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Leader of an entire caste? Her?
The idea is comical.
It’s no one’s fault but her own, though. She had signed herself up for the peace competition (hoping, just hoping, that it would convince her to stay in the kingdom of her birth) and ended up the Salaam of the Valley. She should feel honored but she was only chosen because she was the only one to show up. She was not chosen for her wit or her ingenuity. Not that she is witty or creative; she is shy and she stutters and she has no idea how to have a real conversation.
This is going to be… interesting, for sure.
The Valley has been the same as always, as far as she can tell. She has no idea what it looked like back before the earthquakes shattered the kingdom, because she’d been born among them and they were all she knew as a foal. Shifting earth and falling trees were an everyday occurrence and the landscape of the kingdom was ever-changing when she was a child. The earthquakes eventually stopped and the kingdom healed (slowly, as the Valley always has) and Cress has left. Eight had left a bitter taste in her mouth, even as a child, and she had no desire to live there with him ruling as King. It just didn’t seem right to her.
The one thing she cannot stand is the silence. As a child the wolves were always there, always constant. They were the guardians of the border, the vicious pack that protected the kingdom from strangers in return for a home. There were always rumors that one of the wolves, the leader of the pack, was really a horse hidden in wolf form, but no one had any proof of it. Just days before the earthquakes began, the wolves vanished. They left the kingdom without so much as a parting howl and it is one of the reasons that Cress feels so ill at ease here. Someone should bring them back.
She is so lost in thought that she almost doesn’t hear the newly-named King approaching, but it is hard not to notice him when a wave of emotions that are not hers suddenly washes over her. She shudders, trying to block out the other’s feelings, but she has no control over her empathy yet. The traits was just… shoved upon her as well as her position. He’s probably coming to speak with her about the diplomatic future of the Valley, but Cress has no idea what to tell him. “I hope you know that I am going to crash and burn at this,” she says to him, her eyes tracing his vibrant jaguar spots. He’s handsome and he’s young; no wonder the Valley accepted him to rule without much question.
He has potential. Maybe she does, too.
“So should we be planning diplomatic visits to other kingdoms?” she asks, cocking a hind hoof as she relaxes. “I honestly have no idea which kingdoms are strong enough to ally with or not. What about you?”
do you remember
when we learned how to fly?
infected.