driftfleet | Kayanni System Mingle

[Mikleo giggles quietly and obliges, leaning in closer. It's getting pretty exciting!]

It looks like he's trying to coordinate a rescue through his letters... her family sure is merciless, huh? At least all he got was exile. Maybe they run away together?

I love history, [Sorey mumbles into Mikleo's hair, curling around him as he reads wide-eyed over his head. This is so tense. Sure, historical texts have a tendency to deliver information in a very cut-and-dry factual manner, but that's what made history so cool!]

I know you do, [Mikleo mutters back, vaguely self-satisfied in that I-still-know-you-best way, even if it doesn't take a lifetime friend to realize Sorey's a history nerd. Well, it's not like Mikleo is any better.

He turns to the next page, scanning through the chapter index, brows lifting in surprise.]

Oh! This section's supplementary. A series of letters throughout the countryside, tales of a kindly knight traveling to the capital, doing good deeds and rumoured to be the prince himself... if they're unconfirmed, does that mean he died, or did historians not find these letters until much later? The text isn't specific.

Would he really go to the capital if he was the exiled prince? It sounds so risky, but from his other letters he definitely sounds enough in love to try it. [Sorey sure hopes so!! Gosh that's so romantic.] Check down in the next section, the princess disappeared before her scheduled execution. It was totally him.

Definitely him. And the princess knew it too, I think- look, there's a letter from her over here. It's really mean, and it's addressed to him. She didn't want him to come for her!

[He points to a damaged image of an elegantly scripted letter, with the text detailing the princess's words- a denial of love, cruel words that practically bleed with desperation.]

[Clicks his tongue and shakes his head.] Why do people always think that would work? If he loves her, he's not going to turn around and leave just because he thinks she hates him. Nobody who loves someone else would do that.

It's probably the only thing she could do, locked up like that. And maybe if she denied how she felt about him, she wouldn't be executed, and it would be easier to rescue her.

[But yeah, it was kinda dumb. Clearly he came for her anyway.]

Exile is one thing, but to execute someone for falling in love... [Sorey huffs.] I wonder if there was something else going on behind the scenes. Some reason why her people would try to get rid of her. [He's reminded unhappily of Alisha, and how Bartlow and his men had done all they could to try and undermine her, to the point of not caring if she'd died. Politics are an ugly thing.]

Maybe. The text is vague and incomplete- the focus is on the love story instead of the politics. Maybe there'll be more details in another chapter.

[He turns to the last page, where they find two images- the first being a ratty old cottage, obviously in disrepair after so long, simply labeled as the house rumoured to be where they raised their children. The final image is a photo of another letter in the princess's handwriting- thanking a priest of the capital for aiding the prince in her rescue, detailing their new life together, and expressing how happy she is. Huh.]

...Don't cry.

I'm not crying, [Sorey cries, face smushed into Mikleo's hair]

[Mikleo can't help his giggle, reaching up to pat the side of Sorey's head, since that's all he can reach.]

Don't do that, I'm not your tissue!

But your hair's so white and soft just like a tissue, [Sorey mumbles, still crying a little bit but using Mikleo's giggles as a pRECIOUS BALM FOR HIS TEARS]

That's disgusting and I'm not gonna encourage your animal behaviour.

[Mikleo squirms in Sorey's lap until he can turn himself around, glancing this way and that- oh bother, there's no cloths or tissues handy. Half-defeated he pats his hands against Sorey's cheeks, calling up just enough water to get his face damp. Come on, you big softie.]

If you get saltwater on the books you could damage the paper, y'know.

How much do you think I'm crying right now? [LOOK!!! IT'S ONLY A LITTLE BIT!!!!!!!

Sorey will scrub his own eyes clean thank you very much, though...though that water is nice. Nice and cool.] It's just- it's just so great. They even got to have a family.

[a little bit still makes you a sap!!!

Mikleo squints at Sorey's face, only sitting back down when he's satisfied, tugging the book back into his lap.]

I guess it's better this way. You'd have cried even harder if the ending was sad.

Yeah, [Sorey admits, because he really can't deny that. He sniffs again and draws his wrist against his nose.] Okay, let's go read those chapters you wanna read. I wanna know how the kingdom worked that out.

Okay. It's this one here...

[Mikleo flips have to the first story, turning past the title page to the one he's really interested in.]

Check it out- mutant cows. Have you ever seen fangs that big before!?

[Yeah tons, Sorey almost says before biting his tongue. Right, Mikleo already feels like Sorey is too independent from him...probably shouldn't tell him that Sorey has been chewed on fangs three times that size before.] I've definitely never seen cows with fangs, that's for sure.

[Luckily Mikleo doesn't pick up on that, too distracted by alien cows.]

I wonder how big they are... the picture doesn't really say much when it comes to scale. But if they ate people, they must've been huge, right?

Maybe so; but wolves and stuff can eat people, can't they? And they're not so big. Maybe they're only the size of wolves.

[don't u rain on my giant cow parade, punk]

But a whole pack of wolves could be filled with one or two large bodies, couldn't they? These cows ate a whole council's worth of people! They must be bigger.

Okay but over what period of time did they eat them? What if they took a whole month to do it? Anything could eat an entire council in a month, little birds could do it. [they are getting stares]

[Mikleo makes a face at that.]

They'd be so smelly... and the bugs would get into the bodies, too. Remember that one old prickleboar we found in the woods? It was covered in slimy flies! Nothing would eat that, not even alien cows.

They're mutant cows, not gourmet chefs. Maybe they're even scavengers, like vultures or something.

You're basing that entire theory on the idea that they're small, and there's no proof for or against that! Don't go justifying your wild assumptions for no reason.

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