FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 1

As the blue jay crashed gracelessly, and brutally, onto the marble-paved lower balcony, Elisabeth remarked to herself he was not taking gravitation that well, for a bird.

In his defense, the rich merchant town of Quarter-Cross had a strict regulation about visiting birds having a few feathers shortened to prevent flying thieves. Also, an entirely wingless creature would have suffered an even worse fall with no chance of survival... speaking of which he wasn't getting up and Elisabeth couln't see if he was still breathing from where she was, so it was maybe too early to credit him with the survival feat.

She pouted, a little troubled: she was the one who severed his climbing rope, after all, and he was now laying before the window of princess Amanda which could cause additional troubles. She decided to go sort this at once.

First, she unhooked the grapnel from her window and tossed it downward the garden, still highly annoyed at the attempted intrusion into her chamber. Next she took a few seconds to comb before her mirror, both to recollect herself and since even if she was enough of a close personal friend of the princess to allow herself to knock at her door way passed midnight given the circumstances, doing so while unkempt was out of the question. Finally, she searched her room for the most suitable heavy object in case the uninvited guest's skull-mashing required some finish; she settled for the fireplace's poker.

Chapter 2

Princess Amanda sighed, turning around in her bed and wrapping herself tighter in her cover. The knocking at her door kept insisting, even turning into a most unceremonious pounding. She finally opened her eyes, still blurry-sighted from the sleep. What time was it? No sun yet, who dared waking her up so roughly in the middle of the night? On the other side of the door, Elisabeth was now calling and she recognized her voice. Knowing her friend would not break the etiquette this way without a good reason, her beginning of annoyance turned into anxiety. Oh dear, it was surely bad news, it could only be that! Was it serious? Was her father sick again?

"Elisabeth? Wait, I'm opening..." The door pounding stopped and she hurried to unlock it without even putting her slippers on. She opened, wide-eyed. "What is going on?"

"All my apologies for disturbing your sleep, your highness, but there's a rapist at your window!"

The princess' eyes grew even bigger and her back's fur raised. "A rapist?"

"And possibly a slaver as well, your highness. But don't be afraid," she waved her poker up with a determined face, "I'll take good care of him!"

The princess stepped away and Elisabeth barged straight for the balcony's window, she followed closely both out of curiosity and because she felt safer right behind her friend. Carefully peering over her shoulder, she saw the jay. Her fear dropped at the sight, he was not looking that menacing: for one he was laying spread-eagle on his back, unconscious, a cut rope still in his hand. Guessing how he ended there, she couldn't help a touch of worry for the poor bird. She tried to resist against her sympathy since he was a rapist and possible slaver. She would have imagined those bigger, uglier and seedier, by the way, instead he was a 20 year old or so slim male, rather cute with his pretty and colorful feathers and his delicate and roundish figure. He was looking snuggly and innocent to her, actually.

He was also well kept. His dark-brown clothes were plain, old, badly cut and in a rough and heavy fabric screaming of poverty but they were clean and he wasn't smelly. "Elisabeth, how do you know he's a rapist? Are you sure?"

"It's in the books, your highness, I assure you only rapists, slavers, and romantic princes ever climb to a Lady's room with ropes at night. And I'm positive he's not dressed up like a prince."

The princess was still unsure but Elisabeth knew books well: she was her literary tutor and she was a great one. "I guess he can't be a prince, he'd have climbed to my window instead of yours."

"Well, in some lower-class towns that have smaller, worse heated, buildings than us, nobility is housed at the top rather than the middle like here."

"They do?"

"Yes your highness: they don't get too many stairs to climb while enjoying the heat from lower floors. So maybe he was after you anyway but just incompetent."

The princess shivered at the idea that a rapist/slaver could have come after her. "The foul fiend!"

"Exactly!" Elisabeth was not needing much encouragement to be triggered and this was it. She delivered a good hit to the bird, luckily for him without much planning and landing across the belly rather than breaking some of his ribs.

Chapter 3

"Gyah... Aaah..." Nils convulsed, awaken by the sharp pain of the unexpected blow. The move was instantly punished by a searing, pounding, pain in his hurt head. The fall... he wondered how many bones he broke, unfortunately at this instant he was too sore everywhere to tell. Still disoriented but realizing somebody was beating him up, he raised his wings to cover his head the best he could.

"Don't you dare moving!" Growled a female voice, and a second one added "Yes, don't even try raping me: Elizabeth has a poker!"

Well, the precision was unneeded Nils being highly aware of the poker at this point. Half curled in ball on the floor, he avoided any new move. "Please stop hitting me! I don't want to rape anyone, I swear. I just wanted to steal a few jewels... I'm sorry. Please, I think I'm injured... don't hit me, I'm not moving! I... I'll leave and never come again, I promise."

The others hesitated a moment and he took the opportunity to peer between his wings. They were two female ocelots about his age and, as he didn't know Elizabeth simply happened to share the royal family's specie without being related to it, he thought they were both princesses. They were slim and sinewy, beautiful, their gait perfect even in the circumstances as the noble ladies and natural predators they were. He didn't even notice they were wearing nightgowns because the clothes were so expensive and elaborate compared to what he knew that they could be evening dresses for him.

The poker-handing lady was keeping her frowning, unblinking, eyes on him and looked angry more than afraid. And she meant business: he had no doubt she'd bash him at the slightest suspicious movement. The improvised weapon was efficient too, he could tell as he was still feeling the exact line of the hit hurting him with each breath. He was in so much trouble...

Despite her attitude, he still believed she was the most gracious feline in the world until he saw the second one behind her. He couldn't see her well but she was even more noble-looking, with an even more expensive-looking dress. She was afraid but also looked more caring so he guessed she was his best chance to get out of the hot water. He was all the more devastated when she asked "Should we call the guards?"

"Oh no please, not the guards! If I'm caught in your room they'll... get ideas..."

"Pretty reasonable ideas," noted Elizabeth.

"I'd be executed!"

"Well you should have considered that before you tried to break into my room."

The princess was more merciful than her tutor. "Is what he's telling true? They would put him to death?"

Elizabeth took a moment to remember the law books. "Hum... I think the most likely sentence for his offense would be the wheel ordeal."

"The wheel? It doesn't sound that bad, does it?" The princess was hopeful, never having been fond of ordeals in general.

"Well, it sounds better than the hot irons ordeal but I'm afraid it's still somewhat unpleasant: the culprit is secured onto a large wheel, then it's rotated slowly so the executioner can conveniently break every bone of his limbs with a big square metal bar from the outside to the inside. Then he's left there one full day to die from his own or he's finished by as much beating in the midsection as required, with the same instrument."

The princess covered her muzzle with both paws in disgust. "That's horrible!"

"Indeed: that's the very point of ordeals, they are supposed to be educational for the audience."

"I'll talk to father to prevent such a terrible thing!"

"Your highness, if you go telling the king a male felon irrupted in your chamber by night his death will surely be even slower and more educational."

"Awww, you are right. Father is so protective sometimes. Is there nothing we could do?"

Elizabeth didn't had the time to ponder much: she noticed voices from below and, looking carefully, she found a guard patrol in the garden examining the grapnel. "Ack, if there is any way we must find it fast now." She walked around the bird, still threatening him with the poker, and grabbed one of his ankles firmly to drag him into the room. "Could you please lock the door, your highness?"

The princess ran to the door. Nils groaned in pain as he was carelessly pulled across the floor but otherwise remained quiet and silent, aware there was nothing he could do and that the two females were his only faint last hope now. And Elizabeth sat down quietly, well straight, to think.

Chapter 4

"I got it." Suddenly getting up, Elizabeth pointed the poker to the bird. "You! Strip, fast."

"But, my lady... Ow!" A moderate encouraging hit to the leg cut Nils' attempts to protest short and got him to start unbuttoning his jacket.

The princess, however, was unsure about the weird plan as well. "How is getting him naked supposed to prevent misunderstanding from father?"

Not wanting to waste any time, the tutor finished ripping the jacket from the bird, who was too slow for her taste, while explaining. "Stealing from you is a serious offense, your highness, but it's not one that would anger your father so much you couldn't talk him into being merciful. The real problem we face here is with our thief's gender: it would have been so much easier had he been a female." She tossed the garment into the fireplace and blew on the ambers, it almost instantly took fire.

"Yes, it would have been convenient. Unfortunately, he's a male."

"Not anymore, your highness: did you know blue jays were a specie of bird lacking sexual dimorphism?"

"Sexual di... oh, that means males look the same as females, right?"

"Exactly, if bulky musculature or manly voice doesn't break the illusion, you can only tell them apart by their clothes. Speaking of which, would you have some old clothes he... I mean, she could borrow? The less nice the better, if she looks too much like a princess it'll be fishy for a thief."

"Oooh! Elizabeth, this is genius!"

Once he understood the purpose of his stripping, Nils started cooperating a lot more enthusiastically despite the pain each move caused him, which allowed Elizabeth to concentrate on burning all his belongings. The princess gathered the plainest clothes she found and had the idea to cut off some of their ornaments and to use a little of ash to make them look less clean. Added to the fact the tailored outfit fit badly on the bird, he was looking suitably scruffy (as long as you didn't examine the fabrics too carefully) right in time when the guards knocked at the door.

Both Nils and the princess tensed at the noise, close to panic. Elizabeth took a big breath and pointed the balcony to the bird. "All right, you: go back laying there. Your highness, please let me take position as if I was still menacing him, then you can open. And both of you: he's a she and she never entered this room, otherwise no lie, no invention. We stick to the real story as much as possible."

"Elizabeth, I'm so anxious..."

"It's fine, your highness: that's exactly how you must look for them to believe everything you'll say without a hesitation!"

"Th... thank you so much my ladies."

When Nils was gone, the princess realized she had been afraid for her safety for the first time of her life. The role of the frightened young damsel was not in her habits, but this one time... an unexpected alien intruder had irrupted during the night in her world. One who came from the unfamiliar outside of her castle. She recollected herself and took a long moment to analyze that discovery.

Chapter 5

Nils was far from proud as the two huge wolf guards led him down the stone stairs. They didn't bother restraining him and were instead holding one of his wings each, which was helpful as he was still too shaken by his fall to follow their pace without support. Even with his desperate efforts at a jumpy trot, in fact, he was more carried by then than by his own legs. The good news was that, despite the pain, all his limbs appeared to bend in the right direction and only where they were supposed to: that no part shattered under the incredibly rough impact, the most brutal experience in his entire life, was a small miracle. He still had a hard time considering himself lucky, not too sure yet if his bones were durably safe.

Otherwise, he was making himself as small as possible, remaining silent and keeping his eyes down in the hope the guards would not beat him up more. That, and also because he was terribly embarrassed to be walked around in a cute green and black robe even if he was the only one to know he was crossdressed. The lack of pants was especially disquieting, sure his lower body was fully covered but it felt like if he was half naked. How soft and light was the fabric further enhanced this sensation. The princess also had taken the time to tie pretty ribbons, with elaborate knots, at his ankles and this detail felt especially un-manly. Apparently, the concept of barefoot was hard to grasp for her, he was grateful his bird feet could not possibly fit in her high-heel boots or else... well, even if the guards were dense enough not to question a robe-wearing wall-climber, they might have got suspicious.

"You scum." Uh oh, the left guard's grumbling had a menacing tone. He didn't react in the hope the other would not insist but the wolf would not have any of that and he shook him by the arm hard enough to make him wince. "'you hear me?" Nils looked briefly at the right guard to see if there was any chance for help but this one had a closed face, looking straight and far before himself. Having a bit of experience with men in arms, he knew this look: it meant "I don't care, you can get gutted all you like, it's none of my business and I'm not getting involved; I'll just pretend you're invisible now". Having no choice he faced the angry one but didn't dare a word as he feared his voice would give away his gender.

The wolf was not really needing an answer. "Assaulting her highness Amanda... you're the lowest of the lows!" He shook him once more, harder, for emphasis. "She's the kindest of the whole royal family. Do you think someone of her blood needs to care about the poor and lowlifes? Do you?" Nils shook his head miserably. "No, no she doesn't! And yet she does! And that's how you repay her, by assaulting her by night! You... you hoe. You disgust me, that's filthy scum like you who spoil the goodness of some nobility, causing all the good, honest, and hard-working little peoples to suffer for it. Do you even understand that?" This sounded personal and, truly, the jay was now feeling terrified and ashamed of himself. He wished he could tell the wolf he didn't knew all that and never intended to assault anyone, just to steal a little in order to eat, just aiming higher than usual because he ran before too many guards with arrows flying close to his head for only an apple and having enough to subside a little longer and pay an artisan for apprenticeship was his only way to become a good, honest and hard-working subject himself. The guard misunderstood his long silence and gave him a look of pure despise. He closed his eyes expecting the punch to come... but the wolf finally only sighed. "You're lucky I don't beat little girls."

And that was it, they kept walking silently, Nils still trembling from the experience. Who would have guessed he'd be grateful to be a "girl" so soon? The right guard was getting out of his "see no evil, hear no evil" mode as the alert was ending and, as if he had read the bird's mind, he promptly spoiled his relief: "Wait 'till we get her in cage. Depending on who we have locked today she might not feel that lucky in the morning: the guys don't see girls that often, down there."

Chapter 6

Nils had expected the gaols to be dirtier and more nightmarish, it turned out the reality was only a "normal", practical, building. Not that it wasn't impressive or felt too welcoming neither: it was underground, it had the archetypal meters-thick walls, huge doors and strong metal cages and it smelt a bit of sweat and... other body fluids, thanks to the lack of aeration. Nothing worse than some cheap public-houses he already slept into, however, and they had chamber pots here too. At a well lighten desk, the wolf jailer, young, healthy and smiling but still adorning a nasty facial scar and pounds of keys at his belt, was only fitting his expectations halfway too. Seeing them entering, he opened a register and dipped a feather into ink. He scribbled a date as Nils was brought in front of the desk before looking the bird in the eyes. "Your name?"

The guy's voice was quiet and engaging, the jay would not even have been surprised if he had added a "welcome". Taken off-guard, he briefly forgot he didn't want them to hear his voice and answered. "Ni... Niamh."

He understood he just blew his cover right after the fake name escaped from his beak and froze, missing a hart-beat. He was so, so, doomed now. The wheel ordeal, oh please please... "Does it spell with a 'h' at the end?" He blinked, not processing what the jailer said yet. "...ah, you don't know. I think it takes a 'h'." Nils swallowed, looked at his guards discreetly and saw no special reaction from their side. What? No questions? They... they noticed nothing! The clothes were enough for them to accept his normal voice as female! "Put down any object you are carrying onto the desk."

"I... I have nothing on me."

The right guard nodded to the jailer. "It's true, we checked her when we took charge of her."

The jailer got up from his chair on that, reaching for his keys. "Good then! You are in luck, we're not too crowded today: you'll have a cell all by yourself."

Nils was almost relaxing but the left guard frowned at that and cleared his throat. "No. I choose the cage."

"Ah? Oh, well, be my guest."

The four traveled between the cages, most of them empty or with a scrawny guy sound asleep on a bench. In a corner, there was one with a massive grizzly, glaring at the guards with fiery eyes. Towering even while hunched on his bench, he was all... thick, with a generous layer of fat over mountains of muscles, his fur stripped with geometrical scarifications. Naturally, he caught the guard's attention at first sight. "This one."

"Errrr, are you sure? There was a docker brawl over a prostitute this evening: one side got five injured guys, two of which may not survive until tomorrow... and he was the whole of the opposite side all by himself. If you put her there, I can't promise there will be anything left of her in the morning."

"This one."

"Fine, but give me one minute. I'm not opening this cage with less that 4 guards."

Chapter 7

"Please, wait! I'm so sorry! I swear I didn't want to assault the Princess, I swear! Don't leave me here!"

The guards did not even look back on their way to the exit. Only the jailer looked uneasy with the situation but since he clearly asserted how he would not risk opening the cage without protection he would not get Nils out. The jay remained squeezed against the cold metal grid, fists clenched hard around the bars, long after they were all gone: he had no hope they'd come back but he didn't dare turning to face the bear.

A silly ironical thought popped into his head: "Well, the good thing is those suckers won't get enough bits of my body for the wheel ordeal!" Because as he saw things, the end of the night's schedule was something like rape, grizzly noticing unexpected penis, grizzly not amused, blood all over the place. Trembling badly, breathless, he could only wait for the unavoidable. Time was stretching, it was difficult for him to estimate how much given his stress but he was sure it had been long enough to assume no guard was around for a while now.

"Ya pretty." Oh no! Oh no! There it was! The bear's voice was powerful, gravelly and void of emotion. Nils froze in utter panic for several seconds before his self-preservation instincts shook him into answering politely before being ignored irritated the brute.

He turned his head to look at the grizzly and did his best at smiling. "Th... thank you, sir."

Followed a long awkward silence. The bear was still sitting, motionless, looking at him intensely but with a face as expressionless as his voice. What was he thinking right now? "'am Shawn."

Nils forced himself to unclasp from the grid and turn around, a bit unsteady on his legs. Lacking any better ideas, he curtsied. "H... hi. I'm Niamh. N... nice meeting you..."

The bear's eyes narrowed as if he was concentrating and he remained silent for a while again. "Hi," he finally let out before a new pause. Eventually, he shifted to the side of the bench and patted at the freed room.

Nils hesitated, getting close to him was the last thing he wanted in the world. Then, all considered, he decided it was only the second-last thing he wanted after all, the first being to anger him, so he came sitting beside the grizzly. It felt like walking to his execution. The bear being huge for the bench, he was stuck near an edge hardly avoiding to get pressed against him.

"Ya smell nice." The jay mentally cursed the beautiful robe with its light floral perfume and desperately searched for a reply. He was not fast enough. "I've 3 silvers. Not here, at da jailer, but they ain't no lie. Ya nice, ya can have them all if ya give me some good lovin'."

Nils was petrified, unable to find any way to even gain time. As he was not answering, the bear turned his head to look at him. He shook his own shyly.

The grizzly reached a paw... and unexpectedly just brushed a finger at the soft edge of the robe's collar instead of turning forceful or violent. "Nah? Ah, you luxury. 3 silvers ain't enough..." He let out a sounding sigh. "Ain't my day."

The jay jumped on what could possibly be a diversion. "You... you had a bad day?"

"Ya." The bear resumed staring before himself with his void expression for a while but, eventually, he continued. "'was pay day today. 'went to da whores with da guys, I like them girls good. They nice. They sweet. My aunt was a whore: they nah ladies and stuff but I say it's honest hard work. And I say da pay's not worth being hurt an' treated like dirt by shitbags!" Now the bear was displaying an emotion: wild, unadulterated, anger. Even if Nils knew it was not directed at him, he almost wet himself as the end of the sentence was shouted into his face from the fangs-barred muzzle. Fortunately the outburst calmed as fast as it happened. "Ya should show respect. Right?"

"R... right!"

"Ya. Also them faces is important for the pay. If ya damage it, how they s'posed to earn they livin'? Stupid Alex. Bloody idiot."

"A... Alex was... disrespectful?"

"Ya. Damn moron..." He sighed again, and shrugged. "I tried to stop that but... ya know... it got worse an' in the end, I'm in prison and his teeth are gone. All I wanted was some good time for my hard work. Ain't meant no trouble."

That was a shock: the guy Nils believed to be a bloodthirsty brute was actually... well probably a bloodthirsty brute, yes, but also a gentleman in his ways. He had his chance to survive the encounter! In fact, he genuinely felt for his cell-mate after the story and didn't had to pretend when answering. "Aw... I'm so sorry... to get caught on a quiproquo..."

"On a what?"

"Sorry, that means... like when you say something and the other misunderstands. Like when you talked to Alex and he took it as an aggression, I guess."

"Ah. Ya, can be: I ain't not good with them words."

"Do you remember what exactly you told to him?"

The bear spent a while recollecting his memories. "I ain't not good with them words. I mostly hit him in da face, I think. With a bench." He pondered more about that. "Ya right... I ain't put much thought in it at the time but... I reckon it can be quiproquoed as an aggression." He looked at the cell's grid with a hint of regret. "Maybe I should've put more words into it."

"Don't be too harsh on yourself, we all do silly mistakes sometimes. I can tell." Nils sighed at his turn.

The bear patted his shoulder gently. "Ya kind. Most of them girls, they don't talk to me much. I think they intimidated. Feels good talking to you. Tell you what, if they hang me you can have my 3 silvers. 'probably ain't not much for ya, but comes from da hart."

Little did the bear know, 3 silvers were a lot of money by Nils' standards.

The bird had a sudden illumination. "You know what else than good loving you could buy with your silvers, Shawn?"

"What?"

"Words."

Chapter 8

Nils was awakened by the noise of a group of guards coming to his cell. He noticed that in his sleep he had curled snuggly against the bear, who was now displaying a noticeable erection under his pants, and straightened in a hurry. That... was uncomfortable but at least the bear had remained the perfect gentleman outside of this kind of uncontrolled physical reactions. He was grateful for it and the opportunity to repay the favor was coming.

Shaun had no idea of the plan: given his lack of eloquence, the jay had decided he would be more convincing with minimal informations and had set everything up in whispers with the neighborly cell's inmate. He got up and walked to the door as it was opening, before the bear could react.

The first guard pushed him out of the way. "Move. We're here for the guy."

He didn't resist but didn't move far neither, finding just the right spot to be the most annoying for the guards without being evacuated so he could keep some of their attention. That Shaun, following his suggestion, was today quiet and cooperative helped. "Sir, may I ask you a question? I hear he's being brought to the judge?"

"Yes, yes. Get out of the way now."

"I have evidences for the judge, sir. Please could you hear me and transmit them to him? In the sake of good justice, sir. It won't be long, but it's important for the truth to be known."

"What?" The guard hesitated, looked at the bear who was safely shackled, then shrugged. "All right, but make it fast. And don't get your hopes too high, your word is not worth a lot to me."

