The King's Collie

Part V, Chapter 11: Of The First Of September

The doors to the bedroom suddenly opened, and, with the noise, Cameron awoke. He blinked, and leaned up, yawning. "Marco? I can't stay awake for your brand of jokes any longer," he asked, then stated.

"No," Felix stated. "It's your king."

"Oh. Felix! Hey, hon," Cameron now sweetly said, widening his eyes and whining with glee. "I'm so glad you've come out of that library. What was the matter? Why'd you stay there for so long?"

There was a long silence after that. The king, for a fleeting moment, reconsidered this plan, but knew he should show no mercy when dealing with deadly sin.

"Felix?" the canine whined, now not so happily. "Are you feeling well?"

"I will soon," the King chuckled nervously, then walked to the side of the bed, standing tall. He took a deep breath. For Valentia, he kept repeating in his head. For Valentia. For Valentia. For Valentia.

"Felix— is everything okay?" Cameron stammered, now quite frightened.

Felix reached under the blanket and grasped Cameron's ankle, firm and tight. He felt it writhe.

"W-What're you doing?" the collie asked.

The lion turned away, still grasping Cameron's ankle, and pulled hard, his anger overcoming him. The canine fell out of bed with a thud, landing headfirst. A sharp cry followed.

"God!" Cameron then whined out, after a bit of silence while he was silenced by the pain of the impact. "That hurt—! What are you doing!?"

"Something I should have done a long, long time ago," Felix said, quietly but forcefully, with the intense burning of rage in his chest. The collie tried to squirm free, to no avail. He kept turning and twisting, but the vice of Felix's thick paw was too tight around his hind leg.

"What's the matter?" Marco asked.

"Nothing," a guard spoke, and barred his and Lætitia's door.

"Let go...!" the dog struggled, tears now running from his eyes.

"Not for the world," the king replied, walking out of the bedroom, and dragging Cameron behind.

"What?! Where are you taking me? Why are you dragging me like this?" Cameron yelped out. Still overcome with pain and fear, he spoke quietly.

"Somewhere you belong. Other than the fields," the lion answered, his deep growl menacing. His grip only got tighter, his claws digging into the skin under the collie's ankle fur. The young canine widened his eyes and whined out in pain, but not from this sudden pierce of claws. That was the least of his pain.

The two went down the hall, and out the door, to an area directly outside the castle. It was right underneath the balcony where Felix shared those anniversaries with his late wife. Oh, how strangely beautiful it was to end it where it all started.

—

The church's bell tolled a number of times, at exactly midnight. It was a time when people very much didn't expect it to ring, and yet, here it was, ringing out as clear as day. Usually the bell chimed the hour, giving the town's population more of an idea of the time than just the sun. Yet, sometimes, the bell rang for special purposes. These were weddings, funerals... and public executions, the rarest of them all. A night-wedding? A vigil in the dark?

No. The bell said "Hear ye, hear ye."

As the people who woke up from this clanging gathered with the few who had already been awake and wandering, one thing was immediately visible. The risen stage, on which shows or speeches from the House of Law were often held, was now surrounded by guards.