Blossom: Not romantic! Just two cinnamon rolls interacting.
Scenario: Diona is visiting the Sunset Savanna to collect sunset beetles for her latest cocktail.
At the royal palace of the Kingscholars, a group of girls in yellow dresses gathered in the main hall. All of them were five or six years old, with sun-tanned skin and sunflowers pinned in their hair.
Their parents, all upper-class nobles, watched the children anxiously, occasionally reminding them to behave.
A trumpet's fanfare signaled the arrival of the king of the Sunset Savanna, Farena Kingscholar. As he strode into the hall, the nobles bowed, and the little girls curtsied clumsily as they'd been taught. It wasn't the king they were excited about, though—it was his small son, Cheka, who lay in his father's arms.
King Farena set Cheka down on the ground. Instantly, one of the girls detached herself from the rest of the group and flung her arms around Cheka's neck. She had golden hair in a braid down her back.
"Ohhhh, Cheka! I'm so happy to see you!" she squealed into Cheka's ear, causing him to wince.
"Let go of me, Leila!" With some difficulty, Cheka shrugged Leila off.
Leila pouted. "But it's not like I was doing anything wrong. Why are you being so mean to me?"
Her father, a general in Farena's army, gave her a warning look. "Play nice, Leila."
With a scowl, Leila crossed her arms. "Fiiiine."
King Farena cleared his throat. "As you all know, this is a most important day. My son—" and here he put his hand on Cheka's head fondly "—will someday be your next ruler of the Sunset Savanna. And as ruler, he'll need a companion to accompany him on his journey."
One of the little girls raised her hand. "What does 'a company' mean?"
"He'll need someone to... play with him," Farena explained after a moment's consideration.
"Ah." The children nodded wisely.
"Today, continuing a time-honored tradition, Cheka will make his choice, just as I did long ago." As he spoke, Farena looked at his wife, the queen, with an adoring smile. "He will choose from among these ten lovely young ladies we've selected, all of whom are the daughters of important nobles and generals."
As Farena listed out their names, the ten girls formed a line, smoothing their yellow dresses and adjusting the sunflowers in their hair.
Cheka looked confused. "So I just pick one?" He closed his eyes and, spinning in circles with his index finger pointed outwards, began chanting, "Eenie, meenie, miney, mo—"
"No, no, not like that." King Farena hastily stopped his son's spinning. "Who do you think suits you the most? Who do you enjoy playing with the most?"
Looking increasingly unsure, Cheka glanced between the faces of his playmates and potential brides. "Um, but what if—"
Leila batted her eyes at Cheka. "You and I were meant to be, Cheka. You're the son of the king, and I'm the strongest girl here. You're going to pick me, right?"
"No, me! I wanna be the princess!"
All etiquette forgotten, the other girls crowded around Cheka. "Pick me, pick me!" A thoroughly intimidated Cheka dodged around them and fled behind his father's legs.
"Why don't you all go play outside?" suggested King Farena, patting his trembling son. "Cheka can decide afterwards."
"Yay!" Laughing, the children ran outside the palace.
Only Leila looked displeased. "Do I have to go play with all those commoners, Papa?" she whined to her father.
"Do as the king commanded."
Dragging her feet, Leila trailed after the others.
"Let's play 'King of the Mountain!'" Cheka suggested, pointing at a mound of dirt. "First one to the top wins!"
The girls glanced at each other. They already knew Leila would win.
Sure enough, Leila kicked aside two other girls, climbed directly over a third, and scrambled to the top of the heap before Cheka even reached the mound. "I win!" she declared smugly, hands on her hips. "No surprise there; I'm the strongest and fastest here. Since I'm the winner, I get to decide what we play next."
"Not hide-and-seek again!" someone groaned.
"We're playing hide-and-seek, and that's that," Leila insisted. "I'll be It!" She closed her eyes and began to count.
While the other girls hid in trees and behind rocks, Cheka was determined not to be caught. He climbed soundlessly over a boulder, scrambled up the hill, and bumped straight into a girl with pink hair.
Yowling in surprise, the pink-haired girl fumbled the net she carried. Startled by the movement, a sunset beetle on a nearby tree trunk flew away. Instead of giving up, the girl leaped high up onto a tree branch and clawed at the air, only missing the beetle by a few inches. She tumbled onto the grass with a hiss.
"Are you here to play with me too?" Cheka asked the girl curiously as she brushed herself off. He'd never seen her around before, and he'd thought he knew everyone in the savanna. She looked a little older than him—and she had ears like him! But they weren't like any he'd seen before. They were pointed and spotted, almost like a leopard's.
In response, the girl glared at him and rattled a jar full of sunset beetles. "Ughh! I was about to catch that last beetle and head back to Pomefiore!"
"Pomfire? What's that? Can I help you catch beetles for Pomfire?" She didn't answer Cheka, so he went on: "Are you a leopard? What's your name? I'm Cheka! Nice to meet you!"
She looked insulted. "Who are you calling a leopard? I'm Katzlein. The name's Diona, best bartender at Night Raven College. Ask anyone at the Mostro Lounge."
"Ooh, you go to the same school as Unca!" Cheka was delighted. Suddenly, he spied a sunset beetle resting on a nearby rock. "Watch this," he exclaimed, and pounced. "See? I got it! I don't even need a net." He handed it to Diona.
She put it in a jar, where it fluttered its wings and emitted a bright orange glow. "Thanks. Don't think I've forgiven you, though. 'Cause I haven't!"
Just then, Leila ran over. "Chekaaa! I finally found you!" Her nose wrinkled when she saw Diona. "Who's she?"
"This is Diona, my new friend!" Cheka said happily.
