Royalty, Hidden in the Cultural Festival

[Johnathan]

"Your highness, please be careful not to get separated." The tall and beautiful girl with long black hair looked across the varied and bustling crowd suspiciously as she and her ward made their way onto the school grounds. She hurried quickly after the princess, her long black coat pulled behind her by the tightly packed swarm of people.

"Samar, I told you, just call me Liz! We're here to have fun, so lighten up!" Elizabeth continued on full steam ahead much to her guardian's chagrin.

"Your Highness," she insisted. "We are now in the public eye. I must show due deference to you, just as you must do your best to-"

"Public shmublic, who cares?!" Samar simply sighed at the interruption and did her best to keep up. "It's not like anyone will recognize me anyway. Stop being such a debbie-downer, and let loose for once."

"But, your high-"

"Liz!" The princess insisted. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Samar had no choice but to relent.

"Elizabeth." The princess rounded on Samar with an unsatisfied expression, and was met with the tall girl's adamant frown. With a shrug and a shake of her head, the princess turned and continued on. "You are a well known public figure. Simply assuming that you won't be spotted in this crowd is-"

"Oh, Samar look!"

"Why do I even bother." The young guardian asked herself as the princess raced off for one of the booths lining the courtyard. Elizabeth had approached a series of booths with chance based games, such as roulette and lottery drawings. "Elizabeth, remember my warning about spending all of your-"

"Grand Prize!"

"Grand Prize!"

"Grand Prize!"

Samar sat on one of the courtyard benches, face hung in her hands in defeat. Elizabeth sat beside her humming happily as she ate her massive cotton candy, and cataloged the myriad of prizes she had all too easily won. Samar mulled over how difficult it was to teach the princess about the harsher points in life, when her luck was so ungodly.

"Your highness, please-" This time, Samar was interrupted as a big fluff of pink sugar was shoved into her mouth. Turning in surprise to the princess, she was met with a happy grin and a peace sign.

"You know, you need to have some fun too Samar. Just relax for once, and let chance take us where it will for the day." Crossing her arms and munching on the sugary treat, Samar contemplated the merits of that idea as the multitudes of people bustled around them.

[Rikka]

The sounds and scents at the festival were very overwhelming as the giant tiger made her way through the crowd. Looking around her blue eyes watched the groups of people moving too and fro playing weird games and talking to people in boxes. Moving forward some students moved out of her way as they spotted her white with black striped fur.

Smelling something good she followed it to a stand with pink fluffy stuff being swirled around in a metal container. "Hello Keera! This is cotton Candy. Would you like some?" Keera nodded her head at the girl and licked the pink stuff offered to her. It was really sweet and tasted really good. Chuffing at the girl who had given it to her she headed off again when she spotted a small orange tiger on a bench next to two girls. Padding over she sniffed at the stuffed tiger and wondered why it didn't have a scent.

Well it kinda did. It smelled like the two girls on the bench. Suddenly she felt something tug on her tail. Looking behind her she saw a little child giggling and gently pulling/petting her tail. "Its a kitty! kitty kitty kitty!" Fluffing up her fur in fear she got low to the ground and started to slowly crawl behind the two woman on the bench in an attempt to hide from the little girl still on her tail. When she was behind the bench she stuck her head under the bench so her nose just barely touched the back of Elizabeth's ankles.

[Stein]

The twins were walking hand in hand through the fair. They’d each won about 4 stuffed animals, but they had teleported them back to their room, they planned on giving them to one of the local charities after the fair. They stopped near a bench where two girls were sitting; what had caught their attention was a large tiger trying to hide under a bench from a child who was still petting/pulling her tail, trying to get the kitty to come out, the tiger-girl was obviously afraid of the child, but they weren’t sure why. Taighler teleported one of their stuffed tigers out of their room, it was the same one that the girl on the bench had. They walked behind the bench and knelt by the little girl petting the tiger “Hey princess. Where’s your mom? Here, go ahead and take this stuffed tiger and go show your mom” They twins said to the girl who squealed with joy and took the tiger from their hands. She said a quick thank you before running off into the crowd with her new toy. The twins spoke into Keera’s mind as they gently petted her back, being careful not to get the chain too near her. The child’s gone, you can come out. What’s your name? They stood up rejoining hands and walked back around the bench to greet the two girls who were sitting on it.

“Hello ladies” The twins said as they executed a polite bow “You must be little Princess Elizabeth; however we do not know your guardians name. It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.”

The twin looked at each other in unison and said “You have a good point.” Before turning back to the girls “You bear a striking resemblance to the first Elizabeth, she was a fine lady, good at chess too, she beat us the few times we played.” The twins smiled as they spoke, wondering how the group would react to them.

