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Joane snickered and slid off the bed. "There goes my plan for distracting you some night during practice. I suppose I shall have to try something else." She dug through the chest at the foot of the bed.
"No, I won't put you out for that. Perhaps a few weeks will help me focus my attentions on more productive things. I'm already getting pressure from his majesty to move my dalliances to something more permanent and marital." She shook her head and grumbled. "I thought I had an old set of bracers in here, but I must have given them away. We'll start armed combat tomorrow night as soon as I can find you some armor." |
He watched her from her bed, rifling through her trunk. When she mentioned armed combat he scratched his head. "I won't have to learn anything on horseback, will I? I don't get along with horses, they don't like me," he said. "Guess it's the hidden feline in me. They usually get very aggressive around me." He got up from his bed and stretched. "I tried working at a livery stable and the horses, all of them were nice tempered until I came about. Then they started snapping at me."
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Her brows furrowed and nodded slowly. "I mean, it would be for the best for you to at minimum to know how to ride a horse, but I suppose if they won't let you then... I don't know." She stood and went to the closet to continue looking for the missing bracers. "Any other animals you don't get along with?"
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He bit his lip for a moment. "Well there's dogs. Most dogs hate me. The braver ones will give chase, the more docile ones will just bark me away. Never been bit though thank goodness. Cats love me. I'm sure you saw that one coming. Especially female cats..." he said with a face. "You couldn't imagine how many nights I spent with heat female cats in heat, just rubbing themselves all over me."
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"Well, at least the ladies love you." She snorted back a laugh and gave up on her quest to find the bracers. "I guess I will go out looking for armor. You should probably get some sleep. I'll be back this evening right after sundown." She went about pulling her boots back on. "If you go exploring, be polite to everyone you see but don't bow to anyone that isn't the king or queen."
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He stuck his tongue out at her, on that comment. He yawned when she mentioned sleep and he took he sat back down on his cot, kicked his shoes off and then laid back. "You do that, I'll take a cat-nap." he said keeping up with the cat references. He rolled onto his side and curled up and started to go to sleep.
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It was around dark when a courier showed up and knocked on the door. When he answered it he was handed a note that said Joane had been called away on important business and would be gone for a few days. He was to continue with his training as much as he could on his own, and she would pick back up with him when she returned. This meant his next few days were free to explore the castle and get into any unsupervised trouble he pleased.
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He read the note as he yawned and rubbed his eyes. He looked out the window and then turned to thank the courior and then when he left he left the room after pulling shoes on. He was given some nice decent clothing in the two weeks that he was there. Including shoes, which he hated but for basic walking, it was better on his feet then going barefoot.
He headed down to the area that Joane trained him in, down by the stables. He went through the basic maneuvers as he did every night and then went off on a training dummy instead of sparring with Joane. |
There was a soft whistle from the side of the courtyard. Lady Leandrea cleared her throat and waved at him in the dying twilight. "I slipped away because I was curious about what you looked like with your cat additions." She sat on one of the benches that lined the courtyard. "Continue on, I'm not here to distract you, I just was curious is all."
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His ears perked when he heard the whistle. He turned his head and saw Leandra there. He blinked and went pink. "Oh um...evening." he said and bit his lip. When she said to continue he nodded still having her watch be a bit awkward. He went back to the dummy, trying to concentrate on the maneuvers that Joane had shown him in the last two weeks.
When he did a long routine he stepped back and wiped his forehead free of perspiration. He looked back over to Leandra to see what she thought. |
The man from Trevor's first night in the baths peeked his head into the courtyard and raised a brow. "Oh hello Lady Leandrea, and Lord Trevor." He nodded his head at the two of them.
Leandrea was blushing when Trevor spoke to her. "Oh goodness, you're amazing. I bet you're very fast in a fight against a real person. It looks so dangerous. Do you have claws too, or just a tail and ears?" Ermi chuckled at her gushing. "Looks like you really know how to impress the ladies. Looks like Joane's training is paying off." |
Trevor blushed at her enthusiasm. "My fingernails get sharp, but they're not pointed like a cat," he said. "I can use them to grip onto certain things." he nodded. When Ermi came around and he scratched the back of his head when he said he was impressing Leandra. "Oh uh..heh. I"m not doing anything special," he said sheepishly. He definitely wasn't used to praising or the kind of attention that Leandra was paying to him.
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A bell tolled in the distance and Leandra hopped up. "Oh no, her majesty is going to murder me. I told her I was going to ask the cook for a snack." She flushed and curtsied to the two of them, then disappeared out of the courtyard.
Ermi raised his brows at Trevor. "Well, I guess you've already found an admirer or two then? Here I was worried you were interested in Joane." |
He watched as Leandra ran out of the courtyard and back into the castle. He turned to Ermi. "Interested in Joane? No no," he said defensively. "She's just my teacher. I have no interest in her as anything else. I don't know the first thing about courting a woman anyway so she wouldn't be interested in me!" he said laughing nervously. "I never had anyone tell me how to court women if I was interested in one."