"Thank you sir! And it's not just my word, I was with this guy too." He pointed one of the inmates.

The guy, a male rat, was still waking up but when he saw what was happening he nodded with a smile. "Aye mister! I sure was with her. Best one silver I ever spent, I swear."

"Thanks!" Nils continued fast to prevent the guard from having the time to start asking questions. "I'm a whore working near the port. We were several around the place last evening, because it was the dockers' pay day, sir. I saw it all, the whole fight and how it began."

The rat agreed from a distance. "Aye she did mister! I know because I was with her! Oh, and I saw it too!"

A new voice raised from an other cell. "The fight at the port? With the guy menacing a whore with a broken bottle? Hey, I was there too! 'was some show!"

They had the guard's attention. With 3 different, unrelated, witnesses he was now really listening. "The bear assaulted a whore too?"

Nils shook his head in play shock. "Oh no sir! Never! He's a good customer, always respectful with us! The bottle, that was the other guy."

"A large badger, mister. Mean guy! He began it all!" Added the rat.

"Yes, like they say. That's what I saw too!" Confirmed the third inmate.

The jay continued his story. "We know him well, he's called Alex and he gets mean when drinking. He wanted free booty and he got forceful when she declined. That's when Shaun intervened, he tried to calm things down, to talk him out of it politely. But he didn't listen and tried to hit him with a bench. Shaun blocked it and accidentally bounced it back into his nose."

The guard frowned. "I saw what remains of the guy's face, are you kidding me? Accidental bounce to the nose?"

"Well, the next hits were less accidental but it was only self-defense: when the other dockers saw it happening they misinterpreted and... the brawl began. Shaun beat their asses but he had no choice and never wanted to. I know the appearances are against him but you can't hold it against him just because he's strong and won the fight, sir! It's so unfair, please tell the judge he was doing nothing but trying to help a girl in distress!"

The guard looked at the two other inmates, who confirmed everything, then at the bear. Shaun was still processing all that, a bit wide eyed and disoriented. He blinked a few times, looked back at the guard, then shrugged. "Quiproquo."

After a last hesitation, the guard smiled to Nils reassuringly. "The judge will know about this. That changes everything. I misjudged you, Shaun. You're lucky you met that girl, she may just have saved you from hanging."

"Ya, she's something. Da bloody best 3 silvers I ever spent, I say."

Chapter 9

Nils had the bench all for himself for the remaining of the morning. He told himself that if he survived, he'd go by the port to check if Shaun was alive as well before running away from the town, which reminded him about his own judgment. That was a long, stressful morning.

He had a brief moment of relief around noon, when the jailer brought him a meal of bread and gruel: the meal of a king for the starving bird, who gratefully noted how the wolf was not stingy with portions. Then, again, hours of waiting.

Eventually, one single guard guard came for him. He got his wrists shackled, the restraints feeling surprisingly heavy and connected to a leading chain for the guard to hold. Luckily, if still quite sore he was now walking better and had no trouble following. At some point, he realized the corridors he was led by were way too luxurious for the average courthouse: there were amazingly detailed real-size paintings of noble ocelots on the walls, warm and shiny parquets mostly hidden under plushy carpets he felt bad walking on with his dirty feet, drapes at the huge windows leading to flower gardens, servants in amazing clothing...

He swallowed. "Hum, Sir? Are you bringing me to the judge?"

"Not exactly. What do you know about court etiquette?"

He stared at the guard with his beak half opened a couple of seconds. "N... nothing!"

"Then you'll shut up as much as you can. Only answer when they talk to you. And you'll call everyone 'your highness', no 'sir' or 'my something', that's wrong. Well, except guards and servants, those you don't talk to at all. And don't kneel, they don't like that, you just keep your head low and a good posture. And never, ever, touch them! In fact you should stay at a safe distance."

"But... but I'll never manage to do it right! I'm not used to court, at all! How do I even know if I'm doing a mistake?"

"If I hit you, you're doing something wrong. Easy enough? Now shut up, we're almost there."

After a last corridor, they entered a huge room. It had golden columns, a painted ceiling representing a cloudy sky with exotic birds flying toward the central sun, stained glass windows and a platform with two impressive thrones on them. At the moment, beside Nils and the guard, there were only two persons here. Two ocelots, both with a familiar face for the bird: the female because he met her last night, she was the princess, and the older male because his was engraved on each of the recent kingdom's coins. King Herald, still physically imposing even if you ignored who he was, despite the whitening fur; you could tell at first sight he had led battles and that the sword at his belt was not only for decoration. He was that kind of warrior noble who, when you saw him escorted by four or five guards, made you think "wow, those guards are well protected". And that was just talking about the look, not even taking the numerous tales in account!

Brought to the room's center, before the platform, Nils wondered if he would not get decapitated at the first mistake. The possibility felt perfectly believable to him, although maybe the king would hold his hand here to avoid getting his rare carpets bloody? Anyway, the ocelots were not acknowledging his existence yet. The princess, from what he understood, was reading him a poem she wrote and, visibly enjoying the moment with her, he was commenting on "alliterations" and other such things making no sense for the bird. He sounded supportive. His voice had that stern edge fitting his look but his daughter was not seeming to be intimidated a bit. He was sitting on his throne and she was standing by his side.

Chapter 10

Herald looked down at the waiting prisoner while the princess rolled back the scroll she had been writing her last poems on. He had been looking forward this: according to Amanda, the bird had been very talkative before the guards arrived to her room. She never told her name but explained how she was the seventh daughter of a poor lumberjack who abandoned her in the forest at young age because he was so poor he couldn't feed that many daughters; without little pieces of bread to scatter along her track to find back home, since it was already established how they lacked bread. She was found by a mean peasant, who made her work on the field all day, and her new stepmother and 3 stepsisters made her work at home all night, so she escaped to find love and felt for a promising young and beautiful doctor. But she got sick from all the previous harshnesse, and the doctor felt humiliated, and his reputation endangered, as he couldn't cure her. So he got rid of her by sending her to an imaginary witch of Quarter-Cross. Luckily, the good air of the sea during her travel made her better but, sadly, when she discovered the lie she was trapped here without money to go back. Her morale sense troubled by all the bad examples in her experiences, hart-broken and starving, she did the most logical thing and... somehow got her hands onto a grapnel so she could try stealing some bread. From the royal castle.

Despite the deceiving lack of helpful fairies and giant ogres, the tale was almost certainly signed Elizabeth. While Herald was fully satisfied with the tutor's work, he noted to himself it was overdue time the princess was provided with an additional teacher more... familiar with the real world, so she could learn a few new things. Including, in first priority, properly lying to her father. This was becoming urgent: Herald had a different take than Amanda on a lot of important topics, yet he was pleased his daughter was a clever lady with a mind of her own and wanted her to get a good education at politics. He was therefore more than willing to allow her a lot of freedom and to let a lot slide but, as the first symbol and defender of law and order in the kingdom, there were limits to what he could tolerate if she wasn't subtle enough to protect the appearances. So far, she was not exactly outstanding at it but she was a beginner only starting her studies in this field, and not even aware of this fact yet, so he was not worried. Amanda was bright, she never had been a disappointment in any way and she never would. The bird could be an interesting introductory exercise. If she was a safe enough subject, that is, otherwise she'd be executed as a thief should be.

He examined the trembling creature. With her head well lowered she didn't seem defiant and trying to rob the castle suggested despair more than anything else. So far, not too threatening. He frowned at the robe in excellent fabric, somewhat familiar to him and too unpractical for climbing, another new proof of the fact he employed congenital cretins as guards... but at least Amanda had the instinct to dress her up more presentably than she probably was to give a good impression for her audience, and to cut extra decorations, and to rub some... ash? ...onto it. Not thoroughly planned from her but promising!

Realizing she was observed, the bird curtsied awkwardly, her shackles and chains not helping. The guard felt the tug and, in reflex, pulled back firmly which finished ruining the attempt. Yes, definitely, congenital cretins. Herald stood up and walked closer for a better view. "What is your name, thief?"

"I... I'm Niamh, your highness."

"Niamh. Well, Niamh, my dear daughter Amanda, who is a lot more forgiving than I tend to be, seems to have taken a liking into you. Despite what you did. She told me all of your sad story, which I found... touching. She also pleaded for mercy upon you. Yet I do not take assaulting my beloved ones lightly! You are putting me in front of an uncomfortable dilemma."

"I swear I didn't mean to assault anyone, your highness..."

Herald glanced at her face sternly while she answered. She seemed honest, about that part, and as a jaded old politician he was an expert at detecting lies. He waved a paw in an impatient gesture, not in the mood to waste time on sorry excuses more than necessary. "By the way, before we go any further, I want to know something. How did you enter the castle and pass through all the patrols so you could even reach my daughter's window?"

"W... with a gourd and water, your highness." Now, this was interesting, everyone was waiting for the details with curiosity as she swallowed and steadied her voice. "I first came to the entrance, with my gourd and water, and I offered some to the guards without saying a word. I was disguised as an old female to seem harmless... all it took was a bed cover wrapped around me and walking slow and hunched. And then I went away. I did that several times everyday for a week, until they got used to me and assumed I was... hired by your highness for this and my presence was normal. At the end of the week I... I just walked inside past the guards and they didn't even look at me. I spent a second week delivering water to the inside guards too after that and, eventually, I became invisible for them as well while having learned their schedule."

The guard was so flabbergasted he forgot about the protocol to talk. "You are the mute water maid!?"

It took Herald all his self-control to deliver a severe frown rather than to burst in laughter, despite how serious the exposed security flaw was. "Amanda, please take a note for me: our men require a new water maid. And I'll schedule a meeting with all the captains, we need to talk."

"Yes father."

"And, guard, how did you possibly not recognize your prisoner after you met her daily for two weeks?"

The guard fidgeted uncomfortably with his chain. "Because... this one was not mute, your highness. And... birds! They all look the same!"

The king sighed, not needing to simulate annoyance anymore after this new display of incompetence. "Amanda, take note I should assume the meeting to be a long one when scheduling it."

"Yes father."

"Now back to your punishment, water maid. Is there anything you wish to say before I settle your case?"

"Yes your highness. I... I'm sorry and I wish to apologize to the princess for the fright and trouble. I... I realize now how kind she is and how doing what I did was wrong and uncalled for... I hope this will not damage her view of... of the little peoples who are better than me. I really regret my deeds and the only thing I can say for my defense is I meant no harm. Or disrespect. I didn't thought it well, I was just hungry and stupid."

"Hungry? So you say you did come to steal our bread?"

Not knowing what story the princess told to her father, the bird had a hesitation. "N... not directly, your highness. I was after something I could sell, to buy the bread for a while and become an artisan's apprentice. So I could stop stealing for a living. B... because I don't like being a thief."

Herald took his time to make a first mental judgment. The bird's regrets seemed sincere and she didn't had the profile of a true criminal. He liked the water maid trick too. He decided he would allow her to live if his daughter provided a convincing speech of defense. "Good, Amanda I understood you had your own idea about how we should handle this. I'm listening to you."

"Thank you, father." She walked closer at her turn. "I believe Niamh had an unlucky life but has no true evil in her hart. She let herself get carried in wrong directions by the circumstances... which is not an excuse for one is always responsible of their deeds and should face their consequences! Also the law is our wall against anarchy and assaulting the royal family shall not be tolerated lest we wish immorality to spread rampant!" She was sounding almost as severe as her father at this point, sending a harsh look over the prisoner.

Herald was pleasantly surprised, having feared a sentimental pleading about mercy at the first sentences and instead getting what seemed like a well constructed, and well delivered, speech tailored to his logic. "Aye," he simply agreed, not wanting to break her momentum.

"However, if her lack of perfidy is no excuse on its own, it also means she can be salvaged and taught better ways. Thanks to Elizabeth's swift intervention, she also did not carry out her planned offense to our family, only trespassing... in a way that, I believe, was to blame more on our guards than on her. Thus I suggest her punishment should not end her life but instead have an educational value."

Ah, so this was the twist? Not half bad for a beginner but let's see if she could respond to an unplanned objection. "Ordeals are educational as well. Not for the culprit but for all the crowd watching: many instead of one, that's a lot more education at once and for a cheaper price. Justice must always be practical, otherwise it will not be consistently applied, which leads to its respect eroding."

She took only a second of pondering and didn't lose any self-confidence. "I understand that, father, but I was thinking of something practical: a fine, that she will pay by hard and honest labor teaching her to be a law-abiding subject kept far from her criminal ways. By the fine, she will pay by herself the expenses needed to watch after her work. While less spectacular than an ordeal, due to its length this punishment will be witnessed by many, providing education to much more than just her. Also if the ordeals' lesson is a sane one, the message that criminals can repent and be reformed, used in addition to it, is I think an inspirational one as well."

Herald allowed himself a smile. Oh, there were still many objections he'd have and he would have preferred a good ordeal, but this was way less important than the princess trying new things and doing a good work with rhetoric. "I accept this judgment. For this one time, as an experiment."

"Thank you father!"

The bird was hardly believing his luck and seeing how grateful she was, the king had no doubt she'd do her work. He didn't let her the time to voice her thanks, however. "And you, one last thing. The princess gave you a rare second chance. Her heart is of pure gold and if you were to disappoint her she would probably forgive you again..." He walked a few steps down to face the prisoner closely, drilling ferocious eyes into hers, and finished clearly detaching each word: "I would not."

She shrank visibly before the threat. "I... I'll be good... your highness."

He smirked and picked up a few coins from his pocket, that he tossed at the surprised jay. "For your two weeks of service as our guards' water maid. It should be enough to buy suitable clothes if you are to hang around the castle. Begone now, I trust Amanda will take care of your punishment's practical details."

Chapter 11

"...and that's when he gave her the coins. Can you believe his highness paid her for trespassing?" The guard was visibly insulted as he finished his report.

Elizabeth chuckled. "Yes I can, his highness has a lot more humor than most credit him with."

"I don't get what's funny in it."

"Of course you don't. You guys are not equipped to get half of his wit. He's not the king just because he wears a pretty crown, you know?"

"Are you calling me an idiot, my lady?"

"You'll have to spend a day or two figuring it out by yourself, because I have neither the time nor the patience to explain things to you. Now unshackle her and leave us."

"Are you sure you don't want any protection? She's a thief."

"Yes, yes, and the last time she tried to assault me I nearly killed her. Your services are not required, hush now."

The guard reluctantly obeyed and left closing the door behind himself.

Elizabeth held out her open paw before the still intimidated jay. "Give me those coins." He obeyed. "Ah, and stop looking at me with those eyes, will you? Yes, I was cold, but you don't know how exhausting it is to have those imbeciles around all day. He'll get over it. I'm nice, remember: you'd probably be on the wheel right now if my moving story about your troubled past had not touched his highness."

He nodded silently.

"What is it? You're mute again? Did you say something you shouldn't have and had your tongue cut?"

"No your highness, it's just... The guard, he told me remaining silent was part of the etiquette."

"Ah, that! Pfff, none of this between us, will you? That'd tire me fast. Just shut up when I tell you to and we'll be good. Also I'm not a member of the royal family but the princess' tutor, so don't call me 'your highness'. I'm 'my lady' for you."

He finally relaxed a little and smiled. "Understood, my lady. Thank you so much for saving my life. I regret having tried to steal from you."

"You should thank her highness Amanda. By the way, I guess nobody told you why you were brought to me?"

"No my lady, I assumed her highness Amanda designated you as the one in charge of making me work to pay my fine, since she seems to trust you much?"

"And that is a surprise: despite your crime being the stupidest thing I saw one attempt in a long time, you happen to be clever. You're right. Tell me, about that gourd and water trick, did you had the idea by yourself or did you read it in some story?"

"I had the idea by myself, my lady: I don't know how to read."

"Drat, that would have made a good story." She paused a moment, imagining how it could have been written, then shrugged. "Oh, well. Now let's get to work. Get naked, those clothes won't do anymore and I want to check if you're clean and how convincingly you can pass for a female."

Blushing uncomfortably, Nils still obeyed without raising any objections: given his exceptional chance to avoid the ordeal thanks to the lady, he was willing to do everything she wanted and prove his good will at his punishment. Robes were new to him and finding how to get out of one did not go without some clumsy struggling. When he wanted to remove the black ankle ribbons, Elizabeth stopped him deciding those would stay.

Eventually, he stood naked safe them for the examination. She walked around, looking at his body. With his delicate build, the birdy lack of anatomical clues about his gender and a thick chest-tuft, the illusion was excellent. All it took was the feminine touch of those ribbons to trick the perceptions. Elizabeth mentally imagined him with a pipe in his beak instead and was amazed to find how clearly male he would look this way. She peered between his legs curiously, where there was not much to be seen. "So you birds really don't have a... you know..."

"We... we do My Lady, but it's hidden inside when not used."

"Really? And you can make it appear or disappear at will?"

"Not exactly at will. We're like the other males down there: when we are... stimulated, it grows out. Otherwise it stays in. We can't really control it much."

"You are amazingly convenient for our scheme. Good thing for you you were not a horse!"

She got closer and smelled near his face, then stroked his chest-feathers the wrong way to lift them up and check for fleas. "You are also cleaner than I expected, congratulations. The poor is often filthy."

"They are not so willingly, my lady. It can be hard to stay clean for us, I'm lucky because birds can sleep standing."

"What in the world does it have to do with cleanliness?"

"If you lay even once on a cheap public house's bed, especially in a port city, you'll get at least ten different breeds of fleas from three different countries."

"Eww! I didn't want to know that!"

"Sorry my lady."

"But then why do you go to public houses, if you don't need a bed?"

"Because it's warm and dry, and you don't risk getting bashed in the back of your head and awakening on a ship as a sailor. They 'hire' a lot of their crew this way."

Elizabeth made a face. "Tell you what: I'll stop asking questions about your past. Your life is filthy."

Both remained silent a moment after this. Her examination done, Elizabeth went to a cupboard and produced a beautiful collar: it was golden and ornamented, like an elegant jewel... while also looking suspiciously sturdy for one: no tiny chains but large, if flat and light, links and a locking mechanism with a complex key in the back. She held it before the bird's face before securing it around his neck. "This is an ambassador's collar. Do you know what those are?"

"No my lady."

"They are magical collars with an invisible leash we can yank if you try escaping."

He looked at her, unconvinced but keeping his comments for himself.

"I see. You don't believe in those childish stories, do you? Fine, I give you the long version of the explanation then: sometimes when we do diplomacy with other kingdoms and the situation is tensed, we keep... important guests from 'friendly' other families. Noble ones, like princes and princesses, who they would dearly regret if, say, our friendship was to tarnish and something bad happened to them."

"You mean, hostages?"

"No, ambassadors. It's the same idea, but you don't hold nobles as hostages, that'd be insulting."

"I see."

"So we have those guests, who are way too friendly and noble to be locked down in a gaol and yet who we really don't want to let leave us. We put an ambassador's collar on them. The practical thing with living on an island is that if you make it clear to all the ship captains they must check the necks of their exiting passengers and horrible, horrible, ordeals will be inflicted to them shall they allow an ambassador out, is it's like a huge cage. Well, for rich ambassadors we add some extra surveillance but you are too poor to convince anyone to cheat for you. The artisans also know they should not help you out of those collars. And if you think you can try to swim your way out or to hide on Quarter-Cross, I'll just warn you there is a strong current going away from the continent and that with a good price on your head the island is too small and crowded to get lost for more than a few days."

"Magical invisible leash. Clear as the finest crystal, my lady. I will not try anything stupid."

"Good, I'm glad you understand. And as we are making things clear, one last important point." She grabbed the front of the collar by surprise, roughly pulled Nils so his beak almost bumped onto her nose and looked straight in his eyes menacingly. "I don't buy that stealing story. Way too stupid for you. Since her highness likes you and since you didn't had the opportunity to lay a finger onto her, I'll be forgiving and accept that the wheel ordeal is too cruel for you... but you are not getting it easy neither. I will personally see that you get a fitting punishment and really get reformed, you have my word. And if you don't want the king to learn about your gender, you will do everything I say in the smallest detail. And her highness must not know about it, you like me and you're having a good time being grateful and hard-working and everything, because that's what will make her happy and I want her to be happy. Any questions?"

"W... wouldn't his highness the king be angry at you and at her highness Amanda too if he learned about my gender?"

Elizabeth pouted and let go of him to cross her arms before herself. "First, when I ask 'any questions' with this tone, you are supposed to answer 'no my lady'. Possibly stammering. Not to talk back to me. Second, you may be somewhat bright but don't you dare believing you can be a match for me: of course I wouldn't go straight to his highness to tell him everything! I'll have you know there are many ways to arrange the story and leak it to him, it's not like anybody would contradict me. Consider how there are only two witnesses, one of which would make the rational decision shall her have to choose between trouble for her and me or no trouble for her and me given that in both case you die horribly anyway, and the other a criminal with no evidence other than his word against ours and knowing better than to worsen his already terrible case by carelessly calling us liars. I'm thinking many steps ahead of you, this was one of the first thing I thought about when I decided to keep you here to be punished rather than just hiding you under her highness' bed and letting you escape after the guards were gone! Any other questions?"

Nils shivered, only beginning to size the plotting power he was facing. No wonder she couldn't stand the guards who, if only average guys, were not that stupid. "N... no my lady."

"That's more like it. Still you're a bit too snappy for your position and I will not tolerate that. Maybe a concrete exercise will help you getting aware of your place." She spent a moment thinking, quietly picking a favorite between several scenarios, then eventually smirked and pointed a finger down. "Lick my boots clean."

Nils stared back in shock, opened his beak... but understood right in time than saying a single more word now would be a mistake. He was not happy at all with the sudden turn of events but was painfully aware he had no room for bargaining: the lady was holding him firmly by the proverbial balls. She was unlikely to wait patiently for long before things went worse and, with her strong character and ordeals as the ultimate incentive at her disposal... he understood he couldn't win. Devastated in humiliation, he surrendered.

