AN: Thank you so much for all the reviews! All of you have made me so happy. I was really surprise to see how international the Faberry fan base was based on the statistics on which countries readers were from. The chapters are still rough around the edges and eventually I will come back to edit them but for now, I'm trying to get the story out there as fast as possible. Enjoy!
Chapter 2: I want to become a Knight
"So where are we going now?" asked Rachel curiously, pausing in the alleyway as Quinn stuck her head out to survey the scene outside. No angry bakers? Check. No creepy potential kidnappers? Check.
"Well, your friend and caretaker must be out looking for you. The best place for them to find you would be somewhere out in the open where they can easily spot you," replied Quinn, thinking hard. They will need a place with lots of people around in case that kidnapper shows up again.
She snapped her fingers when she finally thought of one.
"I got it. I'll take you to the fountain in the main square."
"The fountain?"
"Yup. It's really the best place to be found if you're lost," said Quinn smiling, thinking back to the time when Santana found her at the fountain 3 years ago.
"But first…" Quinn circled around Rachel with a thoughtful expression on her face.
She took off her newsboy hat and placed it on top of the Rachel's head. It was already too big on her but on the brunette, it was bigger and the hat kept slipping forward over her face. Next, she shrugged off her vest and gave it to Rachel to wear over her dress. It wasn't much but at least the hat would hide Rachel's face and the vest would make that ridiculous dress look less conspicuous. Quinn wrinkled her nose. Nothing would make that dress inconspicuous enough. How could Rachel ever subject herself to wearing that?!
Meanwhile, Rachel was obedient in accepting the articles of clothing, picking up on the fact that Quinn was attempting to disguise her. Her dress was already in a state of no return from her previous struggles with her kidnapper and scaling the wall. Kurt would have a heart attack when he sees her. But, she can deal with the thought of Kurt later. Right now, she was intrigued by her blonde heroine that came out of nowhere like an angel and rescued her from the evil man.
"Come on," said Quinn taking her by her hand and pulled her along.
The sights, sounds and smells all seemed to have faded into the background as Rachel focused on the comforting warmth of the blonde's hand and allowed herself to be dragged around corners, across muddy roads until they reached the fountain.
"Here we are!" said Quinn plopping herself on the edge of the fountain, letting go of the Rachel's hand to dip her own hands into the cool water collecting at the base of the fountain.
Rachel immediately felt the loss of Quinn's warm hand and sat down next to the blonde, swinging her legs idly, looking at the hustle and bustle around her, trying to distract herself from the loss. 'Quinn was right' thought Rachel as she looked aroung. There was no way Kurt or Miss Pillsbury or the guards or her Daddy could miss her. She winced when she imagined the scolding she would be receiving tonight.
"Hey"
Rachel yelped in surprise when she was splashed in the face with cold water. Quinn tilted her head back with laughter at the sight of the soaked girl with her ill-fitting hat. She was so busy laughing that she missed the glint in Rachel's eyes and was unprepared when the girl leaned over and pushed her into the fountain. The blonde surfaced spluttering and choking from inhaling the water while Rachel laughed until tears came out from her eyes. Quinn took a moment to stare, noticing how pretty the laughing brunette was, until she reached over and pulled the vulnerable brunette into the fountain with her.
She grinned as Rachel surfaced next to her coughing out water, the both of them sitting side by side in the fountain. Quinn snagged her hat that was floating away and placed it back soaking wet on the brunette's head. She giggled as the hat slipped down over the Rachel's eyes. The brunette huffed with mock impatience and pushed the hat back up to look at the blonde.
"You..."
"There she is!"
Quinn stood up when she saw a burly man barreling towards them with a few men following behind him. She remembered her wooden stick and drew it from her belt and stepped in front of Rachel. Her heart sank when she saw the man drawing out his sword and pointed it at them. A crowd had gathered around them to witness the action.
"Rachel," murmured Quinn quietly."I need you to run. Find someone our age and ask them to lead you to Santana. Tell her that Lucy Q sent you and to watch out for you until I get back."
She gripped her stick harder and glared at the man. She'll find the time later to feel pathetic about facing an armed man with a wooden stick. She would find her way out of this mess one way or another and after that, she's going to have a talk with Rachel regarding the issue of having strange men trying to kidnap her.
