Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

Don't judge a book by its cover

           Princess Gem of Dawn loved the sun. It was what she told everyone, anyway. She made it blatantly obvious, what with her empire's name being Dawn, and her church to worship the sun. And she was crazy about sleeping as soon as possible and waking up as early as possible; like she wanted to spend all her waking hours soaking in daylight.

           Gem rode around Dawn on her steed, Apollo. He was a large, hulking brown bear with a permanent frown and a constant grimace that showed off his sharp teeth. One sight of him usually turned people off as soon as they saw him. It was a pity people judged books by their covers, though, especially when the book was a living creature. Once you got to know Apollo, he was the sweetest teddy bear you could ever meet.

           Most of the time, his giant carpet paws, which many assumed would be used to clobber unfortunate trespassers, would be stuck in beehives as he tried to indulge his massive stomach with his favorite snack: honey. That meant Gem had to shoo her lovable old bear away from her honey farm a lot.

           She didn't mind, much. She had a sweet tooth for honey as well, so the princess wasn't one to talk. But Apollo had just consumed three hive-fulls of honey, three hive-fulls that Gem could have used to increase Dawn's economical status, so she was now riding her mount all over the place to work off his lazy belly.

           Apollo grumbled the whole way, making snuffy bear noises that made it sound like he had a cold. "You just ate three hive-fulls of honey," Gem reminded him from atop her sunrise-red saddle." So don't complain; you brought this on yourself." Apollo continued to moan and groan, however, and Gem just gave up trying to talk sense into him. Bears, by default, were usually very stubborn. Apollo was case in point.

           Gem was unsaddling him and leashing him to his favorite back-scratching tree when Sausage flew in with mossy wings. He nearly crashed into Apollo, who looked completely unconcerned with the arrival of a flying Sausage.

           "Sausage, what are you doing here?" Gem asked, trying to sound stern, but she was inwardly smiling at the sight of her friend. "Oh, hi, Gem!" Sausage said. Then he glanced at Apollo. "And hello to you too. What's your name?" Apollo growled, a low, strangled sound that made people think he wanted to eat them. Sausage looked pretty unworried, however.

           "Oh, Apollo's a nice name! I'm Mythical J. Sausage, the 'j' is silent." Gem blinked. She hadn't told Sausage about Apollo yet, let alone his name. "How did you..." Gem trailed off. When you were friends with the emperor of Sanctuary, you had to get used to the odd things he did on a regular basis. "Oh, I forgot to mention I can talk to animals," Sausage clarified, giggling. Gem was proud to admit that what he had just said didn't surprise her anymore.

           "Aw, come on! It's way more fun when I constantly shock everybody," Sausage groaned. Gem laughed." Okay, then, Sausage, but if being weird is normal for you, then people will be expecting it. You can't just act weird all the time and not expect them to get used to it."

           "Ah, maybe you're right," Sausage sighed." Okay, from now on, I vow to be normal for at least ten seconds everyday. And Apollo, you're a witness." Apollo wasn't even paying attention; he was gratefully scratching his back on the tree, looking like contentment personified.

           "Hey, look at that! He dances! Hey, Gem, I've got a few dancing panda bears at Sanctuary, do you think we can introduce them?" Sausage waved his hand at Apollo, who looked just like he was dancing as he rubbed himself up and down against the rough bark of the tree. "Sausage," Gem just sighed, not knowing what to say. Thankfully, the wacky emperor changed the subject by himself.

           "Oh, Gem, I forgot why I came here to show you!" Sausage turned around and showed off his new elytra. Gem looked at it curiously. It didn't look like normal custom elytras that she had seen. Its frame was made of curving wood, not wood that looked like it had been chopped from a tree, but wood that looked like it was still growing. A soft carpet of moss ran down the top of the frame, leading to the soft blue leather of elytra membrane. Gem stroked it like she would a cat, and was startled at how it felt so... alive.