Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 03

"We stood together as the father of one of the three called me to fight him before the elders for what I had done to his son -- who was larger than I was. Really, he was challenging me for the right to rule, but disguising his purpose with outrage. He challenged me directly. Me - a prince of nothing - over nothing that I had begun. It could be done, since I was barely old enough for it but it must be with no help, and it is allowed to be to the death."

"She was furious because it wasn't fair and she couldn't help me. She spit and howled in rage as she tore the ear of the son almost off with a slash of her claws on the way to the elders because he had started it all and it had now become a serious matter."

"In front of the elders, she held her tongue until it was her turn to speak. Then she growled and seethed at the father that he had better be ready to kill her as well afterward, because she swore to kill his son first before anything else, so that the father's ambition would cost him dearly and no one doubted her oath except him. The son was terrified. She swore a blood feud all by herself if I was killed. It had never been done before, but things like this were as nothing to her."

"Since I was a young prince, I had little to be say in the matter. It was my fate to be the one accused and nothing was asked of me other than if I was ready to fight. It wouldn't have made any difference what my answer would have been."

"She put up a serious and deadly front, but I could see that she was afraid for me. In case I died, we held each other and said goodbye. She would not let go of me until she was pulled off and then her fury returned and the adults who had pulled her off me stood bleeding for it. My princess turned stone still and cold as she walked to stand next to the son and everyone with a brain there knew that if this went badly for me, he would be dead before I had stopped twitching. Only his father lacked a brain. Until then, I had been angry with him for starting this mess, but as I watched him shake next to her - and she wouldn't allow him to go anywhere - I felt sorry for him."

He chuckled grimly, "It is not a fair way of doing things, but among us, a royal who is unprotected is always expected to be able to cope with anything. It kills off many of us early and saves much bloodshed later."

"The elders knew of us and asked her why she swore this feud and she said that she would die anyway if I did. If she couldn't help me, then she would do what she could before she was killed. She did not want to live where this was allowed to happen to royals or anyone else and she did not want to live without me. She didn't know it, but I was so proud of her then and she had made a friend in the heart of every female there that day for her words."

He smiled, "Everyone but the father knew that she was serious. He said that he would enjoy killing her. It was just another stupid thing to say in that place. One female elder nodded at me, and the foolish father found himself reeling backward and spitting teeth from my first strikes. He thought to brawl with me, but I was much faster than that. I kept him off balance and tore pieces off him as fast as I could. I almost killed him for his words and ambition and how he used his own son for it."

"But I stepped back bleeding before the stupidity got worse. I waited and then asked him to get up. I had to ask because prince or not, I was not an adult. When it was clear that he wouldn't get up, I approached the elders myself and explained that I wanted no feud over this, especially if a princess might die over something so stupid."

"They asked me if I would die for her. I said that I would in an instant and at any time." The female elder who had nodded for me to begin it smiled and said that everyone knew it to be true, but because of what the elders foresaw as an outcome that day, the question had to be asked so that all could hear my answer."

"The elders pointed to the others there and said that everyone there was on our side of this, but that it was allowed that I fight him. They told me that it was not a crime to be stupid, but what the father had planned was a public murder that was not working for him because he had misjudged my ability and how we loved each other, and so they ordered the father to get up and continue the fight that he had called. He refused."

"There are some things that are different about royals among us," he said, "for one thing, we are stronger by our nature and I had so many fights from every other male all of my life because they wanted to beat down a royal with impunity while they had the chance of it. Their chance ended that day by the decree of the elders. All of the fighting made me very hard to beat down. Another way that we are different is what you saw that I can do with my eyes. Only royals have this. For you, I was able with some thought to make something which I wanted to be lovely for you, but I can use if in other ways as well. I had only learned that I had the ability only a few days before when I practiced it in a secluded area. Even so, an elder saw it and he warned me not to show this to anyone. It meant that I was ready to become an adult."

