16 Extra 5

Crecylla wanders through the halls of the castle at Diana with ease. She was visiting her sister and brother in law, and Cyrus had joined her as well. Cyrus was with his brother in the archery range, and Crecylla had decided to visit the castle's cats. She wanders into the room, and when the cats see their favorite sister walk in, they scramble to swarm around her. She had a certain scent, and she smelled like fresh jade vines and roses.

She squats down, and the cats swarm on her lap. They snuggle against her, and she giggles. She pets a couple of them, and they purr. The cats pounce up and down the cat castle, and they play around. Crecylla gets up to get some exercise, and she plays with the cats. The time comes when she has to leave, and she snuggles each one as a goodbye.

Crecylla wanders through the halls of her home. Her parents were in the retirement castle, and she was wandering through the halls. She wanted to race through the halls, hide from the nannies, and play knight with her sister. But they had grown beyond that age, and it would be odd for two crown princesses to play like that.

Cyrus finishes at the shooting range, and he notices that Crecylla was staring at them. He waves for her to join them. She rushes down the stairs, and she kicks off that awful dress of her's. She grabs a bow, and she challenges Helios and Cyrus to a match. They shoot well, and their accuracy is actually brilliant. They shoot arrow after arrow, and they all hit bullseye. They fail to pierce their arrows through their last ones. Helios jokes about how Cyrus was going easy on them, and Cyrus shoots back that Helios had never improved.

Crecylla gasps when she realizes that they didn't do as well as she feared they did. She launches her arrows, one after one, and they all pierce through the last. She turns to Cyrus for praise, and he pats her on the head. She beams, and she continues shooting her arrows. Helios beams, and he mentions that Luna had mentioned that Crecylla was really good with both range and short distance weapons. Had she not been in line for the throne, their parents might've let her lead the guards.

Luna finishes her items for the day and then leaves to see what her husband and sister is up to. She notices the three of them at the archery range, and she sends a servant for a pot of tea and some biscuits. She changes into something moveable, and then heads down herself. She waves for the three, and Crecylla gives her a hug. Helios kisses her on the lips, and Crecylla cringes slightly. Cyrus chuckles at his wife's reaction. A servant interrupts them, and offers a tray with a plate full of cookies, and a pot of tea.

Helios brightens at the sight of biscuits and tea, and when the picnic rug is set up, the four of them sit down and start snacking. Cyrus wipes a crumb from Crecylla's cheek, and Crecylla thanks him through her puffy cheeks. Luna laughs at the two, and Helios feeds her a biscuit. She whisks Cyrus off into a question on how the land was doing. Cyrus lets her know that the land was doing well, and that their harvest this year had been bountiful. Helios asks Crecylla if she had been doing anything fun recently. She engages herself in a violent game of rock paper scissors with Helios to determine if she was to tell him, and he snickers when he wins.

Crecylla tells him about how well she had been doing. She had found a really nice cliff that gave her view of the town, and she told him that he should visit them sometime. She talks about the firefly lit forest, and she talks about the cottage. Helios listens in awe, and he asks if she had a gazeebo, and when she says she does, he squeals. Crecylla tells him about how nice the land was, and how green the grass was. There was a creek nearby, and there was a lake where the locals all gathered to swim in. She talks about the clouds on a clear day, and the green of the vegetable there. Helios cuts her off and rambles about Luna's garden.

He talks about the blue plants, and the handful of Phoenician ones that Luna had brought in. He talks about how careful she is with the plants, and his eyes light up when he mentions the phoenix tree planted in the garden. The flowers had blossomed recently, and they were gorgeous. He offers to show her, and she lets him drag her there. Helios shows her the tree, and it's gorgeous. It's orange, and it's blossoms change from red to orange to yellow in the center. They look like fire lilies, and she holds them carefully in her hand.

She feels at home for once. She return to the picnic area with Helios, and she sips the tea that was prepared while listening to their conversation. Cyrus cracks a smile when Luna mentions Blossom, and Helios challenges Crecylla to a game of tag. It felt warm. It was like a summers day in Phoenicia. The sun's rays are warm against Crecylla's skin, and the clouds in Diana provide her with some sort of shade. She kicks her shoes off, and she races through the grass.

Their time comes to an end eventually, and they have to head back to the castle for the day. Cyrus carries Crecylla back, and her shoes hang off of his fingers. He tucks her into bed, and he goes off to shower. Crecylla holds him by the sleeve, and he drags her into the bath with her. She wakes up slightly, and she undresses with him. He helps her massage her scalp, and when Crecylla regains consciousness, she helps him massage the shampoo into his fair. They wash off together, and help eachother dry off.

The two snuggle off into bed, and they both drift off into their separate dreams. Luna and Helios finish cleaning themselves, and they drift off to sleep as well. Someone in the stars, someone sings someone a lullaby. They sing about love, and they sing about the stars. Love pulled together across an empire, and love found in the simples of things.