The bird dropped to his knees, then on all fours, then crawled to reach his beak to Elizabeth's boots. At least, they were sparky clean. He was looking down, trying to block his feelings, but as he sticked his tongue out he couldn't refrain from vividly imagining the show he was putting on for her, prostrated naked at her feet like a submitted animal. He placed a first shy lick across the leather with the tip of his tongue.

The boot suddenly pulled away and kicked his cheek by surprise before returning down. A light kick, more a warning than painful, but it really startled him. "Better than that," ordered the ocelot.

Feeling horrible, heart pounding way too fast, Nils resumed his work abandoning all dignified restraint. He licked at the boot with the whole tongue, pressing it well flat and dragging in longer strokes, working fast with only a brief break once in a while to swallow when it was getting dry. The leather only had a slight taste of wax but as perfect as it was he pretended cleaning it up and took care leaving no spot dry. To do it, he had to crawl more, sometimes tilting his head and pressing his cheek to the floor in order to reach some places since the lady was not helping.

She watched him silently, hardly holding a satisfied purr, making it last and savoring each second of her power. She only broke the silence once, in the middle of the exercise, to order Nils to switch side.

Eventually, as the bird was finishing her second boot, she talked again. "Lesson one: I can make you very miserable. I will do it as much as I please. If you try resisting, you'll earn yourself extra discipline and I'll get what I want in the end anyway. That will be enough, you can get back up."

She walked away. Nils hurried to his feet and remained trembling, shaken by the experience, feeling so vulnerable naked here safe the girly ribbons and "magical" collar after this. Elizabeth pulled a calling string to summon a servant. He noticed she used a specific sequence of rhythmical tugs and guessed there was a code allowing her to choose who exactly she wanted here. As they waited, she counted the pieces the king had given to him. "His highness has been, as always, generous. This is a lot for two weeks of water-delivery, we should manage making you somewhat presentable." There was a knock at the door as she finished. "Yes, come in."

A white female rabbit entered and bowed politely. "My Lady." She hesitated seeing the naked but collared bird, unsure what to make of the mixed signals. "Uh... A... Ambassadress." And she bowed to him as well.

Elizabeth laughed heartily. "No, Ao, she's not an ambassadress, only a new servant. I'll explain that to you later: I'm about to be late for her highness Amanda's afternoon lesson. I'll let her into your hands. First you will give her a proper maid uniform, a #5 but note down her measurements for future outfits, including her head's. And she keeps the cute ribbons, I love those. You can call a few helpers and do the sewing in this room, we don't want her to run around naked in the castle making the guards' heads even less functional than they naturally are. Then she's to be cleaned up and finally returned to my room. Never leave her alone, she's a former thief and I don't trust her much."

"We hire former thieves my lady?"

"She's a special case. Again I don't have the time to tell you the full story now but don't worry about it." She nodded to the rabbit and walked to the door, grabbing a pile of books on her way. "See you later, Niamh, and be good."

Once Elizabeth left, Ao looked at Nils curiously. "Hum, just for you to know since you may not 'read' lady Elizabeth well yet: from the tone of her voice..."

"...'or else'. That was the missing end of her sentence, right?"

"My bad, visibly you're already reading her well enough."

"She was thinking it so loud I could have heard it from the other side of the castle." Relieved as the lady was gone, the jay felt his natural humor coming back to him. He was not used to brood for long no matter what, a skill you learned fast when your life was miserable enough. Or you fell apart, one could call it an adaptive survival trait. "In fact, I can tell she's still thinking threatening things about me right now: from the sound of it she's currently one stair down, midway in the right corridor."

Ao laughed. "So you're Niamh? Pleased to meet you, I'm Ao. You were a thief?"

"Pleased, Ao. I was, yes, but don't worry I promise I don't want to cause any trouble. So... could you... hum... help me to get less naked?"

"Oh! Yes! Sorry!"

Chapter 12

Nils was not too sure anymore if he was more embarrassed when he was naked. The first robe he had to wear was nothing compared to the maid uniform #5, which was a lot more revealing, snuggly tailored to his measurements to reveal his curves and full of frilly lacework. There was the skirt first. Well the two layers of it, he didn't know if those had names: an outer black one, and an inner white one all in light and transparent fabric about one inch longer for its edge to show. The thing was a lot shorter than the green robe and his bird tail was making it worse by constantly lifting the back of it up. He was pretty sure everybody could see his panties when he did any careless moves.

And, yes, those panties were pink, embroidered, made of a ridiculously small amount of fabric with tiny laces going across his bottom around the tail. He was badly missing his plain and long underwear, which he had been allowed to keep last time. Normally the uniform came with shoes but he was apparently the only bird servant here and nobody knew what to do with his feet. That was both a tiny relief and also a reminder he was poorer than the others as walking barefoot was a symbol for mammals. This was also helping the embarrassing ribbons to stand out nicely. If she abandoned the shoes, Ao would not leave his feet alone neither: they used to be somewhat rugged from walking many roads, but the rabbit worked hard with pumice, small scrappers and ointment and got them neat and smooth. She also painted his claws, not in red or anything flashy at least, using a dark gray color close to his natural one but still too shiny for his comfort.

He had a black, sleeveless, top that was tightened with laces at the back to clench his belly hard and had hidden reinforcements around his abdomen to force a better posture and more feminine figure on him. And a white apron over that, with a flowery lacework pattern all along the edge. Both were widely open along the back and around the neck, where they were squeezing and lifting his chest-tuft making it seem bigger and presenting the ambassador's collar.

As the final touch he had been cleaned not with water but with a special perfumed rubbing powder that made his feathers' colors more vibrant than ever and left its soft smell on him. When Ao finished and complimented him on "how beautiful she was" bringing him to a mirror so he could see the result by himself... he had no idea what to say. Seeing the bright side, his secret gender was now surely perfectly safe: even himself who knew about the fraud had a hard time not to find his reflexion attractive.

The rabbit brought him back to Elizabeth's room and, as instructed, waited for her return keeping an eye on him. She was curious and he had the time to tell her his story, except for the secret parts of course. She got especially thrilled by the "falling on the balcony and getting beaten up with a poker" episode, where she was at the same time genuinely sorry for him and admiring Elizabeth's bravery and efficiency at protecting the princess. She liked Shawn's encounter less, because she found it too scary despite the good ending, which made Nils understand how the castle's inhabitants were probably not fond of hearing about the "filthy life of the poor". It was not just Elizabeth.

Out of stories but enjoying the friendly conversation, the jay was in the middle of an excellent impersonation of the literacy tutor scolding the guard for his stupidity when the door suddenly opened behind his back. Ao instantly stopped chuckling to straighten her pose in a hurry and bow. "Your highness, my lady."

Chapter 13

Elizabeth looked like she was in a good mood after spending some time with the princess. And maybe she understood the imitation was more a homage than a mockery, or Nils was just lucky Ao was involved since she was a lot more forgiving to the rabbit. Anyways, she let the incident slide without more reaction than an amused smirk at the bird's panicked face when he turned back as fast as he could, making the skirt lift in momentum to briefly flash the pink panties. "Excellent work, Ao. Thank you, you shall leave."

The rabbit left as the princess, in an excellent mood as well, examined the jay's new look with a pleasured smile. "Niamh, you are so cute like this! I didn't realize you were so pretty with your earlier tomboyish ways!"

"Aw, please your highness, don't rub it... it felt plain weird to walk around like this, with the guards looking at me. I hope they can remain correct, because I don't feel ready for marriage yet." Both ocelots laughed at this. Elizabeth, who was still undecided if she liked the bird's tendency for humor or not, was slow to answer so he could continue. "Your highness, I didn't have the chance to thank you for what you did. Everything I said to his highness your father earlier, I was thinking them, they were not just to avoid the ordeal. I'm sorry I tried to steal from you and I'm very grateful for your kindness. I will work hard and won't disappoint you."

Amanda smiled warmly. "I'm sure you will not! And I trust Elizabeth will make you keep your word." She winked, visibly not meaning all the threat Nils felt in those words after his first lesson. "I'm also sure you two will get along well. Helping you is an other reason for my choice, you must be disoriented in the castle and have a lot to learn about our ways and I can tell from experience she's very good at teaching. You'll see how she makes everything understandable."

"I... I already experienced some of that, your highness. Her power of clarification is downright outstanding." The tutor's eyes narrowing menacingly, he felt safer adding, "I like her a lot and am enjoying our time together."

"I'm glad to hear so! By the way, if I really wanted to see your new uniform and check you were alright, there's an other reason why I was impatient to see you again. Something I overheard from the guards' discussions made me curious."

Nils blinked, trying to guess if a new catastrophe was about to unfold. "Yes, your highness?"

"Are you one of the port's prostitutes, Niamh?"

He stayed beak-gaping with the stupidest expression of shock a moment before managing to answer. "N... no! Never your highness! I've been a beggar and petty thief and I tricked suckers with card tricks sometimes, but never, ever, a prostitute!"

"How did they get this idea, then?"

"Well... hem... I might have... kinda lied to one of them a tiny little bit... but it was for a good cause, not a selfish misdeed I swear! And does it count as a lie if you lie to make one believe the truth?"

"This sounds interesting." The princess walked to a chair and sat comfortably. "Tell me the whole story."

Nils stared at his own toes the entire time it took him to explain. At the end he dared looking at the two females' expressions.

The princess was pensive more than anything, some details of the tale new concepts for her to swallow. Her smile was gone but she seemed pitying rather than angry.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, was fulminating with hardly contained rage. The jay first believed he was done for, this time, but the outcome was unexpected: "This is intolerable! This is unforgivable! How dared him? Who does he think he is to make judgments by himself in royal affairs!? Niamh, what was his name?"

"W... w... whose name?"

"The name of the guard who purposely caged you with someone he thought would hurt you, of course, you idiot!"

He understood with relief that the lightning was falling onto someone else. "He... he never told me his name, my lady. But you saw him when he brought me out of her highness' room, he was the one holding my left wing."

"I believe this was Hugo," made the princess as quiet as ever. The bird was amazed to see how unimpressed she was at the display of rage... but all considered she was spending a lot of her time around Elizabeth and king Herald who did not have the reputation to be a meek individual neither. She probably had a thicker skin than her gentleness was suggesting.

"Hugo, yes, you're right. That fool! He must be..." Elizabeth stopped midway to think it thoroughly, her intelligence taking the lead over her anger again after the brief seizure. "No, we can't do that."

The princess was listening with interest. "By 'that', I assume you mean something along the lines of shortening Hugo of about one head's length. Am I correct?"

"Absolutely your highness. However this would be a poor move. You see, Niamh is not the most popular female in the castle at the moment: she humiliated all the guards with her gourd and water antics and I expect the king's response to their neglect will come soon, in a way that will not cheer them up. So far it's not that a serious grudge, we can safely deal with it. But if on top of that we execute a guard due to a Niamh-related offense... well, let's just say our new maid's life-expectancy would abruptly decrease. Accident in the stairs, disappearing..."

Amanda frowned. "This, I will not permit. I'll have a talk about the issue with father."

"Your highness, I'm afraid his highness your father is not the best person to enforce forgiveness upon Niamh, with all due respect."

The princess recovered her smile. "Not this kind of talk, Elizabeth. I recently discovered something new. Father spent a lot of time instructing me and his blood runs through my veins: thanks to this I am one of the few who can read him. I don't know where we were wrong but he never believed our story about Niamh. Yet he let me lie to him and even allowed me to spare her life. I suspect father is acknowledging me as an adult and a new part of my education is beginning... and I will not spoil it by running to him for help with irrational emotional demands at the slightest difficulty. Even if I'd like to."

"Your highness! I'm impressed! Congratulations! So you are giving up on your idealism in order to grow up?"

"Absolutely not! I'm backing it up with some politics, on the contrary. Ideals must be practical, Elizabeth, or else they will not be consistently applied, which leads to their erosion."

"This sounds outstanding, you have all my support! What is your plan, then?"

"I believe a guard who did such a terrible thing, and in my name too, can be sacrificed to preserve Niamh and show father I'm a serious player at his games. I'll suggest Hugo for a promotion, I know my brother is missing captains for his west garrison."

"Hum... thus evacuating one influential maid-hater from the castle smoothly. Cunning, your highness, but I feel like I'm missing something. How is it a sacrifice that would impress the king?"

"As a tutor, you do not have access to some of the informations a princess is given. My brother is at war at his frontier. A well known fact for all but, in order to ease the troop recruitment, the tales spread about it are... slightly sweetened. Serving as captain there is testing. Doing so in some particular squads is a death sentence."

"You truly are growing up fast, your highness. You have no idea how proud I am of you!" Belatedly remembering about the jay's presence she recovered her usual serious face. "Hum, in the future it would be a good habit not to discuss this kind of things in front of the servants. We tend to get used to ignore them but in politics it's a grave mistake."

"Good point. I'll be more careful."

Nils cleared his throat. "If it can reassure you, your highness and my lady, the only things I understood were this guard is in trouble and one doesn't mess with a princess. And as we say, 'you're too big to fit in my head'."

The princess raised an eyebrow. "Too big to fit in your head? I never heard this saying before, what does it mean?"

"Oh, that must be because it's mostly a thing thieves say your highness. The idea is if you know embarrassing things about someone who could utterly crush you like a bug at whim, 'too big', you forget them as fast as you can, 'don't fit in the head'. Or at least you pretend and shut up."

"That's an amusing one. Who taught you this?"

"I... hum... don't remember, your highness."

The princess laughed again and the tension vanished. "You are loads of fun. Speaking of which, I could use some entertainment after all my studies. Elizabeth, would you have a card deck please? I want to learn how to 'trick suckers'."

Chapter 14

The princess loved the demonstration of card-cheating. Nils was good at that, using his wings in creative ways to store cards or to hide what he did inconspicuously the brief times he needed for exchanges... or to do flashy things on one side, while it was the other that was really working during the diversion. All his tricks could not be done without wings but he shared as much as he could. He knew a bit of card-counting too, a field he was less expert at but in which the ocelot proved impressive dispositions. He also duly explained how, in the real performance, the most important skills were knowing when to stop, always keeping an eye on your planned exit and being an excellent runner. Mostly a silent watcher, Elizabeth somewhat disproved such an unladylike activity... but was too curious about it herself to do anything to stop the lesson.

It's only when she figured out how the jay was probably too happy to delay the moment when he'd be alone with her again that the tutor decided it was time to put an end to it. "Your highness, this recess is getting long. I naturally in no way mean to decide of your schedule, but Niamh should get to work, don't you think?"

"Aw, why such hurry? Her punishment has no time limit, so she will not work less later if she spends too long with me."

"True, however you told me you wanted her punishment to be educating. Allowing her to be lazy, especially on her first day, will not give her good habits nor show a good example to the others."

Amanda put down her cards and nodded. "You are right. And I can come again anytime I like later, after all."

"Anytime at all, your highness. Until further notice, she's basically your belonging."

Both ocelots left leaving Nils alone. Elizabeth having clearly expressed her lack of trust in him, he stood quiet in the center of the room and waited without touching a thing: this was either a test or she was only escorting the princess out and would be back in a matter of seconds. He hoped for the first possibility because he was not looking forward discovering her plans for him.

It was the second possibility. She returned too soon for his taste and came standing before him. "First thing first, about that conversation."

"What conversation my lady?"

"Good, I see we are understanding each-others. No conversation at all but if there had been one and any of it spread around, someone who never listened to it would be put to death without a second warning."

"I... I'd be sure to keep my mouth shut, if I had overheard such conversation."

"Very nice." She took that expression she had when planning things up and pondered aloud. "Now, now, where shall I begin with you? For your own safety, I have to humiliate you before the guards but picking the right time is touchy. Too soon and the word of what you did will not have spread to all of them, reducing the impact, but I want it done before his highness punishes them so their grudge is sorted out before a chance to be revived. Tell me, when you were judged, who did you see in the throne room?"

"Their highnesses the king and princess, and a guard I don't know the name of who was leading me."

"Nobody else?"

"No my lady, I'm sure there was only them."

"Which means his guests from the Crown islands were not arrived yet and he has more pressing matters than yelling at his captains."

"Isn't fixing a safety issue urgent?"

"It is already temporarily fixed, after their misadventure the guards will pay attention to who goes in and out for a while. Tssst, don't try doing politics. You're a maid. Not because I like to think aloud entitles you the right to bother me with your opinions."

"Sorry my lady."

"Anyway, the humiliation is postponed for now. First lets give you a good taste of what actual work feels like. As we already wasted most of your first day, you have some catching up to do... Ah, I know exactly what would be good at this time of the day!" She went to the calling string, using two sequences, then sat at her desk to write a note.

It took little time for two servants to arrive together, Ao and a big and strong male bull who both saluted in chorus. Getting back up, she turned to the bull first. "Mau, you are the one doing the bathtubs-filling chore today if I am not mistaken?"

"Yes I am, my lady."

"Aw, a shame about your ankle, then?"

He watched at her blankly, not understanding. "My ankle? There... there's nothing wrong with any of my ankles my lady."

"Proud and always willing to do his part of the work even when injured. I like that. You should take example on him, Niamh." She handed her paper to the bull. "You hurt your ankle by falling this morning. It is inflated and sore, especially when you put some weight onto it, which is the reason for your limp all day. It is probably nothing serious but having you carrying all those heavy buckets of water at the top of all those stairs would be... plain irresponsible. Then it could tear for good and leave you lame, Mau."

He stared at the paper in his paw for a long moment, totally puzzled. "I hurt my ankle? Which one my lady?"

"Whichever you like, it's not important. Now you go to the doctor and give him this paper, you'll get a nice massage and a warm cataplasm. You should be good as new after an afternoon and night of rest. It's all written down on my note."

"But what about the bathtubs?"

"Have no worries, I'll have you replaced for today. And, naturally, your day will be fully payed anyways: it's not your fault if you had this accident. I'm even pleased with how stoically you sticked to your duties like a loyal soldier. Good work Mau! Now, begone!"

"Y... yes my lady. Thank you, my lady!" He ran out, quite fast and happy for a someone who just got his ankle injured.

"I love putting a smile on a face." She smirked to Nils, who currently had no smile at all. "Or removing one, that works too. I don't suppose I need to explain you what will be your first task. So... Ao," she faced the rabbit at her turn, "since she doesn't know her way yet, you'll lead her. You will keep preventing her from stealing, check that she forgets no bathtub nor fills them too little and bring her back to me for 7 after you let her eat something."

"I will, my lady."

"One last thing before you two go. Go placing your paws palms up on my desk, Ao." The rabbit obeyed and Elizabeth followed her. She lighted up a tiny oil lamp and prepared two ribbons, two pieces of paper, a sealing wax bar and her personal seal. She then proceed looping each ribbon once around one of the servant's wrists then once across the middle of the corresponding paw and sealing them locked on position, using a paper to protect her palms from the hot wax. "There we are. I want Niamh to work without help and I know how kind you are. So, if one of your seals is damaged when you return, she will be punished. Now, get both to work!"

They left, Nils opening and closing the door for the rabbit. While walking down the stair, she sighed. "Do you know any poems, Niamh?"

"No, I don't. Why the question?"

"Because that could help you: lady Elizabeth loves beautiful words and those who share her taste for them, and so far... well, I think she's going to give you a hard time."

"Yes, I was feeling so as well..."

"I can try teaching you a couple of nice and easy ones while you work. Would you like that?"

"Oh yes, thank you Ao! I really appreciate that, anything that could help matters a lot for me. The thing is I guess I should not be too obvious when delivering them, what would you suggest?"

"Don't try forcing it, wait for her to offer you the opportunity. She'll study you, so it shouldn't be long before questions about your culture come by themselves."

"I'll do that. Let's just hope she doesn't break my back before I get the chance."

"Yes, about that, you don't know how right you are: the well is at ground level, naturally, as is the kitchen where you'll heat up the water. All the bathtubs are at least on third floors and they are big ones. Since you can't carry as much as Mau at once I think you'll need two trips for each. She let you start earlier than him, which leaves you a chance to finish in time but you'll have to make the first buckets extra hot so nobody gets a cold bath at 6: the nobles bathe before supper by habit because when they have important negotiations together it's usually at this meal. I hope your paws can stand some heat. And the last bad news is if I'm right in my time estimations... you can't afford resting even a minute before you finish it all. I'm sorry, Niamh."

"Ow... could we maybe..."

"...No, she'd know about it and you'd get in trouble. I don't know what you were about to suggest but, trust me, don't try cheating."

Chapter 15

Ao was gone since a moment now, freed from the seals that she fortunately managed to keep intact and happy to report how Nils had successfully finished his duty. Standing behind Elizabeth, who was studying a book and ignoring him for now, the jay was spiritless and broken: never in his life had he been that exhausted and he had experienced beatings that left him less sore. The last bathtubs had been an agonizing torture and without the energetic encouragements of the rabbit he'd have abandoned. Near the end, he hated her for mercilessly spurring and pestering him, never letting him rest. Now it was done, he liked her again for saving him from earning himself a punishment so close to the goal. He longed for a quiet night of sleep.

"...are hollow?"

He shook himself back to reality, having missed half of the ocelot's sentence, and lifted up his dropping head. "I beg your pardon, my lady?"

"Your bones." She turned back to him. "Never mind. Are you not wondering why you are alive, Niamh?"

Not at his best right now, he frowned in concentration. "Do you mean as in 'why we are on earth' or more specifically as in 'why did you spare my life', my lady?"

"Tssst, you were sharper a few hours ago. Work must be a new thing for you judging from the effect a little of it has on you. I was talking about your recent fall on a stone ground from an impressive height. I did some research." She held the book up so he could see some anatomical diagrams of various birds. "I think your flight ability saved you."

