Fay Tale - Chapter Thirteen

Maidd spent the next few days quietly shadowing the princess as she passed from prince to prince and occasionally servant to servant. The crown prince had made it abundantly clear he did not trust his daughter’s guardian and refused to leave them alone together.

I’m not sure what he thinks one servant can do if I decided to be violent, Maidd grumbled inwardly as he followed Lily and one of the gardeners through a small garden. It’s not even a knight or member of the royal guard. But maybe that would be too much of an insult to the king.

If he had learned anything the past few days, it was that the royal heir did not get along with his royal ‘father’ in the slightest. The ogre sighed then sneezed as they passed by a bed of over-powering blossoms.

“Bless Maidd!” the princess shouted back to him.

“Thank you, princess.”

The gardener inched closer to his charge, as if the outburst had been a declaration of war rather than a sneeze. Maidd kept another sigh to himself.

“Where are we going?”

“To the maze!”

“What maze?”

“The amazing maze!” Lily giggled as she skipped ahead.

The ogre grinned then sighed again when the gardener nearly fainted in terror.

“I’m not going to eat you,” he assured the human.

“Yep! Maidd says human tastes yucky and we’re too stringy.”

The poor man began wobble as he walked.

“So how close are we to this amazing maze?” Maidd asked quickly.

“Soon!”

“Soon doesn’t tell me much.”

Lily whirled and glared up at the creature towering over her.

“Daddy says soon means soon and you better not complain about it!”

The ogre held his hands up in surrender.

“Fine, fine soon is soon.”

She sniffed her royal sniff then turned about and began skipping again.

When they arrived at the maze, Maidd insisted on accompanying the two inside.

“But I wanna hide so Maidd can come find me!”

“You’re not supposed to hide from your guardian, Lily.”

“But I wanna play seek and hide!”

“You can hide from the gardener.” She cast a despairing glance at the man who was cowering behind them. “Next time we’ll bring a different gardener okay? Somebody who will like to come find you.”

“...okay then we’ll race! Last one in’s a guano face!”

“Lily wait!”

Her answer was to zip into the nearest branch of the maze and disappear from sight.

“Lily!”

The only reply he received with the crunch of tiny feet on the gravel path. Maidd grumbled an ogre curse then turned to the gardener.

“Stay here,” he growled down at the human before striding into the maze.

Every few turns Maidd launched himself in the air to check his position in the maze. He could only imagine what sort of rumors would sprout if someone happened to see his green head popping up all around the maze.

Crazy ogre chases princess into maze. Proceeds to hop like a possessed rabbit. Gardener swears the beast was out for blood. Maid sighed then hopped once more. Like a very big, green rabbit.

A few more turns found him in the open center of the maze.

“Lily? Are you out here?” There was no reply.

Maidd walked around the circle of flowers and clipped bushes but found nothing more than a few birds. He frowned then returned to his entrance and sniffed carefully.

His nose was better than a human’s but nowhere near the accuracy of a dog’s. It was just enough to pick up a faint scent of citrus from the soap the princess and crown prince had bathed with. Satisfied she’d passed through the center he carefully sniffed around the edges at each of the other entrances only to come up empty. He backtracked to the original entrance then followed the scent for a few spans, but lost it among the stronger fragrance of the surrounding flowers.

Maidd listened carefully for the sounds of breathing and frowned when he heard nothing.

“Liliana Mirandas Eirendyr if you don’t come out right now I will come in to get you.”

Silence.

“Then consider yourself warned.”

He took a careful step into the bed of flowers then began systematically tearing up everything that could possibly hide a small child. He found her curled underneath an ornamental shrub. Maidd scooped her up and stared at her.

“Don’t ever hide from me like that again.”

Tears ran down her cheeks, but he settled her in the crook of one arm and walked back through the maze without another word.

When they reached Lily’s room, Maidd set her on the bed then grabbed a cloth and the washbasin and started to clean the dirt off her hands. Once they were clean he moved up to her face and gently cleared away the tear tracks.

