I'm having some LOL moments and some "awww poor B" moments.  Loved the comment about when Leena was upset.  You've gotten the squabitts just right too.  And finally Bridezilla makes an appearance!  Can't wait for the next installment.

Day 34

Less than 5 days to go.  I'm feeling very confident that I'll be done with the festival preparations with time to spare.  But there's still a lot of personal things I need to do.  Like pack my things and move them into the new place.  However, I'm not sure if "tradition" allows for me to enter the house before we are wed.  But I'm very sure I don't want strangers touching my stuff.

We'll worry about that later, Lucky.  First, we'll go to Dawnshadow Lake and get the rest of those storybooks.  It takes quite a while to find 6 storybooks, but I also find paintbrushes, pink moonflowers, and Faita Conclave Fairy Crests, so it's time well spent. And I find a fragment of the Faire Vibrancy relic.  I think we've earned a reward, Lucky.  How about a swim?

Time to get back to work.  We return to Town Hall and gather up all the storybooks for the Mayor.  I give him the books and he gives me the final Yura Festival Task.  Leena was working on flags and banners for the village but ran out of glue.  I need to find 10 pots of poster glue and 10 paintbrushes.  This will take some time, I tell the Mayor.

Okay, Lucky, so I lied.  I already have the paintbrushes and I have at least 2 pots of glue.  But if we take our time with this task, maybe no other work will arrive before the festival and we can actually reduce the backlog.

But not today.  Three more work orders are sitting on my desk.  And Captain Greg is there adding two new locations to the map, Glitterstone Mines and Gnome Village.  A while back the Mayor had asked me to check out the Mines, and both the Mayor and Gavin want me to go to the Gnome Village.  I think I'll pencil in visits to both the places for tomorrow.

Right now, I want to go to Forgotten Glen and get the rest of the poster glue and if there's enough time, got to Mystic Copse and find the pet food Quinn needs.  I ask Captain Greg to meet me at the Squabbit Den later.  There's something we need to discuss, I tell him.  He's clearly puzzled as to why the discussion needs to take place at the Squabbit Den.

Today continues to be a good day.  I find more than enough glue and also find the catnip Quinn asked for.  There's just enough time to dash over to Mystic Copse and find the pet food.  Too bad we didn't find the crystal slippers Leena was asking for.

Back at the Squabbit Den, I help Quinn feed the animals whiel I wait for Captain Greg.  Quinn gives me a songbird as a token of appreciation.  Linea shows up and tells me the songbird will be useful to calm the vines at Ancient Pond.  Visiting Ancient Pond moves to the top of the list for tomorrow.  My broomcloset of a room isn't big enough for me, a squabbit and a songbird.

Captain Greg arrives and looks questioningly at the songbird.  My plans for tomorrow have been changed, I tell him.  I'm going to Ancient Pond to calm some vines.  He nods.  I wonder if it will always be like this; I make plans and somebody finds something for me to do that has to be done immediately.  These people seem to lurch from crisis to crisis.

Captain Greg tells me soon it will not be my problem. The new steward should arrive shortly.

The new steward?  What new steward, I ask slowly.  Why am I being replaced?  He sighs and asks if I have forgotten that I'm getting married. 

I am stunned.  It never occurred to me that he would expect me to quit my job.  In Beechwood Cove, women don't give up their jobs when they get married.  They even continue to work outside the home when they have children, I explain.

He wants to know just how many times he has to remind me I'm no longer in Beechwood Cove and things are different here.

I don't need you to remind me, I snap.  All I have to do is look around me.  I know it seems like you are the one who has had to change, but that's because I've already given up so much just being here.  Please don't ask me to give up my job.  I can't.  I won't.

Complete silence.  You really shouldn't have ended things with Miss Sunstone Pendant, I tell him.  I can't be what you want or need me to be.  Maybe it's not too late for you to get her back.  He says nothing.  I hand him back the ring.

 

Last edited by TiramaSue (September 11, 2014 8:35 am)

Don't worry, Lily.  Captain Greg seems to get what Captain Greg wants
I got a mental image about the armor and swords strewn about.  Can you imagine picking that stuff up?