"I don't mean to contradict you, my lady, but I have some of my wing feathers shortened as all birds here. They cut them only on the right side," he showed his wing to her as he explained, "so when we try flying we spin around ourselves instead. It's very efficient at making us unable to achieve any lift, even better than cutting both sides. I know the feeling of flying and I can tell you that when you cut my rope, I flew as much as a cobblestone tied to a lead anchor."

"And with as much grace, indeed. I witnessed it and I believe you but my point was not that you flew: it's your adaptation to flight which made the difference. You see, flight puts a lot of stress on your skeleton and is highly dependent from your weight. Your bones, many of which are flexible to help with the flapping dynamic, are incredibly sturdy. In addition you are also optimized to be light, which reduces the involved forces, and you have a strong upper-body musculature which is extra, shock absorbent, padding. Your flexible wings are also shock deflectors if you fall well and I lack strong data but the high-surface may create some kind of an air cushion when you nearly touch the ground. I'm also reserved about the feather covering itself, which is more dense than fur but probably too thin to have a major effect. I'd need to toss you a few more times out of my window for details..." The bird looked alarmed as he was not sure if she was jocking or serious. "Relax, her highness would not allow me to do such thing. It was a fascinating riddle, wasn't it?"

"I must confess most of it flies far above my head, my lady, but I'm honestly amazed you managed to discover all that in such a short time."

"That's the great power of books, Niamh, when you know how to use them you can get all the knowledge you need by simply turning pages with your fingertips. No need to waste time getting out or... traveling. The world is so much more orderly and efficient once it has been analyzed, sorted and written down."

"But don't the ones who write the books need to get out and travel, my lady?"

"Yes, for now. There can only be so much knowledge in the world to collect. I figure in five, maybe ten years, we'll be done with this inconvenience." She pouted a bit, pensive. "I wish I could write my own book before it happens, we're probably the last ones to have the chance to partake in this great achievement. Sadly I couldn't yet find a topic that was not covered."

"Is there a book about thieves?"

The bird not trying to offer a topic suggestion, he was curious if there was interesting things for someone like him too in books, but she misunderstood. "Don't be silly, I won't write that. There's a reason why there are no books about thieves: it's not an interesting topic. You are not worth a book."

"Oh..."

"By the way, congratulations for completing your first task well. I'm glad I don't have to punish you."

"You... you are?" Nils was doubtful about that.

"Yes I am: the dense feathers, the unusual shape of your bottom... I suspect the good old cane we use when our non-bird servants need some discipline would be suboptimal on you and I'm still working on a better way. Extra time to study the issue is welcome."

Elizabeth closed her book, got up and picked up something from a cupboard. She faced him, keeping the mysterious item hidden in her back, and presented her open paw. "Give me your panties, I want to check one last thing before I allow you to rest for the night."

The jay tensed. It was getting weird again... and as bad as the physical work had been, he liked this kind of torments better than the more "creative" ones like boot licking. Again he knew he had no choice but at least he was promised his rest soon. Not making her wait, he silently wriggled out of the frilly pink panties and slid them down his legs doing his best not to let the skirt lift from any side during the operation. He surrendered them to the lady, who placed them on her desk.

She then pushed a big cushioned footrest before the front of her bed and pointed it. "Wings in your back, then lay onto them there."

He took position, having to try twice to find a good way because the footrest was not long enough for his whole back: he ended mostly lying but with the shoulders and head bent up and resting against the bed, his wings stuck under himself. "Will this do, my lady?"

"It's perfect. Now you lift your feet up." When he did, she firmly grabbed his ankles, one at their turn, and guided them to place his feet under one of the bedpost's bars, at both sides of his head. "Grab." He caught the bar while she finished pulling up his skirt, who was already exposing him from his position.

"My... My lady? What are you doing?" He was really anxious now, not liking at all the direction things were going toward.

She finally revealed the item she had been hiding. It was a shiny metal speculum, a model with 3 thin "branches" spreading by using a long screw and curved upward, specifically made for birds. "Try a wild guess?"

Nils opened huge eyes. He never saw, nor even knew the existence of, speculums but the tool's look was self explanatory enough when you were butt-up on your back with your legs forced spread. "P... Please tell me you're not about to put this where I think you're about to put it."

She chuckled. "Don't be ridiculous: what else could I possibly do with it?" She frowned suddenly. "But don't get ideas! I feel no inappropriate attraction for filthy thieves like you, this is in no way a recreational activity!" As she got irritated all by herself, she shoved the cold and hard object all the way inside the jay's cloaca without warning nor care for his wellbeing. Luckily she got the right angle not to bump hard onto anything and the branches where forming a slim rod when not spread at all. The poor Nils still shook, toes clenching hard around the bed's bar and letting out a pained squeal. His reaction somewhat satisfied the ocelot who began the spreading at a slower pace as she continued. "In case you forgot, that certain body part of yours which you told me yourself you had no full control on can get you killed at the first accident. And, more importantly, be a great embarrassment for her highness Amanda and myself. I can't simply ignore it and hope for the best!"

The speculum's mechanism was made so its end was widening a little faster than its root, locking it snuggly in position and making it slide a bit deeper during the opening. The feeling of brutal invasion was terrible and, as it was forcing spread delicate and intimate parts of the bird that had never been touched before slow but with absolutely no easing up or going back, it was also a lot of pain. Gasping and trembling, Nils had a hard time answering. "You... hfff... You won't... cut it off or... aaah... something... will you?"

"A tempting solution, which I considered. Unfortunately I'm not proficient enough in surgery to perform amputations without an unacceptable risk of killing you and I don't want to share our secret with a doctor. We'll have to be more creative than that."

The bird's relief was spoiled by an especially bad cramp. "Yaah.... pleaseplease no more! You'll tear me my lady!"

She stopped to check how spread he was already and undid a few screw turns before letting go of the tool. "There there. Calm down and stop squirming now." She peered inside for a while. "Hey, you are surprisingly minuscule down there."

"What? No... no I'm not! I'm average, my lady!"

"Well then birds are tiny, because I assure you it is nowhere close to average for any other specie I know. In fact, I remember I saw a bird penis' drawing in one encyclopedia... You, you personally, are under-endowed, Niamh. Don't make this face, it's an excellent news, I was worried for nothing after all!" Her eyebrow raised as she noticed something and she leaned closer. "Unless... hum... yes it could be only part of it if it's retracted behind the wall when not erect. Let's see..." She pushed a finger in and began exploring the jay's intimacy, pushing firmly at some spots, achieving the devastated bird's feeling of violation. "Ack! Yes, there's more of it. Riiight... here..." As the flesh pulsed under her prodding finger she pulled it out fast in disgust. "How dare you! You dirty beast, I told you it was not recreational!"

"Wait my lady! I didn't do it on purpose I swear! I was thinking nothing dirty! I told you I didn't control it and when you keep poking at it... I promise I feel no desire for you, my lady! I mean... because of my embarrassing position and because I'm respectful, not that you are not desirable..."

He was looking miserable enough for Elizabeth to believe him. She calmed down. "Purely physiological reaction from a healthy young male. This makes sense." And she slid her finger in him a second time, to rub and massage more deliberately.

"W... what are you doing!?"

"Science."

"That doesn't feel like science! Please stop!"

"I was not aware you were versed in science. And I'll do whatever I want with you, don't make me remind you of your position again. Now shut up and let it happen... but I don't permit you to have lusty thoughts!"

After several minutes of rubbing, then stroking as his penis was showing up, Nils was panting and entirely erect. And crushed in humiliation, too. His member was nearly 8 inches long, bent in an upward arch and tapering with a relatively large root. Tests from Elizabeth proved it was also firm enough not to be easily forced down or back inside.

"You're not that minuscule, after all. That's a nuisance. Look at it, there's no way this thing can't be seen miles away even under your skirt! I was right to be concerned."

"Well... it should be quite safe as long as nobody puts their fingers into me and purposely strokes me hard. I may not control it fully but it doesn't just pop up randomly neither, my lady."

"Provided you can keep your mind away from perversion, this is. Which is a condition I don't feel like relying on. By the way I saw enough, thank you. You shall pull it back inside now."

"Errrr... I can't really..."

She looked at the ceiling dramatically. "What? When you normally get erect, I don't imagine it remains like this for the rest of the week. That'd be ridiculous. How do you proceed, then?"

"I... hum... I do... you know, the... thing it went erect for, my lady. It softens shortly after it, usually."

"Eww! This is absolutely out of the question! What if you do nothing at all?"

"I don't know."

She let out an exasperated sigh. "Gah, Niamh, your penis is very inconvenient!" She froze briefly at the end of that sentence and suddenly recovered her smile. "I got it. I read about it somewhere." She trotted to a bookshelf and searched for the right book while explaining. "Did you know it's actually an existing condition?"

"What, my lady?"

"When the penis doesn't go soft when it should. It sounds fun but I read it can become excruciatingly painful and degenerate up to gangrene when lasting too long. There's a medication for it and I see no reason why it shouldn't work for you too. I'll let you keep your boner for this time. Enjoy it well while it lasts, because this evening I'll have the medication prepared and starting from tomorrow you'll get unable to have one anymore. I think I'll even push your member in its sleeve when retracted and glue the opening with that resinous mix they use to close some wounds, at this point one won't notice you are a male even if having sex with you!"

"P... permanently?"

"No, both the medication and gluing don't last for long if not maintained regularly. So if you are a good girl and earn your release, you'll get your penis back at the end of your punishment."

"Oh..."

"Time to go to bed for you. Get up and give me my speculum back."

Chapter 16

Nils had been striped naked again, to keep his uniform as clean as possible, and led to the second door of Elizabeth's room. He expected it to be an exit and was shocked to find out it led to a second, smaller, square room: in the world of the poor, one building was usually one room, two at most if there was a second floor. He already knew about the castle and was not surprised to find many rooms there... but that the rooms themselves could have their own rooms was a novelty for him.

This one was colder, lacking its own fireplace, and had only two pieces of furniture. A plain rectangular chest and... a perch? It had a wide base, holding a round horizontal beam on two supports only a few inches up. Nils didn't really need such equipment to sleep but was sensitive to the attention... until the ocelot, who had placed his uniform into the chest and was retrieving things from it tossed him a pair of shackles. From their shapes, he understood how the small cuffs were made to attach onto the beam supports, and the larger ones after a very short piece of chain to his ankles. Suddenly the perch was gaining purpose but losing its friendliness.

"Is it absolutely necessary My Lady?"

"And how! I'm keeping you with me because I don't want a wild beast like you on the loose at night around the girl servants but it's not to give you the chance to assault me instead! Get on the perch and put your shackles on."

"But... the door is looking sturdy enough to keep me in!"

"Don't insult my intelligence, will you? You're a thief. Remind me, which other profession than locksmith is well known for its affinity with locks?"

"I can't do that without tools, my lady, and you checked even 'that hidden location' on me: I have nothing I could use."

"You have your feathers. Bird thieves can use a plucked feather to open doors. I read it in a story."

"That book should find a better locksmith then, because its springs are way too loose!"

"My patience is running thin Niamh! On your perch, this instant!" He surrendered at the threatening tone and ran to it, hurriedly beginning to set the shackles. "That's more like it. You'd better learn watching your beak and obeying without discussion fast, because if you really need to be tamed the hard way, I can be a lot less nice than I have been to you until now."

"S... Sorry, my lady."

"You should be, indeed." As he finished, she pulled out a leather strap with buckles at both sides. "Stand still, wings in your back." The first buckle was used to close a loose loop around his neck, the second for a larger one holding his elbows close together. This setup was not pulling on his throat but prevented the bind to move around, making it surprisingly inescapable for something so loose and comfortable.

Nils first thought to himself that the lady was sure making things the safe way... but when she pulled the last item from the chest and it looked like an falconry hood, he scratched "safe" for "weird again". "How comes you had all those things, I thought I was the only bird in the castle?"

"I didn't have them. I had them made for you."

"So fast?"

"Yes, I'm a rich and important lady in a big merchant town: I can have things done way faster than you can. Hum... could. If you could get them at all." She slid it over his head and as she tightened its laces, he got the proof she was not lying: the hood was obviously made to his measurements.

Still feeling his penis dangling from his crotch, legs kept half spread and still, arms bound and now blind, he felt utterly helpless. As usual in tensed situations, it's a silly thing that came to his mind the first. "What if I have to use the chamber pot?"

"Well you should have thought about that before... Ack, right, this time it was my fault, I left you no opportunity. Serves you well for being so stubborn and annoying. Thus, you'll hold it and wait until tomorrow. And on this, time for some rest..." There was a strap he hadn't noticed, he felt it as she tightened it around his beak to force it shut "...for everyone."

Nils had a rush of fear as he expected her to abuse him some more now he was so offered. Nothing happened but the noise of the door closing and being locked down. Maybe it was a trick and she was still inside, wanting to surprise him? After a long moment of silence, he decided she was gone for real: obviously she wouldn't have had the patience to wait here for so long just to mess with him, her style was more... upfront. Although he was not ruling out she'd come back in the middle of the night or saved it for tomorrow morning.

There was nothing he could do but enjoy the rest while it lasted, so he let his mind drift to other ideas. He remembered about his fine, he had no clue how much of it he reimbursed today with his first bathtub chore. Heck, he didn't even knew how much was the fine! He had the idea Elizabeth was in charge of the accounting and that meant she could shorten or lengthen his stay as she liked. He... was not too sure what to do of that discovery. If you removed the "weird parts", serving at the castle meant a safe, clean and comfy place to stay, three nice and filling meals a day and getting friends to some other servants; after his previous life, that was an excellent deal and even if the lady hated him and exhausted him at work he would not have minded her cheating to keep him for a while. But there were those weird parts, adding an unpredictable and downright scary and disturbing touch. Then again, what could he do about it?

Next he pondered about his new insights about the princess. She was beloved by her people for her kindness and, having experienced it first hand, he could tell how true it was. But to his surprise she had her calculating side as well and some of the hard-edged and dangerous traits of her father. He was still sure the kindness was genuine and not just a mask. Not being an expert at ethics, he wondered if being ruthless with kind intends, probably willing to brutally sacrifice a few pawns for the good of many, was a good thing or not. He had no beginning of an answer when, caught back by his physical and mental exhaustion, he fell sound asleep.

Chapter 17

Ao chuckled. "Niamh, you put all the cover's length on the same side! You really never made a bed?"

"Usually, I try not to touch them."

"You're weird sometimes. Look, I'll show you again."

Nils was happy. First, the morning weirdness had been kept minimal: when waking him up, Elizabeth had kept him restrained and hooded to feed him some horribly bitter paste and had used the speculum again. She was gentler this time and it didn't hurt, nor last long; he just felt her pushing, using a tickling paintbrush, pulling some skin... and it remained pulled. Odd but not too uncomfortable, he got used to it soon. Nor too scary as he had been explained what was happening the previous day. When she stated her satisfaction, he felt quite emasculated. This was silly since there was nothing permanent and he would not have the occasion to do the thing he couldn't do anymore during his stay anyway, so no loss. Still it was not a nice feeling. Getting his clothes on after he was freed, he discovered how stiff and sore his first chore had left him, another bad feeling. And then it went better! Elizabeth had been called urgently elsewhere and, taken by surprise before she had the time for real instructions, had put Ao in charge!

Of course the rabbit had found him something easy so he could recover. Oh she was not the kind to get lazy or allow him to be neither but no heavy lifting or such unpleasantnesses: they were making the beds and doing a little of cleaning up in the rooms, having a pretty good time being in friendly company.

She began undoing the jay's bad work while chatting. "So, how about your poems? Did Lady Elizabeth probed you yet?"

"Errr... yes, yes you were right. She was very curious to explore me. But unfortunately I didn't had the opportunity to recite much."

"I was sure she would. Don't worry, she'll continue. What did she wanted to know this time?"

The door opened on an other rabbit servant, many of the castle's servants were white rabbits, who saved Nils from a delicate question. "Hey, Ao and the lusty maid, sir Leopold's children just went to his room and from the sound of it I think they jumped on his bed again. You should probably go and redo it."

Ao smiled and nodded. "Thanks for the hint!"

"You're welcome!" And the other rabbit left.

The jay remained staring at the closed door a few more seconds. "Wait... what did she just called me?"

"Ah, this... Well, you'd better get used to be called 'the lusty maid' because it's catching faster than 'Niamh' around the castle. Because, you know, of how you were a port prostitute before. This is not common for a servant. And how you are not allowed to sleep with the other servants. That and also the provocative way your tail lifts the back of your skirt all the time."

"But I don't do it on purpose! My body is build this way!"

"I know but it's still eye-catching. I'm sorry Niamh, please don't be angry at me, I'm always calling by you your true name."

"Gah, that's great! Ah, sorry if I sounded like I was angry at you Ao, I'm not. But this sucks."

"Is it that bad? I mean, you must be used to it as a prostitute."

"It... it's an image I'd like to leave behind. You know, how I'm trying to reform and be a better person." He sighed. "Maybe they will forget if I keep a low profile for a while."

"With your story, your ambassador's collar and as the only bird of the castle? You're already famous all around the place..."

"Gah... I so hate my life."

They finished the room in silence. By chance, Nils was not good at remaining gloomy and was already recovering some spirit by the time they finished the room. When they entered the corridor, they saw a column of slim and tall figures in gray hooded robes. They were so well wrapped up he couldn't even guess their specie and were walking in their direction.

Ao patted his arm for his attention and whispered. "They're the Crownlanders, stay out of their way close to the wall and bow silently when they'll pass by us."

He did as instructed and both waited for the strange creatures to be gone before resuming their duties. Of course, Nils was curious. "The Crownlanders? As in Crown islands? The guys who were expected yesterday?"

"Yes, that was them. They must have been delayed, it happens when traveling by the sea and the wind was in the wrong direction all day yesterday and the day before. You probably owe them one: I bet lady Elizabeth was called as a translator this morning, not all of them can talk our language."

"I love those guys and their country! So, they are important?"

"The Crownlanders in general, yes, they are good friends of the kingdom and a lot of our army's iron comes from trades with them. The ones we just met, I can't tell. Political assassination is one of their specialties, so for safety they tend to hide their identities and positions as often as they can. When you meet one in those robes, he can be anything from the guy who empties their chamber pots to a king. In doubt, always be respectful!"

"Political assassination? Is our royal family safe?"

"Don't be afraid, they don't export that specialty. It's some kind of a familial tradition, their whole clan would be badly insulted if one of them killed a noble not of their blood."

"Weird guys... Looking weird too, I didn't see well but they looked so slim!"

"They're lizards, it's their normal built."

The remaining of the morning was uneventful. The most interesting thing was Nils learned Ao was a needlewoman and cook, which is why she was spending most of her time at the same place and Elizabeth could summon her at will (no, unlike what it looked like to him, the lady couldn't magically invoke all the servants at all times). He was all the more grateful that she gave some of her probably busy time doing lower tasks with him so heartily. She also loved poems, a passion she inherited from her mother, which is how she caught the lady's attention. At the time she only knew simple traditional ones but she could now read a little and had a wider repertoire.

Good fortune never lasting for long, at least not the bird's, it eventually was time to return to the tutor's room. The morning had felt like a gust of freedom and he wished it could last more. Maybe she would not be back from her translator duties? He knocked at the door and... got an answer. She was back.

The two servants entered, to find that the Princess was in the room as well. They saluted together.

Amanda smiled to both and looked at Ao. "Hello Ao, it was some time since I last saw everyone's favorite poetic rabbit. Are you still reading?"

"I'm happy to see you again too, your highness! Yes, I still do. Lady Elizabeth allowed me to read a new book called 'The Cycle of the Prince Bauth', which is full of lovely poems. And songs. It's a hard book and I'm going slow but my lady helps me with the biggest words and I'm loving it."

"I remember this one, I was still having a hard time with big words just like you at the time I read it. My favorite part was the love song of the prince Bauth to his beloved Helena. Did you reach it yet?"

"No, your highness. I'm where the prince laments over his fallen brother after the first battle. It's very moving."

"Too bad, I would have liked to hear you sing it. It would have refreshed fond memories. Let me know when you'll get there."

"I... I will but I'm not very good at singing. I'm more at ease with reciting, your highness, and I wouldn't want to spoil the song you like." Her face enlightened at an idea. "Maybe Niamh could learn it! She's a bird, birds are good at singing!"

Nils almost jumped, guessing instantly that this could not end well for him. He understood how Ao was kindly trying to offer him a chance to do something cultural that would help his relation with the lady, but the rabbit had no idea what she put in motion. He, on the other hand, painfully did. "I... errr... About this reputation of us birds, I think it comes from the ones who are not corvids. The only quality of my singing is loudness but once you heard the sound of it you don't see it as a quality anymore."

As he was fearing, this only made them all curious. Especially the princess who enjoyed a good laugh. "Aw, it can't be that bad, can it?"

"It is, your highness! If I sing you'll surely be bleeding by the ears and the guards will have to put me to death!"

She chuckled. "I don't believe that. Now now, you are too harsh on yourself Niamh. Sing us something, one of your own songs, I'm sure you'll see it's not that bad."

"D... do I really have to? I don't know any song..."

Elizabeth snapped at what she perceived as a new attempt at rebellion. "Her highness gave you an order, Niamh. It's not that hard, and everybody knows songs. Even the poor sing. So quit the excuses."

"The thing is I'm not sure the song the poor sing are... appropriate, my lady."

"Well, they are probably poor in literacy and of a simple and rugged style but it can't be that horrible. Just choose your... least inappropriate one."

So doomed! So much trouble! This feeling was becoming familiar by now, why did those things keep happening to him? Couldn't he be allowed a rest? He was careful and trying his best, it was unfair everything kept going so wrong!

