Chapter 6: In Which Eunkyung Desperately Tries to Avoid Going Splat!

To Eunkyung’s great relief, the blimp did indeed arrive at the correct cloud. Upon bumping gently against the Cloud of the Blimped, the blimp let out a great belch, which tootled out into silence, and accelerated downward to eventually land in the middle of a farmer’s cabbage patch.

Luckily, both Eunkyung and the queen had managed to jump onto the Cloud before the blimp tootled out of existence. Brushing herself off, Eunkyung squinted at the miserable, cold terrain in front of her. It truly did appear to be an awful place to live – beads of moisture were already clinging to her clothes, chilling her to the bone, and the air was so thin and sharp it made her lungs ache. Briefly, she wondered how the Amphi Pambis survived up here with no food available, and the guilt of subjecting hundreds of beings to starvation, hypothermia, and going splat for the sake of a traditional ceremony made her stomach roil in discomfort. This is horrible! I’ll have to summon another Rain Council to formally amend the law as soon as I get back home.

A squeak coming from somewhere near her feet distracted her. Bewildered, Eunkyung glanced down, and - there! A fist-sized Amphi Pambi hopped closer, tilting its head.

Squatting down, Eunkyung smiled, wanting to make the best possible first impression she could. “Well, hello there.”

Freezing on the spot, the Amphi Pambi screamed and dropped away in a dead faint.

Eunkyung stared. For all she had been trained in diplomatic matters, she had never been taught what to do in a situation like this. “Don’t be scared,” she said to the unmoving body.

Having heard its friend, another Amphi Pambi approached, hopping quickly to investigate. Again, it looked up at her, tilting its head, and then it too screamed and fainted.

“Oh!” Getting quite frazzled now as more Amphi Pambis came closer and screamed, Eunkyung wrung her hands. “No no, don’t be frightened! I won’t hurt you! I’m not that scary, am I?”

The queen made a thrumming sound low in . Eunkyung thought it might be laughter. “Now you know how we felt when we arrived in your palace."

"Oh dear." Raising her voice over the sudden cacophony of alternating shrieks and thuds, Eunkyung asked, "What should we do? Is there any way to comfort them, or – or something?"

Casting her great hairy eyes around, the queen frowned. "All the Blimped have fainted. We must wait for our subjects to awaken, and then we will reassure them."

Why, I've scared them all into unconsciousness! Am I truly so frightful a sight? Eunkyung patted her face worriedly but felt no strange lumps. I might have rather dark eye bags, but surely I don't look so horrific!

"It is the eyes," the queen said, understanding her inner turmoil. "Only two. And only one set of eyelids. And hair that grows from the top of the head instead of from the eyeballs."

I suppose different peoples have different standards. Surveying the gloomy grey cloud littered with unmoving bodies though, she couldn't help but feel awful. But really! It's like I'm some sort of monster!

Flopping down in an ungraceful heap, she hugged her knees to her chest, feeling abruptly cold and wretched. Her first major diplomatic venture, and she had failed spectacularly – no other crown princess of Bijeon, she felt sure, had ever kicked off her political career by terrifying hundreds of subjects into fainting. The adventure to the Cloud of the Blimped was off to a poor start, and as selfish as it was, she wanted nothing more than to be home, stretched out in front of the hearth in the royal quarters with her mother healthy and her siblings running around her. The mere thought of home made her feel even more irresponsible for traipsing off to a cloud when her queendom had more immediate concerns to deal with.

Drenched in her own misery and clutching to her cloak for warmth, Eunkyung rested her forehead on her knees. Moments later, as if by magic, she had fallen deep asleep.

"So you're back!" This time, Baekhyun didn't even wait for the rose branches to finish parting before speaking up. "Finally! You really ought to get more sleep, you know. This can't be healthy."

Eunkyung clambered to her feet crossly, finding her mood just as foul as it had been when she’d fallen asleep. “Do you even listen? I told you last time, I can’t just doze off whenever I feel like a nap – I have a queendom to save!”

The branches finally parted, revealing the prince lounging on his side with a knee propped up casually. Brushing a leaf off his shoulder, he shrugged. “Can’t save a queendom if you can’t take care of yourself first.”

Something about his posture and the nonchalant way he spoke made Eunkyung’s eyes prickle with tears of anger and frustration. “Easy for you to say!” she cried, throwing her hands up in the air and advancing on the rose bush. “You’ve never had the fate of your entire queendom resting on your shoulders, now have you? You’re tucked away in this nice, cozy clearing inside of a rose bush, and all you have to do to get rescued is reel in a princess and bully her into helping you!”

The prince’s eyes widened, and he scrambled to sit up properly. “Uh, princess –“

But Eunkyung wasn’t finished. “And you’re not stuck on a horrible, cold cloud with dozens of little creatures that are terrified of you and think you’re hideous because you don’t have hairy eyeballs –“

“Princess, you know, I, for one, much prefer hairless eyeballs –“

“ – and there’s talk about some s