That early afternoon I had my first lesson with King Fayn. He managed to squeeze out an hour and find a big binding book about Beastskin for me. I flipped through the pages of colorful pictures of interesting half-man half-animal eagerly, could not wait for him to start.
"Thank you for coming, King Fayn." I said and curtsied per manner.
"There shouldn't be much tedious etiquettes between us, should there?" King Fayn said and propped me up with both hands. "Please just call me Fayn, Kara. And you don't need to do this."
It was a hard request. To call a king by his name. King Fayn saw me hesitating, so he said with a wistful smile. "I'm not from a royal family so I'm not used to these kind of stuff too. I was only a shepherd not long ago."
"Oh, were you?" I was surprised but at the same time also feeling closer to him knowing that he used to be normal people like me. Shepherd huh? Maybe he's not a wolf but a border collie—Fayn began the lesson suddenly and I dared not ask any further.
The first section of the book was about Quadruped. Men who fused with them had two legs like human while their ears, tails, and eyes were of those animals'. Fayn, taking himself for example, wagged his supple tail and folded his full ears enticingly before me. I swallowed the yearning to rake my fingers along those silvery furs and focused on the paintings paralleling linear inscribes. We went through chapters about half-tiger whose black-highlighted amber or white hair looked as though a masterwork of the best hair stylist; half-lion with great tuft of gold hair and beard almost like a mane around their face; half-deer whose antlers grew instead of ears; half-bear; half-zebra with two-toned hair; half-dog; half-cat (look at those cat's ears!); half-fox; half-giraffe with exceptional height and a cute pair of little E.T. ossicones. All of half-horse had long hair and half-sheep, curly. Half-bull had horns and half-goat had shaggy lower body as if a goat's hindquater was attached there, they looked just like fauns in fantasy books.
"Wait!" I stopped the King at the half-cow page, totally losing royal etiquettes since Fayn had been talking to me so friendlily like an old friend the whole time. "I hear that Beastskin can communicate to animals."
"Yes." Fayn said. "We are part of them after all."
"I saw Leon talked to animals." I said. "Is he a Beastskin too? He's supposed to be, right? But why doesn't he have any ears?"
"Prince Leonhard," Fayn turned the pages back to the half-lion. "is half-lion Beastskin. All his families are. But he and his family members have no animal traces and that make them the royalty to our race."
"I see." I said holding my chin with a thumb and a forefinger, working my brain. "Is it because they have more Magic than you guys? And that they hide all the lion ears and tails?"
"No Beastskin has Magic, Kara." said Fayn. "Magic may have blended us with the animals, but that's all it did. On the other hand, we have the superior powers from the animals we're descended from, like speed and strength. In Prince Leonhard's case," he paused a little. "It's a rather sad story."
I stared at him with my popping eyes. "Why?"
"It can be said that the Beastskin Royal Family is cursed by Magic, sorry, Kara," Fayn said and turned the page over. "I'm not in the position to tell you about this. All I can say is, be careful around Prince Leonhard."
"Why?" I thought of the guy. Unable to think that any harm could come from such a friendly person....well at least, he's friendly to the animals.
"Well, he's a nice person." Fayn scratched his head and his cute triangle ear twitched. "But...er, anyway, be careful!"
I couldn't get the hang of it. 'Nice' did not make any sense when 'Be Careful' followed behind.
The rest of the lesson was about another type of Beastskin and Beastmyst. Beastmyst was two or more types of animals blended together by Magic. Example of this race is Unicorn, which was from horse and narwhal, and the horse-mix-bird Pegasus, or the lizard and bat rooted Dragons. Overall, it was quite a fun knowledge and endorsed everything I used to hear about magical creatures. Now I knew they were real.
Ben rushed in at the end of the class taking Fayn away for more royal works. I suggested he should return to his Kingdom if he was this busy. He just chuckled and said, "I wouldn't miss a second spending with you. So don't worry, I'm not going back until you fall in love with me."
My throat went dry. My face muscle went rigid that my smile must have looked so weird.
Prince Jared—er, Jared—insisted on having an hour with me every day despite my handicap in Magistery. That day he took me to the Castle's lake located further in the east. I admitted that I had a good time despite his haughty way of saying, his excessively confidence, and—
"This is for you." Jared handed me a rose quartz hairpin.
—and...yeah, the way he always giving me gifts from his ingenious Magistery power every time he had a chance.
