Chapter 24 Madeva
Gildar, Ballista, Vane, Faetal and Shaiden were all acting very strangely lately, they seemed to be hiding something, along with Nightingale and Kookaburra, I was starting to feel slightly suspicious, there was most definitely something not right, one morning me and Nightingale were the first two outside the king's quarters so I decided to take this opportunity to ask her what was going on.
"Morning." I said, smiling.
"Morning." Nightingale replied.
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah, yeah everything's fine."
"Okay, it's just that you seemed a bit upset a few days ago."
"Oh, that was just because I was missing Kook."
"Still have a crush on him then?"
"Yeah."
"By the way, talking of strange behaviour, do you know what's up with Gildar, Ballista, Faetal, Vane and Shaiden?"
"Err...no, why? Have they been behaving weird?
"Yeah, pretty weird. Sort of distracted, like they're hiding something, or that they've got something on their mind."
"Oh, I've never noticed that."
"You've been behaving rather strange lately also, is there something on your mind?"
"Nah, I normally just drift off sometimes, so if I seem like I'm thinking about something, I'm probably just daydreaming, so you know."
"What do you normally daydream about?"
Nightingale was about to give her answer when the others came round the corner, this conversation will have to be continued later.
Later came sooner than I expected, it was my turn to take Kook's place on lookout, Nightingale was up the stairs much quicker than me, I guess that she's used to it, going up these stairs every day, she would normally be rather chatty, that's what Kook told us, but she was much quieter than I expected.
After half an hour on lookout, Nightingale walked over to the right and took something out of her belt pouch, five minutes later she let out a deep sigh.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Oh nothing."
"What've you got in your hands?"
"Nothing."
"You haven't, I saw you take something out of the pouch on your belt, what is it?"
"I told you, it's nothing, it's just a letter."
"Who's it from?"
"Just someone rather close to me?"
"Mum and dad?"
"No, it's someone else."
"Can I see?"
Nightingale quickly hid the piece of paper behind her back.
"No, it's private."
"Please? Is it embarrassing? If it is I promise not to tell anyone about it."
"No, it's not embarrassing I just don't really feel comfortable with showing you."
"What's it about?"
"You're never going to give up are you?"
"No."
Nightingale was silent, and held the piece of paper close to her chest, she was trembling as she slowly lowered it and held it out, handing it to me.
"But promise me that you won't tell anyone about what you've read in this letter."
"Alright, I promise."
I very gently eased the paper out of Nightingale's hands, trying not to tear it, the first thing that I noticed when I looked at the paper was "To my dearest Nightingale." maybe from an ex-boyfriend or something, "Everything's fine here in Australia." Weird, Kook's in Australia at the moment. "Dad seems to be getting better." This is far too much like Kook, "Plenty of love and kisses, Kookaburra."
"Is this from Kookaburra?" I asked.
"Err...yeah."
"What's with the "my dearest Nightingale" and "plenty of love and kisses"?"
"Err..."
"I thought that you were just friends with him."
"Well...that was a while ago, and let's say that we've got a bit closer than friends now."
"How close?"
"Boyfriend and girlfriend."
"What? But you'll get the sack if anyone finds out."
"Just promise me that you won't tell anyone about this, please."
"Okay, I guess just me won't hurt."
"That's where you're wrong, Gildar, Ballista, Vane, Faetal and Shaiden also know."
"So that's why they've also been acting strangely?"
"Yeah, I couldn't tell you before, now you know why."
"How long have you and Kook been together?"
"Over a year."
"Wow, and you've kept it quiet for so long."
"I know, it's not been easy."
How could they have kept it so quiet for so long, I don't miss anything, I would have seen them somewhere, they must be better at hiding secrets than they seem, Kook will be getting the surprise of his life when Nightingale tells him about me knowing now too, I don't understand why they don't just tell everyone.
The next day, I was stood with Ballista by the king's quarters waiting for the others and trying my best not to blurt out Nightingale's secret, I'm not really the kind of person who you could trust with a secret.
"What did you and Nightingale talk about yesterday?" Ballista asked.
"Oh, err...nothing important."
I then remembered, Ballista knows about the secret, I can talk to her about it.
"Erm...Ballista, do you know a secret?"
"Maybe...why?"
"Well, yesterday Nightingale told me that you, Gildar, Vane, Faetal and Shaiden all know a secret, and I was wondering what it was."
"Did Nightingale tell you what the secret was?"
"She might have done."
"Erm...yeah, we do know a secret, it's err...about a relationship."
"Would that be Nightingale and Kookaburra's relationship?"
"So Nightingale did tell you."
"And you do know the secret."
"Yeah, are you sure that you're going to be able to keep the secret? I know what you're like now, you're not really the kind of person for keeping secrets."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, but I think that I'll be able to keep my mouth shut long enough. Do you think that Nightingale and Kook are ever going to be able to be in a relationship without hiding?"
"I hope so, they really love each other, it probably wouldn't be right if they didn't stay together."
"They're like our own Romeo and Juliet aren't they?"
"Yeah, they could be. I never noticed that before."
Nightingale got another letter from Kook the next day, his dad had now made a complete recovery and would be able to come back any day now. That morning Nightingale came running over to us with the letter in her hand.
"I've got another letter from Kook." she said smiling.
"What does he say?" Faetal asked.
Nightingale unfolded the paper and read it out to us.
"Dearest Nightingale. Dad is much better now and I'll be coming back very soon, I've really missed seeing your face, and I can't wait to be with you again, hope that everything's okay with the secret and nothing bad has happened, I wouldn't want to come back to any more bad news. Love and kisses, Kookaburra." she read.
"Aw, he really is missing you."
