|Pavo: The peacock constellation|
Created by Hera to watch over a rival, Argus had eyes all over his body. After being slain by the god Hermes, Hera moves Argus' eyes onto her sacred bird, the peacock, before putting it up in the sky.
The soft cooing of the pigeons was the only sound in the quiet courtyard. The lone figure sitting on a bench among the small group of birds gently scattered seeds with a flick of his wrist. His droopy eyes blinked slowly and his head bobbed as a wave of sleepiness hit him. The pigeons scattered with a loud flapping of wings as the bag of seeds fell from his slack hand. He awoke with a jolt and brushed off the feathers that had landed on him.
"Excuse me, Prince Koumei?"
He glanced to the side and saw a maid with her head bowed. Taking the prince's small hum as permission to continue the maid spoke, "You have been summoned by the Emperor. Please follow me."
Koumei rose with a sigh and dusted his robes off. Silently he followed the maid through the courtyard and halls until they arrived at the throne room. The maid bowed and stepped aside, leaving Koumei to enter the room by himself.
The large doors were opened by a pair of guards and Koumei walked in. He was on edge, it was rare that his father called for him and when he did it usually wasn't good news. As he approached the throne he noticed a strange girl with dark chestnut hair standing off to the side with another pair of guards at her side.
"You summoned me, Father?" Koumei said, more of a statement than a question.
"Yes, I have need of you. Recently our negotiations with the Kouga Clan have been put on halt. They still refuse to assimilate with our great empire, so we have taken their princess as a ... security measure." said the Emperor as he offhandedly gestured to the dark-haired girl. Koumei noticed the girl's fists clench, but her head remained lowered.
"So, she is a hostage?" Koumei asked with a raised eyebrow.
"In a manner of speaking, yes. With her here, the Kouga Clan won't stage any attacks and may be more... receptive in our next attempts of negotiation."
"Very well, but I don't understand what that has to do with me. After all, Princess Hakuei is in charge of the subjugation of the Central Plains." Koumei stated.
"This is where you come into play. Princess Hakuei would rather negotiate with the Kouga Clan, so she is stationed in the Central Plains. It would be unwise to hold the Kouga Clan's precious asset so close to them, which is why she has been brought to the palace. I don't trust any common guard to keep an eye on her, as there is a chance of them being bribed into returning her."
Koumei flapped his feather fan in annoyance as he realized what his father was going to say next.
"And so you want to entrust her to me."
"Correct. Treat her as a guest, but do not be afraid to use forceful tactics if necessary. I only ask that she not be excessively injured."
Koumei placed his fist over his heart and slightly bowed, reluctantly accepting responsibility for the clan princess. The Emperor hummed his approval and motioned for the guards to hand the princess over to Koumei. It was only then that Koumei noticed the chain fastened around the girl's neck as well as the bruise forming on her tan cheek.
A guard pulled on the chain and the girl stumbled over to Koumei. Koumei took a hold of the chain and the guard gave him a salute. With one more bow to the Emperor, Koumei walked out of the throne room with the clan princess following close behind him. She had yet to speak or even lift her head, but Koumei didn't care, he figured it would be better if she never spoke, he really wasn't prepared to deal with her.
Being mindful of the girl's slower pace and slack in the chain, Koumei walked back to the courtyard where he often scattered seeds for the birds. Once they reached the courtyard Koumei dropped the lead to the chain and sat on the bench where he previously was. The sudden clang in the overwhelming silence caused the clan princess to gasp.
"Listen, I'm not a huge fan of leading you around like some kind of dog so I'm going to remove this stupid chain. Do not take advantage of my kindness and try to escape, because I won't be giving you a second chance."
The girl rubbed at her neck as Koumei removed the collar from around it. Her skin felt like fire under Koumei's fingers and he quickly pulled away. Koumei cleared his throat awkwardly and turned away from her. He picked up his discarded bag of seeds from the ground and busied himself by picking out the dirty ones.
"Tolui Khan, that's my name. You're Koumei Ren, right?" A quiet voice asked. Koumei glanced over to the girl, she was shyly peeking from under her thick eyelashes. Her eyes were deep pools of obsidian, a sharp contrast to his own clear pink ones. The girl blinked, obviously waiting for Koumei's response.
"Oh, uh yes. I am the Second Prince, Koumei." He responded, slightly caught off guard. He was not expecting Tolui to actually want to talk to him or to even know his name.
She didn't say anything else but simply sat beside Koumei. He was slightly uncomfortable by her close proximity and wished that she would scoot away. The awkward silence was broken up by the return of the pigeons that Koumei fed daily.
Their soft coos filled the air as they waited for the rain of seeds. Koumei grabbed a handful and scattered the seeds as more birds showed up.
"What kind of birds are these?" Tolui suddenly asked.
"What?"
"These birds, I've never seen them before. The only kinds of birds in the plains are hawks and owls. They never get this close to humans."
