4. Family ties
The reunion party was only overshadowed by Tony, who didn't let his daughter out of his sight for two seconds because he wanted to find out whether she was really pregnant. And if it weren't for her, it definitely wouldn't be.
"Would you like something, Dad?" Virginia asked with a smile. Even though it was barely a day, she had missed her father because she was just not used to being without him. And if that was inappropriate for a 21-year-old woman, she didn't care.
"Uh ..." Tony hadn't wanted to approach the whole thing that directly, but if the opportunity presented itself, he should grab it by the head. So he nodded hesitantly and led his daughter to a lonely corner of the throne room to speak to her.
“What is it about?” It was easy to see from Tony's face that he was extremely uncomfortable with the situation.
With his face averted and his arms folded, the former caretaker gathered to bring up the delicate subject.*A baby! I last saw a baby twenty years ago ... * - "Well, it's about something Wolf said at Wendell's coronation ceremony, and Wendell himself mentioned something like that yesterday, and I thought to myself, I'll go get one Confirmation ... "he began after taking another deep breath. At an encouraging nod from his daughter, he continued. "I don't even want to bother about the bush anymore, so I'll say it straight away ... Without anything, just straight out ... Without a stitch, without a bow, without-"
"Dad!"
“Are you pregnant?” It was out now, and Tony felt strangely relieved. It hadn't been as difficult as he'd thought.
Virginia held her breath in shock before searching her brain desperately for an appropriate answer. But in the end she chose the truth. "I do not know."
"How, you don't know? Then why do everyone else know, only you don't?"
"I ... haven't done a test yet, but Wolf is sure.Must be a wolf thing or something ... "An embarrassed smile played on her lips, and Virginia dearly hoped this conversation didn't get any more embarrassing. She felt like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, or more accurately: with her first real friend in the forest. "But the ring here ... it also sings in this direction ..." With that she put her right hand on her stomach, which still showed no signs of a possible pregnancy, and the ring began softly humming of cribs and lullabies.
"Well, if that's not better than any pregnancy test," Tony commented dryly while still staring at the singing engagement ring that reminded him of the upcoming wedding. Without looking up, he asked softly. "Do you love him?"
Virginia, briefly unable to follow his sudden jump in thought, rubbed her stomach again and smiled. "Yes."
"And ..." Tony knew it was going to be even more difficult, but he had to go through it.Virginia was his daughter, his only child, and her happiness was above his. "... does he love you too?" He jerked his head up and, not for the first time in the last two weeks, Virginia saw the iron destiny that slumbered under the lazy and sedate shift. "I mean if not, all you have to say is one word ... If he doesn't make you 100% happy then-"
"Everything is fine, Dad," his daughter cut him off. Tears shimmered in her eyes as she took a shaky breath and hugged him. "I love you daddy."
Tony stood there a few minutes after Virginia had long been back with her fiancé, completely taken by surprise.
"Well, are you all right?" Wendell patted Tony on the shoulder when he had arrived unnoticed. "And how is planning going on with the wedding?"
Tony had done the play park project to help prepare for his daughter's wedding. This should give him a better feeling that his chick would soon be a married woman."Well, well ... I'm just not so sure about the guest list ..."
"Why? We can use the same one that we used for my coronation ceremony. That saves a lot of work." Wendell reached for a champagne flute that a waiter squirming offered on his tray.
"It's about: I've dealt a bit with the history of this country here - not that I think Julia, the lumberjack, is Rumpelstiltskin again or something - and that's when I stumbled upon Sleeping Beauty."
"Everyone knows that story, Anthony," replied Wendell. "Sleeping Beauty stabbed herself on the spindle and slept a hundred years ... at least that's what they say, because in fact no one saw her after she fell asleep ... So we probably can't invite her."
"No, I didn't mean that, Wendell. Your parents had invited all but one fairy to bless Sleeping Beauty. And that one old box didn't like it, she showed up anyway and ruined the party by doing that Baby cursed do you rememberWouldn't it be great if that happened at the wedding too, would it? "
After a moment, Wendell agreed. "You are right Anthony, thought very well."
"And when I went through the list of invitations, I saw that not a single representative of the 8th Kingdom was there ..."
