Tithe
To take what I'm owed.
Pay me my dues.
It was like a fly that ticked buzzed in his ear. Something tugged at him to look away, to glance away from Taika, his word vowed charge. One ear twitched in an attempt to swat away the bug that did not exist, his attention still not drifting from his protective watch over his ‘sister’. The nag still tugged at the young knight and he could feel an intense stare boring into him. Hackles raised briefly and his head snapped in the direction this feeling was coming from. Steel grey eyes snapped to follow the feeling as well and his breath caught in his throat. Instinctively he jumped to his paws and raced after the form that had loped off.
He did not know if he chased her because he thought she was a danger to his friend, because she ran first, or because of some other reason entirely. The only thing that drove him was that he needed to be there. He panicked for a moment, feeling as though he was going too far from the girl he cared about, leaving her open to any number of strangers who could attack her. His teeth bared to himself while he ran, he needed to follow this. Whatever it was.
She stopped in the rustling grass and Tithe slid to a halt, his eyes fully falling on her for the first time.It felt like the weight of the universe crashed onto his body and the solid ground beneath him had been ripped away leaving him with nothing to stand on. Everything he stood for no longer mattered, he needed nothing anymore except for him to be near her. If his world ended in the second, he would have been okay in knowing her’s went on. It was all in an instant and everything came colliding into him once again.
Honor, loyalty, respect, honesty. Everything he was he would devote to her if she asked for it. Just as his grey coat covered his black body like armor, he would be her shield.
He stood in front of her, suddenly aware that he had been rather rude. Sitting down, he bowed his head low and respectfully to her. “My lady…” He did not even know what words to put to his thought and feelings. Nothing could describe what was happening to him. His youth broke through in this time of fateful vulnerability. “...I could not keep my eyes off you. My name if Tithe. I am at your service.”