Bloom, a Flower Husbands Story Empires S1

Chapter 13

Lizzie set down another blue shulker box. The pile was growing significantly. She sighed and picked up another shulker. She set it on top of the last one. Reorganizing her storage system was proving to be a harder task than she thought it would be.

Lizzie walked to the edge of her tower and let the breeze blow through her pink hair. She closed her eyes and listened to the waves crashing. Then, pulling her out of her thoughts she heard someone shouting at her.

"Lizzie!"

She opened her eyes and scanned the water.

"Jimmy! I'll be down in a second!" she called.

She raced down the spiral staircase of the Prisma Palace. She glanced up and as she neared the bottom, she thought about how pretty her palace looked in the sunlight. The prismarine shimmered, changing from green to blue. The quartz glinted and the pink coral roofs strongly contrasted with the clear sky.

"Jimmy! Nice to see you so soon!" Lizzie said with a smile, showing off her pointed teeth.

"Fish talked to me today!" Jimmy cried, completely skipping the part where he was supposed to say how excited he was to see her (and how awesome she was...and how much taller she was than everybody else. Seriously, why did people skip these crucial conversation starters?). "Why?"

Lizzie looked at him skeptically. "Uh, how about the part where you're literally half-fish?" She started to walk back up the stairs, Jimmy following close behind (and still dripping water everywhere from his swim). "You're supposed to be able to talk to fish."

Jimmy glared at her jokingly.

"Though I guess it is about time..." Lizzie muttered more to herself than Jimmy.

"About time for what?" he asked.

"For you to know who you are," she stared right at him for dramatic effect.

Jimmy gasped.

Lizzie grinned, "Ha! Got 'em! Did Father not tell you who our mother is?"

Jimmy shook his head. "I never asked, I guess."

"Why? You know what? Nevermind. I'll tell you."

They reached the top of the steps and Lizzie grasped Jimmy's hand, pulling him to her bedroom. He sat down on her pink bed.

"'Kay, listen. So, thousands of years ago, a monstrous creature dominated the oceans. The creature had the head of a codfish and a body like a salamander, four small webbed feet, and a long tail. After centuries of loneliness, the creature called upon the ocean gods and laid a clutch of eggs on a rocky island. Soon after, the creature began to wither away and die, leaving the eggs unprotected. In time, all but two eggs were destroyed, leaving one large pristine egg and one smaller damaged egg. From the large egg hatched a four-legged amphibious being with gills and colorful fins. The amphibious being seized the remaining damaged egg and disappeared into the cold ocean never to be seen again," the pink-haired girl finished.

"Wait, were we the eggs?"

Lizzie nodded.

"So, I obviously was the large pristine egg? Right? Right? Lizzie?"

"Um, sure," Lizzie said, biting her lip, "Anyway, our mother is the creature of the deep, meaning you and I are children of the deep. Does all of this make sense?"

"Yes," Jimmy said slowly.

"Oh! And, also, Father is not our biological father. Mother just... laid us? With the help of the gods?" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't really know, it's confusing. Anyway, Father found us washed up on the beach once and adopted us."

Lizzie could almost see the cogs turning in her little brother's head

Just then, Sir Strawberry came crawling into the room, interrupting the conversation. "M'lady, you have a meeting with the Royal Court in fifteen minutes."

"Okay, I'll be there soon," she said standing up. She adjusted the tiara perched on her head. She glanced back at Jimmy, who was sitting with his mouth open, eyes shifting from her to where Sir Strawberry was.

"You can do it too?" he asked.

Lizzie nodded, careful to not mess up her now-straightened crown.

Jimmy let out a sigh and fell backward on the bed. "Good, I thought I was the only one. Now we can both be weird!"

Sir Strawberry squeaked again.

"Yes, alright, I'm coming," Lizzie said. "Jimmy, go run along to your boyfriend." She made a shooing motion with her hands.

Jimmy's face turned red. "He's not my-" He stopped when Lizzie raised an eyebrow at him.

"Bye Cod Boy!" she said, walking out of the room.

She caught a glance of Jimmy's glare just before she left.