Zenda, now much incredibly older than the silly little cub she used to be, did not entirely forget or abandon her childhood dreams. She loved to be coddled and fawned over, and all around protected, since as a Duchess she thought it was also her natural right to that as well. Her siblings could disagree or agree with her, but that's how she felt.She wanted a prince to come sweep her off her feet.
But now that she was older, Zenda realized that the likelihood of that was dwindling down into.. well, pretty much never going to happen. And it wasn't entirely her fault. Wasn't it her parents' fault, because they had not arranged a marriage for her? It wasn't just that she was a simple Duchess, after all. That higher-than-normal status had to count for something. But no, nothing had led up to her achieving her happy ending with a happy mate and a happy family.
Annoyed as these thoughts ran through her head, she kicked a few small pebbles away from her, in a physical vent. That's right, take that, pebbles.
Pindua wasn't so sure how he had ended up here. Really, the east house was a somewhat silly place to end up in. He had been hunting. For a couple days, actually. Hunting a sleeping, so he had never really realized that the highlands were just a little different from the side he'd grown up in, and the scent also subtly stranger. It didn't take long to realize where he was. It just marveled him that he'd managed to get so distracted. He'd gone at least a day outside of his house's boundaries and not noticed it. He was glad he hadn't ran into the emperor--er, former emperor. or Even the current empress. Or in the North house, the greatly respected (and envied) them, but he feared getting in too much trouble.
He heard what he thought might be another lion, and hurried along, to avoid it, looking back... and tripping and falling on the account of what had actually been a goat.
See, the bad part of tripping in the highlands was you were never sure where you would end up. But he was thankful that at the end of the tumble, he didn't fall from too high a ledge, and wasn't even hurt!
...Sadly, now he was looking at what he was pretty sure was a noble of the East House. He hurried onto his feet, looking as composed as he possibly could, but too dumbfound to say a thing.
Zenda heard something not too far off; it sounded like someone had a bad fall. Curious as to who it was and why they had tripped, she padded towards where the sound had come from. It was then she realized that it was a lion, looking straight at her, and she froze.
He looked..sheepish, so she assumed that he was the one who had fallen and made the loud noise.
"Are you alright?" she ventured kindly. If it had been him, then she showed concern. If it hadn't been him, she still showed concern. It was a fine response, if she did say so herself.
As she got close, Pin got a little more nervous. Because now he was really sure this was a noble he was talking to. And what a bad way to be caught, too! He was just about to start sputtering and apologizing for his trespassing when she... asked about his fall.
"Oh. Oh! I mean, I'm fine, thank you, milady! " Oh, great, and he didn't even remember her name. Rule number one, Pin, remember the royals' names!
Zenda eyed him and wondered if he was just acting polite because she had caught him in an embarrassing situation. Granted, if it had been her, she would have snapped his head off. But he seemed sincere..enough.
She nodded at him, then. "Good, I'm glad. It didn't sound like too much of a nasty fall, but you never know around here. These ledges are sly devils."
He nodded, eagerly agreeing with what she said. "Yes, they really can be!" He remembered once, a younger him had hurt his paw and had to limp around for a week! He'd been worried it would hinder his dreams of being a royal guard.
"Is there anything I can do for you? " Pin offered lightly, wondering if he could at least be useful. But he probably shouldn't hang around too long, maybe she wouldn't like discovering he wasn't in her house.
She couldn't help but crack a small, lopsided smile at his eagerness and antics. Was he for real?
"Thank you, but no. What's your name?" An instant after she said that, Zenda had an idea. It had been a while since she was fawned over, so perhaps this might not work as exactly as she planned, but it was worth a try.
"Actually, there is one small favor I have to ask, if you have the time to help me out. My mother is terribly sick with a cough," Lie number one, "and I know there's a plant by the name of Egolui." Number two. "It's supposed to help with her sickness, a healer told me. And being the dutiful daughter that I am, I decided to help. The trouble is...I can't find it anywhere!" And three. She was scarily good at this.
Once she mentioned having something he could do for her, Pin listened eagerly. If he weren't so worried about being caught, he might have noticed something was fishy. Why hadn't he heard of the lady of the east getting sick, for example? And Egolui, really? And, he also knew royals tended to be a little quirky.
... But, this wasn't the case. He hung on her every word. "Egolui? What is it...supposed to look like? " Not that it mattered, anyways. Even if he had known she were playing him, if a noble wanted to mess with you, you pretty much should just let them.
"Well, supposedly it's a pretty small herb. It's...like the shape of a fern leaf, or like this." She pulled up a piece of ordinary long grass from nearby. "It's long and skinny, but not nearly as tall as this. Probably about..this big, really." She placed the piece of grass on the ground and held a paw against it, marking it so that the piece of herb they were looking for would equal to about a fourth of the height of this piece of regular grass.
"It's green, obviously, and the healer said it supposedly grows near rocks very well. Which doesn't help me either, since there are so many here!" She almost wailed at her fake dilemma. The power she had over this lion was incredible: exhilarating but terrifying, since he had made it so easy for her to convince him that she was telling the truth.
Pin was beginning to relax a little, which made it possible for him to be slightly suspicious about being played. Simply because, from what she was describing, it seemed like... well, a shorter piece of grass. But he shook it off. If this were someone less important, he'd probably say something. But as it was...
"Okay... " He nodded, pondering. Well, he might as well look in... dark, humid areas. But he wasn't too fond of the task given to him; Pin had raised himself to be a guard! Not a look-for-this-plant guy. "I suppose I could look around, miss. But I'm not sure how much help I can be. I can't even tell an umbrella tree from an acacia! " He could, really. But this was his version of an excuse.
"Oh, I'm sure you'll help me find it in no time!" She smiled easily, seemingly putting her faith in him with that one trusting grin. Really, either she would find it first, or he would find something that should look like it, and she would call the search off and everything would be fine again. Hopefully.
"Well, I've already looked over here," she nodded towards the area she had just come from, "so starting over here would be the best thing, I think." She nodded to herself and smiled again.
Pin shrugged slightly, not too confident in his imaginary-plant finding skills. "Okay, I hope we find it soon. Can't keep the Lady waiting. " He nodded, keeping on his happy-eager to help attitude. Mostly. It would have been more excited if she needed to beat someone up.
"Over here? Okay! " He walked over to the indicated spot and plopped down, staring intently at the grass there. This could be considered looking for herbs, right?
She nodded, but he had already turned away to sift through the grass for the fake miracle plant. "So, what's your name and position in Tianxia?" She didn't want to say 'rank,' because it sounded a little too snobby of her, even if he was acting like she was the lady--which she was, of course. That definitely did not change anything.
She almost felt bad for tricking him into this meaningless task. But Zenda had been bored and aching for some attention, and even though this gave her minimal coddling, it was still something.
"Hm, nothing over here," she murmured to herself as she pretended to look through one section of grass near a few rocks, and then moved on to another.
