“There, there,” I caressed Lord Cerolus’ son on his hair, as he cried and shied away from the world around him in my lap. Angry words were spoken behind the doors, and then the Lord lost his temper. I was still shaken up by the dread coming off from the room. I wasn’t even sure if he did it on purpose.
We had rarely seen him frustrated like this, and those days most of us would just keep our heads down and move quickly, trying to avoid him at all costs. If someone was called personally, they’d go to bed immediately after leaving his quarters, with no questions asked among us.
‘And to think this was only frustration. What would happen should he get furious?’
Then the Mistress left the room in tears, understandably so, and he followed after her, casting only a sidelong glance at me shivering in the corner, while the child had curled up in my hug. And then they were gone.
Which brought me to comforting the child as he wept, while sitting down on the cold hard floor of a hallway. I heard steps behind me and turned to see Phil standing above me, half in cheer but with a slightly solemn look on his face. His grimace was odd, something he didn’t show at times. He was a simple man, in my mind, and I liked him for it.
He leant on the wall I sat against and watched me, not uttering a word. I had no idea what he was thinking. He didn’t seem to have many things on his mind, but was extremely focused on the ideas that he did get. Most of those these days appeared to be towards me, something I was flattered by. Or at least I thought as much.
“Hey, kid! Hands off! The lady’s mine,” he said jokingly, dissolving any seriousness in the air. I punched his leg, but was forced to smile. Those offhand comments of his I was perplexed about. It was annoying at times to be compared to his property in a way. On the other hand, there was a great deal of affection in those at times. It even made him charming, the jesting jealousy he presented.
“See, made you smile,” he responded simply, then crouched down to eye level. “I missed you.”
I think he wanted to kiss me. But he didn’t. I wanted him to kiss me, and I wanted to kiss him. But I didn’t. So we stood there, not kissing, and just gazed at each other. And time seemed to pass like that. The Lord and the Mistress were gone somewhere, while the Lord’s child was silent in my lap. And Phil was gazing at me.
I stroked his chin, the coarse stubble scratching my fingers, and he closed his eyes for a moment. I backed off, unwilling to let someone see us like this. Lord Cerolus was adamant about not letting relations go into our hours. So I decided to shift my attention elsewhere.
I looked at the child in my lap. ‘He is… odd.’
I couldn’t discern what he was. He skin was weird to begin with. Smooth soft skin surrounded the various patches of rougher scales, both of those red like Lord’s. He reminded me of Salamanders in a way. ‘Is this how Drakkar look like?’
He lifted his head off of its burial site in my lap and looked at me, sharp slit eyes with a familiar crimson swirl about them. If there were many doubts about whether he actually was the Lord’s child, I was certain the eyes would cast off any arguments.
He started mumbling, then inspected me in silence. And after that he mumbled some more. I couldn’t understand any of it. I knew Lyndarian, but this wasn’t it. In fact, it was so far from it, there was little reason to think he was even speaking a comprehensible language.
“Calm down, calm down,” I tried to somehow get my efforts through, but he didn’t seem to want to stop talking. The lavagates were open, and there wasn’t stopping him.
He eventually figured out I could not speak whatever he used, and stopped. Then he started slurring words slowly. “Dad-dy…”
“Your Daddy is there,” I pointed to the hallway he had run along, then got up. “Come on, let’s see him.” I presented an arm for him to take, and he seemed conflicted.
“Tail?” he asked me, which was a perplexing question to get from a child. I looked towards Phil, who seemed to take his time with everything, just watching me idly.
“I think he wants to grab your tail.”
“But I don’t have one,” I pointed out the obvious fact. In fact, most of the Demons did not possess tails. I personally have maybe met a dozen that had one, and they were mostly stumps that could wag a bit like a Cerberus’. To have a long slithering tail like Lord Cerolus did was as rare as belonging to a noble family, at least in my mind. The two didn’t seem to have any link, of course.
“You have a wonderful tail, if you ask me,” Phil quipped from my side, then leant in to reach for my bottom. I had to swat him away. It wouldn’t have been appropriate.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
I turned back to the child. “No tail,” I swung an arm behind me, grazing only air where a tail would be if I had one. Then I outstretched my arm again, and he took it, his expression changing from inquisitive curiousness to a slight disappointment, and we made way for the Lord’s room. I hated to admit it, but this was beyond my current abilities and knowledge.
We joined Hiratun in front of Lord Cerolus’ chambers and I knocked once on the large doors, the sound echoing through the hall. I could hear murmurs inside the room, but nothing coherent caught my ears. The four of us stood in silence, waiting for any answer to come through.
