if a guy with Orchid paste all on his face fell flat on his butt in front of you and you know you caused it?

I helped him up after we finished laughing for a whole one minute.

"I can't believe you did that," Jace said with mock anger, a smile plastered on his face.

I was still laughing. "I'm so sorry! I'll help," I said, grabbing a cloth and attempting to clean the Orchid paste off his face… only to make it worse.

"It's alright, it's alright," Jace assured. "I'll do it."

After a while, we left the restaurant. Carina was waiting outside, tapping her left talon continuously, as if she was getting impatient.

"Where are we going to now?" I asked Jace, climbing onto Carina.

He shrugged. "Where do you live?" he inquired.

I told him usually I stayed at Nod's house, but the Queen invited to stay there for the week.

"To the castle it is," he said.

On our way to the Queen's castle, he asked, "So you live with.. Nod?"

"Yeah," I replied, and then added, "W-we have different rooms, if that's what you're, um, worried about." God, what was I saying? Why would he be worried about me when I just met him?

But his face seemed to relax a bit. Just a little, as he said, "That's good. Is Nod your friend or something.. More?"

"H-he's just a friend, yeah." Or was he? "Hey," I said, desperate in changing the subject, "You can stay in the castle tonight. That is, if you want to."

He brightened up and replied, "If the Queen doesn't mind, I'm in."

When we arrived at the castle, Jace looked as intrigued as I was. "Wow," he muttered as a Clover Jinn came over and told us the Queen was waiting for us in the throne room.

"You don't understand!" Nod's booming voice rang in my ears as we entered the huge room. "We have to send a search party for her! W-Who knows what happened to her?" Her? Was he talking about me?

"Nod?" I called out.

He turned, anger and worry obvious on his face. But when he caught my gaze, relief washed over him, replacing the anger and worry.

In a second, he was hugging me; one hand stroking my hair while the other was holding me. "Oh, god, M.K. Thank god you're alright," he muttered, over and over again, not letting me go.

I returned his affection and whispered, "I'm back. There's no need to worry, Nod."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jace leaving the throne room, his fists clenched at his sides and his face flushed with… Was that.. Anger?

A/N: So, two chapters in a week! You may thank me. But I've got to thank you guys for the suggestions, reviews, favourites and follows (though I didn't receive that many) I'll be working on my other story for the week, so it's like, Epic this week, Percy Jackson the next. But when I've got extra time I'll work on both :) So what do you think about this chapter? I'm sorry it wasn't that long. But here you go :) Remember to favourite, follow, review and email :D x