A Mission

A bright light stung my eyes and I groaned. "Please Meara. Please close those AWFUL drapes and let me sleep more."

She sighed. "Faelyn you do this every day! It's past noon. You need to get up and be productive. Plus a little birdie told me you had some research to do so get to it!" 

"Nnnnnnghhhhhh. Fine. But five more minutes." And with that I fell asleep for another hour. After waking up I took a bath and put on some pants and a flowy top. I set off to the royal library, clear on the other side of the castle. Along the way I ran into Eldar. 

"Princess. How are you today?"

"Just a little bit of a headache. Other than that I'm fine." He pulled me aside to a corner. 

"Faelyn. Don't get involved with that werewolf. His kind is dangerous and devious. I'm sure he has some kind of ulterior motive for befriending you. Please be careful." 

I scoffed. "I have no idea what you're taking about. Just leave me alone!" I swatted him away and stormed off towards the library. 

The library was massive. The columns of books stacked all the way to the ceiling, with ladders leaning precariously on the side, the only way to reach some books. As I headed inside the door way, a lady approached me. 

"Greetings, your highness. How can I help you today? I've never seen you in the library before."

 I blushed. "Ah yes w-well I'm on a mission. I need all the books you have on werewolves. Please." 

"Hmm. I don't think I have very many but I'll show you where they're at. Follow me." She led me to an older part of the library that was dustier than the newer sections. She pointed to a dilapidated, sagging shelf with only two books. "This is it I'm afraid."

"Oh. Well thank you for your help anyway." She smiled at me and walked away. I picked up one of the books and blew on the cover to get the dust off. I sat down at a nearby table and began flipping through the pages. Nothing mentioned anything about mates. All I could find was stories about their origins and various tidbits about their culture. 

One thing did catch my eye though. It mentioned the royal werewolf family. The current family had apparently overthrown the previous family 100 years ago and has ruled ever since. So they were ruthless. And dangerous. Greyson wasn't mentioned, probably because the book was so outdated. I groaned in disappointment. I went and read through the other book but it didn't mention anything useful either.

 Maybe he was lying to me. Eldar said they were not to be trusted, maybe he was right. I frowned. Being with him felt strangely right. Everything he did to me took my breath away.

Sighing, I placed my head on the table. He was surely gone by now. Lycandor was all the way to the east, on the other side of Amaratha. It would take days to get there and I knew my mother would never let me leave the castle to go there. I started to devise a plan. Maybe I could go on a diplomatic trip to strengthen our relationship with the werewolves. Mother was always saying I never take my responsibilities as a princess seriously and this could be my chance to prove her wrong!  

I left the library to find the Queen. I eventually found her, chiding some servants in the hallway because they had accidentally dropped some of her good china. 

"How do you expect me to replace these dishes?! They were a gift from my mother!" She looked so angry. 

"Mother! I've been looking all I've over for you! I need to talk to you about something important." The servants gave me relieved looks and skittered away.

"Humph! Faelyn can't you see I was busy here? Those servants ruined my perfectly good dish set and they need to be punished!" 

"I'm sure everything will work itself out. Can we please talk over here?" I motioned to a nearby table and we sat down. 

"What is it dear? You know I'm on a tight schedule."

I rolled my eyes. "Can I go on a diplomatic trip?" Her brow furrowed. "You've never wanted to do anything like this before. What has changed?"

"Well I'm getting older now and I think maybe it's time I start learning the ropes of diplomacy." 

"Hmm." She sighed. "What Kingdom are you wanting to visit?"

"Well I was thinking the werewolves. I've never been to Lycandor before and it wouldn't hurt to become allies with them." 

"WEREWOLVES?" She screeched. "Absolutely not I will not have my only daughter visit a bunch of barbarians and get mauled to death!" I groaned in frustration. 

"You met Alpha King Greyson last night! He was a perfect gentleman and you know it!" She scrunched her brows up in thought. 

"That was him? I had no idea he was a werewolf." 

"See? Please mother let me go!" She sighed deeply and put a hand on my arm. "Faelyn. I will let you go. But only on one condition, that you let Eldar accompany you the entire time. And you must send me frequent updates by mail every week." 

"Mother that's TWO conditions!" I whined. 

"Two very good and lenient conditions, considering how far and dangerous the journey to Lycandor is." 

"Fine. I will take the pesky fly. But I plan on leaving as soon as possible. Maybe tomorrow."

"Go. Have your adventures. Your father would have wanted you to go. But please, be careful Faelyn.  I don't know what I would do if something happened to you. I love you." She smiled and waved me off.

"I love you mother!" And with that I ran off to start packing.