To Love, Once Again

Things didn't go wrong, but they weren't going right, either.

Sera had spoken too early.

"Your Majesty, please be careful!"

Lucy watches Sera with tightly clasped hands, standing at a distance from Sera. The maid's hands trembled watching the Queen deftly climb up the tree with an easy grace. As if to reassure the maid, the waxy green leaves seemed to wave back at her as she stared open-mouthed at the high branches, at the fearless Queen gleefully climbing a tree like any young servant boy.

If something happened to Her Majesty, the (unofficial, but everyone in the castle knew was official) Queen....Lucy gulps..she was dead..

With all the rumors she heard about the Red King, if the Queen were to be injured...Lucy blinks her eyes, hard, to keep them from drying out. She wouldn't let the Queen escape her sight.

She shouldn't have taken the job taking care of the young Prince, no matter the high pay and easy working environment..It was supposed to be the best job of all. 'Caring' for the Prince by letting him play while the maids played their cards while Bea was away. Now that had been the life...The Queen's return had thrown her for a huge loos that she didn't know if she could recover from.

Sera on the other hand, ignores the cries of the maid standing at a distance beneath her. That maid, Lucy's face was as pale as a sheaf of paper.

Biting her lip in frustration, Sera wedges her foot in the knot of the tree, climbing even higher. The leather of the belt around her waist dug into her hips. Unable to find a proper pair of trousers to cover her legs, Sera had resorted to pulling up her skirt and tucking them into the waistband of her belt.

The tree stretched high into the sky, like the large sakura trees in Sera's old world. And at the uppermost branch, waving precariously in the wind, was a large round beehive.

After saying goodbye to Leo, things hadn't gone as quickly as Sera had hoped. The beehive from her last harvest was gone, and the other spots she'd spotted a beehive more than 5 years ago were long gone. There were few spots to begin with. With the garden dead after the War, the bees were long in returning.

It was pure luck Sera had found the last beehive before. But what joy it had brought her when she found it. She almost didn't mind the long lecture from the previous Head of the maids that followed after that stunt. Or the long lecture for Lucien.

Listening for the distinct buzzing sound, Sera had followed the first bee she could find. The fluffy yellow and black dot buzzed through flower patches, between the wisteria trees, and past the Rose Maze. It had forced Sera, and Lucy following behind her, to hike up their skirts over flowerbeds, crawl under and through bright green bushes, and suck in their breath to slip between tightly grown decorative trees.

The wagon had to be ditched early on when the bee first buzzed straight through a large area dotted with flowerbeds in picturesque patterns. An insect didn't follow the cobblestone and dirt paths laid down by human hands. It forced Sera and Lucy to carry the equipment in their arms, while Sera tied the veils around her waist for easy movement.

The bee took them in circles and figure-eights around the large Queen's Garden, showing Sera sights along the way that Sera knew had been added after her departure. The entire garden was magnificent. Everywhere she went, there were flowers.

They'd finally reached an open clearing dotted with individual white flowers, a carpet of green before them. It was a location where upon which a noblewoman might hold a genteel picnic. The large tree in the center of the clearing even had a wood rope swing attached to it, the painted white plank waving ever so gently in the breeze.

Just how big was this garden!? Sera wondered. Maybe she would bring Leo here sometime in the future. It was quite a ways away from the cottage, but it would be fun for the both of them.

When she got up this high, the soft breeze she'd seen below was a lot stronger on the more flexible upper branches. With every movement she made, the tree bent with her weight.

Finally reaching the thicker of the branches, Sera wedges her body along the length of it. The rough bark of the wood dug into the skin of her legs.

One glance down.

All she could see below her was the flat, green expanse of the flowering clearing.

Sera gulps.

There wouldn't be much in terms of cushioning if she were to fall. But Leo was excited for the honey she would bring back..and Lucien..It would be embarrassing if she returned empty handed. Sera controls to urge to clap herself on the forehead. That was the problem with promising a surprise beforehand. There was no canceling a surprise. You were forced to come up with something....anything!

It was embarrassing thinking back. Sera'd been so proud telling him about the surprise. There was no way she wasn't getting that beehive down. Wrapping her arms around the thick tree branch she laid upon, Sera adjusts her veil. Next time when she planned a surprise, she wouldn't tell anyone there was a surprise in store.

Another gust of wind makes the branch Sera's on wave in the wind. It blew the veil surrounding Sera's body to blow into her eyes, making it harder for her to move forward with each breeze that flew by.

"Your Majesty!!!" Lucy screams beneath her.

Blowing the loose hair that had fallen out of her ponytail out of her eyes, Sera rolls her eyes at Lucy. It might not have been a good idea to bring this girl along. Lucy looked around 18 years old. Sera was hoping from the calm, measured way she spoke up back at the cottage that she was more mature than she looked.

Finally. She was so close. The beehive was right before her very eyes.

But she'd hoped wrong. Lucy's wails and screams every time she so much as moved on the branch was grating on Sera's nerves.

'No, I won't fall. I mustn't look down' Sera tells herself. Think of other things. Like what she cooked in the kitchens. What she was going to cook.

It helps. Distracting Sera from the far ground below, Sera unhooks the smoker from her belt and holds in on the beehive.

Thinking back to the kitchens reminds Sera of her conversation with Dorne.

Why did Dorne say that?

Lucien wasn't someone to cage her.

Sera had chosen to come back on her own. There was no cage keeping her with Lucien and Leo.

So why, then?

What did Dorne hope to accomplish by telling her these things?

That conversation with Dorne causes thoughts to circle around and around in Sera's head. Light shimmers through the veil surrounding her face.

The bees had finally calmed. It was time for her to saw that sucker down.

Screech.

Sawing noises drowns out Lucy's cries, making things much easier for Sera. Though some bees flew towards her, none of them could attack her with the veil in place.

There. Now for the bucket...

Time to unclasp the large pail from her hip.

Making a bigger and stronger cage? Sera didn't know what he was talking about. At least, Lucien wasn't the kind of person to do something like that.

Another strong gust of wind makes her body wave with the tree. Was it just Sera, or did the wind seem like it was getting stronger?

"Your Majesty-!"

Lucy's high-pitched scream rends the air.

With a dull, terrifying,

crack!

No!

Sera feels herself losing the branch's support under her body. The wind whistles in her ears, her body hurtling downwards. The thudding sounds of her heartbeat slows as time itself grinds to a halt around her.

Clenching her eyes tightly together, Sera does her best to relax her body. She needed to lessen the impact- lessen the impact!