“Hey…..Zelda?”

I’d been watching her for a little while, watching her get ready with the other females who all seemed awfully fussed over something I’m not totally sure I understand to be honest. Didn’t they become mates? Do we need a while celebration for that? Maybe we do, maybe this is like the new thing I don’t know. I could admit it was nice though- I suppose. I’d come with Aunt Isola and the others because I rather do like events in the end, I like to see my family, I like to know whom is busy and around and really, happy occasion or not I do rather like to listen and assure myself I am informed of the personal affairs of others in any capacity. I’d come a little early though, I suppose, mingling around near the clearing the girls were getting ready in until finally Zelda was left alone and I moved through the trees to stand behind her, white and silver form aglow in the faint dappled light of the forest as I spoke seeking her attention now, red ears pricked forward.

I’m not sure, really, how these things are supposed to go but everyone seems to be coming in pairs today. Kane and Isola came together, Guardian is following Aviias about, Coza and Moth are together like Amo and Shiloh, of course and I suppose, well- maybe that’s where I got the idea from. So why was I nervous about it? I shifted uneasily upon my paws a moment, half inclined to wonder when this girl had ever become so important enough to make me question what she actually thought of me. I guess I’d never truly considered it before, then again why should it matter if she wasn’t into the idea? For whatever reason it did, I was just unwilling to admit it. Why would she say no anyway, I mean, I was like a celebrity, I was going to be the next big thing. Maye I would never truly rival Heyel or Isola or even Achilles but I would be someone and that had to be worth something. I was being foolish. I was smart, clever, handsome, a veritable entrepreneur and a girl, of all things shouldn’t make me nervous- but she did. I waited for her to turn around, scuffing my paws against the earth before letting my lips quirk upward and into a grin of sorts as I held her attention.

“So I was wondering, maybe, since this whole thing seems to be about partners and all that stuff adults seem to like so much that maybe, I dunno, maybe you want to be my date? That means like my…partner I guess, to the wedding. Everyone else has a partner. You don’t have to or anything, I mean……if there’s someone else you’d rather go with….”

It was hard to believe, really, that one day I would be quite the gifted orator given I have managed to stutter at her for the past five minutes. I suppose I was worried she was going to say no, she had other friends I’m sure and maybe a boy had already asked her and I could deal with that I am assured. Or at least pretend to. I sat as I waited, one paw crossing over the other, violet gold eyes resting upon her own as I did. I would look back on this moment one day and laugh at my own ridiculousness and fears and insecurities, all the things Heyel had assured me should never truly exist and yet I suppose I would come to learn, in time, that when it came to females- all such rules failed. For now however I waited, because what else could I do? I would either turn and head to the ceremony alone or I’d escort her in and sit beside her I suppose. I’m not even truly sure why I wanted to. I suppose some part of myself, young as I was had decided that maybe Zelda was my friend. MY friend and not anybody else’s, not really, a part of me wanted other to understand that, to see it. I was growing up I suppose, without even truly realising it. Dominance and testosterone change things in a boy and some things, previously unimportant- seem to take on a meaning. It was simply more pieces coming together, more pieces of a puzzle that would one day make up the image of myself though I already knew, in my mind- the very thing I would grow up to be.

“Well?”





h y r u l e
The Once and Future King