"Rachel. Did you hear me?" Asked Quinn a little louder this time when Rachel did not respond. Poor girl, she must be traumatized from being a victim of attempted kidnapping twice in one day. She didn't dare take her eyes off the approaching armed man but when she heard Rachel moving closer to her rather than running away, she spared a glance to her left.
Instead of seeing a cowering girl, her jaw dropped at the sight of her new friend hiking up that god-awful dress above her knees and wading forward to stand in front of her. Quinn could see that she wasn't the only one taken by surprise when she saw the men with similar gaping looks at their faces as they stared at the little brunette standing before them with her hands on her hips.
"Put down your sword," said the girl imperiously.
Quinn blinked and made a mental note to herself that on top of having that talk with Rachel about kidnappers, she would need to teach her that people-especially people with swords-do not simply obey commands especially when they come from little girls.
The man with the sword made no motion to put away his sword and was staring at Rachel as if she had grown wings.
"Oooh," Rachel let out a growl of frustration and stomped her foot, inadvertently drenching Quinn with fountain water.
Wiping water away from her eyes, Quinn opened her mouth to call Rachel back when a clatter of horses announced the arrival of a new group to add to the already growing crowd.
"Rachel!"
A voice shrieked from amongst the riders and Quinn saw a little boy slipped off a horse, avoiding the grasp of the red-headed woman that was sharing the horse with him, and ran towards their direction.
Rachel turned at the sound of the boy's voice and squealed with delight, abandoning her post in front of Quinn and waded her way out of the fountain and flung herself dramatically into the boy's arms.
"Oh Kurt! You found me!" cried Rachel into the boy's shoulder. Quinn snorted at the display and was tempted to correct Rachel seeing as there was such a big group of people with Kurt that he would have hardly played a role in searching for Rachel. She on the other hand, had defeated a grown man and she highly doubted that Kurt could've done the same.
Kurt returned Rachel's a hug but immediately wrinkled his nose at her wet state.
"What happened? Miss Pillsbury almost had a panic attack when we found out that you had slipped away. She has been brushing Barbra's mane the entire time we were searching for you!" Kurt whisper-shouted at Rachel, holding her at arm's length, taking in the spoiled state of her dress and the ill-fitting hat she had on her head.
Rachel launched into the account of her adventure and while Kurt was listening enraptured, Quinn had her attention on another man that had dismounted from his horse. Tall, dark and handsome would be an accurate way to describe him. Quinn noted the way he carried himself, tall and regal, his cloak swishing in the wind as he strode towards Rachel, ignoring the mud dirtying his boots. Kurt saw him approaching from behind Rachel and immediately got down on one knee.
"Your Majesty," he said bowing his head.
Quinn blinked at the title and looked around. She realized that the crowd that had gathered around them were sinking to their knees and bowing their heads just like Kurt. Even the man with the sword and his men were on their knees.
She let her hands fall to her side, stick still in hand (just in case). The King is here… the King?! What was the King doing here?! Is Rachel really in that much trouble that the King himself had to make an appearance? She frowned with worry. She wasn't sure when she decided it but protecting Rachel had become her priority. She blamed it on her hero-complex, a habit that annoyed Santana to no end especially when Quinn comes back beaten and bruised from playing hero. But protecting Rachel from the King was going to be a lot harder than knocking out a grimy man with a brick.
Quinn looked towards an unmoving Rachel who had frozen when Kurt knelt down. The King was now standing behind Rachel and Rachel had begun to fidget with her hands. To Quinn's frustration, she was too far away to leap to Rachel's defense.
"Rachel," said the King in a deep voice and, to Quinn's surprise, an expression of worry.
Rachel finally turned around to face the King, her back now towards Quinn and stood trembling before him. Watching the little girl trembling in the King's shadow, Quinn could not take it any longer and began to wade through the fountain water to get to Rachel.
The King looked up and down at Rachel, taking in Rachel's wet form and saw that there were no serious injuries. Relief flooded his features and he dropped to his knees and enveloped Rachel in a bone-crushing hug. For the second time that day, Quinn felt her jaw drop as she was clambering out of the fountain and paused midway.