Jumbled steps preceded the doors being opened in front of us, and I took a step back. If he were still in a sour mood, neither of us want to be near him. Hiratun, however, didn’t seem bothered, just staying stoically against the wall.
Lord Cerolus walked out with a rather cheerful disposition, worlds away from how I’ve seen him last. ‘Had the matter become resolved that easily?’
He appeared somewhat bothered to see us in front of his room, so I took initiative to explain my actions. “Lord Cerolus… I… don’t know Draker.”
He did have me learn the language of Humans before his wedding, something I was thoroughly encouraged, and highly paid, for. But that didn’t cover the language of the Drakkar as well. “It would take me some time, if you wish, to learn it.”
He looked at me quizzically. “What are you talking about? Why would you need to learn Draker?”
I stood straight, but was lost. Whatever I seem to be doing here, it seems wrong and I’m making mistakes one after another. “For the… child?”
“He doesn’t know Draker either,” the Lord laughed then started walking. The child immediately grabbed hold of the tail that swung widely behind, the picture looking amusing in the least. I stood for a moment, pondering my actions, then caught up with them, as Hiratun made slow steps behind us. At points I wondered what Hiratun and Phil even did the entire day.
“I beg your pardon, my Lord, and apologise for making a foolish mistake based on my assumptions,” I lowered my head while I spoke, looking at the floor in front of me.
He only glanced at me. “Don’t be like that, Tiana. You took care of him despite not knowing the language. Or what he is apparently,” Lord Cerolus stroked his chin in thought.
“He’s Nazjari. And a Demon, I guess,” he added, “I don’t know if I ever heard of those before.”
‘The child is part Nazjari? But don’t they all have long slithering bodies and no legs? And those weird snakes on their head?’ I shuffled through my knowledge of Nazjari, trying to find resemblances between what I’ve read or heard about and the child in front of me. There was very little to support any claim that the child was more Nazjari than Drakkar, but if Lord Cerolus said it, it would have to be the truth.
I looked over the child again as we walked, only seeing the ways he was similar to the person guiding him. His own tail hung loosely behind his back, scraping against the stone floor at times, far larger compared to his body than the tails of Demons I’ve seen, more akin to a tail an animal like a Triforce would possess. I dismissed the thought of comparing the Lord’s child to an animal, or at least a body part of his.
The red skin was strikingly similar between the two of them, and the long hair was practically the same save for the child’s lack of hair on the sides of his head.
“He looks a lot like you, my Lord.”
Lord Cerolus stopped briefly, then looked at the child who smiled back at him. “Indeed. He really does.”
He turned to me. “In any case, I’ll be teaching the child Dral. I don’t do much these days anyway. You, however, are going to tend to my wife and my unborn child.
“This castle is going to get busier.”
I stopped in place, looking as the figures of a father and his child disappeared behind a corner, and sighed. ‘So that’s why he was so happy.’
I went back to the Lord’s chambers, awaiting orders as I always did. At one moment, I questioned what would I have to do if I were working for another noble, and cast a silent prayer to the Gods for letting me be in Lord Cerolus’ household. It was by far the place that felt safest.
-----------------------------
I lay down in my bed after the Sun had set. It had turned out my tasks for the day were quite lax due to the Lord coming back today, and the Mistress kept to herself mostly. It was somewhat odder than usual, she being less talkative and spending more time in idle thought. I supposed that this entire day must’ve been somewhat disorienting to go through.
I heard the doors of my small room open and steps that failed to be gentle inch towards my bed. Soon enough, Phil’s large hands were holding me across the waist, and his warm breath was against my cheek.
“You awake?” he whispered, but the tone of his voice would probably be loud enough to wake me up if I were asleep in the first place. I could already deduce his intentions now.
“Yeah. I was just thinking,” I sprawled across the bed and turned to Phil’s face devoid of a helmet he wore on duty. A small whiff of air was enough to make me turn the other way. “And you, you reek.”
I showed him away and he tried to go back with a pleading look in his eyes. “Not going to happen. Go get cleaned, then we can talk.”
“But I’ve been riding most of the past three days! And I haven’t seen you in a week and a half if not more. Come on, Tia,” he tried to squirm his way back in but I decided to have none of it today.
“And for even thinking you can come in my bed stinking like a Hellboar, you’re not getting anything tonight.”
“So, what am I supposed to do now?” he asked, getting out of my bed and putting his shirt on. I didn’t even notice him taking it off in the first place.
“Don’t care, just do it elsewhere.”
He looked at me, then turned back, “fine, I’ll go wash…”
“And don’t come back,” I added as he left the room.
I then tried to get to sleep, one small thought at a time.