Serenity woke up suddenly. Something was different this morning. There was someone else in her bed! She snapped open her eyes and looked around, then her lips softened into a smile as her eyes fell on her daughter, snuggled up against her. She reached out and gently smoothed her little girl's golden hair as she thought. She should have done this more often. Her daughter was really too old to sleep with her anymore. It'd been years since she'd asked to sleep here after a nightmare. She sighed. This was probably the last time. She looked down at her sleeping daughter and made a special effort to etch this moment in her memory, to cherish forever.
Her smile soured. Now she'd have to come up with a suitable punishment for little Serenity. It was good she'd waited until her emotions had calmed down to pronounce any judgment, but now she didn't really want to punish her little girl, especially after she'd been hurt by her dangerous landing.
The door to her bedroom opened silently and Luna stuck her head in. Serenity put a finger to her lips to signal for silence as the woman softly padded into the room. Luna stopped right next to the queen's side of the bed and sat in a cushioned chair.
"Isn't she sweet?" Serenity looked down at her daughter, and Luna nodded in agreement.
"She surely is. But what are you going to do about last night?"
"I was just wondering the same thing. What she did was dangerous ." Serenity paused. "Not to mention abysmally stupid," she added ruefully. "I'm not sure if I can convince her of the gravity of the situation, though. And what can I do for punishment?"
"I could assign her extra school work, your Majesty."
Serenity shook her head. "No, that's not a good idea. I don't want her to associate learning with punishment. So that also cuts out extra arms practice."
Luna scratched her head. "Maybe you could take away a privilege."
"Hmm. Maybe I won't allow her to wear her nice clothes. Or maybe she won't be allowed to the next ball. I'll definitely make her work to replace the dresser. But that doesn't seem like enough, somehow."
Luna nodded in agreement, but didn't offer any other suggestions. Suddenly Serenity snapped her fingers as a thought occurred to her. "I have it! For the next month she has to help the kitchen workers with every meal! That will work!" She smiled, pleased with herself, but the smile faded. Now she had to mete out the punishment. Why couldn't Serenity have just stayed home, safe and sound? Why did she have to cause this trouble? She sighed and went back to stroking her daughter's tangled hair, still damp from last night's bath. Luna stood up.
"I came in here to let you know that your first audience is in an hour. I was wondering if you wanted me to put it off."
Serenity nodded. "I think you have to, Luna. I can't get ready that quickly and take care of the problems my daughter caused." Luna nodded and stood up, efficient as always. Serenity reached down to shake her daughter's shoulder. "Time to wake up, dear. C'mon. Wake up." She began to shake harder. Her daughter slept like the dead! Finally she had to stand up to shove her and shout her name out loud to get the princess' eyes to blink blearily open.
"Wha. . .?" She raised her head and looked around in confusion. "Where am I?" She yawned hugely, and in the middle of it her eyes suddenly snapped wide open. "Endymion? Is that where. . .?"
Serenity listened to this with trepidation. So her daughter had met young Endymion. Did that mean Gaia knew about her daughter's little excursion? She watched comprehension wash across the princess's face as she noticed her mother.
"Mom? Oh! That's right! I'm in your room!" She began to crawl out of bed. "I guess I'd better go get cleaned up. . ."
"Just a minute, young lady. We need to have a serious talk." Little Serenity froze in mid-step and slowly turned back around to face her mother. Her expression was worried. "First I'm going to tell you what your punishments," her daughter winced at the plural for of that word, "will be. Then you're going to tell me exactly what happened down there, and why you didn't tell anyone you could teleport yourself large distances like that!"
Her daughter sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed. "Your punishments are that you are not allowed to attend the next two balls, your dresser and the things that broke when you came back will not be replaced, and you're going to help the kitchen staff with every meal for the next month. Do you understand?" Her daughter's eyes widened at the severity of the punishments, but she nodded. "Good. Now that that unpleasantness is over, I need you to tell me everything you saw while you were on Earth."
"How did you know I went there? I didn't tell anyone!"
"Please, dear, give me some credit. I'm not stupid. Just tell me what happened."