"Thank you. It's very pretty." I received the gift with hesitating hand glancing back for some help at Shaph. He and Richard, Jared's servant boy, were like a pair of sculptures sticking out on the shallow green hill. I decided to help myself. "Umm. Jared, you don't really have to give me...err, gifts all the time." It makes me feel uncomfortable if I couldn't deliver back his expectation and I surely couldn't.
"Don't worry," He smiled. "It's not like I pay for it. And giving you gifts makes me happy."
How could I reject that again? I sighed.
"How about you tell me more about Magician?" I said to change my mood. "I hardly learnt anything about them."
"You're interested?" He asked and beamed when I nodded. The Prince started to explain complicated stuff in which I tried to comprehend using science. During his demonstration, he conjured water and fire from thin air, made a rock disappeared, and called on a quill from his room. I wide-eyed with excitement and suddenly understood that the word 'Magician' explained itself very well from the beginning.
It was those witches and wizards in every fantasy books who make something appear and disappear, turned one thing into another, such as fairy godmother who turns a pumpkin into the carriage for Cinderella. And Sorcery was like supernatural power in Japanese manga where they emitted lights out of their hands.
The origin of our belief in Magic must be from this world, I surmised. Maybe, we were even closer than I had thought. Maybe many people from my world came here and learnt about the craft, or people from this world went over there and shared their cultures.
I had a lot of fun listening to Jared that the sun had dyed the lake orange when Prince Valentine's 'R' dinner struck me. It was almost time when I arrived at the Princes' temporary resident, panting my air out in front of Prince Valentine's suite.
Shaph went to get a new necklace and hair ornaments at my room for the special dinner. I waited until my breath rhythm was normal, did not want to look like I forgot the appointment and had to hurry here. While I was brushing creases out of my dress, a voice sounded in the room.
"Are you sure about this Princess of Coronale, Prince Valentine? She's so plain." I remembered this voice, it was Pin.
"Plain?" This time it was surely Prince Valentine. Shaph arrived at the moment and I signaled him to stay quiet. "Ugly is the word, Pin. It's a disappointment that beauty leaves her with times. She was so cute in the portraits around this palace. She should have grown beautiful." He sighed. "But I must say she's pretty good with Sorcery."
Shaph looked ready to burst into flame. He thrust his hand at the door. I quickly grabbed his arm shaking my head. I did not really mind what he said. I knew that I was not good-looking, moreover; I was not a Princess. There was no need for me to get angry. But this was a great opportunity to learn the real purpose of this Prince. Hey, I'm not eaves-dropping, I just happen to do my hair in front of his room.
"It's very rare of you to praise someone about Sorcery." said Pin. "How's the other Princes doing? I heard Prince of Cimon got pretty close with her."
"That guy maybe a Magistery prodigy." Prince Valentine said. "But he doesn't know how to treat a woman."
Well, he does more than you. I thought putting my ear closer to the door and received a pearl-studded hair pin from Shaph.
"Philip's weak. Eldrin's just a child. Ciel's his sister's boy. Leonhard, I know little about him, but he doesn't seem to care about the Princess. Though, why he is still here remain unclear to me. I'm most concerned about Fayn. That guy's got gut. Look how he got the throne. It is fortunate that Azmera still has a bunch of underlying problems. It keeps him busy."
Prince Valentine's analysis was plenty useful. Now I knew I should be careful with Fayn, and according to Fayn—Leonhard, though I wondered if I could believe the Azmera King, but he seemed pretty sincere when he said it.
"What about the Princess?" Pin asked again.
There was no noise coming out of the room for a long while. My patience was almost over when Prince Valentine said. "I don't know. She's hard to read. All Kings and Queens of Coronale with the power are. But don't worry," The voice became very low. "She will fall for me. Remember I'm the Prince Charming. No women, ugly or beautiful, have ever escaped my charm."
"You make it sounds so nice Prince." Pin said. "You're just a play boy."
Prince Valentine chuckled then his voice sounded serious. "I will become the next King of Coronale. For mother."
I pushed the door in at the moment, partly was to surprise the Prince for what he had said, and also because all that was enough to give an idea about this Prince of Keon. For now, I had to pretend to be a good innocent princess eating a stupid romantic dinner with him.
"Princess!" Prince Valentine stood up. His act gave away nothing about what he had just talked to Pin. Shaph was following closely behind me. I sensed that he was trying hard to suppress his seething emotion. With Magic lesson, I seemed to sense things easily these days, merit went to Prince Valentine.
