"He's not very old at all, is he Hush?"
"Certainly not, Sakay. Probably not much older than us."
"For his species, of course."
"Of course."
"Shh-shh! He's moving!"
The Prince groaned, which was odd enough in itself to cause him to furrow his brow in confusion. He never groaned upon waking! And anyone who caused such a horrid sound was quite quickly reprimanded for doing such a thing, and a good hanging always brought a smile back to the Prince's face. But he had groaned, and quite quickly realized why.
He wasn't comfortable. In fact, he was probably as uncomfortable as he could possibly get. What was he lying on? Dirt? Stones? Wood? Certainly not his pleasent feather mattress. This would certainly not do.
"I don't think he's waking up, Hush."
"Oh no, he's taking much too long."
"He's bally well going to wake up! We have to...to...shhh."
"We can throw rocks at him."
"That might knock him out again."
Rocks! The Prince shot upward, immediatly regretting the action. His head throbbed and he flopped back down against the...ground. His nose wrinkled and he cracked open his eyes, slowly at first, until he noticed the three blurry shapes leaning down over him. His eyes snapped open, immediatly slipping into a proper glare complete with twisted lips and furrowed brows.
"Ah..."
"...he's awake then."
"We'll go find some proper sized rocks."
"Hush! Sakay!"
The blurriness seemed to be clearing off. He blinked his eyes a few times and propped himself up by his elbows, slowly this time, lest his head decide to rebel against him again. Finally his eyes adjusted to the...blackness. Goodness, it was late, wasn't it? Not a star in the sky. Sky...why could he see the sky? He frowned, pursing his lips. That wasn't right.
A loud breath of air was exhaled somewhere near his ear...which wasn't right either. People were not allowed to sigh around the Prince! A face moved in front of his own, pale and feminine, but oddly familiar, although he couldn't quite put his finger on where he'd seen it. Probably a servant. Well if it was a servant they were going to be sorely dissapointed by what he had planned for them.
"I demand to be taken back to the castle!"
"Ah...yes....well...we can't really do that, what? Sorry, old thing, but it's the bushes for you until Cy comes back,"the girl craned her neck to stare past him at...something. He couldn't see and he didn't want to risk another splash of pain because of his curiosity. "How long has she been gone?"
"Darling? Oh...hours..."
"...we don't know. Watch is broken, remember, love?"
"Not that it actually told the time before it broke..."
"...but the fact still stands."
"No idea how long she's been gone."
Something about those voices, too, sounded familiar.
The girl stood (she'd been kneeling, just as he'd been strewn out over the ground) and brushed the dirt from her dress (a ragged looking thing...definatly a peasent's dress), focusing her attention on something over the bushes where he couldn't see.
"What are you looking at? Did you hear me?"
"Oh, shush, you. I think I've heard quite enough out of your mouth, young chappy."
Young chappy? "What sort of language is that!" his brow furrowed,"Where are you from?" he squirmed, trying to pull himself to his feet, but his head began to ache again and he fell dizzily back to the dirt,"What do you want with me? I demand an explaination!"
"I don't rightly know, actually,"she replied, casting her eyes upward in a curious fashion. She tapped her chin, gave a shrug, and returned to staring out over the woods.
Something soft brushed against his hand,"We're waiting for Cy, love."
Another brush of kitten-soft fur,"She knows what's going on."
"Not us."
The Prince glanced downward.
Four bright, blue eyes stared back amid a wash of white fur and bright smile that curvled the pale-yellowness of beaks.
He blinked, brow furrowing, and peered a bit closer at them, resisting the urge to poke and prod them. Where had he... It came back to him in a flood of images, and he whipped around (ignoring the stinging pain) to stare at the girl.
Man.
Whichever.
"You!"
McKale jumped and twirled around, gnawing her lip,"Dash it all! I said quiet!"
"You're the theif!" the prince continued, pushing himself unsteadily to his feet. McKale let out a yelp and scurried over to him, grabbing hold of his shoulders and pushing him back to the ground. The prince pushed her off with a snarl,"Don't touch me!"
McKale huffed, pursing her lips,"Sit down and be quiet and I won't have to!"
"Where am I? I demand to be brought back to the castle! I'll have you...I'll have you..." his mouth snapped shut, and McKale watched his brow wrinkle in thought. He titled his head to the side and nodded to himself, before snapping his gaze back to McKale,"I'll have you impaled!"
"That'd be an awfully messy end, wouldn't it, Sakay?"
Sakay snorted,"In more ways than one, Hush!"
They broke down into giggles.
McKale pulled a face and shook her head,"No, you bloody well will not! You're not going anywhere!"
"My guards will be looking for me! They'll kill you and feed your parrots to their children!"
"Parrots!" squawked the twins.
"Eat them!" squawked McKale.
The prince nodded, crossing his arms over his chest,"Unless you bring me back."
"Oh, dash it all, no they won't. They haven't a bally clue where we are, what?"
The prince frowned, struggling to his feet again. This time McKale didn't bother to stop him. So long as he didn't try to run off, all was well.
He sauntered up to her side and prodded her, hard. McKale, being naturally clusmy, stumbled back a couple steps and squeaked at him, waving her arms in the air in petty attempt to catch her balance. But catch it she did, landing back on her slippers, right and proper.
"Why,"he advanced, prodding her again, but not quite as hard this time. McKale held fast,"Do you talk like that?"
McKale blinked,"Well I...it's the way I talk! You don't go about asking people why they talk the way they talk! Why do you talk like that?"
"I talk normally,"said the prince, lifting his chin proudly,"You talk like a court jester."
