[PRP] Returns a King (Fair + King)

[Toshihiko Two]

The weather had grown blustery, turning from one temperature to the other with little rhyme or reason. One morning they'd wake up to frost on the leaves and their breath hanging in the bitter morning air, and another the sun would sprinkle heat through the trees as if it were the beginning of summer.

Spring, in other words. If the last squeezes of winter would only finish their death throes.

Traditionally, Fair's reign over the Tribe didn't begin until the equinox. A bare 16 turns. But nobody had seen hide nor hair of her opposite since he had disappeared uncountable moons ago. They had made the arrangement for a reason, and the missing monarch's cruelty was unfortunately well suited for the lean seasons, but with his death looking more and more likely, Fair would need to name a successor among the Unseelie.

This would have been an easier task, if he had left any living heirs.

It would need to be done soon. The successor must have time to rally and prepare. Seeing their folk alive through the winter was no easy task, and the Unseelie had grown increasingly...unruly.

Today was brisk, but Fair had dismissed her attendants and found a patch of sun and a warm rock to take a brief respite from her responsibilities. It was on this subject her mind was turning.  

[Baneful]

And in with the last dying gasps of winter had come King. Gone for almost three years without a whisper of warning when he left or where he had gone and heralded by no warning regarding his return he sidled back into the boundaries of the territory as if he had always been there.

It was unlike him to travel during the day but things had simply turned out that way, slightly misjudging the distance from where he was to home.

It was strange to think of somewhere he'd been absent from for so long as home, but he did regardless and had no idea what he would expect on his return. No patrols had accosted him, and that was of remark as during the lean seasons he had always maintained a quiet and not much spoken of covert army of sorts. Of course, they did not interfere with the stories, plays and visitors, but when times were tough a certain level of control was needed.

His long thinly furred whip of a tail lingered at his heels as he quite unexpectedly found he had come upon the very individual he had hoped to find. He moved silently, much like his namesake and made his way up behind her until the gnarled boughs of his antlers leant her shadow the look of her other.

"Alone." he said, his voice a silky croon. "Always so careless."
 

[Toshihiko Two]

Fair shivered, tail flicking in irritation as what she assumed was a cloud obscured the sun for a moment.

The chill extended to her blood when she heard a voice that hadn't graced the glade in a long time. Her eyes opened.

"Shadow," she whispered, half expecting to see a spirit, insubstantial and broken with the ruin of whatever had ended him.

But he looked...full of flesh. And blood. And intact.

"You...you irresponsible blowfly. You arrogant bubble of swamp gas. How dare you!"

Bristling, she was quickly back on her sharp hooves, and for a moment it looked like she was seriously considering bringing them down on him.

"You left. You left them. You left me."  

[Baneful]

There was relief in seeing her, in seeing her alive and as radiant and wholly undiminished as he had always carried the memory of her being. The winter had left her a little thinner perhaps but still she was the same vibrant beauty he had found unmatched in all his wanderings.

He deserved her anger, he knew. It had been a sort of cowardice which had kept him going and left him unable to return, chasing an insubstantial moon and an ever winding river which led to nothing but sorrow. He didn't flinch as she rounded on him and instead simply smiled, his usual infuriating smile all too familiar but perhaps a little softened by the emotions he so very rarely showed.

"I did." he said, looking away as if it had been nothing, simply a matter of course, as able to talk about his reasons as he was able to find the end of the river and bring back what was lost.

"But now I am home." and he shifted his weight uncertainly from hoof to hoof, as if unsure whether to close the distance between them both, giving her a sidelong glance with the eyes on one side of his face. "If there is still a home to return to."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"As though it wouldn't be here? Everyone has managed fine without you! Just fine!"

She lowered her head to butt his shoulder, but the attack was half-hearted, and after she didn't take her head from his shoulder.

"I had nearly given you up for dead."  

[Baneful]

"I should hope so." he said. "If they had all fallen to pieces without me I would think my time wasted in hardening them to the perils of the world as much as you soften them to the pleasures." It was the first contact he had felt in months and it was welcomed heartily.

He smirked at her with more of his usual strength. "And giving up on me? Truly I had been gone too long if you thought it should ever be so easy to get rid of me. Don't worry, you can make merry this spring with the knowledge the winter will be back in the capable grasp of its rightful master."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"I wasn't worried," Fair sniffed, turning her head again and distinctly not looking at him.

She did look thin.

Spring had been too long in coming. While King had a thick coat (for an acha), her fine, soft hair had always been better suited for the dry heat of the desert.

"Is it? Or have you given up on this season already? I will accept your cessation. You've probably been too long out of the game to remember what's what."  

[Baneful]

"Oh no my dear, that is simply a prediction for what happens when we change hands the old way. For now, there are no doubt any number of my unseelie kindred running quite wild with winter-madness unchecked." his tail curled delightedly, as always uncannily prehensile.

"I will abdicate my throne only when the tribe is in a fit state to do so. I have my pride you know." he moved to rub his side along her in a feline and possessive gesture.

"Unless you want to try your hand at curbing them during your own boon time."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"They are unruly but not unruled," Fair said, bristling as he rubbed against her, but not moving away.

"You missed many festivals. ...And new births. We hardly noticed you'd gone."  

[Baneful]

"Being ruled by you is barely fit to be called a reign." he said with a smile, twisting his tail around her hind hoof.

However, it did withdraw as the mention of births set in. "Oh." he said. "Been exerting Spring and rebirth right across my whole slice of the year then." he snorted. "No respect for anything as always, though I refuse to believe no one noticed I was gone, the very fact that I am here within the territory unmonitored, with you without an entourage to protect you...well, it is evidence that even if they did not miss me, that my absence has been sorely felt."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Many births," Fair said, although the words didn't have any sting to them.

Fair lifted her foot out of reach of his tail.

"I sent them away," Fair said. "I needed some time alone to think about your replacement. There are just so many fine options. Just not very many among your kin. I hope you've enjoyed your vacation."  

[Baneful]

Many births sounded like many more mouths to feed, many births sounded like a skew in the balance of the tribe, but plenty and fruitfulness were both the bastion of Fair and had always been so. It was certainly not his forte.

He did not linger on it, pressing onwards. "How fortunate you no longer need to replace me, you should be grateful that you do not need to tax your pretty little head."

Snorting, he tossed his head, setting the flowers twisted in his antlers swaying.

"And I did not." he said. "I followed a river until I could follow it no longer and now I am here again to rule where you have fallen short."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

"It's your head that needs taxing."

Fair grew quiet at the mention of the river.

"Did you find anything?"  

[Baneful]

"No." he said. "And perhaps that is what was meant to be. Perhaps it never has an end, perhaps there is nothing to find. I brought back stones. Wanderer has them." but he did not elaborate what this meant. "It is over."

He leaned against her a little heavier, but it was a fleeting gesture and he was quickly off, pacing as he spoke.

"The way is forward, the way is what lies ahead." and once again he turned, leaning in close to her pressing his nose to her neck. "You were always best at new beginnings." And his voice faltered briefly, almost imperceptibly

"Let me have one."

 

[Toshihiko Two]

Nothing but stones.

"I will think on it," she said.

Fair got the sudden and chilly feeling he might disappear again. She didn't allow herself to shiver against his nose.

Fair continued in imperious tones, "You should rest, after your long journey. When you awake you may inspect the territory, and the tribe. Tonight we commemorate your return."