“Did I make Lily sad?” he asked quietly as he worked.

She nodded, more tears welling up.

“I’m sorry I made you sad. But you scared Maidd a lot when you disappeared. I’m supposed to protect you and I can’t do that when you run away and hide.”

“D-daddy says I’m really g-good at hiding,” she hiccupped.

“The best I’ve ever seen,” he muttered as he got up and got her some water from the dwarven pipes in the bathroom.

While she drank greedily from the cup, Maidd undid her braid and brushed out the twigs from her hair. He had just finished when a small bat fluttered through an open window. A brief puff of smoke and then a slender blond stood in the room.

“Hi Angel!”

 “Liliana. Maidd. I heard you had a little adventure in the garden.”

“Yes we most certainly did,” the ogre replied. “We were just finishing cleaning up from it.”

“Maidd made me a new braid Angel! It’s really pretty!”

“Daddy makes better braids,” Maidd insisted modestly. Also because he didn’t want to die.

“But Angel makes the best braids! They’re super tiny and pretty!”

“Well, maybe Angel should come over here and show me how so I can learn, and he can check for injuries.”

The ogre smiled at the vampire who gave him a strange look but walked over and settled on the bed behind the child.

“What kind of braid would you like Liliana?”

“Waterfall!”

“I would like a waterfall please,” the vampire corrected.

“Waterfall please,” she muttered, and Maidd hid a smile.

“First you must separate the hair into sections like so,” Angelis said, demonstrating to the ogre. His fingers moved expertly through the curls, separating and weaving slowly so that his pupil could observe the method.

“Is Daddy working hard?” Lily wanted to know.

“As hard as I can manage to make him.”

“Is he bein’ lazy again?”

“He’s pouting that he wants to come see you.”

“Maybe he could bring some of his work and come sit with before naps,” Maidd suggested. Once again the vampire eyed him strangely but Lily cheered.

“Please please please please pleeeeeease Angel?! I wanna see Daddy!”

Angelis sighed.

“It seems I am outvoted.”

“Angel said yes!”

“Is that what he said?” Maidd murmured in amusement.

“It amounts to the same thing, yes,” the vampire said with a slight smile.

“I’m guessing Daddy and Daughter often outvote you?” His shrewd guess was met by a grimace of agreement.

“I’m finished, Liliana. You may go look if you wish.”

While she dashed off to the mirror in the other room, Angelis considered the ogre beside him.

“I didn’t eat her as you can see,” Maidd said lightly. “Nothing worse than a little dirt and from the bits of gossip I’ve managed to gather before the servants saw me that’s less than her normal amount of mischief.”

“One time does not a trustworthy guardian make.”

“True. But not snapping the necks of every person in this castle who annoys me is a pretty good start.”

Angel’s gaze hardened, but Lily came dancing back into the room.

“Angel it’s soooooooo pretty! I love love love it!” She launched herself into his arms.

“I’m glad you like it. Shall we go find your father?”

“No need,” Maidd said quietly. The other two looked at the ogre in surprise until a knock at the door caught their attention.

“Come in,” Angelis said then promptly lost his breath as Lily sprang out of his arms and over to the open door.

“DADDY!”

He scooped her up and twirled her around.

“What did you do today my princess?”

“We played in the garden and Maidd tore up the maze and then we came back and Angel braided my hair isn’t it pretty daddy?”

“It’s very pretty. Angel does the best braids.”

“Daddy, Angel said we can sit together before naps!”

“Oh he did? He’s being very nice today. I wonder why.”

“That’s not very nice Daddy.”

He grinned and kissed her nose before walking out of the room with her.

“Then we’d better leave before he comes and bites me!”

Angelis shook his head as the words drifted back into her room.

“If you will excuse us, Maidd,” he said as he stood to his feet. “Seris and I will watch her for now. I’ll return with her after she wakes up.”

The ogre waited until he had crossed the room before speaking.

“Lily’s special isn’t she?”

“She is very special to us.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Angelis paused and looked back.

“Meaning?”

“She’s not entirely human is she?”