》》》▪︎ ☆ [[ELEUTHEROMANIAC FERNWEH [] . . . •

. . Chapter Three. .

Fable swept into a bow, his wings folding in to his sides. He lowered his head and it quite nearly touched the ground.

"Your majesty!" Willow gasped. Fable saw Sundew start to tilt her head, then jerk it back up again. It looked rather like an instinctive twitch. The Queen gave a faint smile.

"You have exactly your grandmother's stubborn expression. I saw it many times during the Tree Wars."

"My grandmother?" Sundew echoed, surprised.

"She was my best general," Sequoia responded. Willow turned to Fable as the Queen continued to talk with Sundew and the four LeafWings began to head towards the village - the one that Fable supposedly lived in.

"So, how often do you come to the lake?" Willow asked Fable. "I go there quite often; I've never seen you, but perhaps you slipped by."

"I've been a couple times," Fable answered. It felt true as he said it, and quite honestly, if all the times he had read lake scenes with this exact lake didn't count as at least one visit, he didn't know what did.

Willow turned her head to speak to Sundew, and Fable noticed the Queen begin to walk ahead of her subjects - and Sundew.

So far, everything's gone just as it had in the book, Fable thought. That's a good sign, right?

"...there are strangers in our village! Three of them! And you'll never believe where two of them come from! It's amazing. Wait until you see them." Fable heard Willow say these lines he had committed to memory, happy he hadn't changed anything yet, but worried he soon would.

Tsunami and Turtle! Fable thought gleefully. He couldn't wait to see the SeaWings. As Sundew and Willow continued their conversation exactly as Fable remembered it, he decided to hurry his steps until he was walking in stride with Queen Sequoia.

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes until Sequoia looked down her nose at Fable and sighed, a deep sigh that expelled air from her snout and ruffled a branch to her side.

"Your majesty, if I may," Fable began. He had been overcome with the sudden urge to tell the Queen what had happened to him.

"As long as it's not bad news," Sequoia said in a slow, weary voice.

"Ehm... I don't believe so," Fable said hesitantly, thinking through the events of the rest of the book.

Well... I can avoid the bad parts, surely, Fable thought to himself.

"This is going to be hard to believe," the new LeafWing warned.

"Oh, dear child, I've heard so many things in my lifetime. You'd be surprised what I can believe."

"Okay, well, I suppose I'll start by asking you if you've ever seen me before." Sequoia looked over at Fable with an hilarious confused expression on her face.

"Have I ever- are you okay, Fable?" She asked bluntly, stopping in her tracks. Fable glanced behind him; Sundew and Willow had paused their walk as well. Okay. So he had a moment.

"What if I told you I used to be a scavenger?"

"You've lost your mind," Sequoia decided, briskly continuing her walk. "Those SeaWings have possessed you with some power or other." Fable had to hurry to keep up.

"Knew you wouldn't believe me," Fable muttered bitterly to himself.

"I never once said that," Sequoia said over her shoulder. "You may continue. Explain, please."

"Okay, well. I was a scavenger, until... just now at the lake. And I had this book, and you were in it..." Fable couldn't find a way of explaining without sounding completely crazy. "Anyway, I basically know what's going to happen to you in the future. And I don't have any memory of... my past dragon life."

Sequoia looked like her mind was reeling. "Convince me. What do you know?"

"Well... I know when we get back to the village, we're going to your tree home, and Hazel will be there. Sundew's going to tell you... well, I'd better let her say it. And there's not much more I can say without-" Fable almost said spoiling the story. Sequoia nodded.

"I've decided to believe you for now." Fable sighed in relief.

[] 695 words []