Surrendering, he swallowed hardly and choose his song. The thing was, as a poor thief, all the songs he knew he learned by listening drunk men from taverns and they were way more inappropriate than anything Elizabeth could possibly conceive. She was about to broaden her horizons, however, because "the Sailor's Hairy Dick" was, truly, the least offensive he could find.

He took a big breath and began singing.

Chapter 18

"I... I swear on everything good and holly it really was the least inappropriate one I knew! I... I tried to warn you... Please don't kill me!"

There was a moment of silence as Elizabeth was still recovering from the shock and the princess catching back her breath after she laughed so much. Ao had both of her paws before her muzzle and was blushing hard enough for some pink to be noticeable despite her fur, it was visible how she was embarrassed and sorry she accidentally got Nils in trouble... but even so she had a hard time holding some giggling.

Amanda sighed and pulled a white handkerchief from one of her pockets to wipe some tears from her eyes. "That was... nothing like any song I heard before. And your voice... has some character. It was instructing, anyways, did you know there were that many names for the male organ Elizabeth?"

"Hum... I suspect she might have invented some of them, your highness: I only knew twelve of them."

"How about that... peculiar feature of port Norway's females? Is that true?"

"Not that I know of, I suspect this one was 'artistic freedom' in order to get the 'ock' rhyme."

The princess nodded and her face became more serious the time she pondered about something. "You know, the more I learn about Niamh, the more I realize how little I know about life outside of the castle. This was actually food for my thoughts." She smiled again. "My desire for morning entertainment was fulfilled sooner than I expected, I'll leave you for now. And remember: I don't allow you to kill her, not even a little maiming at the edges."

"Hum, your highness sometimes has challenging demands but I'll try my best as usual."

Moments later, the jay was standing alone before the outraged ocelot wondering anxiously if she'd control herself into obeying her orders. Ao had been sent to wait outside as soon as Amanda left the room and Elizabeth was staring at him, arms crossed and eyes narrowed, taking her time to decide of a horrible punishment. This was, at least, the desired effect and it was working well but in truth she already knew what she'd do and was not that angry for once: she had more fun that she'd ever admit and making the princess laugh that much was redeeming the bird a lot. He was not supposed to know, however, as he should not be allowed to feel like he could forget his good manners.

Deciding she had built enough expectations, she unfolded her arms. "You have no idea how lucky you are her highness is so forgiving, because if I had my word to say you'd have it a lot worse than what's about to happen to you! Bend over this chair, palms on it!" Knowing better than to argue, he swiftly assumed the position. She got herself a short and thin switch with a thicker handle and Nils thought, with relief, that she had not yet found her promised alternative to spanking. He also thought her choice of tool was at his advantage: as sharp and stingy as it was looking, he knew the instrument lacked enough weight to be efficient through a nice feathery padding. He was wrong about her plans. "Give me one of your feet, and keep it open."

As Elizabeth grabbed firmly his ankle to present his foot up, the switch became a lot more intimating. She first made it spin between her finger to hold it by the thin part and hit across the joints of his toes with the handle. He groaned and clenched his beak, grasping at the chair. "I'll do this each time you close your foot to protect its bottom. And every time it'll happen, I'll add one lash to your punishment. Understood?"

"U... Understood, my lady."

"We'll go for 20 lashes. You'll count them, loud and clear. If I don't hear a number distinctly or if you are too slow, the lash doesn't count."

"I... I don't know how to count this far, my lady..."

"Ack, can't you even properly take a punishment? Fine! I'll do the counting for this one time, shut up then!" Without further ado, she took the swift by the handle, lifted it high and whipped it with force under his foot. It whistled in the air and produced a neat snappy slap under impact. The lack of visible welt, scales being harder to mark than smooth skin, was a slight disappointment but the way the bird convulsed letting out a gasp and toes straining half hooked for several seconds compensated it. This was definitely working. Knowing that the illiterate bird couldn't count, and thus had no idea how many lashes he'd receive, also felt rather satisfying to her, on a second thought. "One."

She beat his foot at a slow pace, in parallel lines and careful to make each lash equally hard. At first, Nils prostrated tetanized onto his chair, breathless safe pained groans escaping from him, but starting from the fifth one he gradually got a lot more vocal. Near ten he was whimpering pleadingly with his eyes full of tears, in agonizing pain. Holding his ankle still was becoming difficult and she had to threaten him with more lashes if he didn't stop struggling to reduce his thrashing. He couldn't stop himself from closing his foot near the end and earned himself three extra hits.

Once it was finished, she allowed him a pause to recover, watching him sob trembling hugging his chair. "Good. Did you understood your lesson?"

"N... no more singing... ever... my lady!"

"Hum. Good enough, I guess. You shall get back up."

He got up a little hardly, careful not to let his hurt foot touch the floor, and stood before the tutor on one leg wiping his eyes with the back of his wrists.

She sighed again. "You look stupid. And worse, you look like you just have been punished, which implies you misbehaved."

"Is not... the second part true?"

"Both parts are but, as you are her highness' experiment at criminal rehabilitation, I'd appreciate if you could at least look like you were more exemplary. Try to walk." He reluctantly did an attempt, wincing each time he put any weight on his foot and showing a pronounced limp. "That's hardly discreet. Well, my bad: I should have thought about balancing the punishment on both feet for a more symmetrical result. It would have stood out less. Keep training for a moment, I have something I must check: you're not the only bother I have on my arms today."

The jay spent some time miserably limping in circles trying to get used to the pain, while Elizabeth went to her desk to examine some papers about the servants' weekly schedule. She was visibly not finding what she was searching, which was not helping with her mood. "Ack, it's useless!"

"Something's wrong, my lady?"

She sent him an angry look for daring to interrupt her work but she was feeling like venting her frustration aloud. This, she noted, was at least one thing the jay was good for. "Crownlanders. It usually never happens, fur has little appeal for them, but once in a rare while they see a servant girl they like and it had to happen today. And crownlanders being who they are, we don't know how important the one who asked for a meeting with the girl is. And to be sure it would not be too easy, he sent a messenger who almost didn't talk our tongue when there were no translators around to hear his demands: what ended transmitted to me can hardly be more undefined! All I know to find her is she has lovely legs and, as about half of the female servants, wears ribbons! Tssst, 'lovely legs', I don't even know what it can mean for them. It's not like we have any servants with scaly lizard l..." She stopped abruptly mid-sentence and her suddenly suspicious eyes focused on the lower half of Nils' body. "...scaly legs... ribbons... lizard-like qualities such as egg-laying and vibrant colors... No, it can't be! You didn't wriggled your tail up around any crownlander, did you?!"

"But I don't do it on purpose! My body is build this way!"

She face-palmed, with both paws. "Fine. Fine. Calm down Elizabeth. Well, seeing the bright side, this solves one problem. No, better, it solves two: Niamh, get back on the chair, I'm making you symmetrical!"

Chapter 19

Elizabeth returned into the room. "Confirmed. I asked our two most crownlander-savvy diplomats and those lizards are known to like birds, especially colorful ones. There's no doubt about who caught their eyes."

"I didn't do it on purpose..."

"...your body is built this way. I know, I know. You're lucky you could neither control nor know how to be appealing for them because otherwise I would have sworn you did it to annoy me."

Ao stopped rubbing the appeasing balm under Nils feet, that he had to walk well for his rendezvous allowed him this relief, to look up. "I was with her when it happened, my lady. I swear she did not do anything, we didn't even realize they noticed us."

"I believe you. By the way, she now has an official appointment. Is she ready?"

"I'm done with her feet but should we do anything with her clothing?"

"No, we don't know what they like, except that they found her cute in this uniform. So we change nothing." She turned to the jay. "Now listen to me very carefully, Niamh. The crownlanders are important guests, you shall not mess this up! It's almost lunch time and you will eat with a group of them. Thankfully, with their secretive ways, they have near to no protocol and if we're lucky they will not be able to understand what you say even if you sing the Sailor's Hairy Dick to them. That should be easy even for you! So just behave do nothing silly, and only open your beak to put food into it if you can. And try to be smiling. Do you think you can manage that?"

"I think so, my lady. But what if he... you know... really likes me."

"Aw, don't be pessimistic. He probably wants nothing else than spending a relaxing meal with some eye-candy by his side, and then he'll be happy and you'll never have to meet him again. This being said, again you will surely not have to but... in case he wants more, you will do everything he wants. Because I swear you'll be in trouble if I hear a high-ranking crownlander got upset because some maid played hard to get! Any questions?"

"N... no, my lady."

"Good. And relax, you'll probably have a good time. Smile, now." Someone knocked at the door after this and Ao got up ready to go opening it. The lady stopped her. "No, it must be them. I'll open. Niamh, stand up."

Elizabeth opened, to face a small group of robed figures. They exchanged salutations, Nils curiously noted how instead of bowing or shaking hands, they just patted their left shoulder with the right paw. And that their paws were thin, clawed and of a vivid green. Their tongue was sounding strange to him as well, very quiet and full of blown syllables which made it sound like they were whispering most of the time. The lady soon beckoned him. "Come Niamh."

The crownlanders did their elbow-touching sign to him and, hoping he was doing well, he imitated them. They exchanged more undecipherable words with the tutor before leaving with the jay.

As the ones he met before, they walked in column. With a slight variation this time, as he was in front of it between two of them guiding him by gently keeping one paw each on one of his shoulders. How tall and silent they were was intimidating and, despite the balm, walking was still painful. They soon entered a small room where cushions had been placed directly on the floor around a low table covered with odd looking, but nice smelling, food. As soon as the door was locked behind them, the atmosphere changed. Relaxing, they broke their formation and began chatting together freely as they stripped from their robes. Below it, they were bare-chested with baggy white pants held by thick leather belts under a side of which were stuck curved daggers. They had no shoes neither, their only other ornament being collars full of shiny dangling pearls and enough colorful strips of fabrics to create feather-like tufts.

He was imagining them light due to their figure, but if elongated they were actually muscular. On the other hand, they were as green as their paws suggested, with some bright yellow touches. They had black tattoos as well, lines falling from under the eyes like tears to go straight down and then traveling all the way to the end of the tail with seemingly random right angle breaks causing detours on the way. Looking better he noticed they all had the exact same tattoos. And a few scars... and several of them shared the exact same scars as well, as if when one was injured naturally others imitated.

By the time he observed all that, they were finishing to sit cross-legged around the table. One of them clapped his paws to catch his attention and, smiling, tapped his left thigh while saying something. The one next to him translated with a thick accent. "He tells you to come." So this was his admirer? He walked around the group to join him and was wondering where he could sit, as there were no more free cushions, when the lizard picked up his paw delicately and guided him to take place on the left of his lap. He caressed the side of his neck and left his paw resting lightly at his shoulder.

There was a sudden silence, all the lizards watching at each others. They reached for a piece of food with perfectly synchronization, lifted it high up, engulfed it... and the quiet chatting resumed as they began eating. Nils was terribly uncomfortable, feeling the other male's affection and way too close of his cold body for his comfort. Being dressed up like a female was already difficult, but it was nothing compared to the sensation of being desired as one. Even if it remained courteous. After his first bite, the lizard picked up a second piece of... whatever it was he was eating and held it before his face talking again. "He tells you to eat." He reached his beak and, doing his best to keep sensual contacts to a minimum, tasted it. Pleased, the lizard kept alternating one bite for himself and one of the same thing for the bird.

The food was varied, both in colors, textures and tastes, and he could not recognize anything. Not even a single ingredient in a single bite. Some where dry and spicy, others exploding in sweet pulp on the tongue. Except for a few ones too strong or strange for him, he enjoyed most of them. They were drinking a clear liquid with a light bitter aftertaste too, that was good at cleaning up one taste to get ready for the next one. As he was relaxing, the lizard began to talk to him, via his translator. "He asks your name."

"I'm Niamh, sir."

He heard them trying to repeat his name but struggling with the N. "He says it's a beautiful name but that he can't speak it right. He apologizes. He says he shall call you Iaham instead, which is the name of a beautiful flower on our islands whose petals fly in the winds of spring and smells nice. He also says you are warm and beautiful and make his hart feel light and..." He seemed to hesitate on how to translate the end "...the meal more tasty."

Nils blushed very hard. "Tell him... thanks... and... and he's nice too, and strong."

Once he got the translation, the lizard laughed happily and fluffed his neck's feathers, making him shiver. "He says you don't be intimidated. He says he likes your voice and he'd like it if you could talk more."

Nils hesitated, wanting a safe topic that could not backfire on him. "I... I know a couple of poems. Would he like that?"

Ao's poems had some success, the whole table stopping to listen both at the nicely rhythmical and rhymed recitation in foreign tongue and at its approximative translation, the lizard doing it visibly having a hard time with some of the phrasing. Feeling light-headed, the jay understood the drink was likely to be alcohol and probably part of the reason why he was getting more and more comfortable. Careful, he stopped drinking... but for some reason he couldn't understand he felt himself more and more intoxicated overtime anyway. How long it all lasted and what exactly he talked about after a while became... very blurry, and by the end of the meal he was having difficulties keeping his balance and ended curled snuggly against the strong lizard's chest. Whatever the details, one thing was at least sure: the crownlander was very happy.

Chapter 20

Head hurting. Too much light. Nils groaned trying to find out where he was and how he arrived there. Ao removed the fresh wet compress from his forehead. "She's waking up My Lady!"

Elizabeth walked to the bed and, to his great surprise, she was not angry. "Ah, welcome back. You got us scared for a while!"

"What happened?"

"Shaashi. That's what you drank while dining, the crownlanders also call it the 'treacherous wine' due to it's fermentation cycle. Do you know what fermentation is Niamh?"

"N... no?"

"Never mind. Short story: the drink only contains a little of alcohol but it produces a lot more of it over time once inside your belly. This is such a common thing for them they didn't realize a foreigner could not be aware of the way it worked and get tricked by it; they were very sorry when they brought you back carrying your knocked out body. But they found it cute, I believe... probably because you only started vomiting after they left. No memories of that, at all?" He shook his head and groaned as it felt like if the room was spinning. "Well, by the way, they were delighted with your company and told me only compliments about you. For once you did an excellent job, I might even count you this afternoon's salary to remove from your fine despite I doubt you'll be able to do anything until tomorrow."

"Th... thank you My Lady."

Ao couldn't help asking. "How was the one who wanted to see you? Was he nice with you?"

"Very gentle... They had delicious food... He called me a beautiful flower whose petals fly in the winds of spring and smells nice, and warm and beautiful, and making his hart feel light and..." he frowned as he tried to remember all of it. "...a condiment, I think. N... nobody called me that before..."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "You're still very intoxicated. Enough talking, you rest now."

Ao chuckled. "Shaashi must be strong: sooner she even claimed she was a boy!"

Chapter 21

The princess' lesson being finished, Elizabeth was gathering back her books.

"So I heard you disregarded my orders and tried to have Niamh poisoned?"

Surprised, the tutor looked up from what she was doing. Smiling, Amanda was obviously only jocking so she returned the smile. "An incident with crownlanders, she got surprised by some properties of their drinks. It was nothing serious, however, she should have fully recovered by tomorrow. No need to worry for her, your highness."

"Betrayed by unknown details. It is as she was trying hard to send me a message, again..."

"A message?"

"I thought about this incident with her song, it bothered me the whole time since it happened."

"Well if it can relieve you, I punished her for it. No killing or maiming, as you ordered, but she should think twice next time before telling you obscenities!"

The princess laughed. "I had guessed that already. But it's not what I meant. I'm not angry after her, on the contrary: she surprised me with something entirely alien to the castle, which was a free warning. If this time was harmless fun, you know as well as me how surprise is not something we like to face in politics."

"I'm not sure I'm following you... this peculiar incident is, I would assume, highly unlikely to occur in a political context, isn't it?"

"Naturally. Consider the greater scheme, not the specific revealing example. Let's try an other: as I told you, father never believed our story about her past. What do you think was wrong with it?"

Elizabeth didn't ponder for long, because she had already tried to find out by herself last night and had to abandon. "I have no idea, your highness. It was a good story, well constructed and logical, built from excellent books."

"Precisely. Father always tells me how fresh information spoils fast. Both time and passing through indirect sources damages it. Tell me now, Elizabeth, how many of your books where written this week? How many were by an author you personally know the biases and limits of?"

The tutor stared in shock as her precious books were attacked by surprise. "N... none... but..."

Amanda raised a paw to stop her. "Calm down, please. You didn't teach me your love and respect for books all those years, gave me so much useful instruction, for me to turn my back on you after a mere lewd song. I still care for books. I don't even criticize their contents, for there are informations that do not spoil. Mathematics and logics, for examples, I can't conceive not to be eternal. The only thing I'm saying is there are some kind of informations that do not fit into them. Transient, local... details. Unimportant things that, in the end, can become important in some circumstances. Like that mistake we can't even find in our story and that destroyed our lie. I'm not rejecting your teaching, I just think I need new additional areas of studies. And since I trust and love you, I'd like you to be the one helping me with them as well."

Elizabeth needed a brief time to recover from her fright but she gradually calmed down and got her smile back. "I think I'm understanding your logic now, your highness. Your trust in me touches my heart and is a great honor, I will not disappoint you! I will study a way to approach those details about the outside world right away so we can begin building knowledge about them together."

"Actually, I already have an idea about the approach. I know you disprove of such methods but I believe the only way to be efficient is direct examination. Going out."

"Your highness! No way! With all due respect... His highness your father would never approve! Think of all the stories I told you about princesses bored of their quiet life and going for adventure: they always come back in the end after unpleasant and dangerous trials... Please reconsider!"

"Come on, you know how those dumb creatures abandoning their duties for futile excuses and unable to appreciate what they have been entrusted with always irritated me immensely. They all would deserve never to return, if you ask me. I have no plan of going on adventuring."

"Aaah, what a relief. I'm sorry I got jumpy, you really startled me. You. Getting out. I feel stupid having believed that nonsense now."

"I will send someone out to be my eyes. Those eyes will need to be trustworthy, with a keen sense of observation and analysis, a good memory, and already familiar enough with the outside world to navigate it well."

"Hum... I agree, but I fear finding one individual with those qualities will be the difficult part."

"I doubt there is one individual with them all. But, you know, eyes go by pairs..."

The tutor had a cold shiver when she understood how the pair had already been decided long ago.

Chapter 22

Elizabeth stood a long time right at the door of the castle, gathering the strength to surpass her disgust for the filthy, disorderly, world of the poor before going one step further. She also was in a very, very, bad mood right now. "Niamh, you will pay for this sooooo much..."

Nils had no idea what was going on and why he was in trouble again. He had been sick all the previous day, was bound to his perch for the night as soon as he could stand well on his feet and the next morning was awoken and sent to the kitchen to take his breakfast by a grumpy lady. Once back, she had led him directly here, almost saying nothing at all until now even when he had tried to ask questions. Since she had a difficult character, he had assumed everything was normal until that last sentence. Doom again from the early morning, great. What did he do this time?

She abruptly resumed walking, going down the dirt road away from the castle and his fear raised to a new level. "M... My lady?" He hurried to follow. "You're going out? Without guards?"

"We are going out. And I'm sure we'll find enough imbeciles there without bringing our own."

"B... but it's dangerous!"

"Don't be silly, who would want us any bad? Nobody knows us there. Also I don't see the poor going around with guards do they? If they don't need help, I certainly don't."

"One could want to hurt you to take your money because you look rich. And the guard-less poor tend to die a lot more often and horribly than the average castle person!"

"I can defend myself just fine, thank you. You should know that."

"It's different: you forgot your poker and her highness' balcony before leaving."

"I'm not in the mood to put up with your loud beak, Niamh! There will be no second warning: shut up, this instant!"

He surrendered and kept walking with her silently. He remembered how she told him there were bad currents in the sea when explaining the ambassador's collar. Speaking of which, some guys would gladly cut his head off in order to retrieve the shiny but locked up thing. Reaching his paw to his throat at the idea, he refocused. Swimming, so. Certain death by drowning but that was better that what he'd get from the royal family if the lady ever died on him. Still not a nice way to go. No, all considered, protecting her bravely with his life was the best thing to do: at worst a good knife stabbing in the belly was the most merciful option for him if the expedition went awry.

He almost bumped in her back when she stopped without warning at the first intersection. "So, where do we go now?"

"Are... are you asking me, my lady?"

"Of course, I'm asking you! You're the one who knows this place, do you think I took you with me because I couldn't stand missing your company?"

"Sorry... What are you looking for, then?"

"New information. Anything goes."

Nils still didn't understand but "anything goes" was fine by him. Then it'd be the smiths' alley: expensive stuff, thus rich visitors, thus lots of guards. High risk to lose your purse to a pickpocket but slim one to get killed. "The left way, my lady." Hey, maybe losing her purse would make her realize the town was no place for her before it got worse?

They reached the smiths' alley quietly enough for the bird to get anxious about someone recognizing him. Fortunately, the few familiar faces he crossed seemed deceived by his new clothes. How efficient those were kept being amazing to him.

"Stop doing that."

"Doing what, my lady?"

"Waving to all the guards. I don't know what's in your head, the pride to be a member of the castle or anything, but it's silly and annoying. Stop it."

He lowered his arm. "It's not what you believe, it's..."

"...I don't care. Stop it. By the way, I'm not impressed. Peoples, shops... I see nothing so special here. Lets try another approach, imagine you were still a thief, Niamh."

"Yes... I think I have the image well. Then?"

"See this candlestick?" She pointed her finger at one stall. "The big silver one, with all the ornaments."

"Yes, it's beautiful."

"It is. So, imagine, you want to steal it."

"No, I don't want to my lady! This smith is Joel, the fence, he knows my name and stealing from him is bad for a thief's business and for keeping your insides inside of your body."

"He's a what?"

"A fence, my lady. Most of the pricey things we steal, we have no use for. We just want to sell them for money. But you can't go back to a merchant to sell him notoriously stolen goods. Unless he's not too lawful and that's what a fence is."

"So, basically, you're telling me this smith is the person making thievery profitable in our town?"

