forum At War // OxO // Closed

Started September 19, 2021 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

(Also one thing I forgot to mention was that Kaylum has long, pointed ears, like all dragon-shifters)
Most of the Tesh army retained their human forms, with a few dragons flying over head for surveillance, and others near the meeting tent for protection. This was generally a good sign, in spite of the many who bared their fangs and claws at the other side. If they had come on all fours and wings out, they would’ve been expecting a blood bath.
Inside the tent, the royal family waited. King Auren, tall, dark, and bearded, with an annoyed expression on his face, stood close to his wife, Queen Lisette. It was she who had led most of their kingdom’s battles, and it showed with her closed cropped head of fuzzy hair and the scars that littered her limbs. However, she had dressed in large, glittering earrings and bangles for the occasion. She betrayed no emotion except for the fact that she squeezed her son’s hand so hard one might think she would break his bones. The two monarchs looked to be in the middle of some mental conversation that their son clearly wasn’t a part of, since he was focused on freeing himself from his mother’s grip. At last Prince Kaylum pulled away, but his mother turned, her eyes boring into him.
Don’t. Leave. Our side.
His ears twitched downward. Xiomara’s here. I’m fine, mother.
Xiomara, the prince’s bodyguard, stood stiff as a board just behind them. With the shadows of the tent and her dark skin, she looked like a mass of darkness with eyes just hovering in the background. Kay found it funny sometimes, but now she was just a reminder of how on guard his parents were. He wandered over to her, far more comfortable with his bodyguard than with his parents. Though they both provided protection, Xiomara had also offered her friendship, which was a rare thing for Kay to come across.

(alright!)

Nikolas continued moving through camp, steering clear of the Tesh soldiers and dragons. He had no wish to begin an altercation with them. He had made a name for himself as a terror on the front lines, only leaving them when he had earned the wound that now marred his left leg. It had damaged the muscle, and because of the curse, the healing magic Errol typically used didn't work well on him. There was permanent damage to his leg, and there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing he could do to fix it or change it. Normally he didn't mind, but it did make it more difficult in a fight. He cleared his throat faintly as he joined his father to enter the tent where the dragons waited. He realized he needed to stop calling them dragons. They were dragon-shifters, and looked mostly human. To simply call them dragons was akin to calling them animals. Which wasn't true. At least, probably not.

He cleared his throat faintly, leaning just a little onto his cane as his father inclined his head in a gesture of respect. "King Auren. Queen Lisette. Well-met." King Theodore said, the words a gesture of further respect, though not of weakness, and neither was he making himself subservient. The incline of the head was a mark of respect between equals, not the bow of a servant towards their ruler. Polite, but always clear that they were equal with each other.

Nik inclined his own head, slightly lower than his father's since he was a prince, not the king. Still not a bow, though. He had never bowed to anyone in his life, save for his father, and he did not intend to start with the Tesh dragons. Royals. Whichever.

It was amazing how the king and queen could change their disposition when needed. Once the Kevran royals entered the tent, the monarchs’ expressions relaxed and their postures eased. From where Kay was standing, however, he could see the cracks in this disposition. The twitch of the ear or the quiver of a lip.
Queen Lisette returned the gesture. “Well-met, King Theodore.” King Auren and Kaylum also copied the gesture, silent. Lisette was the more talkative of the three of them, and since they didn’t need to speak aloud most of the time to communicate, it was sometimes difficult to remember to speak altogether. Still, it didn’t seem like they needed to speak now, right? They were used to Her Majesty speaking for them at this point.
Kay’s eyes drifted over to the human prince, Nikolas, was it? He looked like he’d rather be somewhere else, which something Kay could at least understand. Other than that, he looked so… puny. Kay had heard talk amongst the guards about him, and he couldn’t say he wasn’t disappointed. Of course, they’d mentioned something about him being crippled too, but still.
His mother’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Well, shall we get to business?”

The King nodded, heading towards the table that had been set up. There were three chairs on one side, and two on the other, with a map of the two countries on top of it. He sat down in one of the chairs, and Nik sat beside him, leaning the cane against the edge of the table as he studied the map. He quietly adjusted a few of the army placements, in order to make them a bit more accurate to their actual positioning. His grey eyes flicked up to study Kaylum, flickering over the shifter's form. He looked…soft. Grouchy, perhaps, but soft. Untrained. Certainly had never seen battle. Perhaps that wasn't the shifter's fault but, nonetheless, Nik was quite sure that in a fair fight, Nik would win. Provided that Kaylum didn't simply shift into a dragon. That would be problematic in a fight. But that hair was a liability. It was long. Far longer than Nik's had ever been, that was certain, and it would be a massive liability for the shifter in a fight. It was long enough that it would be quite easy to grab, and then pull. Like a ready-made handle. He shook his thoughts away, realized he'd been staring, and looked away.