[Johnathan]

Spotting the large tiger, Elizabeth's eyes grew wide with excitement as her mouth curled into a mischievous smile. Samar recognized the reaction immediately and held out a cautioning finger. "Elizabeth, wait! What did I say about-" Elizabeth stood up and whirled around to face Keera as the twins tried to speak with her. She either didn't notice them or didn't care.

"What a huge Kitty!" With a girlish squeal, the princess launched herself at the tiger, not seeming to realize there was a bench in the way. As if it were only natural, the bench split in half down the middle as the ground stretched away in either direction, providing her a clear path. Samar gasped slightly as she clutched the back of the bench to keep herself steady. Elizabeth landed on Keera's back, hugging her around the neck with surprising strength as she rubbed her face against the tiger girl's fur. "Samar! Samar! Look at her! She's so cute!" The princess's guardian rubbed her temple as she nursed a growing headache.

"Yes Elizabeth, I see." She droned in an appeasing voice. Rising to stand next to the twins, she regarded them from the corner of her eye. "Samar." she replied flatly in response to their unspoken question. "And you two are magical beings who can reincarnate and are connected by-" As Samar regarded the chain that connected them with her magesight, she wobbled to the side unsteadily, loosing her balance as her headache flared in response.

[Rikka]

The little girl tug on the kittie's tail. "Kitty! Come out!" Stamping her foot she looked at the boys who had come up behind her. Hanging on the the kitty tail she heard them out. "Momma's getting food!" As they showed her the stuffed animals she squealed and ran off to show her momma the stuffed tiger they had gotten her.

Keera felt the little girl let go and heard her run off as she laid her fur flat she pulled her head out from under the bench and looked at the two boys behind her. For a second she thought she was seeing double. It only took a moment for her to sort out that they had two different scents. They must be twins, that happened often in the wild. Hearing their voices in her head she blinked surprised before her ears were assaulted by a very girlish squeal. Turning her head in the direction of the girl on the bench. Keera blinked and jumped slightly as the girl clung to her. Letting out a surprised half roar she ducked down at the child-like antics this girl was displaying. Building up a bit of courage she looked behind her at the girl. She was obviously an adult which calmed her down quite a bit.

Standing up slowly she turned around so she could look at the twins again. She smelled the pain seconds before the second girl started to lose her balance. Using her tail she wrapped it around the girl to steady her and wondered what was wrong. Looking around the festival she tried to spot a willow bush. They were natural pain relievers and worked really well too.

[Stein]

The twins caught Samar as she lost her balance “Hello Samar. You are correct, we are connected by a chain of brotherly love.”
They said grinning The chain is a long story, we’ll explain later…maybe. The twins thought into Samar’s head as they helped her upright again. They pulled out sunglasses and put them on in perfect symmetrical unison, causing the two of them to be perfectly identical.

The twins were laughing at Elizabeth’s antics as she bent reality to hug-glomp Keera. They were ready to pull the girl of Keera, but Keera calmed down and stood to face them again. They were enjoying laughing at Keera and Liz, Liz looked happy. “She is cute, is she super soft too?” The twins asked as they sat down on one of Keera’s sides and started petting her 3…2…1 The twins both grabbed Keera’s other side and pulled her towards them, hoping to tip her onto her side in their lap so they could scratch her belly.

“You are a soft kitty, and your fur is lovely” The twins said grinning at their own antics. The tiger girl has such simple thoughts, not stupid, just more primal thoughts. The twins couldn’t help Keera’s search for the willow bush, but they figured Samar would be ok even without the bush.

[Sabata]

It was the cultural festival. Again. And Erebos had put Zeran on guard duty. Again. And said heir was probably poncing off somewhere. Again. Of course, at the back of his mind, Zeran new that Erebos was doing something important right now and that he hadn't been present at the academy before to do this, but at the same time, he did not like people. There was a reason he was okay with being an assassin. Mostly that the Melanthios didn't get called for petty affairs (though Zeran occasionally accepted petty jobs on the side). Usually, calling out a Melanthios was serious damn business and you wanted serious scum dead.

The cultural festival was always a horrible affair. Loud? Check. Filled with idiots who can't follow simple rules? Check. Zeran did not want to be there? Triple check. Well it couldn't be any worse than any other year. After all this, he'd probably return to his room and drink himself into a state where he was a laughing at absolutely nothing, then wake up with massive headache and fully ready to bitch out Erebos for putting him on guard duty so that the Melanthios family could put their best foot forward at the academy . . . provided Agatha didn't burn his booze. That had been happening recently.

A sharp intake of breath was followed by Zeran pushing himself off from the lamp post he was leaning against. He preemptively rubbed his temple to deal with the next person to get their hair caught in one of the cotton candy machines.

. . . something wasn't right. A tingle went up Zeran's spine as a vaguely familiar shape entered his vision from a distance. It's not He tried to reassure himself, continuing towards the scene, trying very hard not to stare.

