The Salle, Monday Morning

[bitchprince]

On Friday, Arthur had reached a decision. After the weekend, he wasn't in the best mood to follow through on it, but there were few reasons to let his mood interfere with what was, essentially, a duty of some kind.

The duty of survival. As Crown Prince, it was a real one.

Still, he thought, as he arrived in the salle, Dinah had best be grateful. And it was all tactics. His gut still twinged with the sting of clear betrayal, but his sense of morality was as confused on this subject as anything else ever was, and so he ignored it.

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[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

After waking from those oh-so-pleasant dreams, Firekeeper stalked down to the salle with the intent to grab a practice sword and run through the forms that the Kestrel armsmen had shown her.

"Arthur," she greeted with a nod, trying not to remember how she'd called him a gundark (whatever that was) and his kingdom silly.

[bitchprince]

"Lady Blysse," he greeted in return, giving his sword a little whirl. He still smelled faintly of horse manure, he was fairly sure (although how much of that was him merely picturing it and how much of it was true was up to anyone who dared to sniff him) but at least the work was distracting enough.

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Well, she could smell it well enough, wolf-trained nose and all. "You find horses yesterday?" she asked. Apparently feeling sheepish over name-calling didn't mean she was going to be any less blunt than usual.

[bitchprince]

"I did," Arthur affirmed. He was never admitting the hows or the whys. "But I seem to have recuperated." He cast a look at Blysse, as if to make certain that she was, too.

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Have," she nodded. "That girl-child is long-" dead, she wanted to say "-gone."

[bitchprince]

Arthur observed her for a moment. "Yes," he agreed, finally. "I can see that."

He swept his blade through the air yet again. It cut a satisfying line.

"No damage?"

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"I not think so," except to her pride, and she wasn't admitting that out loud. There was also the matter of her name but it hadn't really occurred to her yet. "And I not mean to call your kingdom a silly place," well she had meant it at the time. She just... didn't mean it now.

[bitchprince]

"That's quite alright," Arthur said, granting her a slight smile in the face of an earnest apology. He turned his attention back to his sword. Swoop and slice. "I didn't mean to insult your Queen, either," he added, conversationally.

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Not mine," Firekeeper commented, inspecting the selection of practice swords carefully. "Hawk Haven is human kingdom. I may have Kestrel name, but am wolf first."

[bitchprince]

Because she was a wolf. Right.

Arthur's expression may have betrayed his difficulty in not passing some rude comment on that, but he managed to restrain himself. Lady Blysse was odd, but so was all of Fandom, and she was at least a comforting comprehensible strange. "Changed allegiances?" he asked, then paused. "If you don't mind me asking."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Normally, the question was an easy enough one to answer. With the nightmares fresh on her mind, though, it took Firekeeper a moment or two to collect her thoughts.

"Fire take Prince Barden's settlement. My human mother gived me to wolves before she die," she explained, finally deciding on a sword and hefting it experimentally.

[bitchprince]

For a moment, his attention was drawn more to her grip on the sword than anything else.

"I see," he said, with a passing attempt at meaning it. "Barden. Is that where you learned to handle a sword?" Because that was far more interesting.

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"No," she snorted. "Barden think skills like leading horses or feeding chickens more practical," not very princely, but then, he'd been a younger son. "This, and the bow, I learn from Earl Kestrel's men," that, at least, got a grin out of her. A much better topic than the events of the weekend.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice recognized the other girl, and offered her a quick (but still proper) curtsy.

"I don't know that I thanked you," Alice said. "And if I failed to, I should like to do so now."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper nodded, offering a slight bow of her own- she never could get the hang of curtsying.

"I was gived the task of being a voice between peoples," she said. "Am glad you feel I am doing right by it."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"I do," Alice said with a nod. "Are there some who disagree? I could see if you were charging money to extract strange confessions from pet or owner alike, or perhaps blackmailing one to the other, but your purpose seems quite noble."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"There is Beasts who say I act only in interest of humans, and humans who say I act only in interest of Beasts," she shrugged. "They is not seeing I act for both."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Translations are a service for either side, not just one," Alice said, lifting her shoulders. "How can it benefit one side more than the other, for both to be on common ground?"

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Is not just in translating," Firekeeper clarified. "Is also in," she frowned, trying to think of how best to explain given her limited vocabulary, "in trying to solve problems each side presents the other."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"Playing the mediator?" Alice asked, intrigued by the girl's description of her role as emissary between roles. "In that case, I should imagine you're doing quite an excellent job. One knows one is succeeding as an intermediary when both sides think one is biased towards the other."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Your living may serve many... Questioner's words, again.

"It seem like sometimes, the only solution is in making none walk away happy," Firekeeper said with a snort.

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"If none are happy, then perhaps none have overpowered the others," Alice shrugged. "Peacekeeping is always difficult. War is easier than peace, though messier."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"War is a human thing," Firekeeper said bluntly. "I was not knowing it, Beasts was not knowing it, until humans show us both."

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

Alice frowned, trying to wrap her mind around that concept. "I hadn't realized," she admitted. "My apologies. How do the Beasts settle territorial issues and lines of succession?"

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper shrugged. "I not know much of other Beasts, but with wolves, there is fights, yes, but they is challenger against One. None of this battles against a target you do not know. If a territory is lost, pride is wounded for a time, but there is always new territory to be found. No land has more meaning than other land." It was, for her, an uncharacteristically long speech.