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Ermi might have looked a little relieved and he nodded. "You mean you never flirted with girls before coming here? I mean, of course it's a little different than courting a noblewoman of course, but the ladies like to be flirted with regardless of their class." Ermi stretched and pointed to the wrestling circle. "Care to go a couple rounds? So is it Leandrea that you have your eyes on? She's clearly already got eyes for you."
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He blinked when Ermi suggested the spar. "Oh um...sure. I have a feeling you'll snap me like a twig, but if I don't train at all Joane will be mad." he said.He got some more padding on and changed training swords. "Leandra is very nice. As far as ladies go, she's the only one I've met besides Her Highness and Joane. She's pretty and sweet, and smells nice." he said getting lost in his own thoughts.
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Ermi swatted him on the shoulder with the flat of his training sword. "Pay attention. You'll meet others." He circled around him and kept low, eyes on the cat's weapon. "Don't drop your guard."
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He yelped slightly and shook his head free of thoughts of Leandra. "Maybe so." he said. "But I can see me liking her..." he admitted. He then started sparring with Ermi, using all the moves that he knew that Joane taught him in the last two weeks. Ermi was definitely harder to fight, but he wasn't doing poorly. He was quick on his feet so he could go through maneuvers pretty fast and fluidly.
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"Joane's going easy on you, I believe." Ermi chuckled as he disarmed Trevor and put him on the ground. He put the dulled point of the training sword on the cat boy's throat and shook his head. "Tsk Tsk, you're dead. Let's try again."
Ermi ran him through the drills until he could effectively evade most of the common maneuvers. "You need to learn to analyze your opponent." |
After a couple rounds of fighting with Ermi, he was panting and was perspiring. He leaned against one of the stone supports in the courtyard, resting. "I think she was easing me into it, but damn." He said. He righted himself after a moment and walked over to put his training sword away. "Now I need a bath. I don't think I ever sweated so much. Joane should have you with us during my training sometimes. It'd be helpful for teaching I think."
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Ermi threw his head back in a laugh as Trevor stopped to rest, and then called the session entirely. "She's just not training you as intensively as I would. You and I can start sparring a couple times a week when I'm not busy with other duties." He nodded about the bath and deposited his own equipment where it belonged. "You'll have some nasty bruises come tomorrow. Maybe you can get the Lady Leandrea to rub you with salve."
He led the way to the baths. It wasn't the same boy manning the bath this time. Ermi waved to them and shucked off his sweaty clothing. He hadn't bothered to go get any extra clothing, apparently confident enough to walk back to his quarters wearing only a towel. |
Trevor blushed gently when Ermi mentioned him being rubbed with salve and he tried to change the subject "So are you with Joane then? Her male 'friend'." he asked. "She mentioned how she wished she had her room to herself again because her love life was zip with me there." he said as he disrobed and grabbed a bucket of water and soap to wash the sweat and grime off first before he went into the main tub. He learned from the first bath two weeks earlier how things were done in the bathing room. From each time following he did it as he was supposed to.
After getting the initial dirt off, he dumped the bucket out to a drain and then slipped into the main bath and heaved a contented sigh at the hot water on his aching muscles. |
It was Ermi's turn to flush slightly. "Ah... nothing official. Joane is... difficult when it comes to romantic endeavors. She and I are indeed very close, but she is adamantly against any suggestion of marriage. I appreciate her strength and will. I also know I am not the only one that she is affectionate toward." He looked a little sullen for a moment, but then brightened as he rinsed off and sank into the tub. "Not to say, of course, that she is not a woman of virtue, just that she is intent on doing what she pleases and I have no intention of trying to tell her otherwise. She is, among other things, an accomplished swordswoman."
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"That she is. It'd be a shame for her to stop what she's good at to settle down. Maybe as she gets older and retires from the guard will she consider settling down." he said as he scrubbed his skin pink. "I never figured marriage would be on the table for someone like me. I figured I'd just be, me, myself and I, until I got killed or died of old age." he shrugged."Amazing how things can just change suddenly." he mused. "Leandrea seems like a nice person, and if I had to get married to anyone I wouldn't mind it with her."
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Ermi's brows furrowed. "Oh no, she's not a member of the guard. She'd skin you for saying that. She's a knight of one of highest orders." He leaned back in the bath and yawned. "Well, hopefully you and her can get together and have a happy life together. She's a sweet girl, a bit quiet but smart as a whip when she decides to say something. ANyway, see you later cat boy." He climbed out of the bath and headed down the hallway clad only in his towel.
It was a few more days before Joane reappeared and she returned in the middle of the night. When he came back to the room from training she was tucked into bed, too tired to even hear him come in. |
He was surprised to see her all tuckered out and asleep in bed before him. He quietly pulled the quilt over her shoulders and then went over to his cot to get changed for bed himself. He yawned quietly and curled in for sleep.
*** Next morning had Trevor coming into the room with Breakfast for Joane, since he woke up early and she was still snoozing. Some nice hot toasted bread, eggs and bacon and some nice hot tea with a dash of honey for sweetness. He carried it on tray with a lid over the meal to keep it warm. "Morning!" he chimed a bit too eagerly. He was excited because he was going to go see Leandra before morning court like that one time. |
Joane stirred from under the covers and actually growled at his chipperness. "Morning," she muttered and dragged herself up to sit. "what's all this?" She raised a brow and looked over his offerings. "Did you get into trouble while I was gone and need me to take care of something?" She questioned as she took a bite of the toast.
