Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait and the cliffhanger! I've started school now so I'll only be able to write during the weekends. I know I won't have the time during the week so I don't want to make any false promises to you guys. If I do update midweek, it will be irregular and not necessarily happen all the time depending on how much time I have to write something decent. I'd rather take longer to finish this story then rush the most crucial parts.
Many have you have asked for a sequel and I have decided that I'll most likely have one. I have the main idea sorted but I need to do a bit more planning before I even consider posting it on here. Now that this has run into school hours, the sequel may take a while before it's posted. It might not be until I have a break off school, which might be at the earliest October. So please bear with me on that one.
Here's the long awaited chapter twenty-three! Hope ya'll like it!
Clarion looked towards her siblings in worry. Milori noticed Clarion's pale complexion and walked over to envelope her in a comforting hug. Clarion wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his strong chest. Milori tucked her head under his chin and kissed the top of it. Clarion still had the paper gripped in her head as she hugged her lover. Robert, feeling sorry for his younger sister, went over and smiled at her as she reached up and hugged him. Robert was roughly the same height as Milori. As they went down, the siblings were shorter leaving Clarion the most petite of them all. When Clarion pulled away form her eldest brother's embrace, she looked at the sheet in her hand again. Everyone looked at one another, as Clarion's eyes grew wider.
"What does it say?" Milori asked softly. Clarion looked towards him, the back at the paper and then her siblings.
"Long story short, we are going to have to travel a long way to even get to the golden butterfly let along finding the disappeared diamond castle." Clarion said, obviously not wanting to mention what type of journey. Dania stepped forward and wrapped a protective arm around her baby sister's shoulders.
"What type of journey exactly?" She asked as she kissed the side of Clarion's head. The fairy queen sighed before looking back at the paper. She flipped it over so the side with writing was visible to everyone.
"A long one." Clarion replied simply. "We need to go through a snowy meadow; which is like the only plot of snow excluding the Winter Woods. Then we need to leave Neverland."
"Leave Neverland?! Why?" Robert asked shocked. Clarion gave her oldest brother a warm smile.
"It says here that once we leave Neverland and arrive in the human world, we must find the tallest peak…whatever that means…" Clarion trailed off.
"I know the tallest peak." James spoke up. Everyone turned towards him and gave him a confused look. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"It's just…how do you know what the tallest peak in the human world is? I mean I've heard that place is huge…" Dania explained for herself and the behalf of her siblings.
"I'm the king of Humeria." James answered. "Which means I study about the humans, including their environment."
"Ohhh…" Clarion muttered. "So what is exactly the highest peak?" James opened his holdall and took out a large textbook. Clarion's eyes bugged when she saw how thick it was. It was at least two inches from cover to cover. As James flipped through the pages, Ree couldn't help but tease him. "Why'd you bring that? We're supposed to be away from work."
"You never know when you'll need information that isn't at the top of your head…" James continued to scan the pages. Clarion giggled at her brother.
"Nerd." She replied plainly. James looked up at her for the first time since picking up the book. "What?" She laughed. James rolled his eyes as he read through some paragraphs.
"Ah! Here we are." James pointed to some text. His wife, Louise, looked over her his shoulder to see what he was reading. Since Louise married into the throne, she was still trying to match her knowledge to her husband's. James looked at her and smiled when he saw how interested she was. He shifted his position so instead of being in front of her with Louise behind him, he was standing next to her and had an arm wrapped around her waist as they read together. Clarion sighed.
"Are you just going to be all romantic and read together or are you guys going to tell us." She giggled. Louise looked up at her sister-in-law and laughed with her.
"The highest peak in the human world is Mount. Everest. A mountain." James said.
"Nooo. I thought it was a meadow!" Dania said sarcastically. David chuckled at his wife.
"Anyways…" Clarion continued to read the paper. "After we get to the highest peak we will dissolve back into the sky and end up in mermaid lagoon. And we'll have to turn into mermaids!"
"Into what now?" David asked. The girls all giggled and smiled at the four men. "No way. No way on Neverland am I going to be a mermaid!" The other four nodded their heads.
