Hide Me In The Woods

Part XVI

The long walk across the winding trail was enough to kill time. Emile saw the guests make their way into the venue. He had secretly invited all of Kugnoz to the wedding. From what he remembered from the guests list, Crocus had only invited three other people, and they were all friends of hers.

"Look at this," said Emile.

"Smells like privilege in here," Andrew mumbled to himself. "Wait, you guys didn't rehearse for this?"

"No need. I've been to so many weddings. I've got this in the bag."

Andrew took Emile's word for it. He met up with the bridesmaids while Emile left the venue briefly. Crocus's bridesmaids seemed to see nothing wrong with Andrew. He looked clean; they never would've guessed he was a peasant. The blonde one approached him slowly. "You, uh, hangin' around after?" she asked.

"God, Halle," the other bridesmaids groaned.

"For a bit," said Andrew. "I'm, er... I have a boyfriend though."

Emile was in the distance as the bridesmaids kept flirting with Andrew. After hearing him call Emile his boyfriend. He felt the butterflies every time Andrew said his name. Emile turned around and saw Lola right in front of him. She was wondering what he was doing away from the venue.

Lola saw Crocus walk up to the arch, as she hid Emile's eyes, since it was considered bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the ceremony. She nudged Emile as a sign to get up to the altar. He quickly ran to the arch, draped in Annie's Echoes. Up front, he saw the man he was going to marry once this was all over.

"I love you," Andrew barely audibly whispered when Emile got to the altar.

"I love you, too," Emile whispered back. "Oh, here she comes."

Crocus had to be walked down the aisle by a member of her castle staff, since Cynthia killed her father. Emile thought Crocus looked beautiful, but he saw the monster on the inside. Patricia and Brie could be seen talking to each other. Brie looked towards Andrew, winking at him. This was a sign that what she said was about to be fulfilled.

As the officiant was talking, Crocus's bridesmaids kept making eyes at Andrew, who was trying to pay them no mind. He tried to listen for the right time. Halle, the maid of honour, looked at him and mouthed, "Come to the back after."

"Get fucked," said Andrew silently.

Directing his attention back to the bride and groom, he managed to tune into the exchanging of the vows. He listened into Crocus's vows first.

"Emile, I consider it a privilege to become queen of Vegreris. I always dreamed to be queen; I just needed the right king. I never thought I'd meet him until I met you. I can't wait to spend forever with you. I love you, and I promise to share every waking moment of my life with you."

Rolling his eyes, Andrew's ended up meeting with Uma's. He lightly waved to her, as she waved at him with a bigger motion. She pulled him aside to talk briefly, while Emile was reading his vows. "How are you doing?" she asked.

"Shh, Emile's about to read his vows," said Andrew.

"Crocus, since I met you, I knew I found the one I wanted to be my queen. You truly mean everything to me. If somebody were to tell me ten years ago that I would become king of Vegreris with the love of my life, I wouldn't believe them. But now that I have you to love, to hold, to be mine forever. I love you."

Emile's vows were so touching, both Andrew and Uma started tearing up, but Andrew needed to stay focused and object to the wedding. He started fidgeting a little bit, since then under was very tight on him. Uma took him away from the wedding entirely for a bit, since everything else was just boring.