It couldn't be.

Slowly it became abundantly clear that Zeran's worst fears were, in fact the truth. Elizabeth was here. And on a tiger. Zeran tried very hard to ignore her and the whole scene, making sure his left side (and covered eye) was the side facing her. He couldn't help but tilt his head slightly toward Elizabeth. ABORT! RUN! LEAVE! GO![/font]

Unfortunately, Zeran was locked in face. He braced himself for the inevitable, trying very hard to immediately reach for his gun and shoot himself.

[Johnathan]

"Brotherly love, huh?" Samar questioned, a faint grin on her face reveling the humor she found in the situation in spite of herself. "Well, whatever. It doesn't matter to me." Ignoring the princess' antics, Samar focused instead on the piece of reality very obviously stretched. She squared herself with the bench and closed her eyes in focus. Raising her arms, she waited a moment, and then clapped her hands together. As if jarred by the sound, the stretch in space-time lost it's hold, and the bench literally snapped back together like a set of Legos.

Samar was so busy burying her face into Keera's fur, she almost didn't notice Zeran.

Almost.

Spurred by the sensation that she was about to miss something very fun, Elizabeth raised her head and scanned the passing crowd. It was then that she spotted him, evidently trying to sneak away. With a push of her arms, she gracefully flipped to the side of Keera, despite being dressed in a skirt. A huge grin spread across her face, and the ground beneath her warped to assist her charge.

"ZEEEEEEEEE" Her shout carried over the drone of the crowd and the ground beneath her feet stretched, and then snapped back into place at the same time as he legs extended to full, propelling her forwards at a high speed. Samar threw out a hand as the magic began to gather in her fingers, but she was too slow. "EEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR" The princess rocketed across the courtyard, the crowd just happening to clear in front of her. She cocked her arms above her head as if she was holding a sword, and indeed, a wooden trainer appeared in her grasp. "AAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!!!!" A small super excited canon ball of princess closed on Zeran, swinging her sword straight for his skull in an attack that ignored any possibility that the one she was attacking might be injured.

"Gods give me strength." Samar muttered as her face dropped into her hands in exasperation.

[Rikka]

Keera stayed where she was as the woman on her back continued to bury herself in her fur. Staring at Samar in front of her she tilted her head as she clapped her hands together before she heard the bench snap back into place. It caused her to jump slightly. As the twins tried to roll her over she simply laid down so they couldn't. She didn't like exposing her belly as it was a sign of submission in the wild.

Suddenly the girl on her back got really excited and ran off. Standing up she watched the girl run with a sword toward a boy with white hair. Heading Samar she looked over at her and gently nudged her with her head. The girl looked like she was at her wits end.

Her blue eyes turned to the identical boys hoping for some way to help. She had no idea what to do here and she wasn't allowed to shift with out cloths on. She had promised Jena she wouldn't go outside naked.

[Stein]

The twins didn’t really mind that Keera refused to roll over, her thought were very clear to them and they accepted that she didn’t want to be submissive to them. They simply continued petting her and grinned as they watched the princess charged Zeran, they figured he’d survive the assault. One twin started scratching her behind her right ear as they said “Don’t worry Keera he’ll be fine. He’s a big boy after all.” They said this calmly, as if this happened every day “And if you need clothes to change into we have an extra shirt, it should be enough to cover you if you wish to shift.” They finished as they pulled out a long short-sleeve shirt. “Samar, do you need our help with her, I’m sure we can amuse her for at least a few hours.” They finished grinning at Samar.

[Sabata]

Oh god. She noticed him.

Zeran sighed and waited till the last second before the princess' attack would hit him. At the moment, in one seemingly fluid movement he sidestepped, then tore the sword from the Princess' hand.

He exhaled before unleashing his tongue-lashing."No. I don't care if you're the fucking princess or not. I am the security for this event and if you're causing trouble - that includes assaulting a security guard - I can and will knock you out. Are we perfectly clear?" Zeran told to the princess before storing the sword away. He then went over to Samar. He also had a few words for her.

Zeran flared at Samar for several moments before beginning. "You make my job harder, I swear to god I will make yours harder. Control her. Do we have an understanding? The next time she does something I knock her out and you have to explain why this happened." Zeran told Samar. He really was not in the mood for this inanity. This job was horrible, the princess was here and Samar could never use any conviction when she told the princess not to do something. "Just do your job and I won't need to do anything drastic. I'm glad we had this talk. Even though we shouldn't fucking need to." Zeran exhaled then went back to continued off to try patrolling the area.

[Johnathan]

The princess grinned mischievously at him. "Hee hee, that sounds like a challenge!" As the princess hopped into a boxer's ready position, the sound of a snap echoed unnaturally across the courtyard. In response, the princess's eyelids drooped and she sank to the side before a gentle hand caught and righted her.