"You wouldn't technically be a mermaid more like a merman!" The girls were in hysterics at the guys' faces. It was plain and obvious that they weren't pleased with the idea.
"Do we have to?" Milori asked his love with big puppy dog eyes. Clarion giggled and walked over to him and tapped his nose.
"Yes, yes you do." She stated plainly. "Consider yourself lucky, I could get the camera and take photos of you guys!"
"You have a camera?" James squeaked wondering if she had been secretly taking embarrassing photos of them.
"My best friend is a tinker…what do you expect?!" Ree giggled. The kings and lord of winter sighed in frustration. Clarion rolled her eyes at their immature behavior before going back to reading. "We will have to swim all the way to the bottom of the lagoon and into a cave where we will then be transported to the Forbidden Cave of Neverland."
"How though? I mean how do we get from being at the bottom of a lagoon to a cave somewhere on land?" Milori asked curiously. Clarion shrugged her shoulders.
"Beats me." She said simply. "According to this though, the golden butterfly should be in that cave and the one who is pure may only survive its deathly traps."
"The one who is pure…" Milori muttered. "Who would that be?"
"We'll cross that bridge once we get there, Milori." Robert said kindly. "So…snowy meadow, Mount Everest, mermaid lagoon and Forbidden Cave…seems like a suicide mission to me." Everyone laughed. They continued to pack their clothes and flew on their birds to snowy meadow.
This time, Clarion and Milori were leading since Milori knew where snowy meadow was-being a winter sparrowman- and Clarion had the map and instructions. Clarion sat behind Milori since he needed to see where snowy meadow was. He had told the others that no winter fairy lives there and legends has it that it used to be an extension to the Winter Woods until some man came and using sorcery he had it removed as an act of revenge for Neverland knows what. Milori felt warm arms wrap around his waist and a head lay on his upper back. He smiled, for he knew it was Clarion showing how content and happy she was with him. It only took a few moments before Milori decided to slow down his owl so he could move her in front of him so he could cuddle with his love. Milori kept a protective arm around her waist as the other held the reins as they flew through the crystal clear blue sky.
Clarion gasped as suddenly the temperature dropped dramatically. Milori saw snowflakes floating around them and realized that they had arrived at their intended destination. He quickly directed the others to fly back to the warmth that bordered the meadow since nobody but him would be able to survive the below freezing temperature. As the birds landed on the soft grass right beside the fallen snow, Milori got off and helped Clarion off before going to rub her upper arms in order to warm her up. He noticed the kings were doing the same to their spouses. The Lord of Winter pulled his love in a comforting embrace and held her tight hoping that some body warmth would help with maintain her body temperature back to a warm fairy's.
"How are we going to get through?" Clarion whispered. Milori looked down and kissed her forehead softly.
"We'll find a way, my love." Milori assured her. "But you all need to wear coats." He said indicating to the entire group and not just the fairy queen. Everyone nodded.
"Where are we going to get coats?" Elizabeth asked from Robert's arms.
"We can make some." Clarion replied. "I have the sewing talent and even though it was the lowest grade I got for my talents exam…I can still make a decent coat." Milori smiled down at her and kissed her cheeks lovingly.
"A great idea as usual…" He whispered to her. Clarion blushed before going to the packs and getting some pixie dust. She began to shape them into seven separate coats.
"Wait…I thought you said you can sew?" James said. Clarion giggled.
"I can…but with the help of pixie dust." She replied as she focused on controlling the dust. Everyone gave her a look. "What? I had to pass that exam somehow!" They all shared a laugh before watching Clarion work. Within ten minutes, everyone had a warm coat to wear. There was no space for wings since Milori had mentioned earlier that the temperature here was even colder than the Winter Woods and he didn't want to risk any permanent damage to his love and her family.
As they walked, the birds flew above them-guarding. Clarion held Milori's hand through her glove as they strolled. There was an occasional cold wind every now and then and every time it came and made Clarion shiver, he would wrap an arm around her tighter than usual. Clarion loved how he was so sweet towards her. It was silent walk as the snowflakes drifted around them. After twenty minutes of walking, they came upon a frozen lake. Milori let goes of Clarion's hand and walked onto it. After testing how strong it was, he walked back with a smug smirk on his face.