"I was asked quietly by the elders if I knew what was to be done in such a circumstance as this where the father had refused a command from the elders. I said that it was death to refuse the elders or the ruling pair. They nodded and said that they had known of our troubles and had observed how we had struggled for each other all of our lives."

"They told me to think like a king, because a young king could not afford to leave a beaten coward behind him and that I now would be judged as a future king by everyone for my next actions since a king must have the ability to take a life to enforce his will and that of the elders. If I was weak now, they said, I would face a long line of this and I wouldn't live long for the one who had known all of her life the king which she wanted for her heart."

"The elders proclaimed that since I had been challenged by an adult to fight like an adult, then as far as they were concerned, I must now be an adult, and so, as a royal, I was now allowed to use what royals are given, and that any others who wished to challenge me could do so openly, but that from that day, I would be allowed to strike back at anyone in the way of the royals. The pointed to the one who had refused their command and told me that I didn't need to ask anything of him anymore. I was no longer a juvenile and so I could order him by my own right to command him. They didn't say it, but everyone knew that if he now refused me AND the elders, his life wasn't worth anything."

I went back to the father and told him to get up and obey the elders. He refused, and so I put my claws under his jaw and forced him to stand."

Yevgeny rolled his eyes, "So he bellowed at me in defiance, and I bellowed back at him in answer." He chuckled and shook his head, "It was all very primitive. When he bellowed a second time, I tore through his chest and before he could scream, I burned the flesh from him with my eyes and I stomped my feet and bellowed at the crowd in challenge and to no one's surprise, it went unanswered."

He smirked, "I am only glad that I didn't have to beat my chest as well."

"The elders saw that I had wisdom enough after beating many large youths and a grown male and then stopping even while my blood was hot to consider and ask for counsel, and I became king then, and she was made queen, the youngest ruling pair that anyone could remember."

"But from that instant, she was calm, and showed kindness to anyone who had need, because we had nothing to prove now that we could not be parted, and a queen must be kind. She knew this too. The first thing that she did was to ask me for mercy for the son and the rest of the coward's family. I granted it and added that they must not be held in dishonor for what he had done. She did her best to heal the son's torn ear."

"With us there is no physical possibility of mating until both are old enough to be adults. Things do not fit until then. Usually after mating for pleasure, the male organ is against the female one, outside. She holds it there. It is kept against them, as we also hold them with our arms so that they are still as they dream. Our nerves connect in this way, and when they dream, they go much farther because of us."

"But for her and I even when we were small this was not possible, since we were not mating, were we? Even so, we always dreamed together anyway. Even if only one's arm was around the other, we would dream together before we slept. We always woke up in a heap in the morning. It was just our way. The elders had never heard of anyone who could dream together so young. It was torture, but we had to wait until she was ready to be mated before we could begin our rule. It changed nothing. everyone called her their queen and she was very popular to everyone as she took up her duties even while still a princess."

He looked at Oksana a little shyly, "I do not think that I can say it better, but ... they take us with them. We can dream far without each other, but together we can go anywhere, do anything, as though we are there, because we can be there. The male has another ability in this, besides to drive the female's dreams farther. He can hold a little of his mind back from this to keep them both safe where they really are."

"How could you defend like that if you're lying down and dreaming," Oksana asked.

"I think the best way to say it is to say that I did not mark you with my eyes, princess. I marked you with my heart and mind. Can you understand now?"

She nodded, "It all sounds so beautiful, Yevgeny, like a continuous love story."

He groaned, "It was for a long time, until I was far away trying to stop a feud, and my mate was found by more than a dozen slugs. I knew it at once and came as fast as I could, but she was already dead and half-eaten when I got there. I ... I felt her die. Our kittens ..."

She saw the rivulets of tears begin again along his nose and she sat up to hold him tightly. It was a long time before he spoke again, and by then, Oksana wept with him.