Day 35

My eyes are all red and puffy and I have a raging headache from crying all night.  Work is the last place I want to go.  Ironic, isn't it, Lucky.

I decide to go directly to Ancient Pond and deal with those vines. The songbird sings, the vines are calm. Yippee.  Better stop back at the office and see if anything new has come in before we head to Gnome Village with Gavin.

On my desk is a request from Captain Greg to join him on his daily rounds.  This must be intended for the new steward, I tell Lucky.  Pity, there are things I need from Mystic Copse and the Black Bull, but they will have to wait.  The third place on the list is Coral Cove.  He must be hoping the new steward is a woman. Bastard!   

The Yura Festival is less than 4 days away.  I'll never finish everything on my desk.  Might as well start making a pile of things that the new steward will have to deal with.  This can the first thing on that pile.  I clip a note saying "For the new steward" on the work order.  Let's go meet Gavin.

Gavin enjoys his vist to Gnome Village and seeing his old friend again.  I leave him there and continue my travels. 

Next stop, Glitterstone Mines.  The Mayor is right.  There's many things here that will be useful.  At Glitterstone MInes, I meet Brad.  He needs help rescuing a goblin trapped inside an ore vein.  I help him out and also find a relic fragment.

I might as well stop at Gobholme and see if I can find any portraits for Raphael, engineer crests for Chumblepot or storybooks for Gavin.  I strike out on all three items.  Might as well go back to Town Hall and sort all those work orders.

On my desk is a note from Captain Greg.  It reads "Please, I need to see you."    I write underneath his message "Gone to Rosteum Gardens.  Be back soon."

At Rosetum Gardens, I find the catnip Quinn requested and the amethyst stone Triffledore wanted.  That means I can close two work orders.

I see Quinn first.  No sooner do I give him all the catnip I gathered than he gives it back to me with instructions to use it on the tiger at Apricus Plaza.   Right, I tell him and leave before he can start nagging me about the pegacorn.  That's one job that definitely goes on the pile for the new steward.

I stop to give Triffledore the amethyst stone and he asks me to wait while he makes a button that might work to open the time capsule at Apricus Plaza.  Looks like Apricus Plaza will be the first place I visit tomorrow.

There's no sign of Captain Greg at the office, but he has added his own "Be back later" message to the note.  To pass the time, I work on a poster for the Mayor.  It's only after I finish it that I realize I've used 2 pots of poster glue intended for the final Yura Quest task.  A trip to Forgotten Glen replaces Apricus Plaza as my first stop tomorrow. 

Captain Greg finally arrives.  It hurts so much to see him.  Before he can say anything, I ask him if he'll look after Lucky when I return to Beechwood Cove.  He asks me why.  Because, I explain, Lucky doesn't get along with Mr Vanderkins and I can't take him with me and..Captain Greg interrupts and asks me why I'm going back to Beechwood Cove.

Because, I explain patiently, I can't stay here if I don't have a job or a place to live.  He looks bewildered and points out that I do have a job, a job I refused to give up when I married him.

This is true, I agree.  But I can't keep this job if we're not getting married.  The Steward and the Captain of the Guard need to work closely together.  We can't do that, not now.  So one of us will have to go, and I'm the obvious choice.

He asks me if I have a job and a place to live in Beechwood Cove.  I shake my head no and say that I'm sure somebody else was hired to replace me when I left to come here.

I can see he's struggling to control his anger.  He asks me if he's got it straight:  I'm returning to Beechwood Cove, where I have no job or place to live, because I can't stay in the Skyward Kingdom without a job or a place to live, and the reason I have no job is because I'm quitting the job I have, which I wouldn't quit to marry him, because we're not getting married.   I nod my head yes.

He explodes and says that's the most idiotic thing he's ever heard.  I burst into tears and ask him what his solution is.

Captain Greg puts the ring back on my finger and says he was wrong to have assumed I'd give up my job.  Queen Sophia chose me to oversee the restoration of the kingdom and as Captain of the Queen's Guard, he has no right to overturn that decision. 

She chose us, I tell him.  I need your help, your support.  He smiles and assures me he'll always be there for me.
 

What Wendy said!   Another great episode!