"Oh, these are called pigeons. I feed them quite often, so they're pretty used to humans." Koumei explained. After a few seconds, he tilted the bag of seeds towards Tolui and indicated for her to grab some.
"Do I just drop them?" Tolui asked as she grabbed a small handful of seeds.
"Spread them around slowly, or else you end up with a big cluster of birds fighting for a pile of seeds. Trust me, they can get pretty feisty."
Tolui chuckled as she flicked her wrist, tossing out a thin layer of seeds that the pigeons flocked to. She giggled as the birds pecked at the ground, picking up the small seeds. Koumei smiled as he looked at her from the corner of his eyes.
"They act so silly, so different from horses."
"Oh, do you like horses?"
"Yeah, my mom said that before I could even walk I was already riding horses." Tolui joked with a smile.
Koumei looked at her with a quizzical expression. How was that even possible? There was no way she was riding horses as an infant. Maybe it was just an exaggeration of when a relative held her while on a horse. Or maybe it was just a funny joke that Tolui's mother liked to tell her. Or maybe...
"Well?"
"I'm sorry what?" Koumei asked as he blinked with surprise. He had been so overtaken by his thoughts that he hadn't even heard what Tolui had said.
"You're so silly. I asked if you liked to ride." Tolui chuckled.
Koumei felt a faint blush of embarrassment spread over his cheeks. Was she making fun of him?
"No, I don't ride. I usually spend all my time indoors." Koumei admitted, clearing his throat to hide his embarrassment.
"All day? Don't you get bored?"
"No, I stay very busy working on various projects. I don't think I think I've ever gotten bored by staying inside."
Koumei squirmed in his seat as noticed Tolui was staring intensively at him, her eyes dark pool that he couldn't read. He quickly turned his face away and tilted his head so his bangs could cover his face.
Koumei knew he didn't have the best-looking face, it was something that Judar and even his brothers constantly teased him about. Old acne scars littered his cheeks and nose, dark bags often dragged down his eyes, and his habit of staying inside caused his skin to be a pasty white color.
He slowly shifted his eyes back over to Tolui, she had finally looked away and was staring at the pigeons again. A soft sigh escaped Koumei's lips as he studied Tolui's face, it was so much different from his own.
Her smooth tan skin seemed to have no blemishes, and her slanted almond-shaped eyes looked bright and clear. There was no doubt about it, she was beautiful... but that just made babysitting her even more annoying. Now Kouemei would have a constant reminder of how lacking his physical features were.
"Look! I caught one!" Tolui suddenly shouted with a lunge. Her hands quickly snatched up one of the pigeons, sending the rest of them flying off in a flurry of coos and feathers. The pigeon in her hands flapped its wings in resistance and gave a loud shriek that was much different from the soft coos it usually made.
The unexpected resistance from the bird caused Tolui to fall over with surprise, letting the pigeon go in the process. Her mouth fell into a small 'o' shape as her eyes followed the pigeon as it flew up into the sky and disappeared into the trees, leaving a mess of feathers in Tolui's hair and lap.
A small chuckle escaped Koumei's lips before he quickly slapped his hand over them. Despite covering his mouth, he couldn't stop himself from laughing. Koumei's shoulders shook and his body shuddered with barely contained laughter.
Finally, Koumei couldn't contain himself anymore. His laughter echoed around in the garden as a wide smile stretched out his lips and his face scrunched up with laughter. His sides began to hurt and tears came up to his eyes as he continued to laugh. He wiped at his eyes as he regained control and quieted down his chuckles.
He glanced down at Tolui, patches of pink were spread over her face as she looked up at him with wide eyes.
Quickly Koumei cleared his throat and turned away, embarrassed to have lost his composure in front of an outsider.
"Excuse me, I didn't mean to laugh." Koumei coughed out.
"Ah! Uh, no no, it's my fault. I should have known better." Tolui exclaimed, waving her hands before rubbing the back of her neck with embarrassment and looking away.
"Get up, I'll show you to your room. You can get cleaned up there, you're filthy." Koumei said, his words coming out more harshly than he intended. Tolui looked down with embarrassment and slowly pulled the feathers out of her hair.
"Oh, okay." She breathed out dejectedly before getting up from the ground.
Koumei stood and walked out of the gardens and to his chambers. There was a small spare room fairly close to his own where Tolui could stay. His father may have ordered him to watch over her, but there was no way in hell that Koumei was going to let her stay in his room. He could only imagine how tempting it would for an enemy princess to try and slit his throat while he slept.
Tolui's footsteps kept up with his own, but Koumei couldn't help but keep glancing back to make sure the clan princess was following him. Satisfied that she wasn't trying to run away, Koumei led her deep into the palace, farther and farther into the territory of her enemy.
Hey! Welcome to another story! I'm trying something new with this story and naming the chapters after constellations that have a similar theme of event with the chapter. I don't have them all planned out so I might change the names back to just the chapter title if it becomes too complicated.
I usually write one story at a time, but I'm also writing a story about Hakuryuu at the same time as this one, so updates may be slower than usual.
-Panama