The King's Men

Chapter 7

Hiroshi and Waren gave shocked expressions as they turned their heads towards the young girl, but Sook seemed the most shaken by those words.

"But... She helped me... Even went all the way back home to do so!" Sook said desperately. He looked between Ikuno and the girl frantically, even more frantic as Ikuno begun to draw his sword.

The small female tisked her tongue and removed her hood. Unlike what Ikuno was expecting, she had black hair cut in a bob style and midnight blue eyes. He began scanning through the rest of her features. She had on cat-head-shaped earrings and a lacy choker with a black cat silhouette charm on it. She wore a dark red, almost black, medium-sleeved dress covered with intricate patterns created by more lace, stockings that looked as if they were made of lace, and black leather boots tied tightly so as to allow movement and so the boots won't fall off easily. Her outfit screamed Akazu Clan, but her hair and eyes said otherwise. Ikuno ceased to move, neither sheathing his sword nor taking it out more.

"How come you aren't blonde?" Ikuno asked. "The Akazu Clan contains people who only have blonde hair. They also don't ever have dark blue eyes. Only the Wolf Clan ever has those dark colors for their eyes and hair."

The Wolf Clan were not actually wolves. The people within this clan just had a strong bond with canines, especially wolves. They also hate the Akazu Clan's hatred for their beloved canines, so they've been in conflict for the majority of their history.

The girl sighed, as if she had explained this many times before.

"Do you want the long story or the long story short?" she asked. Her voice was not high-pitched. She sounded more like a teenager.

"Either way works," Ikuno replied curtly.

"Okay, so long story short, my mom, part of the Akazu Clan, fell in love with my father, a part of the Wolf Clan. This union between my parents brought the clans together, although not before some bad conflict, but now we live as one clan. We are now called the Yuni Clan."

Ikuno relaxed and sheathed his sword. "I see," he said. "But how did the Akazu Clan get over its hatred for canines?"

"My mother made them open up to them, and once the clan realized that canines weren't all that bad, they agreed with the marriage of my mother and father."

"Wait... Who is your mother? She must've had quite a lot of power within the clan in order to be able to do something like that."

"She's just a normal person. She has no special position in the old Akazu Clan. Though she was quite close to the leader's daughter as childhood friends."

"I see..."

Sook looked at the girl. "Vanessa, you said we can further explore your small village?"

Vanessa grinned and ran up to Sook, hugging his giant leg and stroking his fur. "Of course!" she said. "It'll be great to have some people other than Yuni people!"

As Hiroshi looked back on Shayne, he realized that his king was awake.

"What do you say, Shayne?" he asked.

"Sounds fun!" Shayne replied. "Besides, we should let Sook and Vanessa have their fun."

Sook and Vanessa began jumping around like children (though technically, Vanessa WAS a child, though she didn't act like it unless it came to Sook, as the group discovered) and the two raced into the forest. The four men walked after them.

The group entered a clearing full of decorative tents. Men and women were milling around, talking and gossiping with one another, and children were playing. Canines and felines of multiple species were play-fighting with each other.

Shayne smiled.

"This is a really beautiful place you have here," he said.

Vanessa smiled up at the teen. "Isn't it?"

She began to babble on about the place. Where there was food, where they kept weapons, where the healer's tent was (sort of a hospital), and even how to distinguish between the tents of the animals and the tents of the humans.

"Human tents have more dark brown paint in their decorations," she said. "Canines have more black, and felines have more yellow."

At this moment, she got up on a large rock and shouted, "Hey, everyone! Here're Sook's friends!"

All eyes turned toward the men, an almost judging look.

Two women and two men stepped from the crowd.

"Vanessa, who are they?" one of the women, with sky blue eyes, asked suspiciously.

Author's Note:

It's a quick update, for once! :D

I don't think I clarified this earlier, so I'm clarifying it now.

If you guys remember how the Sook Jungle was full of citrus fruits and how Sook's saliva used to dissolve everything except seemingly people? In this world, citrus fruits dissolve everything that's nonliving. Sorry if anyone was confused by this. ^^'

I hope you're all enjoying the story so far!
-Vanguard12😋