When he spoke again, he sounded mechanical and flat. "I caught the slowest and fattest, and the ones which she had torn up. I left them dying in pieces or without their skin. The rest got away. I... I burned everything, and then I crawled away to die. I didn't move for a long time. I don't know how long it was. One day, and days are long there. I woke, or came back to myself. I had dreamed for so long, searching. But I knew where the six were. They had run, on one of their crafts to go to other worlds."

"We are known among them for many things, and perhaps the most feared is that once we begin a blood hunt, we never stop, never. Not while we are alive. I had the best reason to hunt, because my hunger for vengeance would drive me forever. I found little creatures around me. I had been there so long that they had no fear. I began to catch them, a few at a time, because I hadn't eaten in so long. When I was strong enough, it took me most of a week to stand and learn to walk again. Remember that I said long days there."

"After that, I looked for females, but for a different purpose. I needed old and strong females to hear me and want to help me. I found more than seventy who would help, and sitting together they sent me with their minds to where the slugs now were. I can never go back, but then, I never wanted to."

Oksana thought about it for a moment. "You came here? The slugs are here?"

He nodded grimly, "Be thankful that they are too old to breed. They came here because of their own troubles as they tried to run from me for they knew that I would come for them. The name is really a slur. They don't look like slugs, but one thing about them, they have no honor among them if things turn bad. And they were running out of food on a craft full of the stronger ones. When that happens, they turn on each other. Before the ones that I wanted could fall onto another's claws, they ran, taking a young one with them in a small craft."

He smiled bitterly, "They have been here, masquerading as gods to the people here for a long time, though few believe in them now. I have no quarrel with the youngest of them, but the others, I have waited so long. Waiting because it will not be good enough for me unless I have them all and I need to be sure that I can have them together and quickly. They are very powerful. I am sorry Oksana. I am not cruel, but for these ones, I can learn. Even so, I would not harm the younger one. That one has not done anything to me or mine."

"Well," he said, chuckling quietly, "Another thing that they fear about us is that they cannot feel us near to them. If we were like them, we would have killed them all long ago, but we only wished to be left alone in peace. It doesn't matter anymore. My fight would begin soon, since I know where they are on this world, the six. They wanted the young one to make more, but that one is too strong now and hates them as well. We have met, he and I."

Oksana blinked, "What happened? You said that you were bitter enemies."

He nodded, "It is true. But think a moment. That was far away on another world, what the six did, and long ago. We found each other as I was hunting the others. As I have said, I have no quarrel with that one, so I approached because I wanted to make it clear to him."

He laughed a little, "That was a very tense few moments between us. He had never seen one of my kind alive, but he knew what I was, and I could tell that he had never eaten one of us before, or I would have killed him for it. We cannot speak to each other, we have trouble speaking with our minds to each other, but we have both been here long enough to know human speech, haven't we? So that is what we used." He laughed.

"He is in his prime, but so am I, and we both knew that with a misinterpretation, it would be a very short fight and he would be dead, so we were very careful. I told him why I was here, and also that I did not wish to harm him, but that I intend to kill the others and why."

"How did he take that?" Oksana was fascinated.

"I learned something from him. It gave me a little hope that not all slugs are the same. He surprised me very much. He was disgusted by what I told him, and said that he felt sorrow for me. He told me that he hated the others and why. They only wanted him to breed, though they said at first that they wished to save him from being eaten. He knew that they'd have eaten him if they found no other food here. They carry both sexes and wanted him for his female ones. He has never allowed this and never will. I tried to make it clear that I hoped that he would stay out of it when the time came, and he surprised me again."

"He offered to help me and told me the weaknesses of each one."

Yevgeny smiled, "The only trouble is that I now have someone who loves me."

