Rainbow Brigade

A Warm Welcome

The doors to the castle opened and shut behind them. The entire castle was made by crystal as far as the eye could see. There were suits of amor lining the halls, weapons hung up on the walls and portraits of what Lola could assume were Cedric's relatives. It was all quite dazzling.

"Now", King Mandwell said regaining her attention, "I suppose you do have some business doing here. Clearly you've made the long journey of making your way out here. Pray tell, what is your purpose of coming to our kingdom?"

Cedric fiddled with his fingers nervously. "Um father. Shouldn't we have this conversation when papa Ross is here?"

King Mandwell sighed. "That would be preferable but, unfortunately, he's busy attending to other important matters at the moment. So, therefore, his presence need not be needed."

"Well...", Cedric hesitated then sighed. "Yes, father."

King Mandwell nodded. "So? Your purpose? Miss?"

Lola perked up and smiled nervously, she can't believe she had forgotten to introduce herself! "The name's Lola Lezbows, sir. It's nice to meet you. And as for my purpose", she hesitated before saying the last part, "I wish to reunite the Rainbow Brigade."

Cedric shot her a shocked look but remained silent. But in his mind he had thought; Wow. This girl must be nuts!

For a second the king just stood there, staring at her, then he turned back around. "I see.....Well. That's interesting. I had feared that the other kingdoms wouldn't be interested in bringing back the Rainbow Brigade."

"The Rainbow Brigade?!", someone said, shocking both Cedric and Lola. Then there was this man with curly blonde hair and sporting a blue suit with a pink tie walked into the room. "What is this talk of nonsense?"

Cedric sighed of relief. "Papa Ross! There you are."

King Mandwell looked shocked. "Dear, what are you doing here? I thought you were attending important business."

Ross sighed. "I was but we finished early. Now what is this talk of nonsense?" Then his eyes landed on Lola and his expression changed to a more confused one. "Who's the girl?" Then he turned to Cedric with an annoyed look. "You", he said, making Cedric jump, "Explain yourself."

Cedric winced. "While I was doing my mission to get rid of the dragon, Lola here helped me out."

"She did?", King Ross said, rather shocked. Then he looked at King Mandwell to confirm this, Mandwell nodded, and he looked at Lola. "Impressive. Quite impressive indeed."

Lola giggled nervously. "Thank you, sir."

"Well that answers one of my questions", King Ross began by saying, "But what was with the mentioning of the 'Rainbow Brigade?'"

Lola spoke up. "I wish to bring back the Rainbow Brigade, sir. That's the whole reason why I'm here."

King Ross made a 'hmm" sound. "Well if that's the whole reason you're here then. Benjamin!"

From another room came this butler with dark brown curly hair and hazel eyes wearing a black suit with a tailcoat. "Yes, sire?"

"Escort miss Lola here to the Lesbian Kingdom would you?", he asked.

"Yes sire", Benjamin replied.

Lola, Cedric and Mandwell all looked at Ross with a shocked expression. "What?!", Lola and Cedric both said together.

Mandwell offered Ross a empathized look. "Come now, Ross. Don't be this way. She traveled all this way."

"I won't take any chances to our kingdom being invaded and our citizens at the mercy of those Heteros. They already steal from us enough. Benjamin, you know where you're going do you not?", King Ross replied.

"Yes, sire", Benjamin said with a nod, "I've been to the Lesbian Kingdom before. I've even heard their distress call stating their new location this morning."

Lola looked at Benjamin in mild shock for a moment. The Gay Kingdom receives our calls but doesn't respond to them? I can't talk about this around King Ross though. He'll just shut me down....I'll ask the butler once we're alone. She nodded and agreed to that decision.

Benjamin came down the steps towards Lola and stopped in front of her. "Come along with me, princess."

As Lola followed Benjamin, she saw Cedric looking down at the ground and he looked up at her as if apologizing. Then she mouthed, Don't worry. I'll be back, and the doors shut behind them.

Cedric balled up his fists. "Why'd you do that for, papa? She was only wanting to help us!"

King Ross remained unfazed. "Help us all get captured? Help us get invaded by the Hetero army? I did what I had to do to keep us safe, Cedric. You should be grateful and feel foolish for your actions as a knight for the Gay Kingdom. She could've been a spy for all you knew."

"But she wasn't a spy!", Cedric and Mandwell both said. Cedric continued. "She was the princess of the Lesbian Kingdom. If you knew they were attacked again then why didn't we help them?"

"The Lesbian Kingdom has betrayed us once! I will NOT allow it to happen once again!", King Ross stated in a demanding tone.

Cedric was at a loss for words for a moment then remembered a piece of history he was taught. "What about in the early days of our kingdoms? Whenever gay men were in desperate need of blood because of this awful illness that was spreading throughout our kingdom. Who was there to donate their blood? The lesbians! They were! So you can't tell me that they're all that awful if they were willing to help us out like that in our desperate time of need."

King Ross's expression softened some then. Then he took in a sharp inhale. "Although I greatly appreciated what the lesbians have done for us in the past, it doesn't excuse them for what they have done to us. You two of all people should realize that."

The room then went silent. Then Cedric grit his teeth. "Well I don't care what they did! What they did for us in the past was honorable and should be seen as such! They could've just sat in the sidelines and watched us suffer but they didn't! They decided to help us! And that's all that matters!" And he then ran passed them and up the stairs to his room and slammed the door behind him.

King Ross sighed heavily and sat down on his throne. "You know I don't mean to be the bad guy all of the time. You think I did the right thing sending her away?"

King Mandwell clicked his tongue and sat down on his throne beside him. "I see and acknowledge that your intentions were good but to a teenager they might just seem unfair."

King Ross sighed again. "I know. Cedric is just so headstrong. I just don't know how to properly handle him sometimes. I'm a terrible papa."

King Mandwell scoffed. "Your son got mad at you. Welcome to parenthood. He'll eventually get over it in time and you know it. He won't stay mad at you forever." He said as he reached over and held Ross's hand.

King Ross looked down at his hand and looked over at Mandwell. "I'm so lucky to have you."

"As am I", Mandwell said with a smile and he leaned over the throne and kissed Ross. "I love you", Mandwell said.

"I love you too", Ross replied back with smile.

"Now thanks to you I have to tell our citizens that there won't be an upcoming festival after all. Since our main guest will no longer be attending", King Mandwell stated.

King Ross blinked several times in confusion. "What?"