Never

Chapter 26: A ceremony and a name

Hollow and Orchid walked hand in hand into the great ballroom and of course, their presence did not go unnoticed by anyone. As the first pair of eyes landed on them, a curtain of murmurs rose from the crowd. It was not just the servants of the castle that spoke of the romance between the knight and the mantis. The story had penetrated the palace walls and numerous magazines -from the most prestigious to those of questionable quality- had dedicated at least one article to the couple of the year. But the fact that the knight had not made any formal statement made it impossible for them to give the story as true, although that was not necessarily a bad thing, people loved to theorize and fill in the gaps with imagination.

And now to increase the curiosity and gossip, Hollow appeared with the mantis of rumors as her partner instead of with one of the palace knights, as he had done on previous occasions. The place was on fire and everyone was dying to know more. Who was this mysterious lady who had escaped from the tribe? Was there a forbidden romance? Had she seduced him? Weren't they worried about the age difference?

Fortunately Orchid was oblivious to all the gossip that ran about her, as she was not very fond of reading she had not even ever looked at the newspaper that sacredly arrived at the palace every morning. If she found out about anything it was from some Big's comment, because he liked to tell her the news of the kingdom. But the king filtered the information he provided, making sure to omit anything that might bother her. Was that a bad thing? Not really, in Big's eyes, no one forbade her to read the newspaper, if she wanted to find out something for herself she could.

The mantis' lack of knowledge about the stories that ran about her caused her to misinterpret the situation she was in. She was convinced that all the stares and whispers around her were from people who were evaluating her manners, so she tried twice as hard to maintain etiquette, she really wished she could fight the king and if she failed at that party she would lose her chance.

Her acid test came when a pair of crickets came over to say hello. Orchid bowed perfectly and saluted with the exact words she had been instructed to do. She explained that she was a mantis eager to explore the world and that she left her tribe to satisfy her curiosity, but due to fate she ended up in a predicament from which Hollow saved her and now they were both cultivating a healthy friendship. This story, which in part could be considered true, had been staged by Ogrim, with precise instructions not to let more details escape. Of course the Lord agreed, she did not want to reveal her status or do anything that would shame her tribe.

The cricket couple left delighted with the mantis' manners and with a story that although it was somewhat bland, they would already be in charge of decorating and turning it into a story worth telling.

For the next half hour they walked around the room greeting a lot of people Orchid didn't know and Hollow didn't remember. Unfortunately for the mantis, most of the questions were directed at her, both because she was the novelty of the party, as for the lack of speech of the knight, but finally that horde of elegant nosy came to an end and Orchid exhausted came to the table to eat some snacks.

"We're finally done with all of this," she said, taking a few bites from her canapé. "This is very good." Suddenly she noticed someone approaching them. "Hollow, if someone else comes to ask me about the story of how we met, I swear to you, I'll go get my spear and challenge them to a duel."

"Would you challenge them to a duel?" He wrote worriedly on his board.

"Of course. The truth is, I'd rather cut his head off without asking, but we're at a party and we have to be polite."

It was good that Orchid was so determined to maintain her manners, but her violent nature was something she obviously couldn't take away from her. Hollow thought it over for a bit and even Sharpy who was a fairly quiet mantis hadn't completely eliminated those behaviors. Fearing that her mood would make her commit some indiscretion, he moved her away from the finger food table avoiding another curious creature from questioning her.