He looked at Oksana and kissed her softly. "I know that you do, and I know what it is to love someone and have them taken from you in hate. I was king once. You cannot be king and not know compassion. So without knowing anything of this, and without moving a lovely finger, you have stilled my arm and stopped my blood hunt for a time. I do not think that it has ever been done before. We never stop once it has begun. You are a very powerful princess, Oksana. You surely must be, for we have not even loved yet."

He reached around her to hold her to him, and she sighed.

"I have to say this, Oksana. Thank you. I have managed to say farewell to what has haunted me, and I think that you were the reason that I could as last. I will never forget them, but it is enough now. Unless I had urgent reason, I could now let the old worms die in peace, as long as they left well enough alone. I feel how all of this hatred affects you, princess, so I would rather leave the ashes behind. Is that what you would advise?"

She nodded, "I understand about wanting vengeance, but though you would settle a score, it wouldn't bring back those who were taken from you."

He smiled again, "You see? Now you know what I see in you." He kissed her again.

"But there is now another reason that the hunt must continue and it has nothing to do with what they did. Tonight has only removed the personal side of it from my heart. It makes this even easier for me. The young slug and I know something, something that will come soon. If this is not stopped, it could be the slow end of this world, and the six must be removed before that. He and I both must play a part in this, and it will be a struggle, but not between us. The others will only attack me as soon as they see me, and I cannot fight them and help him at the same time. So they must be killed before. We have made a bargain, him and I. He will help me kill the six, and I will help him deal with what comes. For that, he is mightier than I."

"How soon?"

He shrugged, "A few months. But I want you to know that I now have someone to live for, and I now want very much to. You should not worry. I will tell you everything before it happens. I have been here a long time. Over all of the long years, I have come to like this world and its people, though they know nothing of me. I see no reason not to help stop what comes if I can." Yevgeny smiled, "and the strangest thing is that in order to help, I will have to defend a slug and keep him alive." he laughed at that, "Surely something that has never been done before."

He let go of her and stretched a little. "There is a water cooler. Would you like a drink?"

She nodded and stood up, but when he did as well, she sank to her knees as she looked at his beauty. He smiled a little, "It has been a long, long time since a female has looked at me like that, but even so, none have fallen to their knees at the sight of me."

Then he saw that she was sad and knelt beside her, "Oksana, what it it?"

She sighed, "Nothing. I... I just saw you and I feel like ... It's alright. I just wish that I could be what you are, that's all. I've never seen any creature who was so beautiful as you are. To listen to you, I wanted to be there with you, and be the same as you."

He took her face in his hands, "I think that you are not looking at this the right way. You accept me. You love me. It is just the same thing for me. I accept you and I love you. I feel such happiness because of you, Oksana. Somebody loves me. Most of the females here would not, could not, and never would even consider this. To them, I am something from a nightmare. But not to you. For you, I would rather be a human male, but I also see that you like what I am. I know my good luck here. Do not feel any less. I am happy the way that you look."

"I have an idea, if you are willing." He leaned forward and placed his hands on the floor. "Climb up, Oksana, and hold onto my mane."

She'd never have thought of it herself, but now she instantly knew this to be a gesture on his part, and stepped over to him, wondering how this would work. She felt a thrill course through her as she touched his shoulder. It was actually easier than she thought, and wasn't the same as the child's game of piggyback. She climbed on and tried to figure it out.

"You can hold on like the children do here, around my neck, but there is a better way. Climb higher and lean forward on your forearms, with your arms together inside my shoulder blades. Then take my mane on my back in your fists. You will not pull it out."

She tried it, "Like this?"

"Yes," he said, "A little tighter with your legs for a moment while I rise. Then you can relax. When I walk, ease your own shoulders so that they follow the motions of mine, or you will be very sore."

The room dropped away just a little as he shifted upwards, and then he began to walk along the paths. His long arms kept her level. "It is a bit of play," he said, "and also, you seem to have a wish to be as a female of my kind. We normally walk together on two legs, but for long distances, the difference in our sizes makes it harder for the females, and we are built for this. Do you like it?"