A different perspective

Rolling with it

Jasmine slowly woke up to a soft light, aching muscles, and a cold stone floor. He groaned softly, shifting his hand so he could get up. Then, he remembered what had happened. His eyes snapped open and looked around, not being where he remembered. Definitely not in a square room. His eyes finally adjusting to the light, he concluded that he was in a large stone circle, eight pillars placed evenly around it, with a stone ring balanced on top. Besides the ring high above him, there wasn't really any roof. Flowering vines scaled the pillars and spread across the floors, making for quite a pretty sight. Then he realized he didn't see Cinnamon. He was right next to him when the light flashed, so where was he now?

His thoughts were answered by Cinnamon standing up behind him. He sighed, relieved. But wait. Wasn't Cinnamon pink before? Now he's... a cyan blue? He surely must be hallucinating. However, when he looked at his own hands... they were pink. The exact shade of pink Cinnamon used to be, in fact.
"...Wait.. Jasmine?" Cinnamon asked hesitantly.
"Cinnamon? What... what the north sky just happened?" He stammered, beginning to panic.
"I have no clue. Um, are you alright?" Cinnamon stepped closer
"I- I'm not sure." Jasmine replied, shaking ever so slightly. "What will Maroon think of... this?" He looked warily at his hands. They felt the same. In fact, it felt so right he didn't even know what to think about that. It felt more right than being cyan. Yet, it was completely wrong. He'd never been pink- he'd always been blue, right? So why did this change make him want to be so much more confident? Why was he so calm? Usually, he'd be on the floor shaking- trying to deny what just happened. But...

Cinnamon felt rather the same, but a little more positive. It perfectly reflected his desire to be a hero, to protect people. Like all his life he felt off, wrong. And this new change, however unsettling it may be... it felt so right. It felt like he could fight a dragon right there and then. He felt like he could leap ten feet in the air, block a sword with his shield, parry and sidestep, knock a weapon out of someone's hand- yet the feeling was so alien. So new, so enchanting, he was almost scared of it. If he was supposed to be blue, why did the crown choose him? Thinking about that, he felt for the crown on his head. Shocked to not find it there, he searched around frantically, finding it resting on the floor beside him.

When he picked it up however, he got another unsettling feeling. The crown was not his. It felt odd, yet... comforting? He felt deeper, and realized it had chosen a new king. Why? He didn't know. But he looked at Jasmine and it clicked together like pieces of a puzzle. He had calmed down somewhat, but. He realized something. The new king was Jasmine. It was like the crown had been waiting for him, only choosing Cinnamon because Jasmine was not within its reach. He took a steadying breath, and walked back to Jasmine.
"Hold this."
"Huh?" Jasmine seemed perplexed.
"Just. Hold it. It'll make sense later." He handed it to him gently.

As if by magic (which it probably was) Jasmine understood what was going on. When he touched the crown, it almost seemed to speak to him, and he soon realized the crown had claimed him to be king. He was unsure of the idea, not really being comfortable with its decision, but it reassured him. Cinnamon placed the crown on Jasmine's head, and bowed politely.

It was then that they realized the sun was setting.
"Oh- oh crap dude, I told Violet I'd be back by sundown- ohhh, she is not gonna like this." Cinnamon chuckled nervously.
"I don't think General Maroon would be very pleased either. In fact, I doubt he'd recognize me at all like this." Jasmine wrung his hands.
"Come with me then! Leave the notebook filled with history n stuff somewhere they'll find it, and maybe a note. They'll figure it out eventually." Cinnamon offered
"Alright, if you insist." Jasmine sighed, a grateful smile on his face. "Let's go write an explanation."

Once Jasmine finished the message in the end of his notes, he quickly placed it on the front of his tent, and snuck back. Then, Cinnamon lead him towards the Corruption camp. By the time they got there, however, the sun was just barely still poking out from behind the horizon. Violet stood at the entrance, impatiently tapping her foot. She'd felt something earlier... and it definitely wasn't looking good when she saw a pillar of light shoot out from the old ruins. Even if it was gone in an instant, it definitely wasn't a good sign. Cinnamon spotted her before she did, and attempted to explain a little bit before she saw him. He hid behind a tree slightly, and spoke.
"Heyyy, Violet! Before you, uh, freak out or anything, give me a chance to explain what happened." He chuckled nervously.
"Oh dear treeangle, what have you done this time?" She sighed and turned in his direction.
He slowly stepped into view, saying, "like I said, give me a chance to tell you what I know. The part I don't know- well uh. I'll just tell you what I know for now."
"Good heavens, you're blue!" She gasped and trotted over, looking at him better. "Now where is your crown?? Did you seriously lose it?"
"Uh, well, there's another thing I need to show you." He beckoned for Jasmine to home out. "Uh, meet Jasmine?"

.
.
.

"WHAT?!?" Violet's voice rang out, a few minutes later. "So... you mean to tell me that you don't even know how this happened?"
"Yeah. Button was pressed, long dark chamber, flash of light- boom. Color swap." Cinnamon repeated again
"Goodness gracious, Cinnamon. How are we going to explain this to the rest of the corruption??" Violet groaned "so, Jasmine's the new king now? Well then. Come along. There's nothing we can really do about this right now. You might as well go ahead and be king. Once the crown chooses someone, it's final. And that's that. Nothing good will come of trying to deny it." She beckoned for them to follow. "We don't really have a room for you yet, but you look like you've been passed out for half the day anyway. In fact, Cinnamon looks like he could run around the fortress eight times even! You can chat in your room, Cinnamon, by the way. I'm going to make an announcement."
Cinnamon chuckled. "Knowing you, you're likely going to say, 'Cinnamon did something stupid, blah blah blah authority, the crown chose a new king', etcetera, etcetera." He smirked

She sighed, rolled her eyes, and walked away. Cinnamon led Jasmine to his room and searched around for something in a pile of trinkets. Eventually, he pulled out a chess set, and laid it down on the floor.
"Black or white?" He queried.
"Black, please."
"Okay!" He chuckled and set the pieces down.
Jasmine quickly took overtook the board, beating him several times.
"Checkmate!" He said for the third time in a row.
"How are you so good at this?" Cinnamon chuckled "almost nobody's managed to beat me before! Only Violet has. Then again, I guess that's probably cause I don't get to play often."
"Yeah. I was usually too busy scouting, or carrying messages. Sometimes I would play with my friends, but then I was sent here. Maroon knows what he's doing, but he always has to be mean too. I was always doing the work, telling people where they needed to be, laying out plans... but as soon as it was really important, Maroon would take over. He always said I was getting in the way, so I just listened to him. I guess it never did me any good, did it?" Jasmine sighed.
"Hey, you're here now, and that's good! Maybe you didn't do everything that you wanted to, but you still did something. Made a difference! You make a difference for me, at least." Cinnamon comforted him.

"Just keep doing your best, and that' all be enough! I'll do my part, and we'll figure it all out. But, for now, we should probably get some rest. I have an extra mattress here somewhere, and a few blankets. Uhh, just let me look." He shifted through more junk in the pile and somehow pulled out a small mattress and several warm blankets. "Is it just me, or do I feel a bit of a draft in here?" Cinnamon shivered. "It must be getting closer to fall."

He set down the mattress, found a pillow, and they settled under the covers. It had been a long day for the both of them, and Jasmine was grateful for his company. Even a mattress on the floor was an upgrade from the cold hard floor of the tent. Sleep quickly overcame them, and the unnaturally chilly air seeped through the walls, a sign that winter would come a lot sooner than they'd originally thought.