Chapter 21 Kookaburra
The great hall was now fully decorated and the catering was now taken care of, and the summer ball was pretty much the next day, we'd all got our outfits ready and fitted, us guys all had our suits, and the girls all had their gowns, I couldn't wait to see what Nightingale was going to be wearing.
On the evening of the ball me and the rest of the guys were the first ones there, the boys always have to be there before the girls, that's the way that it's always been, I was the fourth on in, Gildar, Thorne and Skabb were already there, they all looked extremely smart and different in their suits, I'm normally so used to seeing them in their everyday clothes, they all seemed almost unrecognisable, Vane was the next one in."
"Looking good Vane." I said.
"Same to you. Nightingale's not safe tonight."
"Shut up, there's nothing like that going on between us."
The rest of the guys weren't that long, but we still had a fair while to wait until the girls arrived, we were talking amongst ourselves before the doors of the great hall opened again and both Knightriss and Madeva walked into the room, Knightriss was wearing a long navy blue dress that came down to just above her ankles, it wasn't very often that you see her in a dress, Madeva's dress was slightly the same, except it was a lighter shade of blue and came down over her feet and to the floor, some of the guys were stood slightly open mouthed but I wasn't interested, I just wanted to see what Nightingale was wearing.
Ballista was the next one in, her dress was the same colour as her hair and came down right to the ground, the rim of her dress and across the top of her dress was decorated with a small amount of white lace, her dress was fitted from the top to her hips, below that the dress flowed out to the width of her shoulders, Gildar was slightly hypnotized by how she looked, but again I wasn't bothered.
Shaiden, Crocness and Faetal all came in in one group of three, Shaiden was wearing a long silk light blue dress that came down to above her ankles and had a white belt around her waist, her hair was now no longer in a pony tail, and was now hanging loose, and was falling neatly over her shoulders, Crocness's dress was a number of different shades of green, it was mainly dark green but the rim of the dress was a slightly lighter shade and had a light green pattern above fading into the dark green, the bottom of the dress was shaped slightly like a house, it came out at the hips but then went straight at around shoulder length, Faetal's dress was shades of red and orange, it was red from the top down to but at hip height the red fabric parted down the middle showing orange fabric with a dark red pattern, the rim of the dress and the dresses sleeves were decorated with lace, and a lace collar, every single of the guys were looking at them, but still I wasn't interested.
All of the girls were here except for Nightingale, she was taking a bit too long, the king was going to be arriving soon, and the king was always the last one to arrive, while we were waiting for Nightingale I was talking to some of the others.
"Did either of you girls see Nightingale while you were on your way here?" I asked Ballista and Shaiden.
"No, she was still in her room when we came here." Ballista replied.
"I'm just a bit worried about her that's all, it's not like her to be late, I mean, the king's going to be here in ten minutes."
I was so engrossed with my conversation between the two girls that I didn't even hear the doors open, no more than two seconds after the doors opened I heard Thorne gasp.
"Wow, she looks amazing." He said.
I turned towards the door to see what had shocked Thorne, obviously it was Nightingale, and Thorne was right, she looked stunning, she was wearing a black dress, decorated with gold and silver patterns, the fabric parted at hip height at the front revealing silver fabric underneath decorated with a black pattern, the bottom came down past her feet, to the floor and was trailing slightly behind her, the top of her dress started just above her chest, around her neck she had a small Pearl necklace, she was wearing earrings which were styled like feathers, black of course, and on her hands she had some fishnet gloves that went up past her elbows, she was the most beautiful that I've ever seen her, she walked towards us and I could hear her high heels on the stone floor.
"You look amazing." I whispered.
"Thanks, you look very handsome in your suit too." she replied, checking that no one was watching and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.
Five minutes later we were still waiting for the king, we were starting to get a bit impatient, but that was until the fanfare started to play, the great hall doors opened and the king walked into the room, as soon as the king entered the room we all bowed or curtsied. The ball could now commence.
After one and a half hours of the ball being in full swing, we were all having a fantastic time, there were some occasions when there was solo dances or group dances, when we were two hours into the ball, everyone got onto the dance floor for the upcoming dance, during this dance we were going to be dancing in pairs, but would change partners a number of times during the dance, I started off dancing with Faetal, I couldn't be with Nightingale all evening, people would get suspicious, but it didn't seem right when I was dancing with Faetal, it felt almost like I was cheating on Nightingale, three minutes later we changed partners, I was now dancing with Nightingale.