"I'm so so sorry Daddy," wailed Rachel with deep remorse, "I just wanted to see what it was like. Kurt had no interest and Miss Pillsbury did not even bother to look around! She kept saying that everything was too filthy and I really wanted to see more. Everything looked so interesting and there were so many people! They weren't very nice though especially when one of them tried to kidnap me. I tried calling for help but the smelly man covered my mouth with his hand and I bit him but then he slapped me Daddy! It really, really hurt and I was really scared but luckily Quinn was there to save me, Daddy! She threw a brick at the ugly man after he slapped me and we climbed a wall to escape from him and she lent me her hat and vest to disguise me and she figured that all of you would be able to find me if we came to the fountain and she was right! And I…I... Daddy? Daddy?"
The King's face had become a thundercloud of anger the moment Rachel mentioned the kidnapper.
"Where did this happen?" He asked in a quiet, menacing tone.
"In an alley near the butcher's shop. But Daddy, I…"
The King held up a hand to silence her. With the same hand he motioned for someone in his escort to come over. A tall lady in armor with short blonde hair strode forward and came to a stop beside the King and Rachel.
"My Lord," she said with a curt voice.
The King rose up and told Rachel to recount the kidnapping incident. The lady listened attentively with no change in her expression and once Rachel was done telling her the details about the location, she nodded with affirmation and strode off towards the group of men at the fountain and began to bark orders at them, presumably to investigate the scene of the attempted kidnaping and to search for the kidnapper.
"Tell me more about this 'Quinn'" said the King.
Rachel clapped her hands with delight and turned to call Quinn over.
"Quinn! C'mere! I want you to meet my Daddy"
Quinn felt everyone's attention shifted unto her and felt very self-conscious. She slowly made her way over to Rachel and the King and yelped in surprise when Rachel shot out her hand and dragged Quinn to stand next to her.
"Quinn, this is my Daddy, King LeRoy. Daddy, this is Quinn my.." Rachel paused trying to find the right word to describe her rescuer. Well, her Daddy had Sue to protect him so Rachel figured that Quinn could be her 'Sue' then. "My knight," she said resolutely.
King LeRoy hummed in amusement and Quinn looked up hesitantly and immediately switched to looking at the ground when she made eye contact with him. What should she do in the presence of royalty? That Kurt boy and everyone else kneeled and addressed him as 'Your Majesty' so she guessed she would do the same.
As she made the motion to kneel, she stopped halfway when the King held out his hand to shake hers.
"Thank you for rescuing my daughter. The kingdom and I are truly grateful," he said, his hand still held out.
Quinn gaped at his hand and only took it when Rachel gave her a nudged.
"I..I..um..it...you're.. welcome?" stuttered Quinn at a lost for words "Your Majesty," she added hurriedly.
"What would you like as a reward young Quinn? Note that as King, I have the power to grant anything that you would like" said King LeRoy smiling gently.
The reward offer hit Quinn like a ton of bricks. A reward from the King. Anything that she wanted. Quinn bit her lower lip and thought hard. There are plenty of things that she wanted. An endless supply of bacon… Quinn shook her head at that ridiculous thought and took a more rational route. A place to stay, warm food, security, money, the list could go on. Santana could come live with her too and any of their friends that would need help. But then she has a lot of friends who do need help. Quinn frowned at that thought and a brilliant idea came to her, one that could solve all those issues.
"I would like a place big enough to provide food, shelter and help for children in need, children of the streets like me" said Quinn nervously. "Your Majesty," she added again.
To say that King LeRoy was surprised at that request was an understatement. His heart melted at the sight of the little blonde girl standing in front of him making such a noble request that few adults would've made if placed in the same situation.
"Done," nodded the King. Quinn smiled in relief.
"But, that was for the children of the streets. What about you Quinn? What do you want for yourself?" he continued, searching the girls face for her answer.
Quinn bit her lip again and thought back to when Rachel introduced her to the King and the admiration she felt when she saw the blonde lady knight striding about, issuing orders on behalf of the King.
Feeling the tug on her heartstrings, Quinn decided to follow her heart and held her head high, opened her mouth and stated her request.
"I would like to become a knight, Your Majesty."
End of Chapter 2