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He shook his head "No, nothing like that." he said. "I just thought I'd do something nice for you. Mainly because whatever you went off and did, must have been tiring, since by the time I came in last night from training you were dead to the world. I got up early this morning to go see Leandrea so I figured I'd bring you breakfast before I go see her." he said with a smile.
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Joane took a sip of her tea and nodded, even know looking exhausted. "It was a lot of traveling and a very hard fight." She closed her eyes and leaned back onto her pillows again. "Go on, go see Leandrea. You're quite taken with her, aren't you?" She waved him out of the room with a chuckle.
Leandrea was waiting in the garden for him, sitting on the bench she had showed him to be her favorite last time they had been there. She waved when she saw him approaching. "Good morrow!" |
He almost giggled like a little boy when he left the room, but since he was an adult he refrained and he walked out and went to the gardens where he was to meet Leandrea. When he saw her sitting on her favorite bench, he went right over. "Morning" he replied. "How are you doing today?" he asked as he sat next to her. He procured a small flower and a napkin with a still warm, fruit-filled pastry from behind his back and handed it to her. "I know how you like these, so I asked for an extra one from the kitchens on my way out here." he smiled.
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Leandrea brightened when she saw his gifts and took them with a gracious thank you. She tucked the flower into her hair and nibbled lightly at the pastry. "You've paid close attention," she mused aloud and then looked over at him. "So,you and Ermi have been training together too? He's a fierce knight. My father once approached his father about a union between the two of us, but Ermi was so against it nothign came of it." She didn't seem particularly upset by it. "I have terrible luck with suitors."
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He smiled at the fact that she was pleased with the gifts. "I'm very observant. I've grown used to being so. You can learn a lot being quiet and just watch people. And since I'm getting to know things about you, I thought it'd be a nice treat." he said. "So, we've not seen each other for a few days, how have you been fairing? Anything new or exciting?" he asked.
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Leandrea offered him half of the pastry. "I had heard you were a thief, I guess it makes sense that you have to be able to be aware of everything around you." She looked away a bit shyly. "There's rarely anything new or exciting here in the castle. You're still the newest most exciting thing in my life." She flushed as she realized what she had said. "I mean.. you know..."
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He took the other half of the pastry and finished it in two bites even though it wasn't something he usually ate. When she said that he was exciting and such and saw her blush he blushed a little too. "Well, you're the only girl that I've ever talked to who wasn't a knight teaching me how to fight. It's refreshing I guess to spend time with you. You're so dainty and sweet. You're cute and not airheaded like a lot of court ladies are. I like that you're slightly shy but you're smart. I like smart people."
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Leandrea raised her brows at him when he mentioned that a lot of the courtly women were airheads. "And how do you know that they are airheads if you haven't spoken to them except for Joane and I? Many of us put on an act, you know." She reached over to pluck a withering rose off of a rose bush. She plucked its petals away one by one, showering him with them. "Men expect us to be a certain way, so many of us play along with that. It's... easier... and safer." She looked down at the ground and threw down the bared stem of the rose. "So don't be so quick to judge the others."
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"Again, just what I've observed. As you said, if it's just acting like that way then that's what I've noticed from a distance. I never got a chance to talk to or know anyone like you. It's a shame that you can't be more intelligent. Honestly, I like sitting here talking to you intelligently. If you were all giggly and simple-minded I wouldn't like you as much." he said and smiled cutely.
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She tossed another handful of flower petals at him. "I try not to judge others based on their faults, but instead applaud them on their merits." She eyed him pointedly. "Are you coming to morning court? It's terribly boring." She stood and dusted the flower petals off her gown. "You get to hear all the latest complaints, but occasionally someone comes though with actual problems that can be fixed."
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He chuckled as she rained down petals on his head. He blew away some stray hair and petals. "Well I have nothing planned unless Joane needs me, so I'll come sit with you." he said standing and offering his hand for her. He brushed off whatever petals she missed and walked with her back to the castle.
He sat next to her at the morning court, and true to her word most of it was boring, and he did his best not to fall asleep during it. |
Leandrea was reluctant to hold his hand and explained to him that it wouldn't be proper to do so in public.She did however, let him escort her by the arm into the throne room. She sat in attendance to her majesty.
The king was stern with his people, but generally fair for most cases. Unfortunately for them, most of the cases were petty squabbles between farmers over who was encroaching upon someone else's land and those needing help dealing with various monsters or bandits. All in all, it was as thrilling as watching grass grow. When the queen was ready to leave she beckoned Trevor over to her. "How are you this fine morning, cousin? I trust you are behaving yourself with Leandrea?" |
He walked over to the Queen and he bowed lightly to her. "I'm doing well Your Majesty. And yes, I'm behaving. I visit her when I have time and we do so in public. She is really nice, I like spending time with her." he said. "How are you doing Your Majesty? I hope things are going well for you."
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