A white carving table draping with red silk stood under two warm yellow lights from candles in the middle of the room. Neatly aligned on it were cutleries, two wine glasses, and red rose petals. Pin did not need to draw the curtains to make the room dark, the night had already taken over the sky by this time.
"I thank you for coming." Prince Valentine took my hand and brought me to the chair. He sat in the other while Pin brought a bottle of wine over and poured it into quartz glasses.
"Oh, er—I'm sorry I don't drink alcohol." I said.
"But Princess!" Prince Valentine said. "Alcohol is part of the romanticism. You must try."
Considering what I had just overheard from the Keons, I would nottry. "I—I'm really sorry." I said concocting the best excuse. "But I really can't. I—I'm allergic to alcohol." Well, that will do!
Prince Valentine looked surprise. Pin almost spilt the wine. But their reactions were quickly covered. "No matter. Would you prefer orange juice?" The Prince asked.
"Just plain water please." I said causing even more confusion to Prince Valentine and his page. But I got the water per my request.
"Thank you for arranging such amazing evening for me." I said clanking the glass with him and made a big smile to show how satisfy I was. I was beginning to get better and better at acting. I might try Hollywood when I get back to my world.
Sipping in just enough water, I put the glass down and said. "Prince Valentine, you must be tired teaching Magic to me every day."
"Not at all." He said. "I could do it for eternity."
That was over-stated. But—with that face—this kind of words would surely work on girls. No wonder why he is so confident. A play-boy Prince Charming, huh? I smiled while thinking all of this and moved on to my main target. "You have been here for quite a long time, don't you miss your home in Keon?"
Pin was placing starters in front of us. I tried to eat it the way Shaph taught me, the way princesses eat.
"It would be harder if I'm not able to see your face." was Prince Valentine's answered. I smirked inwardly. See my ugly face, huh? He continued. "And it would be against my moral, if not heart too, to leave you here alone" He narrowed his mysterious two-toned eyes. "You are surrounded by a number of fiendish wolves."
And you're the most dangerous one.
"I'm in a castle, there's no wolf." I said trying to look innocent. "Even if one got through from the forest, there are plenty of soldiers here. Shaph's also with me." Prince Valentine giggled at this, he must think I was innocent, duh! "And with the sorcery you teach me, I'll be alright." The last touch was to make him feel good.
"Oh Princess!" The Prince laughed. "I'm not leaving you."
My smile was a substitute for a shrug. Not that I thought chasing this Prince back to his Kingdom would be a success, but at least I tried. I had to find other ways to send all the Princes back to their countries. The longer they stayed, the more disadvantages to me, to Coronale. They would learn too much about us.
Pin removed the starters and brought in main course. I was enjoying the evening rather, but it all went wrong when he took the lid off.
The main course was herbal roasted lobster. An orange rabbit-sized shrimp lay juicily among purple beetroots and flower-head broccolis. The vapor of supposed-to-be delicious smell fingering upward itching my nose. And hell, here I was—for real—allergic to lobster.
There was a moment of demur but I decided not to show my weakness, or maybe it was just the 'Kreng-jai' thing again. No, actually, I was afraid since I already used the allergytrick, it wouldn't look trustworthy if I say that again, would it? Defeated, I ate them quickly forgetting all the Princess manners. Every bite stung like thousands of needles but I had to finish before it was worse.
Shaph poured the sixth glass of water cocking his ear worriedly. "Princess, are you alright?"
I couldn't answer him. The inside of my mouth was swollen and numb. So I merely gave him a smile and continued eating. I tried not to drink too much water but I couldn't resist the burning and buzzing pain on my tongue.
"Why are you so quiet?" Prince Valentine asked.
"Umm—I'm enjoying the food." I said quickly with boiling lips.
"Are you?" Prince Valentine wore a suspicious look on his face.
I nodded and finished the last piece of lobster meats, drank a whole glass of water to rinse away the poisonous taste. Clean and clear liquid burned my throat like acid. I thought the torture was over when suddenly I couldn't seem to get enough air.
Gosh, I've never come this far! Usually, if it started itching I would stop eating, but now I ate the whole thing. Will I die?
I used all my might to draw in the air but a lump in my throat seemed to be blocking the way. My breath became frequent and my face was red. My lips totally lost their feelings.
"Princess?" Shaph called again.
"Princess?" Prince Valentine called too.
My eyes were brimming with tears. I was not crying. It was the result of the allergy. I couldn't tolerate it anymore and fell down onto the floor.
"Princess!"
There were shouting. But the pain occupied all my thought while I still tried to breathe but failed and fainted for the first time in my life.