1.3

“I really don’t see what all the fuss is about,” spoke the cat from its position on a stool. Why did her bathing chamber have a stool? No one had needed to assist her in bathing since before she was big enough to need the new tub!

The intruder, somewhat frustratingly, was completely and utterly dry. Not even a single drop of water marred that black fur.

This was despite every single other surface in the chamber being drenched, including the area immediately behind the aforementioned intruder.

Jorge had forced the door open but stood momentarily baffled on precisely what to do.

“What are you doing in here whilst I am bathing!” Jewel tried to put on the tone of dignified affront and high culture airs that her mother used when a courtier with a disdain for their rural barony needed addressing. She suspected that it sounded more like a badly tuned trumpet.

The cat licked a paw that was not dirty or wet at all and then with that same paw nudged a set of minute spectacles further up its muzzle.

Dragging the silence out very intentionally for all involved as it fiddled with its eye-wear.

Finally, the black cat raised its gaze to fix Jewel with a flat stare. “I’m sorry but was I misinformed of Lady Jewel’s propensity for nudity on the castle grounds? I was quite sure that my sources were very clear on thy manner.”

Jorge barely restrained the chuckle while Jewel seethed in her bath and roiled the much depleted water with her coils. Wings flaring out and curving over behind herself to try and make herself in flustered shame.

“That is not the same! This is my bathing time!” If she was not already exhausted from the earlier flight Jewel was pretty sure her mouth would be glowing white with barely restrained wyrmflame. Her foreclaws clenched gently but firmly over her pail, pressing it against herself for security.

To add to her mortification two footmen chose that moment to come rushing into the bathing room.

They were good footmen. Looking for a sign of untoward conduct and prepared for violence. There was also a third peering in from outside, all of them had hands on the hafts of their spears and muscles tense ready to fight and die for her honor.

Sadly it was enough to break what composure Jewel had managed to scrape together on short notice. She hoped she would be forgiven for the fresh wave of water drenching the room and all present with her tail lashing she was sure.

“Out! All of you Out!”

The resulting surprise at being soaked by an irate dragon set the two footmen to stumble backwards.

One almost fell as his foot hit a piece of soap but his comrade provided just enough support to hold him up while he braced the butt of his spear into a corner. They vacated to the outside dripping on the stone floor outside.

But they distinctly did not close the door!

The third footman had a slight crinkle to his eyes that suggested there would be laughter and stories in the barrack tonight. Jorge was just as soaked through as the two footmen but being the bath man unwarned splashes of water ultimately unphased him. He had the same dignity he always bore in matters of his role.

The cat was still completely dry. Although it appeared to be slightly bothered by the fact that its chosen perch was at least pooling with water and suds.

Its feet were alternating flicking water from each as it circled around a few times on the stool before fixing Jewel with another intense look.

The yellow eyes set Jewel on edge the way they settled on the slightly dented copper pail in her foreclaws against her the slight cleft between her belly and rib cage. “Ah, I see! my apologies you were settling with your hoard then?”

Jewel’s wings shook with the effort it took to hold them in and avoid possibly shattering the wooden slats of the bath by extending fully out in every direction.

Mother and Father had commissioned this tub specially for her!

Yes it had been when she had broken her old one from stretching just a little bit too hard against its walls!

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

But they had to give up some of their coins for it!

She would not go breaking this one and forcing them to replace it.

“I’m not settling in my hoard! I’m having a bath after a strenuous day of exercise to clean me of the sweat and grime of my labors! To make myself presentable for some unexpected guests to my family’s court!”

The ostensible wizard but very much a cat closed his eyes to near slits and tilted his face up in a way that somewhat resembled how she’d seen courtiers smile.

All assurance and smug superiority.

“Ah, of course, Lady Jewel is indeed correct on the matters of hoards and whether or not her own possessions qualify for it. I humbly beg forgiveness for the misstep of this simple mortal. She is a delicate flower of a lady that is simply distraught over the impropriety of others seeing her beautiful scales less than they do every day in court.”

That certainly did not drag another buzzing growl like a finger over her metal comb from Jewel.

She absolutely only huffed like a properly refined but affronted lady.

“It’s not about that! It’s IMPROPER for you to be in here with a lady of my standing while she’s bathing!”

The cat looked down at the half full and rapidly cooling water. His eyes roving across her coils in a way that made her scales tremble in great tremulous waves with their passing.

“Well, since her immortal ladyship Jewel, Wyrm of the Barony of Rochford has finished her bathing there is no impropriety! Now If you would I had-”

Jorge, blessed be his name and all of his line interrupted with the most soft spoken of interruptions that nevertheless still bore the weight of an interloper into his sworn and sacred domain.

“Pardon me, Lord Sorcerer and Weird of the Demesne of Ghergeintat, but it is customary in these lands that the act of bathing is not concluded until proper drying, dressing and styling of the lady is concluded by her staff.”

The still incredibly, suspiciously dry cat with his spectacles and small beret flicked an ear at the interruption but did not take his eyes off of Jewel, despite how much it set quivering spasms of her hide to flow up and down her coils.

Jorge, receiving no rebuke continued as gently and politely as Jewel had ever heard him to anyone.

“Furthermore, my Lord Sorcerer, an audience with a member and ward of the Lord Rochford’s household is customarily made after an official introduction is announced to the benefit of both parties, which I am sure were already planned for this evening during the welcoming feast being held in your honor.”

The cat slowly turned to look at Jorge with marginally wider eyes, then a slight head tilt and a widening of luminous gold.

Jewel was not sure why but the way that the pupils widened from slits to wide black pupils was enthralling.

“Oh! Terribly sorry! Thank you for helping to smooth over any diplomatic concerns, good servant! But I’d prefer to not step any harder upon Lord Rochford’s hospitality then I already have. I shall retire to my accommodations and present a proper boon and compensation after custom is observed in recompense.”

And then with that the cat made a turn around a corner and was gone.

A corner which was distinctly and clearly absent from atop the stool where the Cat Wizard had been sitting just a moment before.

But it had gone around a corner anyway.

Jewel blinked a moment, tilting her head at the curious feeling to the air where she could see a corner was not but could clearly feel one had been.

The soft cough from Jorge was needed to draw her attention back and with it her awareness on the sopping state of himself and the entire bathing room.

“Oh Jorge! I’m so sorry, I’ve made such a mess for all of you! I can help dry everything out if you like it would-”

The bathman gently waved her off with a laugh and a dip of his head.

“No no, we needed to do a proper wash of the room anyway, don’t want mold and the like to take any root here! It’s fine, Lady, get yourself dry and ready for the feast, I suspect you will need the time to prepare and check in with your family.”

That certainly was likely true, but it still pained Jewel to leave him with such a mess, huffing a bit of wyrmflame through herself to wick away the water into steam and gently crackling from her scales.