"You shouldn't play with commoners, Cheka. Come on." Leila tried to tug Cheka away by the hand. "I said, come on!"
"Go away, Leila. I like playing with Diona."
Diona huffed. "I told you, I wasn't playing with you! I was just chasing after that sunset beetle. And now, thanks to you, it flew off."
"Who are you to speak to Crown Prince Cheka that way?" Leila asked, outraged. "Nobody wants you around! Go away!" She shoved Diona backwards, claws slightly unsheathed to add injury to insult. "Or we'll chase you off!"
The other girls surrounded Diona. "Look at her ears!" "They're not round like ours." "What kind of beastman is she?"
"Mrroww!" Diona hissed, angry and humiliated. She ran off, but not before Cheka saw the tears in her eyes. He was about to chase after her when Leila grabbed his hand and pulled him away.
For the rest of the afternoon, Cheka didn't have as much fun as he'd like. He felt bad for Diona being chased off, and Leila kept bossing everyone around. They played hide-and-seek in various places—the castle garden, the plains, the river, the elephant graveyard...
The elephant graveyard?
With a stab of fear, Cheka realized that they'd wandered too far from the palace. He was about to tell his friends to turn back, when—
"Well, well, well." A figure stepped from behind an elephant bone: a scrawny beastman with hungry eyes and torn, ragged ears. Cheka recognized that he was a hyena like Ruggie, except this beastman didn't have Ruggie's friendliness. In a drawling voice, the hyena said, "If it isn't the little prince and his princesses. How cute."
Despite his fear, Cheka stood his ground bravely. "W-who are you? What do you want with us?"
The hyena barked out a rough, grating laugh and approached. His breath smelled funny, like rotten grapes, and his speech was slurred. "What do I want? I want you—" he pointed at Cheka "—to come with me." He unsheathed untrimmed yellow claws. "You and your princesses'll fetch a pretty price on the market. Enough to get me all the drink I want."
Without warning, the beastman lunged forward at the nearest girl, who happened to be Leila.
"Stay away from Leila!" Cheka said, diving in front of her. Bossy or not, she was still his friend. He felt the beastman's claws rake across his face. "Oww!"
At the sight of Cheka's blood, the little girls fled the scene, their shrill screams echoing on the hollow bones. The hyena laughed. "So much for your entourage, princeling. Now, come with me." Or else, his menacing tone seemed to add.
"I-I won't! Daddy told me not to go with strangers!" Cheka squeezed his eyes shut, preparing to feel the agony of claws tearing through his flesh—but it never came.
He opened his eyes. A shining protective bubble surrounded him, the color of silvery moonlight on water, and the hyena's claws bounced harmlessly off of it.
A ferocious yowl echoed across the elephant graveyard, and Diona leaped down from a curving tusk to land between Cheka and the hyena. "Think you can bully us?" she challenged. "Think again, boozehound!" She hurled her jar full of sunset beetles at the beastman, and it shattered. All the sunset beetles flew out in a glowing swarm and soared upwards into the sky.
"Ha! You think that tiny bottle is supposed to hurt me?" The hyena, who'd cowered upon seeing the jar, straightened with a chuckle.
"No, but this one will!" With that, Diona kicked a small silver bottle at the beastman.
Where it hit the ground, the bottle burst open, dusting a wide ring of soil with glittering white frost. Standing in the circle, Cheka felt the scratches on his face magically heal. Meanwhile, the beastman slumped to the ground, unconscious.
"How did you do that? How'd you know I was here?" Cheka stared at Diona in amazement.
Embarrassed, Diona looked away. "I just followed your scent. D-don't get the wrong idea! It's not like I was worried about you or anything!"
Just then, a voice called, "They're over here!" and a crowd of royals and attendants swarmed around the two children.
"We followed your light signal," Farena explained, hugging Cheka. "We were so worried when the girls returned without you!"
"What light signal?" Cheka wondered. "Oh, you mean the sunset beetles? That was Diona's idea!" He pointed at his friend. "She's the one who saved me."
"I saw a bunch of girls in yellow dresses run off, so I wanted to make sure Cheka was safe. No big deal." Diona shrugged, looking a little shy. She looked at Farena. "Why were they all dressed the same, anyways?"
And so, Cheka explained the whole situation about choosing a bride...
In the aftermath of the incident, the hyena beastman was thrown into prison, where he received free meals every day. That night, all the nobles gathered in the main hall of the palace to hear the news of Cheka's decision. Who would he choose to be his future wife? Who would get to be queen?
All cleaned up after his experience earlier that day, Cheka stood in front of the crowd, Diona right beside him in a new white dress. The other girls stood in the center of the room, faces shining expectantly. Leila looked especially eager. She seemed to have forgotten that she'd completely abandoned Cheka earlier.
As the crowd quieted, Cheka said, "The next queen of the Sunset Savanna will be..." He paused dramatically. "NO ONE! At least, not yet."
The crowd gasped.
At Cheka's side, Diona launched into a furious rant: "Seriously, five years old is way too young to pick a bride! What were you guys thinking?" She glared at the abashed audience. "Forcing a kid like Cheka to pick between ten girls? Oh, for archons' sake! He doesn't even know if he likes girls yet! Are you just gonna assume?"
Farena exchanged a glance with his wife.
Diona took a deep breath. "You can't have someone make such an important life decision at five years old! They need time to grow up and decide who they wanna be first!"
Cheka nodded and smiled at Diona. "Uh-huh! And till then... Diona and I are gonna be bestest friends! She's gonna play with me and help me make all the right decisions. Right, Diona?"
"H-huh? Don't get carried away!"
Blossom: Read all the way to the bottom? Have a sunflower 🌻 and don't forget to vote!