"Yes, yes Mr. Serious." Samar said monotonously from behind Elizabeth. "No need to take your frustration with women out on the princess." As Zeran turned to leave, supplementing his rude tangent with nothing more amiable, Samar's eyes narrowed a fraction. Another unworldly snap echoed out. Spatial existence distorted and soon Zeran would realize that although he walked, the distance between them remained static.

"Oh dear, it seems you have forgotten some of the many lessons our family so selflessly imparted on you." Her voice remained even, but the cold stare she leveled him was indicative of her irritation. "Is this what you consider proper conduct in the presence of your sovereign? You're free to sulk, steam, and lament your misfortune in your personal time, but as an acting agent of the Melanthios family and most importantly in the presence of the future Empress of Ansharad, you will show deference and humility." Stepping forward a half step, Samar lowered her voice so that her magic would carry it to Zeran's ears alone. Behind the lecturing tone, a hint of concern was now present. "Though maintaining the academy's security is your current assignment, do not loose sight of where our loyalties lie. We answer to the Melanthios head and the royal family alone. One day this entire school could become a target for all we know. Now is not the time to be venting your dissatisfaction, not before Elizabeth. Erebus has had 'rogue agents' executed for less than this Zeran. Please, bear with it."

[Rikka]

Keera watched and started to get worried over the fact that Zeran was being mean to a girl. Looking at either of the twins she got up and moved to Samar's side before sniffing at the princess. She had just collapsed and Keera didn't know why. Looking questioningly at all of them the large tiger shrank back as Samar grew cold towards Zeran. Racing back to the Twins side she seemed to try and hide behind them. Which was very interesting since she was a 6ft tiger

[Stein]

The twins looked between Samar and Zeran, they could easily imagine where this was going, they couldn’t teleport either party out of this fight, but they could provide ample distraction and entertainment. One twins was petting Keera’s head behind her ear as he said “Could we please borrow you for the afternoon, the princess needs a brave and agile girl like you to protect her, we’ll even put her on your back so that they two of you can travel in style.” As one twin finished speaking the other gently lifted Elizabeth out of Samar’s arms and carried her over to Keera, setting the girl on Keera’s back “There, now we may explore the fair and protect Elizabeth at the same time.” The twins were standing on either side of Keera to ensure Elizabeth didn’t fall off while in transit. Both twins got an idea at once and said “Let’s go check out the food booths, I think we could all go for some cotton candy.”

[Sabata]

It couldn't just be a lecture, no.

It had to be the most stupid, asinine, completely ignorant lecture Zeran had ever heard. His palm collided with his face.

"You pompous, ignorant, braindead . . . I can't even think of a sufficiently rude and derogatory noun to describe you right." Zeran stated, spinning around to face to Samar. "Your argument is well and good except for a few things. 1) Hahahahaha, yeah, those lessons. Selflessly imparted. Yeah those. You mean the ones I use doing the dirty work. The ones I use for the wet works that are too dirty for one of you to bother with. Or too menial. Lets see, you guard the future empress, I guard a fucking carnival. You have a job, I'd kill for, I usually either babysit, tear out thugs fingernails, or something else asinine that Eirika could do. 2) This might your blow your mind, but the ruling class are people too. Just because they have political power doesn't mean they can do whatever the hell they want. Please, Samar, it might do you well to remember that even people with fancy titles can fuck up. I'm not going to sugarcoat their idiocy to stroke their ego even more. 3) You know why I have this job? Because Erebus is kissing that bigoted moron's ass. And that's what pisses me off the most. She's a stupid, arrogant, little brat who doesn't deserve 10% of the power she has. You know it. I know it. Erebus knows it. I'm the only one with the balls to say it. What do I get for it? My booze burned! So thank you, for your incite into my life. I can see you obviously know far more about it than I do. I can see you obviously know what it's like to get plucked off the street, broken with training, then have that training wasted. Beyond that, get no respect for what you do do, and meanwhile get smacked around by some omnipotent, somehow simultaneously menopausal and constantly menstruating idiot because she's terrified of your boss and doesn't have the cojones to try and just TALK TO HIM."

Zeran inhaled and approached Samar. "In other words Samar, say anything that fucking stupid again, and I will have to find you a danger to the people in the carnival and to the future Empress of Ansharad. You want me to think of the good of the family and country? Fine Samar. That's what I'm doing. So shut the fuck up and I won't have to find you in contempt of common fucking sense." Zeran stated. "Are we clear? Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm pretty sure Agatha is once again throwing a tantrum because she doesn't like hearing criticism." He was pretty sure she started a fire somewhere around the fair just out of spite because she probably heard everything he just called her. Now there was a matter of finding it.

With that Zeran turned and walked off once more. "And great job being a guard. You just let two twins and a tiger kidnap the future empress of our country. Nice job with those priorities you were just on about. Really nice job."