"We are going ice-skating!" He exclaimed as he only looked at Clarion. Everyone seemed excited since they'd only ice skated once before but Clarion looked horrified. Milori knew how she hated it since after years of trying she couldn't even stand five seconds without falling on her behind. Milori gave her a kind smile and held her hand. "Don't worry…I'll help you." Clarion nodded numbly before they made there way to the ice.
Clarion stepped onto the slippery ground steadily as Milori held her hand. Once she had both feet on, Milori helped her glide a little before she fell. Even though everyone was skating and having fun, Milori's attention was solely on his beloved lover. He helped her up again and wrapped an arm around her waist as they glided together. Clarion had her head in Milori's tunic as they moved, terrified she would fall again. The lord chuckled and kissed the top of her head. Knowing she was still afraid even though she hadn't fallen in the last five minutes, he scooped her up and led her to the snow bank. He set her down there and sat next to her. She played with her fingers as he played with her hair which was let down.
"You're getting better you know." He said as he kissed the side of her head. Clarion snorted.
"Sure I am." She said sarcastically. Milori rolled his eyes.
"You are, sweetheart. Whether you believe it or not." Clarion sighed which didn't go unnoticed by Milori. "What is the matter, my love?"
"Its just…I've been trying to ice-skate for years and I still can't. But they…" Clarion indicated to her siblings. "They seem to be able to do anything on the first try." Milori pulled her into a hug.
"Honey…Some people pick thing up faster than others. It doesn't bother me, you know. It gives me an excuse to hold you close to me and protect you."
"Are you sure you wouldn't want a winter fairy that you could skate for hours with?" Milori immediately shook his head.
"Why would I? I've got the most amazing, beautiful, cute, gorgeous, kind hearted lover right here." He stopped and kissed her nose. "Who could top you?"
"I was just checking…" She muttered as she blushed from all the compliments he had given her. Milori smiled and placed his cold lips to her warm ones. Clarion kissed back. It wasn't rough and rushed but slow and tender making her feel so loved by this sparrowman. As they pulled away they stared into each other's eyes.
"What will cheer my Ree up, huh?" Clarion shrugged as she looked at him. He suddenly got up and went to their bird to get her instrument. He went back and placed it on her lap. She gave him a confused look. "Play something. You seem to be the happiest when you are singing. Clarion nodded and began to sing one of her favourite songs. Milori didn't mind that he had heard it before because it was about them.
"Heart beats fast colors and promises
How to be brave? How can I love when I'm afraid to fall?
But watching you stand alone, all of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow.
One step closer"
Milori smiled as Clarion sang to him. She looked so beautiful, with snowflakes in her hair and frost on her clothing.
"I have died every day waiting for you
Darling, don't be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more"
Milori had the words already memorized so he began to sing the next verse as she stared in amazement.
"Time stands still beauty in all she is
I will be brave, I will not let anything take away
What's standing in front of me
Every breath, every hour has come to this
One step closer"
They began to sing the chorus together as they looked into each other's eyes, smiling in the sun.
"I have died every day waiting for you
Darling, don't be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more"
As they continued to sing, the couple realized how strong their love was. How it truly could survive anything that it was put through. As Clarion strummed the final chord, Milori realized this was the woman that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, the woman who he wanted to be the mother of his children and the woman who would love him unconditionally.
They stared at one another as they slowly leaned towards each other before their lips locked delicately. The siblings were watching from aside with pride and happiness. But Clarion and Milori didn't notice as they were lost in a beautiful kiss.
Author's Note: Well there it was guys! Again I'm so sorry for the delay. School life has been picking up quickly and I haven't had much time to write. You can always almost count on a weekend update but it will be irregular if I update midweek.
I want to thank Milorian 101 for all the support. This reader really helped me through the busy times and I want to give a shout out to you and your story The Love Potion and it's sequel The Lost Queen. If you guys like Milori and Clarion with troubling times, I suggest you read those two fanfictions and leave a review to let the writer know how they are doing.
I'll try to update soon! Please review and tell me how I did, I'm hoping to get to one hundred reviews...*squeal* See you all in the next chapter!