Amourshipping and the Beanstalk

Chapter 4

Ash has never felt more speechless in his life. For two years he's been wishing that by some miracle the queen of Kalos and the love of his life would still be alive even after seeing her turn into nothing by a green ball of fire. It looked like he would never see her again in this life much less ever get the courage to tell her how much she means everything to him while he struggles to bring food on the table for himself, Brock, Iris, and Maynor. And yet his tongue feels incapable of use as Serena, the woman he loves, his oldest friend and the queen herself introduced herself as a princess and asks who he is.

It takes a moment before Brock speaks what is on both his and Ash's mind.

"Queen Serena, what are you talking about?" He asks. "It's us, Captain Brock and your esquire, Ash. We thought you were dead for almost two years. Are Holly, Cilan and General Wulfric with you?"

But the queen makes no response. She just keeps giving them a lifeless smile.

"Serena, please tell me you remember me," Ash begs. "We've been friends for years. Don't you remember how we met? I stopped Betsy from hitting you? What about when I was there when your father died and you became queen?"

For a moment, the honey blonde woman keeps staring at them before she turns to Ash and speaks in a dull tone.

"Excuse me, young man, but one should not address a princess so informally. I'm afraid I must ask you to refer to me as either Princess Serena, Your Highness, or Your Majesty."

Ash looks even more devastated than before to hear the queen he loves dearly speak to him like a cold, distant stranger.

"And I fear I don't know at all what either of you are talking about," she says turning to Brock. "I don't know anyone by those names for I have been living by myself ever since my parents died when I was very little."

Ash and Brock continue to stare at the queen looking as dumbfounded as before. Suddenly, the mouse wearing the pink dress runs over to Queen Serena and squeaks rapidly at her, trying to get the honey blonde woman to understand what it is trying to say. But the queen merely looks at the mouse for a moment before she picks up the mouse, puts it on a small cloud that was floating next to her and gently pushes it away.

"I'm sorry, but I must ask you to go away as I hate mice," Queen Serena says coldly.

The mouse looks at the queen broken-hearted and begins to squeal out a cry as Brock catches the cloud and takes the mouse out of it with a sympathetic look.

"Sere - er... Princess Serena, what are you saying?" Ash asks. "Do you really have no memory of Kalos, our home?"

The queen tilts her head slowly with a small look of curiosity shown in her bland face.

"Kalos? Why that sounds like a strange place," she says. "My home has always been here in the land of the clouds where I am soon to rule with my handsome fiance."

That did it. At that moment, Ash feels like his heart has been broken worse than it ever did when he thought Serena had died after he tried to save her. Even Brock looks at his friend feeling sympathetic toward him before turning back to the queen.

"Excuse me, Your Highness, but did you say fiance?" he asks.

"Why, yes," Serena says with a faint sense of cheer in her voice. "I am happily engaged to my incredibly handsome and charming prince, Calem. Tomorrow at dawn we are going to be married at the castle cathedral. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world knowing I'm going to be happily married to the most wonderful prince in the world and have his beautiful sister, Madame Venus become my sister-in-law."