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After taking in the shock and terror on Princey’s face for a few moments, Dee turned to Virgil. “Rise,” he said. Virgil stood and stepped closer to him. He petted Virgil’s hair. “You’ve done well, my dear. What have you brought me?”
Virgil snorted. “An idiot. Not sure if you’ll even want to keep him.” The prince made a choked but recognizably offended noise, and Virgil shot him a glare that Dee couldn’t see. He was trying to help , couldn’t the guy see that? Fortunately, the prince shut up.
“Not sure if I’ll want to keep him? Hm. We’ll see…” Dee tapped Virgil on the head twice, and he began to shrink. His clothes (aside from his cloak, which Dee tucked away after picking it up from the ground where it had fallen) sank into his skin as his fur returned. His tail and whiskers extended. Wrinkling his nose, he sneezed as the magic finished its job, leaving him a sleek and elegant black cat again. The transformation made him slightly sleepy, as usual— a side effect due to the fact that this kind of spell was usually done on an unsuspecting, sleeping victim— and after making himself comfortable on Dee’s shoulders, he yawned, displaying his now much sharper teeth.
Dee moved closer to the prince, walking around him to examine him from all sides. “It’s a pretty one,” he commented.
The prince swallowed and asked, “Who are you?”
Well, it wasn’t the worst thing he could have said. Not by far. At least he hadn’t gone with “what are you”. And Dee was always one for dramatic introductions. He smiled, letting his fangs show just slightly. “Who am I? I am Dee of the Autumn Court.”
All remaining color drained from Princey’s face, and he fell to his knees in a deep bow. “Your Lordship. Your gracious Lordship.” Apparently even he wasn’t planning on fighting someone like Dee. Maybe he’d actually survive this encounter. If he was a prince, he had to have been taught some diplomacy, after all. “I am sure that a mortal such as myself has no value to you. The seasons are changing— your already great power is only increasing. But soon it will be cold. My cloak is warm and soft and durable, and I will gladly give it to you as a gesture of gratitude if Your Lordship will allow me to leave the forest safely.” The prince spoke quickly, but with a commendably slight waver in his voice.
Dee considered for a long moment. “What you say is true,” he said slowly. “Anx? What do you think?”
“The red would look good with your outfit,” Virgil meowed.
“So it would.” Dee eyed the prince and the cloak for a few moments more, then said, “Very well. You may leave. I will not harm you today.”
“Thank you, my lord, thank you for your mercy.” The relief in the prince’s voice could not have been clearer. He nearly stumbled as he stood up, hurrying to remove Dee’s cloak and place it at his feet. Princey gave another, shallower bow, then quickly set off in the opposite direction just shy of running. Virgil watched him go. It looked like he was going to be fine, as long as he didn’t do something incredibly stupid like bragging about how he’d “bested a faerie noble” or some nonsense.
Dee bent down to pick up his cloak, then stayed low to the ground for a few moments. He had to say, “Anx. Down,” before Virgil looked away from the direction the prince had gone and jumped down from Dee’s shoulders to let him put on the cloak. He began cleaning his paw to show that he didn’t really care about the answer to his question, not at all, before he asked, “Do you think we’ll ever see him again?”
“Not,” said Dee, “unless he’s extremely unlucky.”
And Dee began to move, and Virgil followed, and they returned from whence they’d come. And Dee’s remark hung in the air in the emptiness of the silent forest.