The King's Collie

Part V, Chapter 4: Of A Swift Change In Mind

Dinner was prepared by the castle chefs, as usual, but that's not to say it wasn't still appreciated. The duck was roasted, the carrots were diced. The mirth was all the ready to be had throughout the castle, thanks to the excellence of the kitchen. Everyone around got a share, from the guards, to the varied workers, to the royalty themselves.

Ophelia gulped, and, before Felix entered the dining room, she got ready to pour the poison in the goblet.

Her hand stayed, and she couldn't find the strength to even open the vial. Hiding the small flask before she sat down, she ate normally.

"This is some nice duck," Cameron commented.

"Very gamey," Marco remarked as well. Lætitia ate it without a care.

The Queen softly sighed, and continued to eat.

—

She knew it now. She saved her own goblet, and added a good few drops of the green substance into it. At so small an amount, it smelled, and likely tasted, of nothing whatsoever, but... she knew it would get the job done.

For Valentia.

"Felix?" Ophelia called out, in the hallway.

"Dearest, what is it?" the king answered, making haste to the origin his wife's voice.

"I wanted to talk," she explained, holding the goblet.

"So... what to talk of, then?" the king chuckled, going into the royal room and sitting on the bed.

"Just... of how things have been?" the queen asked.

"In general? It's been absolutely wondrous, these past few months," the lion stated gladly, not caring to explain how. "In terms of the weather? Grand, exceedingly hot," he talked around what he hoped wasn't the issue.

"And between us?" Ophelia suddenly asked.

The king's face went pale. "Are you feeling like you haven't been getting enough love lately?" he asked softly.

The queen nodded, and looked away. At this silent answer, though, she found herself suddenly being held close by a pair of thick paws, and heard some surprising words close in her ear:

"Mane of gold, light of the dawn, by which even Aurora pales... Your love shines brighter than her blossoming sun..."

The lioness huffed softly, smiling restrainedly at first... then burst into tears, covering her face with her own trembling paws. "You bastard..." she shook in her anger as she sobbed, the immense stress quickly reaching her head, prompting her to stand and groan.

"...Was there something unsavory in my words?" the king worriedly asked, playing dumb, his eyes wandering in worry and purported dumbness, upward to his wife.

Ophelia got up, then turned to make the accusation, but not before grasping a goblet of wine, assuring that it was the untainted one. She upended its contents with a splash onto the adulterous feline, the whites of her own yellow-brown eyes exposing themselves in her firm, menacing stare. Her ears peeled back, and she gnashed her fangs as she sharply inhaled, beholding what she had just done.

Felix's blue eyes now shone through his sopping face, his mane and white lazing-clothes now stained in a near-bloody burgundy. The look on his face would could have been called dumb, were it not for the fact that he knew exactly what he'd done.

"I know of such words," she scowled and sniffled, then wept, as she confessed. "The audacity of you to use his love songs for you on me...!"

Felix knelt, and bowed his head, clutching his mane, feeling the tears well in his eyes. "You know of us," he softly said.