"He's not the only fence and that's only one aspect of thievery. But he's a big name, you could say."

"And no guard ever bothers him?"

"He's discreet about it."

"How can he be? You just told me he was a 'big name' and he has to be known around for his affairs."

"He's well known among thieves but we don't talk much to the guards, you know. I wouldn't tell you about him if I wasn't so much your debtor."

"This makes sense but it must be hard to prevent any leak on the long term. Accidents happens."

"That happens, yes. Then, he talks to the guards. They are more reasonable than you'd think, my lady: given the choice between looking the other way for nice money or getting their insides out, they usually pick the first option. And those who don't... well, you can guess."

"Interesting. Good, back to the exercise. You're a thief. Let's pretend he's not a fence. You want to steal the candlestick. How do you proceed?"

"Easy: wait for the right moment, walk to it quietly, grab it, run like the wind."

"What, and that's it? Nothing more elaborate?"

"Well, no. It's not very stylish I admit but, when you can, the simpler the plan, the less things there are that can go wr..."

"...Hey, bird!" He was interrupted in his explanation by a couple of wolf guards, one of which who grabbed him unceremoniously by the scruff. Elizabeth tensed, about to react angrily... but refrained her reaction at the last moment. For science. "What about wing regulation, uh? You think you're so pretty in your cute skirt you can ignore the law?"

"N... no sir, sorry sir. I was daydreaming. I meant no bad, I'm respecting the law. Look, it's cut as it should." He showed them his right wing and the second guard deliberately pulled at his feathers roughly when spreading them for the verification.

The first one released him and slapped him behind the head before concluding. "Be more careful next time." And both departed.

"Yes sir, thank you sir."

The ocelot was shocked, all her back's fur raised. "Those guards assaulted you! Like this, for no reason at all!?"

"Errr, not exactly for no reason, my lady: that was because I stopped 'waving' to them. That's how the wing-cutting regulation is enforced, there's no other practical way: if you're a bird, when you see any guard, you show your right wing. You get used to it fast."

"Ah. Well in that case, you shall resume waving to them. The brutality was uncalled for, anyway, you were compliant and polite."

"They're always like this. With pretty girls, that is, if I had been a badly dressed male I would have gotten at least a punch in the face for this."

"That can't be, you're exaggerating aren't you?"

"No, my lady..." He jumped on a possible opportunity to keep her in a safe place. "If you doubt my word, it's easy to see it by yourself. All we have to do is to wait here and watch around, it may take a while but I'd be surprised if morning passed without any brutality: with all the guards and peoples here, it's common occurrence."

Chapter 23

Nils noticed the squirrel as soon as he arrived and pointed him to Elizabeth. "There it comes, my lady! The young squirrel, keep your eyes on him. In a moment he'll commit a minor offense and they'll beat him up."

The tutor looked at the bird with disbelief before watching where he was pointing. "And you can predict so, just by looking at him?"

"Yes, because I know him. It's one of the things he does and he's surely not here to buy expensive candlesticks. When it will happen and the guards will get busy something will be stolen from a stall. If you wanted to see thievery, you're in luck! I'm betting on the second stall after Joel's but I'm not sure."

"Why this one?"

"Because it has nice things that are worth getting beaten for and they are chained to prevent easy grabbing and running, my lady. I don't see any other stalls fitting those two conditions."

Elizabeth looked around slowly. "You are right, logically it has to be this one."

"Can't be sure, my lady. That'd be logical but sometimes thieves are idiots too and the squirrel is not very experienced."

The squirrel was walking, looking casual and innocent, not even watching at the stalls as if he was just passing by. He got a piece of chewing tobacco from one of his pockets and stuffed it into his muzzle idly.

Nils leaned to whisper to Elizabeth. "The 'spitting against the wind' diversion, classical, he'll be beaten up hard. They must be after a whole set of chained goods, so: the drawback with chaining your stuff is if they can cut both sides fast the chain can be used to carry everything efficiently." He pointed discreetly elsewhere. "The two badgers, they're the accomplices."

The lady watched carefully but events accelerated so suddenly she had a hard time keeping track of them. The two badgers, who were not heading toward the targeted stall yet, shifted direction and accelerated for no apparent reason and the squirrel, who was happening to walk near a guard, "accidentally" spit his chew onto him. Despite his loud attempts at apologizing, which caught everyone's attention, the guard attacked. Impressed by the unusual sight, for her, of a small and harmless boy getting punched and then kicked on the ground with unrestrained violence by a huge wolf, she missed the theft itself and only located the badgers again in time to see them running into a side street, each grabbing one side of a chain loaded with dangling goods.

The squirrel eventually managed to escape as the guard was calming down and ran away, in zig-zags, holding his hurt ribs and bleeding nose. It had been so fast Elizabeth searched for more see a moment before realizing it was already finished. She was a bit shaken too, discovering a side of the guards she was not aware of. She regained her composure. "Now, this was... instructive. Do you know where the badgers are going now?"

"To the port, my lady: it's the most dangerous part of Quarter-Cross but criminals are better at surviving there than honest persons, so it's a good hide. And since it's a good hide, most of the non-official business is located there too. If you have to guess where a thief with stolen goods will run, always bet on the direction that's the shortest path to the port."

"I see. We're going to the port, then. Show me the way."

Drowning! Ordeals! Knife to the belly! Nils panicked again. "My lady! Please I beg you, not there! I'm not kidding you or lying this time, I swear... You'll get yourself killed for sure if you go there. Probably a nasty way! Please, can we go back to the castle now? Or if you still want more informations, we can stay here and I'll show you pickpocket tricks!"

The lady hesitated this time, the bird sounded genuinely scared and, after what she saw, she was beginning to realize how violence was more potent here than it was when put in beautiful words in her books. Potent and potentially even applying to her with no regard for her rank. On the other hand she was thrilled, her curiosity about the port now hard to resist, and she didn't want to come back reporting to the princess how she had stopped her explorations when they were becoming the most fascinating. "Hmmm... Oh, I got it! How dangerous is the place where the poor buy their clothes?"

"There are several. I can think of some that are not too bad, my lady."

"Then it will be our first stop. We will disguise, Niamh! Isn't it exciting? Aw, don't make this face, it's foolproof: it never failed in any story I read. And you told me thieves were surviving well at the port, didn't you? I see no reason why we couldn't blend for a short time!"

Chapter 24

"Could you possibly walk a little hunched and... hum... heavier, my lady?"

"This is not how a lady walks, Niamh."

"My point exactly..."

The detour had been instructive to Elizabeth. She learned that not only the poor were not having their clothes made to their measurements but that there also was a whole hierarchy of them each level buying cheaper and cheaper old clothes from the upper one. And that the flea-market was called like this for a reason. To avoid infestation, Nils had proposed to buy their clothes from the Romulian monks instead: their order having made a vow of modesty, they had bad-looking and non-specific enough clothes for the job, which were clean. Also they could provide a cell where a lady could dress up with some intimacy.

Now they were almost blending in: Elizabeth had categorically refused to change her boots for wooden sandals and Nils was disagreeing with her about how barely noticeable those were. She was starting to enjoy her adventure outside, feeling like a brave story heroine and reconsidering her distaste for the real world: this was fun, despite all the filth and ugliness. The bird was less happy, nervously looking everywhere to avoid a bad surprise.

She winced. "This place reeks atrociously! And that... mush... everywhere on the ground... It's revolting! Look at all the swarming of horrible insects! What is it?"

"Roting fish guts, my lady. We're near the fishers' pontoons, you can see one of their boats from here. Fish spoils fast once dead if you don't gut it and salt it. The big boats going out for weeks carry their salt with them but little ones on daily rounds usually prefer to save their room and have it done right after unloading. They can't do it directly on the pontoons because they'd get in the way of the working dockers, so it happens here."

"Eww! And they don't clean up behind themselves? They simply leave those putrid remains on the ground?"

"Well, yes. Why would they bother?"

"I'm on the edge of sickness. You choose this part of the port on purpose to discourage me, didn't you?"

"Errrr..." He carefully avoided a direct answer. "It's a quiet way to reach the center of the port. So you can have a good view all around without exposing yourself too much."

Elizabeth was relieved to get some fresh air from the sea as they both sat on a crate near the pontoons. It was odd how on one side the view was beautiful and soothing with the sea and all kinds of colorful boats undulating peacefully in a gentle lapping, and if you turned the other way it was all dirty and busy with dangerous-looking crowd. They were facing the ugly side. "Where to begin with... First thing, my lady, thieves almost all work for a gang. We have to because they are strong and protect their territories, and because they offer services a lonely one can't get elsewhere, like safely hiding and keeping the goods or negotiating the sales."

"You don't sell what you steal by yourself?"

"No, I can't: I can't count well enough. I suppose they take a good part of what I earn but I'd get ripped off worse without them. Also they often give us 'payday advances' during unlucky times so we don't starve. One should not abuse of those and pay their dues on time, however, otherwise they'll pay themselves in fingers."

"In fingers? I'm not familiar with this expression."

"It's not an expression, my lady, they literally chop some of your fingers so you get more careful next time." He shivered at the thought. "I had a bad pass lately. When I tried to rob you I was owing Redhead Ted about 4 fingers. I plan to leave Quarter-Cross the minute you free me from my collar, if I manage to."

"Redhead Ted?"

"The leader of the gang I was working for. This pontoon plus the left one and the two roads facing them are the Redheads' part of the port. The three next ones belong to the Butcher-Knives, then one to the Stutterers, and all the others to the Drowning-Petes who are the biggest, meanest, gang."

"The 'Drowning-Petes'... that's some sexual slang, right?"

"No, my lady: their boss is called Pete and he drowns peoples a lot. I would advise you to avoid this kind of wordplay around here, because they are a bit touchy about it."

"Charming."

"Charming, yes! The exact word 'twas coming to me." Both turned around to see the strong and unkempt black cat who was talking. A cylindrical sailor bag on his shoulder, he was probably coming down from one of the ships behind, which is how they had not seen him arriving. He gave them a big wicked grin, exposing a missing front teeth. "Wow, wow, wow, look at that catch. Such perfect, clean, fur an' feathers, you two look more 'xpensive than the port whores. Harlots who lost their way maybe? How about we go chat in me ship? I can... find your way. 'ntroduce you sum of me good pals... Share good times." He winked and licked his lips.

Elizabeth stood up rigid and angry. "How dare you!? Begone, scoundrel!"

He chuckled. "'Scoundrel'? I dun hear that one often. Oh yeah, you two are a pricey pair. Now, I'm 'fraid there has been some misunderstanding, see?" He carelessly picked up a knife from his pocket and unfolded it in a swift motion, walking closer. "...'cause when I say you go in me ship, it's more an order than an invitation, see?"

The lady froze still, not believing the inconceivable thing she was witnessing. Forgetting about the protocol, Nils roughly shook her by the sleeve. "My lady! 'Rapist and possible slaver', that is what one really looks like! Run! I'll gain time for you!"

This. Was. Enough. Unacceptable. Raised in a world where she had always seen herself as invulnerable, Elizabeth did not acknowledge the knife and had a burst of rage instead of fear. She pushed the bird away, almost making him fall backward and stood her ground. "I. Said. BEGONE!" And she lent a shattering slap in the face of the cat, who was so surprised he didn't dodge nor parry.

His head shifted to the side and he almost lost balance as well, reaching for his hurt cheek and starting to bleed from the lip. "Gyah... Fucking bitch! I'll butcher your face!"

Was it the knife raising again, the disobedience to her order or the bloody spit punctuating the treat, someway reality was slowly getting to the tutor's head. Too slowly, however.

The cat tried to stab her but Nils jumped to catch his arm and did his best to push him into the water. "Bitches! I'll slice you too! Let go of me!"

As vicious punches lent on his head while the ocelot kept staring without running, Nils had a desperate inspiration. He shouted as loud as he could. "SHAWN! HELP! THE BLUE SHIP!" What were the chances the bear had not been executed and was close enough to come on time?

Enraged by his call for help, the cat managed to send him rolling on the floor, barely missing him with a slash of the blade. Knowing he now had the time to stab the ocelot, even if she tried running, before the jay could get up, and then him, the cat allowed himself a brief rest, panting. "So you want it rough, yes? I'll make it rough for you." There was a thundering roar coming from near one of the unloading ships at some distance. The cat looked, surprised. "What the..."

Nils coughed and swallowed. "That... that was the sound of your turn to run starting."

The cat grinned again. "You think I'm 'fraid of some brawling, me pretty? Shawn, yes? Don't go anywhere, I'm back to you before you can say..." This is when the cat actually saw the massive grizzly charging at alarming speed with a murderous face and the 3, tied together, wine bottle crates he was carrying when called as a makeshift weapon. His grin vanished instantly. "Ffffffuck..."

He almost managed to run away, there was only a little detail he overlooked... and to his credit, not that many people could throw the weight of a healthy child as far as Shawn did when he was going berserk.

Elizabeth looked at the monstrous creature, who was stopping as he was out of opponent already, with huge eyes. Then to the cat, now laying face down, head entirely hidden under the damaged crates in the middle of a widening pool of red liquid, a lot of which was not wine. Then at the knife which had rolled far away. Then finally at Nils still trembling in shock on the floor. This is, at last, when what she had escaped to hit her. Her head began spinning and her legs abandoning her, fortunately the bear caught her before she fell. "I want to go back now," she mumbled weakly, "Niamh?"

"I'm good, my lady, shaken but good. Thank you so much, Shawn!"

"Ya. Ya saved me first. I'm glad." He even made him a big happy smile. "'may get back to jail for it. But I'm glad ya good. 'was worth it."

The tutor pulled onto the bear's chest fur to manage straightening, recovering fast, still weak and scared but already putting back her authoritarian mask on. "No you will not. I'm drafting you, this instant."

"Ya what?"

Nils groaned as he slowly got up at his turn. Rubbing the dirt from the front of his clothes, he translated. "She says she triples your salary, you won't have to carry heavy things anymore and you won't get in jail anymore when you beat up nasty guys to protect damsels in distress."

The bear took a long time thinking with his usual blank face. "She can do that?"

"Yes she can, Shawn. She's an important Lady from the castle, we're disguised because of a secret mission."

"Ah." He processed that slowly, turned his head to Elizabeth, and smiled. "I like ya too. Ya nice too."

The tutor was now steady enough on her legs to walk alone. She let go of the bear. "You'll call me 'my lady'. Now bring us back to the castle."

"Ya. Ya my lady."

Chapter 25

Nils was immensely glad to be back in the safety of the castle. Elizabeth had gone straight for a bath to recover and get rid of the outside filth, while Shawn and him were put under Ao's charge. They too had gone for some cleaning and changing, in a common servants' room, and since the bear was a lot more work to do Nils had been finished first and was now helping.

The rabbit was first a little fearful of the huge male but as he was trying to be polite and did what she told, and as the jay was comfortable, it didn't last for long. As for the bear... well, he was as inexpressive as always but judging from his huge erection was not displeased at being pampered by two pretty maids. Other curious servants were spying at him from a distance and there were good chances he had the opportunity for "real action" later. He was gradually getting almost presentable, while listening Nils telling his adventure to the ever curious Ao and munching on a huge bread he had been given.

They were both in the middle of braiding the bear's wild hairs, standing up at his sides on the bench he was sitting on, when an other maid poked her head through the door. "Ao and the lusty maid, lady Elizabeth is ringing you from her room."

"Thanks, we're coming!" The rabbit tied her current braid's end so it would not unravel. "I'll finish you later, Shawn. Meanwhile we must leave. You will behave, will you?"

"Ya. 'aint mean no trouble. I like ya all."

"Good! Please don't leave the servants' floor until I come back. But you can relax, visit this part, get to know some of us if you like. We're all friendly and I think some girls find you quite handsome!"

"Ya, will do. Thank ya two for doing my fur."

Nils and Ao both hurried to the lady's room, where they found a still wet and more relaxed Elizabeth who even smiled to them when they entered. "How is your face, Niamh? I saw that cat hitting you hard."

"Not too bad, my lady, I kept it where he couldn't get a lot of dive so I was not hurt that much."

The ocelot examined his face. "One of your thief tricks? It looks efficient, you don't look like you were beaten up. Good then. I under-estimated your knowledge of the outside and the quality of your advices. This will not happen again. Next time we go on exploring, I'll take your remarks in account, beginning by bringing an escort. Don't be mistaken, however, I care about your opinions only there and your position when in the castle did not change in any way."

"Thank you, my lady, this is very clear." Nils first had a shiver at the notion there would be a next time, then all considered he thought that if the lady was doing what she said it could be safe. After the fright she had he trusted she was meaning her words, so maybe becoming useful for her could make her like him more and ease his stay at the castle?

"Speaking of escorts, I didn't yet have the time to formalize Shawn's drafting: what did you do of him, Ao?"

"I began making him more presentable for his new position, my lady, but I'm not yet finished. I had him stay at the servants' floor until further notice."

"Very good. You'll be able to return to him soon, because I will not need you to watch after Niamh for her next work, just to show her the way. Are you comfortable with the bear? Is he behaving or will you need some support?"

"Oh, he's no problem at all! He looks scary but actually he's very nice when you spend some time with him. I'm comfortable."

"That's good to hear. Now, about your duty for the rest of this day, Niamh." Elizabeth crossed her arms before herself after those pleasantnesses. Now that everyone was safe again, it was time for her to restore normal discipline. There was no way she'd allow the incident to have effects on her life here, nor that she'd release her grasp onto her new favorite toy. Luckily, the time was perfect to send him the right message. "I think all the guards know your tale by now and his highness the king will probably do his meeting with the captains tomorrow morning. Do you remember what it means?"

He swallowed and looked down sadly, understanding he'd be allowed no rest. "That... I'll do something humiliating for the guards, my lady."

The ocelot smirked, it felt good to be in full power again. "Precisely. I had them informed of it and they'll soon be waiting for you, so let's not waste time in explanations: everything will be easy enough to understand when you'll get there. Ao, you will bring her to the yard by the barracks, then return to your own tasks. Dismiss, you two."

Chapter 26

This was the last guard, finally! Nils' back and knees were sore and his nice uniform was all dirty, he wondered if he'd get punished for it. He was also tired, hungry because they didn't let him stop for dinner and it was past supper time already, and could hardly take the anguish anymore.

This wolf remained silent and simply watched down to him with a jaded look as he took position on the plank he was kneeling before. He was grateful because many were more menacing, insulted him or even spitted on him. Wasting no time, he rubbed some wax on his rag and bent down to polish his boots. His were clean too, an other nice touch because many of the guards came to him with very muddy ones... which was obvious malice since the day had been dry and he knew how the men of arms were obsessive with the cleanliness of their boots. Now, he had a mix of mud and brown wax all over half of his wings and apron.

When he discovered what would be his chore, he first was relieved. Coming from Elizabeth he had expected the most horrible things and this seemed rather light. He had changed his mind soon so the hateful atmosphere was thick. Guards had been coming to him all the time without a break, often standing in a long line and willing to wait a lot for the pleasure to belittle him. There were fresh new ones at each of their shifts... and he noticed several who came more than once either to prevent a possible gap or to enjoy an extra helping of their treat. His first humiliation with the lady also had made him more vulnerable to the experience: it was hard to be in his position and not to remember how it felt to crawl and lick directly at the leather.

The only part of the torment the guards failed at was the public aspect of his degradation: he was visible for everyone in the middle of his yard, obviously to make it worse... but the witnesses of his misery mostly felt sympathy and, if no one helped, the few exchanged looks with passing servants were his only support.

He was fast now, having had the time to train at his task. The guard's boots shined to perfection, he pulled his paws back and bowed. "Done, thank you sir." He forced himself not to sigh of relief to avoid triggering more mistreatments, then looked up shyly, hoping he'd be sent back to Elizabeth.

The guy grinned and called out loud. "The late ones!"

Several chuckling other guards got out of the barracks carrying more muddy boots in their paws. The first came before him. "Almost done, girl. Here are the boots of the guys who couldn't get to you in time..." and he tossed his dirty pair at his chest. While he was catching them as he could, the others tossed theirs, the shoes falling on him from all sides. They laughed at his devastated face. "When you'll have finished those, you can leave. Have fun!" And they left.

He had a hard time not to cry as he wriggled himself out of the pile and... resumed his chore.

Chapter 27

He was so absorbed in it he didn't see a new person arriving before him until he was talked to. "Odd. How comes I don't see any guard in the boots you are polishing?"

Gasping in surprise, he lifted his head to face the king Herald in person. "Y... Your highness? Here?"

The ocelot laughed heartedly. "It's my castle, Niamh. I suppose you didn't grow used to meet many nobles but I actually happen not to spend all my time in my throne room."

"Oh... of course your highness..." He remembered he was asked a question and hurried to answer. "Those are the late guards' shoes, not all of them could get to me in time, your highness."

"Really? Well then, put them down, a soldier should be punctual: late guards get no boot polishing."

He dropped the boot and rubbed his paws a little with his rag. "W... what should I do of them, then?"

"Don't worry about them anymore, I'll have them burned to teach the guards about punctuality. They have been... needing some discipline adjustments lately, as you already know. Your duty here is over. Get up and walk with me, we'll talk. Did you visit our rose gardens yet?"

"I... not yet, your highness." He got up, wincing when his joins creaked from all the time spent on his knees, tossed his rag down, and followed the king quite self-conscious. "I'm sorry, I'm a so dirty..."

"It comes with some works, I've seen a lot worse on the battlefields and am harder to indispose than this." He lifted a finger at a servant who was following him and silently pointed the pile of shoes. The black rabbit nodded to show he understood and bowed as he was left behind.

They remained silent until the garden, at which point Nils dared mumbling something. "Y... Your highness?"

"Yes Niamh?"

"Lady Elizabeth told me the guards where dangerously angry at me, this is why she made me do the boots chore... and..."

