Today Ru's mother had been in a storytelling mood. He didn't know what had prompted her sudden and inexplicable urge to tell stories, but he would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the break in their usual routine of daily lessons and lectures. He didn't do so badly at some of the lessons, but a lot of them just seemed like utter silliness and a waste of his time, which he didn't appreciate. Stories, however, he enjoyed. Even though the stories his mother told were almost always romantic and mushy, about princesses and princes and evil enchanters going out of their way to keep the princes and princesses apart from each other.
Most of the time Ru secretly sided with the evil enchanters. Sometimes he was not so secret about whose side he would be on. Like today, he had not been able to contain his disdain for the pair of twitterpated teenagers whose problems seemed to stem from their own insistence that they couldn't possibly marry each other because they were already in love with each other, though in disguises so they didn't realize they were in love with the person they were supposed to be in love with.
The enchanter's role was that he kidnapped the princess. Ru still couldn't figure out why he would want to do that, except to give the prince a reason to come looking for her and see her in both her disguised form and her true form, which didn't really seem to be to the enchanter's benefit at all. Ru was annoyed by that, and said as much, which annoyed his mother sufficiently that she asked him if he'd like to finish telling the story. His response had been a surprisingly meek No. His sisters had been glaring at him, too, though their glares failed to instill fear in him.
In the end the enchanter had been slain and the two nobles lived happily ever after. Ru had rolled his eyes and been largely unimpressed by the story's plot, but he had enjoyed listening to it being told just the same. His mother, whatever strange and ridiculous ideas she might have about behavior, did know how to tell a good story. Something in her upbringing had made her into a consummate storyteller, and she seemed to know hundreds of them. Ru wished he could do that.
After the story she'd taken him aside and confided in him that she had a brother who had always preferred the villains in the stories, too. Ru had no idea that she was mentioning it more to reassure herself that her son was normal than to offer him any sort of reassurance on that same matter. If he had known her reasoning, he might have been offended, but more likely he would have been confused. Normalcy was not something Ru strove for in any way. Normal was boring.
His sisters wanted to play pretend after their mother's story, which was nothing new. They always liked to act out their mother's stories, casting themselves in the leading female roles. Usually Najia got to be the princess, or whatever the equivalent was, and A'ta was left to play supporting characters or the prince. They had both learned very early on that it was not a good idea to trust Ru to play the prince's part, even though he was the only boy.
The consensus was unanimous that Ru didn't play a prince's part correctly, as he frequently decided (as the prince) that he would rather be doing something else, or that he was not interested in the princess or whatever part A'ta was playing. He enjoyed frustrating them like that. His vote was part of the unanimous vote which got him out of having to be a prince. He liked to play the role of the evil enchanter or whatever villain was required, though he was frequently scolded for being impossible and making things too difficult for the main characters. Once or twice Pur'Jed had to be brought in because he'd said or done something truly awful in character.
Ru declined to be a part of his sisters' game of pretend, leaving them on their own to sort out parts. Instead he made his way to the edge of the area their mother allowed her cubs to play in. At night he completely ignored her boundaries, but while his mother was awake and watching he was careful not to cross the invisible line between what was allowed and what was not allowed. It was easier than getting scolded for something stupid. If he was going to get in trouble, he wanted to get in trouble for something good.
His ears turned this way and that and his whiskers quivered. There was something on the breeze, and he ached to pursue it. He couldn't smell it or see it, but the fine hairs which were so sensitive told him he wasn't imagining it. Close by, truly close, there was something fascinating, and maybe dangerous, and he wanted very badly to leave his mother's stupid safe area and go after it, but his family needed him to protect them, and so he couldn't take that sort of risk with himself.
The fact was, he really didn't trust his mother to look after him or his sisters without his help. It didn't matter to him that she'd managed to get by before they were born and in the period after they were born, before he was old enough to be of much help. He knew how long it took her to bring down prey, and it was no secret how much she hated to hunt or dirty her paws with activities she called commoners' work. Ru wasn't sure what made it so detestable for her to do these things, but he didn't see anything wrong with hunting and had been slowly taking over that aspect of feeding the family in his nightly wanderings.
Somehow he was going to have to be better though. He would have to learn how to really fight, and not just hunt. He knew there was a difference, even though he'd not experienced it personally. Whenever he got too rough with his sisters, their mother would step in and let him know in no uncertain terms that his behavior was not acceptable, and that his sisters were ladies and not to be treated with violence. When once he had asked what made them ladies his mother hadn't even hesitated in responding that their coats had purple on them, which made them of obviously noble birth.
Ru was aware that his own coat showed no signs of purple and wondered what that meant for him, and why it made any difference. Sometimes anyway. He wasn't really one to worry about the future. Whatever happened would happen and all he could do was go with it and try to make sure things came out for the best. At the moment he simply heaved a sigh, giving up the fascinating thing for another time and returning to his sisters to see if they needed him to take part in their game.