"You're a really good dancer." she said smiling.
"Thanks, you're quite good at dancing yourself."
"Stop it, I really can't dance."
"You're dancing now."
"Yeah, this is the only dance that I can do."
"So you can dance then?"
"Yes...no...I don't know, you're confusing me."
I smiled, looked around us to make sure that no one was watching us, and gave Nightingale a quick kiss on the lips.
The whole evening just flew by and before I knew it it was nearly the end of the ball, me and Nightingale had gone to one side to have a little rest along with a few of the others, Vane was on my left and Shaiden was to my right, Nightingale was to the right of Shaiden.
Nightingale sighed. "I'm exhausted."
"We all are." Shaiden replied.
Nightingale smiled, moved a stray strand of her hair behind her ear, sighed again and placed her hand onto her forehead.
"My head really hurts." she said.
"How much have you had to drink?"
"Not a lot, but I don't normally drink that much, so I'm not really that used to it."
"Are you going to be alright?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
Before long people were starting to leave the great hall and go to bed, mind you it was probably 11 o'clock at night by now, Shaiden, Gildar, Tinkor, Knightriss, Ballista and Madeva had all gone to bed, as every minute went by I could feel my eyelids getting heavier and heavier, but I was slightly worried about Nightingale, she didn't look that well, I was stood talking to Skabb and Thorne when I looked to my right and Nightingale was sat on her own resting her head in her hands, I went over to see if she was alright.
"You alright babe?" I asked.
"No, I feel awful. My head's pounding, I only had three glasses of wine."
"Don't you think that it'll be best if you went to bed?"
"Yeah okay."
She slowly stood up to go back to her room, as she got onto her feet she started to wobble and sway, I quickly grabbed her stopping her from falling flat on her face.
"Are you sure that you're going to be alright?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
"Walking all the way to the other side of the castle to your room, by yourself, in this state?"
"Yeah, I can see your point."
"I'll walk you to your room."
"Thanks Kook."
I wrapped mt right arm around her and took hold of her left hand keeping her steady, as we were walking down the corridors there was a few stumbles, but I kept her steady, it was when we were a quarter of the way there when Nightingale stopped, closed her eyes and placed her right hand on her forehead.
"Headache?" I asked.
"Yeah, and a bit of lightheadedness."
"Are you going to be alright?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
We carried on walking, we were starting to approach some of the bedrooms, I could hear some snoring coming from behind some of the doors, we'd had to slow down slightly as Nightingale was starting to feel dizzy as well as light headed, and it was on that corner leading to one of the many staircases when she collapsed on the floor.
"Nightingale, babes are you alright?" I said panicking.
She's only fainted which was fine, I scooped her in my arms and started carrying her in my arms, we were only half way to her room, until my arms started to ache, I couldn't carry her all the way to her room, it was too far, we still had a number of flights of stairs to go up and down and down a number of corridors until we got there, I didn't know where to take her or what to do, I gently placed her down as I thought, I then got an idea that was brilliant but also a bit wacky, my room wasn't that far from here, I could let Nightingale sleep there for the night, or until she wakes up, that seemed alright, so I picked her up again and carried her to my room.
When we arrived, I gently laid her down in my nest and went to one side sitting on a nearby chair and just sat there for a while watching her, she looked so peaceful, after thirty minutes of watching Nightingale I checked to see what time it was, it was nearly midnight, I had to sleep somewhere but there was nowhere else for me to sleep, there was only one solution, I'll have to sleep in my nest with Nightingale, this made me feel very very uncomfortable.
I slowly settled down into my nest next to Nightingale, she was still fast asleep, I've never done this before, I just hope that she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night, that'll really freak her out, and another thing, I hope that no one wants to talk to me during the night and sees me here with Nightingale.
As I lowered myself down next to her timidly, I got a blanket and gently put it over Nightingale's body, then getting another blanket I covered my own body, it took me a while to get to sleep knowing that i was in the same nest as Nightingale, I could hear her breathing next to me and I could feel the heat from her body, I shut my eyes tight and tried my best to not think about her, that worked perfectly and I soon fell asleep, this is really going to come back to haunt me.