Pixie snorted softly, mouthing at Nathaniel's hand curiously, her large, dark eyes looking down at him calmly. Ellis glanced over at Nathaniel for a moment, letting out a breath. "I see. I'm sorry." he said quietly, knowing a little bit about how that felt. He kept working out the tangles in Pixie's mane.
Nathaniel smiled softly at the horse. "My wings don't work, so I'm kind of an outcast or something." He glanced back at his crumpled, crooked wings. "I hurt them really bad when I was seven and now I can't fly anymore. That's okay, though… Lloyd still takes me flying sometimes. Our bones are hollow, so we don't weigh very much and we're kinda fragile."
Ellis nodded a little bit, finishing up with Pixie's mane. He trailed a hand along her side so that she could feel where he was as he moved around to begin working on her tail. He knew that horse's eyesight was very limited when it came to behind them, so he made sure she knew it was him before he began. Pixie sniffed curiously at Nathaniel, moving along to his hair and mouthing at it.
Nathaniel giggled a bit and leaned back a bit so she couldn't eat his hair. "Hey! I'm not grass!" He played with her mane a bit, grinning.
Meanwhile, Lloyd was frantically searching the palace for Nathaniel. He called out the boy's name to no reply and was growing increasingly worried. After a bit, he checked outside and found Nathaniel chatting with Ellis again. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief and headed over. "Nathaniel, what did I tell you about going out without telling me?" He asked, crossing his arms and folding his wings. Nathaniel sighed and rolled his eyes.
Pixie let out a soft whuff as he moved away, turning her head to bump it against his side lightly, mouthing at him. Ellis chuckled at her behavior. "Spoiled little thing. She wants a carrot or an apple or a sugar cube." he said to Nathaniel. He looked up when Lloyd arrived, and then ducked his head a little bit, still working on Pixie's tail.
"Unfortunately, I haven't got anything on me… Nathaniel, why did you go out without telling anyone?" Lloyd asked again. "I was looking for Ellis. I didn't expect it to take me very long…" Lloyd sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "How are you, Ellis?" Lloyd asked.
Pixie kept sniffing at Nathaniel, letting out a disappointed huff when it became obvious that he was harboring no treats for her. Ellis looked over at Lloyd for a moment when the question was addressed to him. "Oh. I'm fine, thank you." he replied, finishing up with Pixie's tail and putting the comb away.
Lloyd nodded and looked around. It was a brisk morning, so he was quite cold, having just gotten out of the shower and all. He sighed softly. "So, how's the wedding planning going?" Nathaniel asked Lloyd. "I don't know… they never tell me anything. I just have to go along with it, whether I want to or not."
Pixie bobbed her head slightly, flicking her tail absently and blinking at them with those big, dark eyes. Ellis came around Pixie's side, stroking her mane for a moment as he listened to them speaking.
Lloyd sighed and went over to stroke his own horse, a pure white Pegasus mare. "I'm not even sure I want to get married, but I have no choice…" The horse whinnied softly and nudged his hands. "It's my responsibility. I don't think they'll make you marry, Nathaniel." "I hope not. It sounds awful." "You're so great at making me feel better, Nathaniel." Lloyd replied, his voice heavy with sarcasm. "Alright, alright… I'm sure marriage is great. Right, Ellis?"
Ellis let out a quiet laugh. "I'm sure it is, when it's with the right person." he replied with a little smile. "My parents loved each other quite a lot, and they were married quite happily." Until my father died and then my mother remarried. And then she died too. But he didn't say that out loud.
"Yes… I would like to marry for love, but alas, I cannot. It is my duty to marry whichever suitor has been chosen for me, unfortunately." Lloyd kept petting his horse. "We should probably head in soon. It's cold and we didn't exactly tell anyone where we were going."
Ellis nodded a little bit. He stroked Pixie's nose for a moment. "Of course." he replied simply. "Anton isn't…he isn't that bad. He can be a bit haughty sometimes, but what do I know? I'm just the servant boy." he gave a slightly bitter smile, looking away.
"You're not just a servant, Ellis. You're a person, and that makes you as valuable as anyone else." Lloyd hummed. "Yeah, your organs alone are worth a ton." Nathaniel butt in, grinning. "Nathaniel!"
Ellis made a choking sound at Nathaniel's words, then started to laugh, grinning. "Yup. That's where my worth comes from. The price my organs would sell for." he joked, shaking his head a little bit.
"That's not what I meant, Nathaniel, and you know it." Nathaniel just snickered and kept petting Pixie. "I just mean that all people are valuable in my eyes just for being people. I try to treat the servants with respect. I like to think we're more like friends, at this point."
(gtg soon sorry)
Ellis raised an eyebrow a little bit. "All due respect, your highness, but servants and princes can't really be friends." he looked at Pixie rather than at Lloyd. "That's not really how the world works."
(Np)
Lloyd sighed. "I wish it was… don't take me to be naive. I do treat everyone with respect, and I do think the staff genuinely like me and aren't just pretending since it's their job. I also don't call on them for every little thing… there are many things I am capable of doing myself, and so I do."
Ellis shrugged a little bit, stroking Pixie's mane and biting his lip for a moment. "Maybe so. But…the fact remains that there's still a big divide between people like us and people like you."
"I suppose… I wish there was some way to change that. I'll be king soon, so I should theoretically be able to change things… I just don't know how." He sighed again and leaned back against the stall.
He let out a faint laugh. "All due respect, but… without any servants, your economy would collapse in on itself. Half of the nobility don't know how to wash their own clothes, much less take care of a home or any mending." He tugged on his sleeves a little bit, shaking his head.
Lloyd flushed a bit. "We do know how to do those things! I do, at least. You're forced to learn how to do many things in the palace, even if you never end up doing them." He sighed. "Free time is quite limited for everyone. Even Nathaniel is supposed to study almost all the time, although he doesn't usually do it."
Ellis looked at Lloyd. "I didn't say none of you knew. I said half the nobility." He shook his head a little bit. "I'm just saying. How much of your lives would become impossible if you had to pick up the work you usually hand off to servants like me?" He knew he was treading a dangerous line, speaking to the prince like this. He just hoped that Lloyd wouldn't be too offended by his forwardness.
Lloyd shrugged. "I don't know. Unfortunately, we've never been able to give anything like that a try. We really should head back in, though." He took Nathaniel by the hand and started towing him inside.
Ellis nodded a little bit, remaining where he was. He wasn't sure that Lloyd had meant for him to follow, and didn't want to assume. So he stayed where he was, stroking Pixie's mane.