"Court jester! Why, I never!" McKale balled her hands into fists and glowered at him - not down, or up, but directly at, there was very little height difference between them - "I'll have you know I'm a proper, english aritsocrat!"
"You! Dressed in that!" the prince scoffed and looked away, waving dismissivly at her,"Next you'll tell me you slay dragons and tame unicorns in your spare time!"
"Good heavens, no! I've never even seen a bally unicorn before, let alone run tamed one."
"And dragons?"
McKale's eyes flicked toward Hush and Sakay, grinning up at them and curled around eachother so that it was impossible to tell who's fur was who's (although that was difficult enough when they weren't a single mass of fluff and feathers). They weren't dragons, were they? No, no, sira-pheonixes. Not dragons at all. Cy and Shar...
Shar.
Oh, she missed Jeffrey.
McKale shook her head to clear her thoughts and puffed out her chest,"Certainly not, one can't go about slaying perfectly good creatures like dragons."
"Love?"
"It's just not right! And, dash it all, I'm hardly made of the stuff to go about killing things."
"Lo-ove?"
"Which probably isn't a concept you can grasp, what? You've certainly beheaded you're few...you're not here anymore."
"Quite, love,"piped up one twin, extracting herself from the other to waddle up to McKale feet.
"He's gone thattaway,"added the other, flicking a paw to the right.
McKale twisted about and squinted through the night darkness and forest shadows. She didn't see anything until the clouds moved away from the moon. Then light shone down, illuminating blackness and one, bright white figure, racing along through the bushes. McKale gave out a squawk and took after him.
Hush and Sakay watch on, trotting back together so they could rest their chins on the other's shoulder. McKale stopped, a good few yards away, turned on heel, and raced back to them. She grabbed hold of them by the nape of necks and threw them over her shoulders before racing back after the prince.
.:.:.::.:.:.
Cy slunk back toward the designated hiding place as a cat, her tail held high and her coat abnormally glossy. She strode forward proudly, with her head held high and her ears perked. She was going to be a queen. Queen Cyilume. Her fur bristled with excitement. She simply couldn't wait.
Of course, she wasn't willing to return Brennan to his little conspirtors just yet. There were promises to be made and...details to be worked out. Cy wasn't stupid enough to trust a pair of servants willing to throw out their own king, whom they practice fealty to day in and day out. Oh no, certainly not. And she had her own plans for Brennan as well. He was on McKale's list, after all. She had to get him to Winquist.
With a pleased purr she slipped beneath the thicket and into the little clearing they'd found.
It was empty.
She flicked her ears back, blinking her bright eyes at the darkness.
There were footprint and broken grass, and, if she was careful to seek out a single scent among the myraid of forest smells, she could catch a strong presence of McKale, the prince, and even the twins. Cy growled as only cats can do and stalked forward, her head lowered.
There, against a hollow log, was a pile of clothes. The Twins' clothes.
So they weren't human any more. And, more than that, they weren't here.
"For god's sakes,"she hissed, slipping back into her humanoid form,"You can't take your eyes off them!" She growled and scuffed at the dirt, stalking off into the wood.
Hopefully they hadn't gone far.
.:.:.::.:.:.
"He's right there, right there!"
"To the left, love, the left!"
McKale, gripping her skirt so she could run rushed through the bush and bramble after the only visible object in the whole bloody forest. Thank-god the prince fancied himself in white!
"Maybe if you ask real polite..."
"...he'll slow down a bit for you."
The flash of white was suddenly gone. McKale reeled to a stop, gapsing for breath and searching the black-green, black-brown, and plain old black for that brightness. It didn't come. She crept closer, quiet and slow (more because she couldn't keep running than to sneak up on him). He couldn't have gone far. He hadn't run out of sight just...dissapeared.
She shuffled forward, bare feet pressing into the cold dirt, carefully toeing her way around the twigs and bristly plants. She'd lost her slippers quite a ways back, slipped off her feet and flew into god know's what bush, or tree, or plant. Didn't matter now. They were lost, and quite certainly for good.
The twins kept quiet as she tip-toed forward, wiggling against her neck with excitement.
.:Do you see him, Hush?:.
.:Nossir, Sakay:.
.:Can't have gone far:.
The twins slapped a paw to their forheads and leaned forward, searching.
There! A flash of white! Unmoving, but so brilliantly bright that it couldn't have actually belonged to anything in the forest. McKale rushed forward...and promptly caught her foot on something, sending herself tit over teakettle to the ground.
Something let out an 'oof' and Hush and Sakay scrambled to the ground. McKale pushed herself up on her elbows and looked down.
The prince! Covered in mud! She scrambled away, glancing down at herself.
She was also covered in mud. And, for that matter, so where Hush and Sakay, who'd taken to happily splashing eachother with said substance. They'd landed in a puddle.
"Get off me!" the prince hissed, pushing at her. McKale complied with a scowl, swatting at him as she propped herself upward.
Wait...if that was the prince, who was covered from head to toe in black-brown mud, what had been...
McKale lifted her head, squinting through the darkness.
The white thing squinted back at her, and growled.
"Well, would you look at that, Hush!"
"Never seen a wolf before."
"Do you think they're friendly?"
"Oh...probably...unless its rabid,"Hush cast a glance down at the prince,"Do you have rabid wolves in your forest?"
The prince stirred and pressed his lips together,"No."
"Ah...that's good then. No worries."
"Wolves don't attack people. We're scarier than them."
"Well..."the prince added after a moment,"We've only had a little rabies problem. Certainly not out of control. And these aren't my woods. I don't have rabid animals in my woods."