"...and you are anxious burning their boots will not help your case. Am I correct?"

"Yes, your highness."

"Elizabeth was right, you could have been unsafe. And you are right, they will be furious. However there is the new fact their king is now in their way. You need not to fear about them anymore."

"Thank you, your highness."

They walked silently some more between the tall bushes of sweet scenting flowers. "You proved more interesting than I expected the first time we met, Niamh. Tell me, I detect remains of a foreign accent in your voice, why did you come to Quarter-Cross?"

Nils tensed hard, detecting the danger in the question but finding no escape. "I... I..."

The king smiled. "Ah, yes, the lies." He waved a paw softly. "You can relax about them as well. I know the story my daughter told me about you was one and I know how you're trying to hide me things about your past. It shows on your face. I don't care and will not try to disclose your secrets, they are insignificant to me. You can talk freely."

He swallowed and nodded, taking the risk. "I was born in Ebres, a small town at the east beside of your highness's eldest son's kingdom. I was already a poor beggar and thief there and already wished I could become an artisan's apprentice. But they wouldn't accept me because I talked like a poor and they'd believe I was too stupid."

"Your elocution is actually excellent, for a petty thief."

"Thank you, your highness. But I'm better now because I trained: I knew some servants there and servants talk better because of the time they spend with the rich. I paid them what I could and they taught me good words. But... it was living above what I could afford."

"Let me guess the end of the story. When you grew too hungry and hopeless of earning enough to pay your apprenticeship, you decided to go to a richer town hoping it'd be easier to get money where there was more of it. You hid on a ship... and your life grew even more miserable here, as you discovered the first rule about rich people: that they didn't become rich by easily letting go of their money."

"Exactly, your highness! You're impressive! And then... well, that's when I had that other idea of a way to use my words. I knew I sounded close enough to a servant to approach the castle and... I'm still so sorry about what I did..."

"We already sorted through that issue, Niamh. Keep behaving, complete your punishment and you'll have paid your dues and fully reformed."

"Yes, your highness, thank you again for the second chance."

"Yes, yes. You said your good words were important to approach the castle, didn't you play the mute water maid?"

"Yes, your highness, when I planned it going mute sounded safer. I didn't use my words in the end... but still they are what gave me the confidence to consider the possibility." He sighed. "When I think about it, I have mixed feelings about words: they put me in bad trouble about as often as they helped me out of it."

"As we are on the topic of your words, it came to my ears that you extended my daughter's vocabulary lately. Your voice is reaching far when you sing."

"I... I'm sorry!"

"Don't be, as much as I'd like to keep my little princess safe in a fairytale world for ever, it's getting time for her to learn about the real one. You have been surprisingly good as a catalyst so far. Keep... well, being yourself."

"You... You approve, your highness? I thought... because, lady Elizabeth was furious and punished me hard..."

"And I'm counting on her to keep disciplining you when you'll deserve it. You didn't imagine I would give you my official approval to corrupt my daughter, did you?"

"N... No, your highness. Sorry, it's all so complicated here, for me."

"It is, yes. Don't bother trying to understand. By the way, I didn't want to talk to you just to tell you to continue what you did. By your sole presence, you put a lot more in motion than you can imagine. Amanda is trying new things, starting to show her claws, our usual schemers are disoriented and trying to catch back, the rumor she's about to seriously try herself at politics is spreading and many are getting ready to get in her way, to serve her, or to attempt to abuse of her inexperience. I'm excited at all the opportunities she'll have to make her first passages of arms." He smiled dreamingly, savoring the anticipation of her soon to be battles, having no doubt she would crush her opponents. "My first motivation was for the show. To let the hidden little eyes watch us walk together and wonder what was said. Blowing on the reddening ambers, if you will. The second, which you will understand better, is I am not ungrateful. If you successfully complete your punishment, I will offer you the opportunity to become a regular servant for good here. No more starving... and no more Elizabeth in charge of you. Keep this in mind for those hard times when you might consider abandoning your efforts."

Nils remained speechless. It was not an issue as the king didn't expect any answer and dismissed him after that promise.

Chapter 28

An other usual morning at the castle: Nils, bound on his perch, was awake a few minutes before hearing Elizabeth entering in his room for their morning routine. He was now used to it and compliant, opening his beak wide when its strap was removed without needing her to order him to, swallowing the bitter paste as fast as possible and remaining still and quiet for the speculum insertion and surgical glue appliance.

The ocelot would then normally close and remove the tool before freeing him but this time there was a long pause instead. He couldn't see if she was doing anything with his hood still on but she was still right in front of him. "Hmmm..." Her voice was pensive, making him guess the pause was her taking time to think about something. "I will add some more turns to the speculum's screw, Niamh. Don't be afraid, I'll go slow and I'll stop as soon as it becomes difficult for you. You just relax and tell me when it gets too much." Nils toes clenched anxiously on his perch, the reassuring tone not enough to make him feel safe as something new was happening when he was so vulnerable. "No, Niamh! I said relax! Now!"

"Y... yes, my lady..." He mumbled, doing an effort to unclench.

"Good, I'm starting now."

He felt the metal branch forcing him wider, slowly but always so strongly... He was not far from his limit already and it took only a few turn before it became very uncomfortable, then hard to take. "Hfff... Now... P... Please no more..."

She stopped and left the tool in position, watching him breath fast and short, oppressed, before unscrewing it a little to let him calm down. "Drat. This will be a problem. You really can't make anything easy, can you? Are female birds wider than males, or is it just you?"

"I don't know... What is going on, my lady? I don't understand?"

"What is going on is that jay's eggs are a lot larger than I imagined they would. That, or when I specifically asked for a big one, my demands were met over my expectations."

It was hard not to guess where the ocelot was planning to insert the egg, even if the purpose of the operation was still puzzling Nils. Her simple personal amusement was a believable possibility. He had the reflex to close his legs but the shackles tugged on his ankle to remind him he was unable to protect himself much. Tensing was not helping with the speculum-induced stress neither, which made him go back to his obediently offered pose fast.

Searching for an escape desperately, Nils knew from experience that making Elizabeth renounce was out of the question... but thought maybe he could try negotiating an easier way: "Could... could you maybe do it tomorrow, after you asked for a small egg, my lady?"

"No, the big laundry day is today."

"What does laundry have to do with... your plans, my lady?"

"There will be the perfect concentration of servants in one convenient place for the fraud, that's the point." She sighed impatiently. "I'd better explain it all to you from the beginning so you understand and don't spoil it: you're a female bird. Female birds lay eggs. Thus, you must lay for your cover to last. Naturally, in your case, the process will require some assistance. I already arranged a regular supply of eggs we'll pretend your owns every 3 or 4 weeks."

"Do... Do I have to actually lay them a second time for real? I mean, since you keep me isolated every night, we could just produce the egg in the morning. That would be believable, female birds usually don't lay in public!"

"And that's indeed my plan for your future eggs but I want the first one more 'spectacular' to brand the fact you are undoubtedly female from the start. You will not have to lay it in public, however, it would be indecent: I'll send you to the laundry chore with the others. In the middle of it, you'll suddenly feel bad having to lay it urgently and unable to walk to a more private area. The girls will be supportive and they know as I do that there is this storage room for the clothes to clean up only meters away. They will lead you there to give you some privacy. At the time of the big laundry, the room will be entirely empty since they will have brought all of its content out for cleaning. It has only a small window that can't open and no furniture. So you'll enter in a room with no possible hiding place for an egg, having no hiding place for it in your clothes neither, and come out before dozens of attentive eyes with one. This will look perfectly natural and unquestionable."

"O... only once, then?"

"Exactly. See, your part is simple: go to your chore, wait until you are sure the storage room is empty, a little acting, don't suggest going to the storage room and let them find it by themselves, 'lay' the egg. And done. No egg worries ever after."

"What if they suggest an other room that the storage one?"

"It will be the nearest usable room, I'm sure they won't. But if they do, then you can suggest it instead and they'll agree because it'll be a good idea. Understood?"

"Yes, my lady."

"Good. Now, the hard part is to manage fitting that thing inside of you... Ah, I got it!"

He heard her leaving and closing the door, abandoning him still uncomfortably spread open for a long while. At some point he thought he heard her talking to someone outside but he couldn't be sure. Eventually she came back and probably placed a chair in front of him from the noise of it. Very attentive for any clue, he noticed a faint, leathery, creaking... gloves? Then the "plop" of an open bottle and a strong alcohol scent. "One convenient part is the egg is symmetrical," commented the ocelot, mostly for herself, "if it had a big end and a small end, I would have had no idea of the right one to place up. Do you know?"

"No, my ladyyyyih!" He danced on his perch, surprised by the ice cold and then turning burning hot, bite of some gel rubbed into his offered cloaca.

This made Elizabeth chuckle as she continued the coating mercilessly all around his opening. "The apothecary warned me it was 'giving a kick first' but don't worry, you'll be numb soon."

She was right and, after the brief but hardly tolerable first layer, the burnt vanished fast. The ocelot kept rubbing more gel in circles with two gloved fingers and gradually, the sensation of the touch softened until he was not even sure she was still doing anything to him. "Is that an anesthetic?"

"Yes, incidentally. But the important part is it's a strong muscle relaxant. According to the apothecary, 'one can safely insert his arm into a mouse's rectum using it'. Lovely image, ew, I hope he was just bragging because otherwise I'd be disturbed he knew such information..."

"So you will be able to insert the egg without hurting me?"

"No, Niamh: I did was able to insert it without hurting you. Wow, this thing is actually impressively efficient! ...hum... maybe even a little too efficient: the egg wants to fall out now. The relaxing is not supposed to last for long, I suppose all we have to do is holding it in for a few minutes while you recover some tonicity there. Hold on..." Holding the egg with one paw, she removed one of his shackles with the other. Then she pushed a rolled up towel firmly up between his legs. "Close your legs together. Harder. Good. I'll go work a little, now. You keep that pose until I come to check you back."

"Y... yes, my lady."

And she went out, locking the door again.

Nils waited and, as he slowly recovered his normal sensations, it felt like if the egg was growing inside him. It became more and more invading, huge, heavy, hard... How did females cope with that!? At some point he started worrying because it was getting close to the limits of what he believed he could take. What if his body couldn't fit the egg without the gel's help? Could he possibly tear inside as its effect finished fading out? Fortunately, the gel had fully worn out already and it was the egg's final sensation. Very uncomfortable but neither painful not threatening. He could do with it, although he was impatient to let it out.

Hum, on a second thought, squeezing the thing out without the help of the gel was promising to be a difficult experience, tempering his impatience.

Elizabeth was out for a long time, and he heard she had more visitors. Finally she returned and, seeing his cloaca was well closed and his egg firmly stuck inside of him, she freed him from his perch. "I'm glad I anticipated how dirty you would come back from your shoe-shining chore and got you a second #5 uniform made while you were at it: the most improbable oddness just happened."

"What was it, my lady?"

"The crownlanders. They were... pleasantly impressed at your culture last time you met! You'll have to explain this one to me when we'll have more time. Anyway, they like you so much you're getting a second rendezvous this morning. I got your breakfast delivered here: hurry dressing up and eating, you don't have much time before they come for you."

"B... but... how about the egg laying?"

"Oh, there's no problem at all, it will not affect the plan: I thought you would act more convincingly if you kept the egg for a while, the laundry chore is only this afternoon."

Chapter 29

Today, "the lusty maid" had the most precious gait when walking, because Nils was so bothered by his egg. The jay was avoiding any shaky move, constantly careful, thus achieving a smooth and nimble way to move. It was visibly adding to his sex-appeal as one of the lizards had discreetly felt his bottom on their way to a new room and it was not even his admirer. He didn't knew that at once, unable to recognize them when they wore their robes, but what the touchy-feely male ignored was that, as a thief used to have a sixth sense for crowd motions and to trick peoples with card monte, Nils had kept track of his position in the group without even trying until he disrobed.

His true host had been more classy, welcoming him with a warm smile and affectionate caresses to the neck without ever adventuring a finger below shoulder-level. Via the same translator as the last time, he also inquired about her recovery from the Shaashi's incident and profusely apologized for it.

Nils was now again sitting on his host's lap, this time without a table before him. The room was bigger and there were more crownlanders this time, gathered in small groups to talk, read, play board games and similar quiet entertaining activities. His group were his host, the translator, a female one he was seeing for the first time and the touchy-feely one. There were a few ornamented boxes before them. His host gave him a wooden goblet and poured him some warm liquid. "He says, this is a fine tea with honey and you can drink without fear. He says you can have more honey or a pinch of spice in it if you like."

Nils gave it a try and found it delightful. The tea was strong, a bit bitter, but it was compensated by a generous amount of honey giving it a slight syrupy texture. "Mmmm, it's delicious. Perfect as it is, thank you!"

"He says he's happy you like it. He also says the beauty of your words and their melody haunted his head since your last visit, and he searched for a way to share more despite you can't understand each-others well. He says he then had the idea that music is as the blood, flowing the same in every lands and species."

Nils blushed and wriggled on the lizard's lap, anxious at the idea he could want to make him sing after his previous traumatic experience of the "melody of his words". He was also uneasy at all the affection again but this time in a different way than before: the male was nice and gentle, and as he was getting comfortable around him, deceiving him with his fake gender felt terribly wrong. "I... I'm not too good at singing."

"He says you are clearly mistaken and too humble. He says, however, it would be an insult to narrow the power of your voice to a mere whisper but that letting it flow freely would disturb the others' discussions, so he was planing something different." The lizard opened one of the boxes and took some sort of... a rectangular guitar, with more chords. He gently set it in the jay's wings and guided them so it was comfortably held and he could reach the chords. "He says your left hand plays from below, on the four lower chords, and the right one from the top, on the four upper chords."

Relieved, Nils nodded with a smile and gave it a try. The instrument had a soft but harmonious sound.

The lizard carefully placed his paw onto his and guided his fingers to a better position. "He says, to begin, you try playing a chord when he touches your corresponding finger."

The other lizards took out their own instruments, a second like his, a tiny flute and some kind of a thick plank with tubes drilled in the ply that was played by tapping claws and knuckles on it the right way. And the music lesson began. Their music was like their language, almost whispering, a bit strange and with no sharp parts.

A moment later, the bird was having a great time. He was good with his hands and the instrument was easy: he learned the basics fast and the lizard had stopped guiding his paws to play with him instead by taping the chords. Once he had been at ease enough, he had been offered to try playing his own melodies and then... well, it happened that the Sailor's Hairy Dick and the other catchy drunkards' song were easy to do and, when you removed the words and added 4 good musicians improvising along them, they could sound beautiful and delicate too.

It was a lot of fun and a new experience to participate in creating something so nice. He was all the more surprised when it abruptly turned into a bloodbath...

Chapter 30

The world of the thieves is a brutal one, where natural selection swiftly removes those lacking certain qualities. One of those cardinal qualities is to be a lot more receptive than average to some tiny noises such as the smooth lick of a drawn blade against the leather of its scabbard, and to react to them on light-fast instinct when they happened too close. In fact, Nils himself understood he had let go of his musical instrument to jump out of the lizard's lap only as he crashed into the translator. What he didn't even understand at all is that the touchy-feely's target was the translator and that by accidentally getting in the way while freeing the lap of his host who sat between the two, he thwarted the assassination attempt.

The assassin had made a mistake when he considered the lap bird would encumber his host enough so that standing beside him instead of directly beside his target, for it to be less attentive to him, was maximizing his chances.

In the 3 or 4 next seconds, there was a concert of drawing and slicing blades and groans, the translator roughly tossed him away to get up and a cascade of blood splattered onto him. There was a gargling noise of agony, cut short by a huge bony crunch, then silence again. He looked behind himself to see the assassin, his abdomen sliced open and dripping crimson guts and his head facing the wrong way to his body, collapsing. All the lizards were standing, slightly hunched ready to jump and holding their knives on guard, looking after each-others with nervous changes of direction every few seconds. His host was cut deeply in the chest and bleeding profusely and there were 4 dead or fast agonizing other ones down in the room.

The time felt like suspended for a moment, then Nils felt a stabbing cramp in the lower belly and curled down with a yelp. The egg! Not now! The lizards around him exchanged some brief words and the translator broke his stance to hurry to him. When he knelt at his side and lift his blade, he thought he was done for... but instead of hurting him he ripped his uniform open from the top to the bottom to expose his body: with all the blood on the jay, courtesy was less urgent for the crownlander than finding the wound. Only then he understood there was no wound to find and the blood was not his. He pressed gently at the jay's lower belly, which made him gasp and shiver. "You are laying an egg! And it is not coming right... We know this, it happens to some of our females sometimes. We will help you. Close your eyes and think only about your breath." Nils did as instructed while he heard the lizard exchanging some words with the others. His guest, especially, sounded anxious about him.

As he was not looking at the slaughter around and managed to control his breath, the terrible cramps calmed down. Still, the egg was coming out and it was coming out now, there was no way he'd stop it. The scent of blood was vanishing replaced with the one of incense and he was gently picked up and placed on his knees onto a cushion. The light changed too. He reopened his eyes and was... totally elsewhere, in a quieter tiny room. How? It made sense when he looked up to see the limits of the "walls": they had enclosed him into decorative screens to give him some privacy and remove the stress of the carnage. He was alone with his host there, who was still bleeding but ignored it entirely to take care of him. He talked soothingly. "He says you try to relax, he's here and everything will go well now," translated the familiar voice from the outside.

Nils nodded and reached for between his legs in a reflex to try holding the egg back. He realized his look: the uniform open wide and holding to him only by the shoulders, the exposed panties... The lizard came closer and lightly took his wrists to pull them away and place them on the cushion. "He says you must not resist it, it'd make it only harder. He says he'll slow it down if it must be."

Nils moaned a poor "yes" as the firm but loving paws adjusted his position, pressing into his back and on his chest to arch him a little, lifting his tail.

In the mix of emotions, he noted how all the male's front was red. "You are bleeding too much..."

"He says he's a strong warrior and he will not fall while he is needed. He says you only care about yourself and your egg now."

"Th... thank you..."

"He says you keep breathing slow. You take your time but don't resist. It takes the time it takes." The lizard talked to the outsiders and a towel was placed across the top of the screens that he recovered to clean himself up and improvise a fast bandage for his wound. This reassured the bird. "He asks if you hurt."

"No, not anymore. But... a lot of pressure."

"That's good. That's normal." The lizard knelt at his side and reached a paw to rub and stroke the back of his neck soothingly. He talked again while showing his knife. "He asks for your permission to remove your panties. He apologizes for such discourtesy but it is needed to assist your delivery."

The jay blushed hard, feeling his cloaca opening some... and moaned as it pulled too hard. Was there any way to avoid this? He knew he had to get rid of the egg one way or an other and, given the choice, he preferred the gentle lizard over Elizabeth as the one in charge. He nodded. "I... I understand and... I accept."

The lizard sliced the panties sides delicately and exposed him fully. He slowly placed his paw over the spreading cloaca and eased a finger in to touch the egg. Nils felt a new beginning of cramp and his body pushing on it downward, the lizard resisted, not enough to prevent the move but slowing it down when the cramp was threatening to set. The jay recovered a little of confidence as the technique was working.

The lizard began chanting a soft song, like a lullaby but with a marked rhythmical structure. Outside, Nils heard all the group beginning to make chorus. "Now you push gently, little by little, with the rhythm of the song of the tides."

He obeyed.

Chapter 31

King Herald entered the seemingly empty room and walked to one of the curtains. "Report, Sagittarius."

...and the curtains answered. "Out of the 5 deceased, 3 were the traitors and 2 were minor train. The 4 injured are well, suffering only minor damages, and the assassination's target, the duke of Eeyeh island did not have a scratch. I'm thus pleased to say the incident should not affect your ongoing commercial negotiations."

"That's a good beginning. More details about why it ended that messy? They are usually more subtle."

"Indeed. This is where things become interesting. Niamh being on the scene, I naturally investigated and I found poison planted on one of her uniforms..."

"What!? That girl would be part of it?"

"Unwittingly, I believe: it was not the uniform she was wearing when the assassination attempt occurred, which I believe to be the cause of its lack of style. They had planned to use her to bring their secret weapon discreetly, which could be easily prepared at many times without her noticing it, but an unexpected change of dirty clothing foiled the attempt. This is the first point that suggest she was not willingly involved, as she would otherwise have made certain the poison was not lost so easily. The assassins found the clean way impossible and, unwilling to renounce, they gave a try at a more sketchy one."

"Did your investigations about her reveal anything else interesting?"

Sagittarius grinned silently from behind his curtain. He had found a lot of things, indeed. "Nothing that you would like to know."

"You said the first point, so are there others?"

"Yes. The second, which is a good one, is she saved the duke's life by rushing to interpose herself against the nearest assassin. She would have been no match for him but gained precious time for his bodyguards to react. Before you ask, no, I must confess I did not manage to explain this sudden bout of bravery, deepest regrets."

The king smiled. "In those situations, sometimes, peoples do out of character things for the better or the worst. I heard she was having an affair with the crownlander. Maybe a love story."

"Unlikely. It was one of the bodyguards who she was seeing. Cute romantic detail, the duke kindly helped with his knowledge of our tongue, likely putting better words of love in his warrior friend's mouth."

"Amusing. Back to topic, please."

"The dead traitors are probably traceable to the duke's brother. I still need some time for firm confirmations but the information is highly likely. He's a minor branch of their nobility system, very ambitious but not so cunning and thus manipulable. He has an history of plotting with non-crownlanders in order to compensate his lack of local support, which is all the more interesting when you know the used poison can't be preserved more than a week and is typical of our lands. This crosses also well with the butchered job, both fitting our wannabe-duke's style and coherent with exchanged promises making renouncing difficult. I expect fun repercussions for the broken contract later, especially as this was an opportunity crime triggered by the girl's affair and failed rushed plots are often imploding beautifully when the panic settles. Finally, planting the poison would have been very difficult for a crownlander given how they watch after each-others."

