The days at the castle without the King were strange, and stranger yet were they without the joyous Cameron to sing a song or two. Marco and Lætitia were a good substitute duet, but there was not that same lifting voice, that same glint in the eye as he performed. Nothing could satiate Ophelia's desire for her favorite voice and intricate playing. As patient as she was, Cameron was missed. Of course, that wasn't the only good reason she had to anticipate the ship's return. Her husband was the one person she missed as much as the bright-tempered collie. Those two boys, those two, they brought her so much joy that she needed no more than them.
Iago thought much differently. It was almost every day that the bird would knock at the castle doors, and every day that the Queen would ignore the Cardinal's request to be let in.
"You don't wish for further company?" Iago tried to justify.
"I think we're all good in that regard," Ophelia sighed. "And you have holy business to attend to."
"I think that the castle could use a bit of holy presence," the bird squawked again on another day.
"So could your church," Ophelia chortled as she rolled her eyes. "All you do nowadays is waste the day so idly in that office of yours."
"I need to get out of that dusty office once in a while, and how I would like to see those castle walls again," the bird almost begged now.
"Look at them from the outside, then," Marco teased, answering the door this time. "We're all fine in here."
—
Surely enough, too, did Felix and Cameron come home. In fact, when Felix stepped onto the dock, his lioness spouse hugged him so quickly that he nearly lost balance. Their arms wrapped around each other, and they embraced so tightly.
"I missed you, darling," Ophelia sighed, and nuzzled her face into her lover's soft mane.
"Same to you," Felix said, "same to you, my wife."
Cameron stayed silent, watching.
"...and what's the matter with him?" Ophelia asked, seeing this collie's non-enthusiasm.
"He's just tired. Stayed up all last night singing with the knights," the King guffawed, knowing well that this wasn't true. He and Cameron spent the night as they now knew was their favorite way: together. "You can get plenty of sleep in your room, Cameron. Nice, soft bed, real wide, with gold trimmings—"
"But that's your bed, isn't it? The gold one?" the collie yapped curiously.
"So it is," Felix chortled, acting forgetful, though his words were intended.
As Ophelia just shrugged with her husband's apparent lapse of memory, one perhaps due to being away from home, Cameron took note of what that meant.
A king's bed, indeed.
—
It was while Cameron was taking a well-deserved bath that he got a knock on the door. He finished up, first of all, guessing who it was. Getting only a good pair pants on, he opened the door.
"Oh, not a good time?" Marco asked, chuckling.
Cameron disappointedly sighed. "No, it's fine. Just not who I was expecting."
This made the wolf suspicious. "Who was it you were hoping for, then? Not Lætitia, I'd hope," he barked with warning, though it was in jest.
"No, no," the collie confidently shook his head. "I just meant at this time of night," he replied.
"Alright, alright," Marco shrugged, and chuckled. "But I do wonder. Do you ever get lonely in that bed of yours?" he teased. "You could search around for a lady-friend, after all."
"My bed is roomy, and that's how I prefer it," the dog lied.
"Ah, true. Læ hogs the blankets ALL the time," Marco chortled.
"No I don't!" the sparrow's voice called out from the open door, her face a little of irked. "You yank them away from me all the time."
"You do it first," the wolf defended.
"Probably in my sleep, don't blame me for it," Lætitia chirped in an equal tone of bicker.
"That's no excuse," Marco said.
Indeed, the argument went on for an awkward amount of time, with Cameron having to listen to it all. Felix, waiting, also had to wait for the lupine-avian couple to head back to their room. The argument was finally settled: they both sleep well with each other anyhow. As annoying as their petty arguments sometimes were, they always ended on a sweet note.
Felix softly padded over to the collie's room, and smirked. "I slept well with you those nights," he described respectively, having overheard. "Let's see how well we sleep here, then."
"Do I have a bed to get used to?" Cameron gaily yipped, so flattered with that proposition.
"So eager," Felix chortled, and the two went down the halls.
Ophelia slept soundly, as of yet, with no wonder of where her husband was, just contented that he was home. Perhaps he was in his own, kingly room, which he did have. This much was true, technically, but he wasn't as alone as she assumed.
~