Wow, I haven't updated in a really long time, and I promised I would. I was having a bit of trouble figuring out how to continue on from here without it being too OOC, but I believe I have a solution. I have chosen a winner to the little contest I had to find a name for Mustardseed, but I will announce who it is in the next chapter and as promised that chapter will be dedicated to the winner. I would like to thank all of you who entered. Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last chapter.
I Do Not Own Sisters Grimm.
Chapter 22
"Mustardseed, do you think we could talk about something, brother to brother," I asked hesitantly.
"Of course," he replied looking up from the notebook he had been writing ideas in. We had been sitting on my trampoline for close to an hour, trying to figure out what could be going on back in the city.
"You have to promise that this stays between us."
"You have my word."
"Last night, at Brad's, something happened, and I'm not sure what to do about it," I told him.
"Did everyone find out your true identity?"
"No."
"Good, otherwise I might have had to break my promise," He said with a relieved expression on his face.
"I thought I asked to talk to you as my brother, not my advisor."
"Sorry, go on. What happened?"
"I… I kissed Sabrina," I admitted.
Mustardseed's expression was one of pure shock. "Well I didn't expect that, but I don't see the crisis."
"I felt something when it happened, something good," I confessed.
"So you have feelings for Sabrina, and kissing her confirmed them," he guessed.
"How would I know, Mustardseed? I don't know a thing about love. I've lived for thousands of years as a child, and now I've grown up and have no idea what I'm doing."
"So you want my help?" he asked.
"I just want to know how I can deal with this and not look like a fool. I don't want to mess up and then have Sabrina hate me. How would it look if a king can't get a girl to like him?"
Mustardseed became thoughtful, then turned to a clean page in his notepad and started to write. He would periodically look up like he was thinking some more, then jot something else down. After a few minutes he reread his notes and ripped the page out of the notebook. "That's all I can come up with," he said, handing me the paper.
I looked at the first item on the list he had made—Be honest—and knew that the list would require some explaining. I shot a quizzical expression at Mustardseed, "When you say be honest…"
"I mean tell her the truth, as in don't lie. Stop calling her ugly when you don't think it's true, in fact, just don't call her ugly, ever. Don't tell her that you're going one place and then go another. Chances are if she finds out she won't trust you as much. Honesty is always the best policy, just don't overdo it and hurt her feelings."
"So the next thing on the list is "Be nicer"," I read.
"Yes, you can't call her names all the time, and if you do make them nicer than what you usually call her," he said, then went on to explain the rest of the list.
When he got to the bottom I stopped him, the last item on the list was written confidently, not hurriedly as the others were. It was the one phrase on the list Mustardseed didn't want me to forget "Be yourself" it read. "This doesn't make sense," I told him.
"Puck, the single most important piece of advice that I can give to you about how to act around a girl is to be yourself. The rest of the stuff on the list is important, but I realize that some of it isn't who you are. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't change yourself to impress her, at least not all at once. She likes the Puck she knows, so don't change that guy. It's good to do something for her every once and a while that maybe she won't expect, but don't change who you are for a girl, for any girl. If she doesn't like you the way you are, then she doesn't deserve you."
"Any other advice?" I asked.
"Make her feel special."
"Thanks," I replied.
"Anytime. Now shall we get back to our plans for Mother?"
I was sitting on a large chair and before me sat my mother, regal as ever. On the table between us sat a large book, bound in a shimmering purple cloth and glowing with the light of magic. I had seen this book before; it had sat on a pedestal in my father's old office, the king's office, now mine. The only light in the room came from the moon, but that light was enough to figure out that we were in the office now. It looked the same as it had the last time I was here. I looked at the book on the table between us; it was filled with the laws of our people.
"Puck, we need to have a discussion," the voice was my mother's. "The law clearly states that the king must have a queen," she plowed on," or be engaged to be married within five years of becoming king."
"I'm king, can't I change the law?" I asked.
"You cannot be a full king until you have a queen and you come home. You must be a full king to change one of the ancient laws. You don't have to worry though; I've found a suitable young fairy that will make a splendid queen. You will, of course, have to come home to finalize the engagement, but that's why I'm telling you now. You've got six months to find a queen and join me here, or you will lose your crown. This is the fairy I would like you to marry," she said, handing me a small photo.
I looked into the smiling face of a girl. She was beautiful, but there was something about her, even in picture form, that made me uneasy. I put the picture in my jeans pocket and the office began to fade around me.
"Think about it," said my mother's calm voice.
I woke up with the feeling that the dream hadn't been a dream at all. Sitting up on my trampoline, I stretched, and heard a crinkling in my pants. Carefully I reached into the pocket I had heard the noise come from and pulled out the photo of the fairy girl. If the photo hadn't been a dream then without a doubt my mother's words were true. I couldn't take my eyes off the picture; it was a reminder of my predicament. My mother's words had been as real as the picture I held in my shaking hand.
"Where've you been? Everyone's waiting for you downstairs," Mustardseed's voice broke through the haze of realization. I looked up to find him standing at the edge of my trampoline, a quizzical expression on his face.
I handed him the picture and described the dream that I had just woken up from, growing more certain with each word that my "dream" had been anything but what I had initially thought it was. Something was tugging on the edges of my mind, taunting me, but I couldn't catch it. I couldn't make it a solid thought, but I got the strangest feeling that I should know what had happened. When I had finished Mustardseed was still looking at the picture that Mom had given me.
"This is the girl, the girl who was following Mom around before I left. I thought there was something off about her," he stated calmly.
"What do you mean?" I asked, slightly confused.
"Mom has wanted you to marry Moth for thousands of years, and now all of a sudden she changes her mind. That's not Mom. When that girl showed up, Mom started acting different. I started to get suspicious, but before I could learn anything Moth escaped, and I was sent to find her. They could have sent anyone, but they sent me, Puck. At the time I dismissed it as wanting the best for the job, but now I think they just wanted to get rid of me. I think this girl has our mother under a spell," he finished.
Before I could reply my body went into a fit of sneezes. When it was finally over I looked up to the worried expression on my brother's face.
"I can now quite confidently confirm that your conversation with Mother was real," He said, then continued, urged on by my questioning look," Mother used powerful magic to contact you, with magic like that there is always a side effect. In this case, it appears that you have a cold."
"What! Aren't we supposed to be immune to human sickness?" I asked, and started to cough.
"It's a magical disease, not a human one," He replied, "Let's go downstairs. Everyone is waiting, and Relda may be able to do something to help with your cold."
"Like soup?" I asked, thinking of my stomach before my actual health.
"It's Relda Grimm; you're like a son, or a grandkid to her. She'll do whatever she can. So to answer your question, yes she will probably make you soup."
I was downstairs as fast as my cold ridden body would carry me, all thoughts of fairy girls and arranged marriage gone for the time being.
Sorry this chapter is so short and that it took so long. This will most likely be the last chapter before I have to start school again on Tuesday. I will be really busy once school starts, so I probably won't be updating as often, but I don't think this story will have many more chapters anyways.
Thanks for reading and please review.
-Pageturner96
