 “The monsters?” Tristan said in a half-whisper as he leaned down a little to be on more of a level with the little girl. He feigned a nervous glance over both his shoulders, checking the shadows for the creatures she described. “I don’t see any,” the prince confided, “but perhaps we should set look-outs! We wouldn’t want them to get near the castle, would we?” He straightened up and drew himself up impressively again, “we thank you for your service, brave knight!” Tris declared doing his best impression of his father. When the little girl began to giggle again, Tristan grinned and crouched down on the floor beside her, ignoring the dust which adhered to his knees and dulled the leather of his boots. Her wide eyes had followed his finger and had grown even wider and a few seconds later her entire body seemed to shake with excitement.
The Prince took the opportunity to study her more closely. The clothes underneath her make-shift armour looked old, insubstantial and a good few sizes too big for her. She stood awkwardly and her face looked dirty. He was fairly sure that she did not own the kitchen supplies she had commandeered, but judging by the state of them he was equally sure that they were not going to be missed. Tristan had not seen the girl or a familiar around the castle before and he knew the residents of the orphan’s court by name. Where had she come from? Who did she belong to?
His musings were interrupted by the girl’s enthusiastic question. Tristan smiled again and nodded, before sticking his thumb and forefinger into his mouth and whistling. Cafall and Hodain closed the distance between them at a run their tails wagging enthusiastically.
“Sit,” commanded Tristan reaching into a leather pouch attached to his belt from which he pulled two small pieces of sausage. The two dogs obeyed in unison and as their feathered tails continued to wag against the ground Tristan and Grim found themselves enveloped in clouds of dust. The prince knew that left unrestrained the two dogs would have jumped up at the little girl. Tristan didn’t know much about children, but he did know that it probably wasn’t a good idea to let dogs knock them over. Tristan gave one piece of sausage to Cafall (who was by far the most exuberant) and offered the other piece to Grim to offer to Hodain.
Celidon had been watching the entire scene with fond amusement, keeping quietly to the sidelines. He froze when he felt the little girl staring at him and looked down quickly at his paws. Tristan too had noticed the direction in which Grim was looking and followed her gaze to his familiar who seemed to be trying to avoid being noticed. Tristan had explained on multiple occasions that it was very difficult for an unnaturally large dog to be unnoticeable, especially when he also happened to be green. It seemed Celidon had not been listening.
“It’s nice to meet you both,” the prince said, looking between the girl and her familiar. He had not seen anything quite like the big cat before but Tristan, despite his dog familiar, had a soft spot for cats. He offered the creature a nod of greeting.
“I’m Tristan,” the prince said holding out his hand for Grim to shake with a glint in his green eyes, “and green is my favourite colour too.” He gestured at his over-tunic which was split into four quarters of alternating shades of the same colour.
“That’s Celidon, my familiar, he’s a bit shy.” Celidon chose that moment to glance up and his tail gave a little hopeful wag.
“Cel, come and say hello,” Tristan urged, and the cu-sith obeyed, closing the distance between them in a few long strides before trying to hide himself behind his fairy. He poked his head around Tristan and sniffed tentatively at Grim.
“You wouldn’t think something as big could be such a wuss, would you?”
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