Wendell choked on his champagne and coughed vigorously. Did he hear right? Had Anthony just proposed to invite the representative of the 8th Kingdom? He probably needed an HN and, above all, an O check. "What?" He croaked, understandably. "Y-you want to invite the Ice Queen to your daughter's wedding?"
Tony, who didn't quite understand the updraft, just nodded with narrowed eyes. "Just because she has such a cool name doesn't necessarily mean anything, or are there even more prejudices like the one with the wolves here?"
"About the wolves, that was ... That was something completely different. The Ice Queen ... she's bad!After the death of my mother-in-law, your wife ... she is definitely the most dangerous person in all 9 kingdoms. You can't just invite her over! "
"Why not? What if she's just a grouchy old woman who was never invited anywhere and then decided to just stay home? Fate tends to repeat itself, and I don't want that my daughter's marriage is as cursed ... as mine was! "
"Where did you pick up the wisdom?" Fate tends to repeat itself "?" Wendell couldn't help but ask.
"It's over ... It doesn't matter. It can't be that bad, can it? I mean, have you seen her before? Has she ever killed someone? Was she jailed for some crime?"
"No," admitted Wendell hesitantly. "But ..."
"But what?"
"Everyone knows the Ice Queen is bad, she is the Ice Queen."
"Like everyone knows that wolves are all murderous beasts?I also had to get used to the fact that Wolf is not what I first thought. Maybe this Ice Queen isn't that bad after all, who knows? We just have to give it a chance. And if there should be anything, we still have the hunter's magic crossbow ... "
Wendell had to grudgingly admit that Tony did have a point. His opinion, and that of everybody else, about the Ice Queen was based entirely on hearsay stories. No one had ever seen her face to face, which is why most of the theories about a man-eating witch hold up.
~ * + ^ + * ~
"What do you see, gypsy?"
If it hadn't been the icy cold that sent a chill down the fortune teller's spine, it would be the sound of the Ice Queen. But she should get used to it quickly. With stiff fingers she laid out the cards again and began to interpret them. It was the first time she did this job after she was killed by the hunter.Thanks to the Ice Queen, she was alive again and was able to avenge her community.
"I see big goals, big dreams, in the realization of which you invest a lot of patience ..."
"I knew that! Tell me something I don't know yet," the queen asked her fortune-teller.
"I need your hand for that, Queen ..."
The cold limb stiffened the already arthritis-afflicted hand of the gypsy woman even further. With the crooked index finger of her other hand, the old woman traced the various lines on the queen's palm and explained what she could see from their course. "You have an unusually long lifeline and in the near future you will have to decide at a fork ... I see ... no, I don't see any more."
Ice Queen ground her teeth indignantly. She had hoped for a little more from this session. "Then put the cards again for the general future, not specializing in me."
"Very well, Queen ...", the former Gypsy Queen murmured and shuffled her cards again, which she then put on the table."The chariot, the lovers, the tower, the universe and ... death."
"And? What does it all mean?" Ice Queen crossed one leg and leaned on the low ice table on which the cards were laid out. "Do I win a car? Will I move? Talk!"
The gypsy swallowed dryly. She couldn't believe the meaning of the cards. She probably misinterpreted something, but no ... "The car stands for change. There will be a change, something that no one had foreseen. For whom, however, that cannot be said. The lovers stand for relationships, for future ones like The tower signals the upheaval. It can now be for the lovers that they are separating or it is anticipating the universe, which means completion. That would mean that a plan cannot be completed because it is one Source of interference, which may be the lovers ... And death stands for completion in every meaning, the completion of an activity, a relationship, a life ..."It's all very vague, isn't it?" The Queen cooed as she rose from her chair and started to leave the room. "Next time I want something more tangible, understand?"
“Very well, Queen.” With her head bowed, the gypsy waited until the Ice Queen had locked the icy door. Then she set about putting the cards away, and only when the tarot cards had been carefully stowed away in a small bag did she dare to breathe a sigh of relief. She hadn't dared say everything she'd seen. It was so that the type of layout she used left out one card and always combined the next but one with it. The chariot, the tower, the death ... your plan would fail and end upon graduation. The lovers, the universe ... That probably meant the couple would have a child who would bring the 9 Kingdoms closer together again. But did this child have anything to do