"Well, I was feeling mad, and a little guilty too, for those things I said to you, and I was thinking about them in my room. Then I decided that I was going to try to do something on my own, to prove to you and Luna that I could. I thought about it for awhile." She shrugged. "The only thing I could think of was teleporting. And I've always wanted to go to Earth, so I just closed my eyes and. . ." She clapped her hands. "Suddenly, there I was." Her face was bright with wonder. "You should have seen it, Mom! It was beautiful! All bright greens and yellows! The sky was so blue! You didn't tell me the sky would be that color! And the clouds were just as beautiful from below as they are from above. I even saw a few animals as they ran away. There was this one with long ears and a bushy tail. He hopped a lot, and his nose twitched all the time. It was so cute! Did you know that the moon lights up the whole night on Earth? It's like a gentler version of the sun. I had no idea our planet was so beautiful from far away! It's like a smooth, lilac colored ball!"
Serenity was tempted to smile at her daughter's excitement, and sternly held back her amusement. This was serious. "That's all very nice dear, but what happened? I heard you mumble a name. Endymion. Did you meet Gaia's son?" Little Serenity looked down at the floor and nodded silently. "Well? Tell me about it."
"I was just walking around, you know, looking at things? Well, I was just strolling when this boy jumped out from behind a tree with a sword. Did you know that swords really aren't that long, Mother? They'd be too heavy to carry if they were really long. Well, I jumped back. Oh! Did you know that some of Artemis' training must have caught on? I did a kinda back flip to get out of his way. You should have seen the look on his face! He was so surprised!" She was getting into her story again, and her voice got louder as she got more excited. Serenity considered interrupting her and putting her back on track, but then she stopped herself. Maybe it would be a better idea to let her daughter ramble her various thoughts out in her own way. She could go over anything she thought she'd missed later. "He's ever so good at fighting, Mom! You should have seen him! He was outside 'cause he likes to get away from his mother's house. He says it's not too nice there anymore. He says his mom's always scared and that he's scared too because he's not really sure what's going on, so he can't help her. He sounded really worried, Mom." The princess turned to her. "You said something about Earth not being safe. Is that what you were talking about?"
"We know that Gaia's having problems, dear, but she won't tell us what, so we can't help her. It's very frustrating."
Serenity nodded. "He thought so too. Anyway, he asked me who I was, so I told him. He didn't even know my name, though he says he remembers you when he was little. He says I look a lot like you, did you know that? So, he took me to his hover car-it's really old. He says they haven't made any new ones in years. He says that nobody remembers how to do a lot of the things they used to do. He says the older people are being ignored and forgotten, and he said that it was stupid of them. Isn't that smart of him? So anyway, he took me to the car and he drove to the ocean-will you teach me to drive a hover car soon, Mom? It doesn't look that hard."
"You're in trouble right now, remember, Serenity? I don't think you'll be getting any new privileges soon."
"Oh." Her daughter stopped talking and suddenly looked depressed.
"You went to the ocean. . .?" the queen prompted her.
"Yes, the ocean. It was beautiful! Did you know that the Moon causes the seas to change level? Endymion called them tides. Isn't that neat? It went on forever, Mom. You'd never believe it!"
"It sounds like you spent a lot of time with Endymion. Did you go back to Gaia's palace with him?"
"No. In fact, I did remember that you were worried about something to do with Earth, so I asked him not to tell anyone about my visit." Little Serenity looked embarrassed about something. "Actually, I asked him not to tell anyone so you wouldn't find out about the whole trip." She clenched her fists. "If only I'd been able to miss that stupid dresser." She looked up. "Anyway, he promised he wouldn't tell. He's really nice, Mom. You should go back down there and visit sometime." Serenity turned earnest eyes to her mother.
"Maybe someday, dear, but I don't want to upset what small contact we still have with Gaia by stepping in where I'm not wanted." She leaned forward and brushed her daughter's bangs off her forehead so she could plant a light kiss on the crescent moon. It sparkled brightly in the rising sun. "I don't want you doing something so dangerous again. You missed your target on your way home. What if you'd missed on the way there and had ended up in space? You can't do impulsive things like that, Serenity." She pulled back. "Okay, that's the end of the lecture. Why don't you go clean up? You'll have to help get breakfast ready." She laughed softly at the disgusted and resigned expression on her daughter's face as she left the room. Thank goodness her daughter had had enough sense not to go to the palace on Earth. Maybe this wouldn't be a disaster after all. Maybe it would end up being a story they'd laugh over during dinner.
And maybe not.