"Yeah, and I'm really missing him."
"Who's the letter from?" Crocness asked from behind us.
Suddenly I forgot that she doesn't know the secret and before I could stop myself I heard myself blurting out. "Kookaburra." Oh no, what have I done?
"What's Kook doing sending you letters Nightingale?"
"Err...I, erm...he..."
She was really struggling to think of an answer, she had a look in her eyes that was screaming, "help me!" I knew that this was all my fault, I didn't know whether I should tell Crocness the truth or to make something up, in order to cover what I said.
"Err, he's sending her letters because he just wants to know how things are going around here, and if there's any news that she can tell him, they're rather good friends so he feels like she's the best person to talk to." Putting in a bit of acting I leant over to her and whispered. "And you know that he's got a crush on her anyway, it's the only way that he can stay in touch with her, he's obviously missing her."
"Oh, right. Sorry to interrupt you, I was just curious."
We all let out a sigh of relief when Crocness walked away, my heart was still pounding and my hands were still sweating, that was a close shave.
"Thanks Madeva." said Nightingale.
"It's alright, it was me who started it, I thought that I might as well finish it."
Kook was going to be back in a couple of days and Nightingale was now getting rather excited about finally seeing him again.
The day grew closer and Kook was going to be back here tomorrow, Nightingale was getting really impatient and just wanted him to hurry up, we've all been like that once, but with Nightingale it was much harder to get her to calm down.
"I just can't wait any longer." she said that morning. "I just want to see him again."
I put my hand on her shoulder.
"We all want to see him again but you'll just have to wait until tomorrow."
Nightingale let out a big sigh, it was my turn to be on lookout with her, and I was grateful that this was going to be the very last time, lookout's just not for me, having to go up and down those stairs twice a day, you'd need really strong legs to get up them every day for a living. Nightingale wouldn't stop going on about Kook all day, every minute she was telling me something that has happened between her and Kook or something that occurred a while back, all the romantic things that Kook has said to her, I was bored up to my mind with it by the end of the day, if this is what she's like the day before Kook gets back what's she going to be like when he gets back?
The next day, Nightingale was at the king's quarters before anyone else, she obviously wanted to get this day started as soon as possible, we were in the king's quarters for around ten minuets, out of the corner of my eye I could see Nightingale twitching her leg, she was very eager to get to the gates so she could see Kook as he walked in.
I was the first one to be on duty at the gates while Knightriss was on her breakfast break, Nightingale was stood with me waiting for Kook to get back, while we were waiting and talking, a messenger came over to us, he had a very important letter for Nightingale.
"Nightingale, I have a very important letter for you." He said handing it over.
"Who's it from?" Nightingale asked.
"That I cannot say."
"Oh okay, well thank you."
Nightingale stood there for around a minute just looking at the envelope.
"Aren't you going to open it? I asked.
"Maybe later, I want to say hi to Kook first."
It was still a good thirty minutes or so until Kook finally got back, when Nightingale saw him walking towards us via the woods, she got all jumpy and excited.
"You'll have to stand back Nightingale so I can open the gates." I warned.
"Okay."
Nightingale took five steps back out of the way of the gates, with a loud creak of the rusted metal they slowly opened and Kook could walk in, when he had taken no more than two steps into the castle he dropped his bags and ran over to Nightingale, he picked her up in his arms spinning around, she giggled as he lifted her off the ground, when Kook saw me by the gate watching them, he froze on the spot and put Nightingale back down.
"It's alright Kook, she knows." Nightingale explained.
"How many other people know?" Kook replied.
"That doesn't matter right now, all that matters to me is that you're back."
Kook smiled, cupped Nightingale under the chin and kissed her gently on the lips, it wasn't long, just about a second long, but a longer kiss cam not long after, Nightingale wrapped her arms around Kook's neck and Kook wrapped his arms around Nightingale's waist, he pulled her close to him this time kissing her firmly. I smiled as I watched them, but out of the corner of my eye I saw someone, I looked to the right and Knightriss was standing there, she was obviously surprised by what she saw, as she was standing stone still.
"Oh no." I said.
Nightingale turned to me in confusion.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
I pointed to Knightriss, they turned towards her and she ran off back inside the castle.
"Oh great. She's going to tell everyone."
"Not on my watch." said Kook, who ran off after Knightriss before we could say anything, Nightingale turned back to me, looked in the direction where Kook and Knightriss had gone and ran after them, I thought for a minute, what am I going to do? First I closed the gate, we wouldn't want anyone getting in, I looked to my left and Kook's things were still there, I might as well take those in for him, they were a bit heavy, but I could manage.
When I walked through the doors, Nightingale and Kook were stood with Knightriss, they looked sad and apologetic, whereas Knightriss seemed angry, concerned and surprised all at the same time, I didn't know whether they had succeeded with stopping her or not from telling the others but no matter what it was it wasn't going to be good.
I put Kook's things down and walked over to them, Knightriss turned around and walked back in the direction I had just come from, she didn't say a thing when she walked past me, this was a bit worrying, i turned back to Nightingale and Kook, Kook had his arm around Nightingale's shoulders, while Nightingale was resting her head on Kook's shoulder.
"It's alright babe, we both knew that this day was going to come." said Kook.
"What's wrong? Did you stop her from telling the others?" I asked.
"No." Nightingale replied. "We were too late, she'd already told everyone by the time we caught up with her."
"I'm sorry."
"It's alright, as long as she doesn't tell the king then we'll be fine."
Despite that they were still safe to be dating, I was still sorry for them, now their secret was out and everyone knew, people were going to be talking about this for days, and I really don't want to think about what Knightriss is going to say to me when I go back to duty.