"It would have been organized by our side? Who?"

"I do not have this information yet. Too soon. But my pawns are following tracks as we talk and I'll get it for you as soon as possible. With your authorization, I'll dispose of the proofs and witnesses as I track them: if I was not the only one to find those, this could be bad for our relations with the crownlanders."

"Granted. Anything else?"

"Suspicions only but you might want to hear them anyway. There are always reasons to mess with the crownlanders, since they are politically important. However I noticed no special ones lately that would motivate action now. Salient current context, however, is your daughter making a thundering debut in politics. Maybe the crownlanders where not the only target and you should consider how involving her criminal-reforming experiment in the mess could be also a first stab at her back. My sincerest congratulations to her: she's really your daughter."

The king chuckled, then took a moment to ponder and fill up his first list of suspects. "How would you estimate the lifespan of her plaything from there?"

"Minimal. She will not have much chances to get more from it before it gets broken. I would suggest you to intervene and remove it from the game-board before it's too late, she would be hurt in both her confidence and heart if you let it happen. Nothing she couldn't overcome, again she has your blood, but... that'd be useless pain."

Herald nodded. "Thank you Sagittarius. Good work." He began walking away to the door, then, without turning back: "Stay around, I'll need your services again before the end of this day."

"Yes."

Chapter 32

Princess Amanda was having so much fun she couldn't believe she didn't start politics sooner. From the moment she had decided to learn more about the outside world, she began summoning many members of the court for talks: if she didn't had yet any plan at the time, she was already planning to have one and to surprise her father with an ambitious first move. Thus she was needing some party ready to execute her biddings. Soon, members of the court began coming to her of their own, all officially enthusiastically helpful, some truly but others less so. She had already spotted a few new enemies who were scared and angry as she, as it was her royal prerogative to, was collecting some of the idly power of the court which they grew used to have for themselves.

Wiping the condescending smile of an arrogant noble, who assumed she was a brainless precious little girl, with a sharp and witty overtone felt good!

She was not naive and knew she had already uncloaked only her less tricky opponents, which felt more as promises of exciting battles than as an issue to her. This is also why she had contacted so many nobles, as she planned to sieve part of them on the job. It was her rousing beginner's mistake, as in her unexperienced upfront ways she overlooked how her pawns were more vulnerable than herself; starting small, secretly and carefully would have been wiser.

When Elizabeth provided her first report about the outside world, it got even better. She had gathered some nuggets that were enough to get serious. First, it appeared that criminality was pyramidal, the visible part of it being the many but unimportant little hands and a few "big names" the true vital organs of it. So far, the guards had been concentrating their efforts on the easily replaceable little hands almost exclusively. It was time to create an additional striking force that would hit where it hurt. Amanda had managed to recruit a clever and loyal-looking captain she would use to gather and lead a high quality squad... and invented the new function of royal criminologist to study the criminals and learn how to track the "big names". Passed her initial rejection reflex, Elizabeth grew overjoyed at her new job once she was ordered to write the first criminology book for future reference.

The second point was how gangs were using their members' lack of education to their advantage. Their power would likely unravel fast if, for example, good enough bases of mathematics for sales were a widespread skill for petty thieves, leading to a lesser organized criminality to deal with. Thinking of it, this would also feed the economy with poor able to be employed at more productive jobs than stealing. The potential of salvation was making her heart warm and tingly, although she would concentrate on the economical benefits when exposing her theory to her father. This project was a big, longterm, one and she would need the credibility earned by her special intervention squad's future achievements to back it up. It would therefore be put in motion and made public later but she already had organized a test to see how much work it would be to shove knowledge into a raw specimen of the vulgar. Good thing Elizabeth had been an excellent enough explorer to even bring back samples, as Shawn was the perfect guinea-pig for this.

Her busy afternoon was interrupted by an urgent summoning from her father.

She entered the room and was welcomed by the king, smiling to her warmly. "Ah, Amanda. Come, sit by my side."

She got comfortable, thinking fast to organize her argumentation: his reaction to her actions was coming sooner than expected and she would have liked more time to be better prepared but she would do without. She was excited at the perspective of getting his opinion and advices. "You look in a great mood, father, it was some time since I last saw such a smile on you."

"My dear daughter becoming an adult and filling me with pride with her ambition and drive is not happening everyday. I'm starting to receive many echoes of your recent antics and... modern theories." She opened her muzzle to answer but he stopped her with a raised paw. "No, not yet Amanda. I have no doubt we will have... heated, and interesting, debates about all that later and I don't want to ruin their start by forcing you to explain before you are ready. I assume you were planning to come to me by yourself soon, am I correct?"

"Yes father, I was thinking tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning it will be, then. For now, I just want you to know I'm overjoyed at seeing your progresses and will provide you with the education you deserve in this new area of your life." He smirked. "Even if this doesn't mean I will unconditionally agree with all of your ideas and I suspect you'll make your old father yell again tomorrow."

"I trust you will, father, and I'm looking forward it just as much as you do. It was some time since our last great dispute."

Herald laughed and reached his paw to caress her cheek. "You are the best princess a king can dream of, Amanda." He sighed and straightened, recovering his usual serious face. "By the way, I summoned you because I have a bad news for you, and a present that will help with it."

The princess frowned, knowing her father would not have made his call so urgent if the bad news was an insignificant one. "What's wrong, father?"

"Niamh is about to leave us." And he explained her about the crownlander's incident and its repercussions.

This was an unexpected jab. She had grown fond of the jay and if she was prepared to be attacked herself, the treacherous hit at someone she liked instead was painful. "Is there nothing we can do?"

"There is always something we can do Amanda. Always. Never forget that." He got up and gently caught her cheeks to place a kiss on her nose. "I will introduce you to someone who will help you with it. He's an old friend of mines and from this day he'll be yours as well. He has a lot to teach you and will help you in your future experiences, for example he can find you some replacements for Niamh to be your eyes outside, but that's only a minuscule part of how useful he can be. You can also trust him, with your life if necessary. You will like him." He gave her a last stroke to the cheek and walked to the door. He turned back before leaving. "Ah, one last thing. Sagittarius's poor grasp of protocol may surprise you. Don't get insulted, after some time you'll grow to enjoy it as refreshing..."

She waited for the mysterious new friend, whose name she never heard before, to enter the room... and shivered in surprise when a voice came from behind a curtain. "Good afternoon, Amanda."

She blinked, taken off guards both by the unexpected presence and rare familiarity. "Sagittarius?"

"Yes."

She jumped up and pulled the curtain away fast. She heard a tiny wooden noise when doing so and... there was nobody behind. Just the wall. Puzzled first, she thought about the noise and noted how the wall paneling could conceal a hidden hatch. Elizabeth had told her stories with castles having hidden passages. She let the curtain fall back and sat down again. "Melodramatic."

"One of my favorite vices, I confess. Convenient as well, however, I can serve you better as your imaginary friend as if I was walking the castle's corridors in the open."

"You have my interest but you'll need better than show to impress me."

"Maybe some tasty information, an other of my specialties, can do better? Niamh's true name is Nils."

She tensed, eyes widening. "You know that!? Is my father aware of it? How?"

"Yes; no; I tracked him from his grapnel. Not as an order of Herald, I have the habit to be curious about newcomers. Naturally, the grapnel has been disposed of. Ah, additionally, I loved the way Elizabeth handled the egg laying. Such commendable sense of detail and creativity! However, please tell her that when she organizes the delivery of such compromising items as eggs of the same kind as the ones the only 'female' bird in the castle lays, on the day of laying, she must be more cautious when choosing her provider."

The princess winced. "Did you 'dispose' of the provider as well?"

"No. I could have, but it should not be necessary: he's loyal to me."

"How comes you didn't tell father about Niamh's gender when you found about it?"

"Loyalty, as always. This information was no use for him and he didn't ask for it, I knew however he'd soon want me to gain your trust in order to serve you as well. Silence was, and still is, the best way to serve the interests of both. Your secret is safe with me."

Amanda spent a moment pondering about the strange character and his motivations. Eventually, she nodded. "Thank you, Sagittarius. I have the feeling you'll be an interesting imaginary friend. Tell me about Niamh's issue, now."

"She will die shortly, I expect. The best way would be if we took care of it ourselves: a few well chosen words to the duke of Eeyeh can easily get her throat cut by a lizard and further compromise the arrangement between our plotters and the crownlander ones. One side seems to get what it wanted to the other's eyes, the demise of your favorite maid, but really fails spectacularly at their true goal which was to discredit your criminal-reforming experiment. The other gets nothing for their trouble and sacrifices. The induced tension should degenerate into excellent opportunities for you to learn more about politics and to identify your enemies. Your experiment an huge success, Niamh officially ending heroically from the hands of assassins after she saved the duke, and your enemies swiftly exposed and crushed by you, you'll get out of it stronger to pursue your recent projects."

The princess let him talk uninterrupted but her expression grew sterner and sterner while it lasted. She fulminated a little in silence after the explanations. "I was mistaken. We will not be friends."

Sagittarius grinned from his hide. "Your principles honor you, Amanda. But if you please allow me one more minute to tell you every detail, maybe you'll reconsider. Out of respect for Herald who recommended me?"

She felt her claws digging into the seat's armrests. "Out of respect for father. I will listen. You have one minute."

By the end of that minute, she had reconsidered. She would gladly embrace her father's present, after all.

Chapter 33

Nils was way too tight in the crownlander robe, which was also way too long, but he was grateful they gave him something to cover himself after they destroyed his uniform. Once his egg laid and the robe slid on, they had removed the screens. The room was cleaned up, incense burning to hide the scent of blood and bodies piled in a corner and hidden under covers. The translator congratulated him for his courage and explained how they would all stay here for a while, the time to make sure safety was restored, but everything was finished now. The traitors inside were dead and there were wolf guards on the other side of the door. It looked quiet too, the lizard groups reappearing to discuss while the injured were nursed.

Nils personally cleaned up and sewed up his host's wound himself as a way to thank him, he knew a bit of first aid from his last work and was good at not hurting the others too much. Pain was visibly not a big deal for the lizard, who smiled at him all the time without a single wince. Then he was allowed to lie on a big cushion and rest, left alone with a supply of sweet tea. He gradually managed to calm down for good, while spying visiting translators from the castle and new robed crownlanders coming in and out to talk briefly. Elizabeth came several times; the first one she took the egg away and profited of the opportunity to check he was well, then she ignored him to concentrate on her work.

Later in the afternoon, after the tutor had a long discussion with the translator, and next with the translator and his host, she returned to him with a tensed face. He got up, hoping he would not suffer more misadventures today. "Niamh, we have to get you out to a more private room."

"Why, my lady? And... I'm not sure they'll let me go before they finished their investigations..."

"No time for questions now, you'll get details later. And normally they would not let you go but I found a way that will work and be inconspicuous: your new boyfriend killed the main assassin and the duke agrees he deserves a reward, so before he goes back home as the duke will leave us early after this incident, your... beautiful relation will be allowed to blossom to a new level."

Nils looked at her, beak gaping in consternation. "You... You don't mean..."

"Yes I do, I mean you are about to get laid. And not only that but since your lover is too much of a gentleman to force your hand, you will show eager for it!"

"But..."

"This is not open to discussion, Niamh! We are facing important political circumstances you couldn't understand and I need you to do that. It's either lizard love, or an ordeal, I am not kidding!"

Nils was petrified. "W... what if he understand I am... what I am..."

"You'd better pray this doesn't happen because if he doesn't kill you for it, I will. Now enough talking, we are waited! And remember, be convincingly willing or else..."

Nils was led to the two lizard. Holding the bottom of his robe up so he wouldn't walk on it and legs shaking, he was feeling his throat and tongue getting so dry he wondered if he'd manage talking. They both smiled to him. Elizabeth caressed his head with pretended affection and told them, in their language, to excuse the little maid, who had not known a male yet and was a terribly shy flower despite her desire.

His admirer lowered a knee to the floor so he was more at his level. "He says, Iaham, that he understand how this is so rushed and will not blame you if you need more time. He says, however, he will be forced to leave soon and that so, if you want to, he'd love to be your first male and leave your country with the memory of a last warm embrace. He says, if you want to, that he will be careful and tender and that you should not be afraid."

Looking down shyly, the jay still somehow felt, or imagined, Elizabeth's threatening eyes locked onto him furiously. He swallowed hardly, forced himself to face the lizard and gave him a poor smile. "I... I... I don't want you to go without... holding me first... Please?"

And that was settled.

Chapter 34

Athlah contemplated the beautiful naked and nervous bird with pleasure barely daring to make the next move himself, he the strong warrior who had led many battles, so she was delicate and precious. "You are so beautiful, I wish I could take you with us Iaham." Unfortunately, she couldn't understand his words, and neither did he her trembling answer. The rumors he had been told about her being lusty were obviously jealous calumnies, it was visible she was with a male for the first time of her life and he had witnessed her restraint during his too few rendezvous. "Don't be afraid."

He stripped at his turn and walked too her, avoiding sudden movements. He first traced his claws across her chest feathers so she could pull back if she refused herself to him; she didn't escape so he wrapped his arms around her for a tight hug. So warm and nice smelling. He caressed her back, burying his fingers under the feathers careful not to pull them up painfully, and bit the side of her neck gently. He felt her wings wrapping around his scales in reflex while she let out a cute noise. This was too much for him to resist and he felt the pressure inside him before his erections pushed out.

Picking her up, he set her on her side on the couch, near the edge, and placed a pillow under her head so she's be comfortable. "Don't move, pretty flower, I'm getting ready."

Chapter 35

Nils was holding onto his pillow desperately, terrified. And also terrified his terror was noticed, doing all he could to hide his emotions. Elizabeth had surpassed herself this time and the worst of it was not only he was feeling awful about being about to be homosexually raped, but also for the terrible way he was betraying the loving lizard's sentiments. If his gender's dissimulation was not up to this trial, however, the male was likely to end slicing his throat.

A new, immediate, source of fear was watching the tall lizard get fully erect. He was not familiar with their specie's intimate anatomy but had heard rumors which he had found doubtful. Well, the tales were true: they had two ones, actually rather a forking one to be exact, spike shaped and... their roots' sides were covered with inverted and vicious-looking thorns. How could they mate without killing their females using that thing!? He would probably never know how the pricks were triggering their ovulation and the how those hooks were retracting if they waited until they softened before pulling out: fortunately Athlah had gentler plans for today.

The lizard rummaged in his robe to pull a tiny bottle and a wide but thin leather ribbon. He wrapped the leather tightly from the top of the root of his hemipenis to the bottom, thus flattening and covering his spikes and squeezing his two forks into something close to the equivalent of a bird member. A large one, still, but the jay let out a relieved moan when the tool of torture turned into something more "normal". Athlah said something with a reassuring tone, winking to him, while he poured some oil from his bottle and rubbed it on himself for lubrication. Then he came in front of the bed.

The sideway pose's reason became apparent as the lizard got in position: he was lining the widest part of his penis to the widest of Nils' cloaca. He picked up one of his ankles to pull his leg up while pressing down on his other knee, spreading and offering him, and without climbing on the bed he pushed his hips forward to ease his tip inside. The lube prevented any resistance. Stretching the jay's leg up, he pulled on his knee and, firmly but nice and slow, penetrated him. To the shivering bird's surprise, he got filled deeper than anything Elizabeth did to him a lot more comfortably. Maybe the recent egg laying had left him loosened. Certainly the male was a lot more tender and experienced at this than the lady was.

He throbbed inside Nils and gave a short thrust, making him yelp softly but out of surprise rather than pain. The leg he had not forced up was guided to wrap around the lizard who then pushed his free arm under his shoulder and lifted him off the bed. He gasped and grabbed at him as he could, clenching around his penis which made the lizard close his eyes and groan in pleasure. He ended somewhat curled up on the side, oddly stretched, well hugged, and Athlah climbed on the bed with him to lie over his body in this pose.

The lizard nuzzled his beak while caressing his neck to give him the time to calm down, then bit around his throat lightly and pinned him down while starting to move his hips. He did it slow at first but he went faster and harder as the bird's body was surrendering enough to take it without pain. By the end of it he was shaking the whole feathery body under his assaults, which would have been downright violent if not patiently prepared, making him gasp breathless under the intensity without needing to simulate.

Nils cried out loud at the last grinding thrusts, when the lizard's teeth tightened a little around his jugulars and he felt the cold and thick seed erupting inside of him in strong and fast spurts. Then both collapsed and recovered in a cuddly embrace. The jay felt his heart calming down. This was over and... Elizabeth could never top that. Badly needing to be comforted he hugged Athlah tight.

Chapter 36

Athlah let out a long sigh. He would have loved to stay in the caressing warmth of Niamh's feathery embrace for ever, especially as he knew he would never see her again after, but he had an important mission and loyalty to the clan was coming first. He gave her a last tender squeeze before freeing himself from her wings and carefully pulling out of her, watched with regret at her tired laying beauty, her still half parted cloaca leaking a little of white and the scents in the air making him want to come back... and walked away to clean himself and dress up.

The accomplices from the castle would be there any minute now. He stretched, making his joints creak, and began cleaning his dagger neatly while waiting for them: it was out of the question to leave any trace of an assassin's blood on the weapon he was about to use on the pure female.

Chapter 37

Many nobles were coming out of the castle's lounges after the evening's commercial negotiations with the crownlanders when their quietness was disturbed by a morbid show. Two guards ran across the yard before them carrying a limb, half naked, blue jay female with her chest coated of blood. The long lateral slice across the bottom of her throat was clearly visible due to the neatly cut feathers there. In the shadow of one of the yard's sides, quietly sitting on a bench, the princess Amanda watched at all their reactions very carefully.

It didn't last long, the trio soon disappearing into the nearby doctor's office close to the barracks. Most of the nobles, after a brief discussion, followed to get details, curious and wanting to be sure it was not something important in relation with the crownlanders after the earlier assassination attempt. Especially since it had involved a blue jay maid. Elizabeth arrived, running. She demanded explanations and, along with the audience, was told by the guards how one lizard coming from nowhere had assaulted and stabbed the maid then managed to escape. Probably as a revenge for her thwarting the assassination. They had brought her to the doctor as fast as they could since she was still breathing faintly.

The doctor, sorry, had to announce that she didn't make it to his office and it was too late for him to do anything.

Guards were running everywhere in case the runaway assassin could still be found while Niamh's body was put into a bag. As it was Quarter-Cross's tradition, except for nobles who were incinerated, she was carried to a ship for a burial at the sea. Ao cried a lot, much to Elisabeth's chagrin. Even Shawn, now looking handsome and clean, shed a tear.

As promised by Sagittarius, the maid's death would soon lead to a brilliant start in Amanda's political life.

Chapter 38

"You can quit being dead now, this room of the ship is locked."

Nils took a big breath with relief. His act had felt endless and he feared someone would see him breathing short and slow despite his best efforts. His bag opened and, after blinking dazzled a little, he could see who was talking to him. It was a male ocelot he didn't knew, about the same age as the king judging from his fur but not looking anything like him: contrasting with the natural beauty of all the ocelots he saw before, this one was suffering of some cruel deformity. There was no symmetry in him, and nothing was exactly at the place it should have been on his body... not by far, but enough create a really disturbing effect.

Helping the jay out of his bag with one too short arm and one too long, fingers bending at strange angles but still agile, he gave the bird an ugly but friendly smile. "Well, we have a lot of blood to clean up, there. Do you have any real scratch to look after too or did the lizard manage to cut only your feathers?"

"No scratch..." Nils hesitated "...sir?"

The other chuckled. "Sir? Ah, no my friend, you don't have to give me any title. I'm nobody. A humble handyman."

"Oh, sorry. It's because of your specie, in the castle I got confused once: you never know which ocelot is a member of the royal family."

That amused the feline a lot. "Royal blood, me? With my crooked mug? Lucky thing I'm not because I'd have been an insult to their blood and they'd have killed me at birth. At least, it's how it's supposed to work from what I've been told." He grabbed a towel to begin cleaning up Nils' chest.

The jay sighed. "I feel awful for Ao and Shawn. They must be sad believing I died."

"Some friends of yours? Sincerest regrets. But how I see things, there was no way to prevent it from happening. Good thing you at least are alive, no?"

"I suppose you are right. What will happen now?"

"The quiet life for you: you're on your way to the king's eldest son's castle. The son who is not at war, not the other. You'll be a servant with a nice pay, good meals and safe life there. Probably no more complicated stories with nobility as long as you stay put. Ah, one little weird idea from lady Elizabeth to make it harder to find who you were, although..."

The jay tensed, fearing Elizabeth's last goodbye trick. "W... what?"

"It's odd, you'll laugh. She decided you should pretend to be a male. I have male clothing for you to make it believable. Isn't that a good one?"

The bird opened huge eyes in surprise... and laughed happily. "I think I can do that. You have no idea how free I feel now, all this time spent wearing a mask at the castle... Sometimes I fell such an urge to... just show myself to someone. My true self. For a puff of freedom. Ah, you probably can't understand that."

The ocelot returned a happy grin running almost from ear to ear but didn't answer at all.

"So, no more complicated noble things for me, for real?"

"None. Well, you know, they'll probably have their usual fun: telling you things that sound so important and that are useless, telling you things that sound so useless and that are important. But hey, what do you care as long as they don't take interest in you? You just say 'yes, sir' and go back to your things!"

"Yes sir! You're right, I'll do exactly that."

"By the way, you can't be called Niamh anymore now you're a male. Can you think of a name?"

The jay smiled and extended his wing. "Yes, you can call me Nils. Pleased to meet you."

"My pleasure, Nils. I'm Sagittarius."

The deformed ocelot left after the jay was clean, dressed up, and given his hiring letter. Nils would never meet him again, and he forgot about him soon.