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Princess Selen stared down at the coliseum, tail swishing idly as she twirled her wand in hand. This batch of knights was somehow even less impressive than the last one, stumbling and tripping away from some lumbering clay golem she'd have riddled with holes by now.
"Is this really necessary?" She sighed as she leaned back in her seat, eyes tracing the elaborately etched ceiling for the thousandth time. Her sister sighed from beside her, just as disheartened.
"You know how it is. Even if you're not going to be the queen, you're still part of the royal family, and you -"
"Need someone to protect and guard me at all times, yeah yeah." Selen's eyes might get stuck in the back of her skull with how often and how hard she's rolling them. "Never mind the fact that I could probably kick all their asses in, what, seven seconds?"
"Five, more like." Snorted Pomu, her sister's head maid/lover/assassin bodyguard/unhinged fairy. She smoothed her dress delicately as she continued. "These rich boys probably couldn't win against anything that doesn't roll onto their backs for them, and even then-"
"Pomu!" Elira laughed, half incredulous and half embarrassed, and her lover simply smiled as she leaned in to brush her lips against her forehead. Selen mock gagged, earning a middle finger from the fairy, which caused her burst into another round of her signature cackles. The sound of a gong drew both of their attention, as another batch of young lords got dragged off the field, the singular clay golem still standing there, somehow managing to look disappointed with an entirely emotionless face.
"Next on the families that wish to compete -" Selen tuned out the announcer (herald? She could never remember the names) in favor of fantasizing about the flight she'd take later. If only her magic was Time magic rather than Lunar…
Yet in the middle of her daydreams of playing with Ember, racing through the skies, and target practicing, a surprised uproar from the crowd caught her attention. She tuned back in just to watch the clay golem get splattered across the floor by a high-powered blast of water magic, making her raise a brow. Most – actually, all but one of the contenders were either down or barely on their legs. Only one person still stood steady, and…well, Selen had to laugh.
The guy was barely five feet, if that – the longsword looked almost like a great sword in his diminutive hands, and he stood barely to the neck of the next shortest contender. His blue scale-plated armor was expectedly high-quality, yet Selen couldn’t help but be reminded of the costumed children she’d seen during festivals, running and playfighting.
“Seriously? They all got beat by him?!” She wheezed. “Oh my gods, he’s tiny! He’s just a little baby! Who let a kid in here?!”
“I did.” Elira piqued up cheerfully. Too cheerfully. This immediately raised several alarms in her head.
“Huh? Elira, why do you sound like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re about to – no, like you just swapped my soap out with a grease bar.” Selen’s eyes narrowed, and both Elira and Pomu just smiled innocently back at her. Yeah, something is definitely up.
“Just keep watching. I think you’ll like this one.”
Selen was about to ask what that meant when the ground rumbled, and the next challenge rose up. With one last suspicious glare at her sister, she turned her eyes back to the arena, where a drake of tangled roots was pulling itself from the floor.
Several of the still standing competitors immediately fled, as this drake was about several times the size of the earlier golem – which was already as large as a small house. The small knight also backed up, but more slowly and deliberately – a tactical retreat in contrast to the others’ “tactical” retreat.
At least he’s not intimidated by size.
Selen snickered at her own joke. Then proceeded to choke on her own laugh when she felt the humidity rise several levels.
“Wait what the fuc-”
A rumbling, like some kind of earthquake. Even the drake paused momentarily, as if in confusion.
Then, in the span between one breath and the next, a wall of water appeared aside the drake, blindsiding it and throwing it onto the ground.
Water washed the entire arena floor, splashing competitor and monster alike as it collapsed, hissing, slipping, and sinking into the now muddy earth. The knight immediately rushed past it, water freezing beneath his feet as he all but glided down alongside the creature, spreading frost over its soaked form.
By the time he had reached its tail, the entire thing was stuck in place and struggling sluggishly, neutralized in the blink of an eye.
“C’mon, finish it off now…” Selen muttered under her breath as the knight realigned himself behind it, frost creeping up his legs and steadying him as he held both hands forward. However, the princess’ eyes widened when she saw where he was aiming at. “NOO-”
The thin, high-pressure blast of water grazed the drake’s flank and slammed into its head, which would have been a good call on just about anything but a fucking summon. As it was, all he accomplished was pissing off the beast more, as it turned its half-destroyed head back to glare at the suddenly very still figure.
Selen face-palmed hard. “Great aim, now if only he had the brains to go with that.”
Elira giggled a little. “Well maybe you can make up for that?”
Selen wrinkled her nose at the thought of dealing with an idiot knight, strong as he may be. Thankfully, the ill aimed shot exposed a part of the drake’s actual glowing weakspot – the core in its chest – and the knight hurriedly fired off another shot, saving himself any more embarrassment.
“Last one.” Selen muttered. She’d be loathed to admit it, but she was beginning to get invested. She squinted her eyes at the armor a little. “What family’s he from?”
“The Ryugu line.”
As usual, she drew a blank on the first names. A different memory struck her, however.
“Wait, didn’t they not have any sons?”
“Well…”
The creaking of metal gates sounded, and Elira pretended to be much more interested in it than she probably really was. Selen let it go this time, because her eyes and attention had more important places to be.
A metal golem – the final challenge for any aspiring royal guard. Barely larger than a man, but several times deadlier than even a small battalion, alloyed wrath and strength shaking the coliseum with every step.
Even as it sunk into the muddy ground, its movement remained unimpeded as it tread through the floor, eyes locked onto the slayer of the previous monster. Pistons hissed and gears clicked as the water evaporated beneath its feet, creating a boiling veil of steam beneath it. It was nothing short of a juggernaut, especially compared to the tiny knight.
“C’mon, c’mon, do something…” Selen whispered, frowning as she watched the knight stand stock still in the face of approaching danger. “What are you doing?! It’ll crush you if it catches you! This is no time to be a macho man!”
Yet the knight remained deaf and defiant, doing seemingly nothing as the automaton got closer and closer. Selen’s tail waved unconsciously behind her, batting against her seat.
“C’mon, fight, run, do something, what are you doing, what are you doing-!”
The golem emerged from its steam cloak, now within striking range, arm reared back, mechanisms locked and loaded.
“MOVE, DAMN IT!”
The knight jerked, head snapping up to look at Selen, and for just a moment she could pick out sunset eyes peering from beneath the visor. He faltered, ever so slightly.
The golem swung. The fist slammed into his side with a sickening shriek of metal breaking metal. He went flying, rolling across the dusty ground and slamming into a wall, before falling limply onto the earth.
For a long, long moment, Selen forgot to breathe, staring in horror at the still tiny form. The world itself seemed to hold its breath, watching as the dust dispersed from his impact…
Wait…dust?
In the second it took for Selen to process that the entire arena floor was dry again, the knight turned his hand on the ground – and a geyser of mud and water exploded from beneath the golem, hurling it sky high. Selen’s draw dropped as she watched the automaton go flying, arching through the air like some absurd skipping stone.
Selen’s eyes immediately snapped back down to the movement on the arena floor. The small knight stumbled onto his feet, unsteady yet determined, hand extended forward. The geyser began coalescing into a tiny ball in front of him, becoming smaller and smaller even as more and more water rushed towards it. Selen clutched at the railing, practically off her seat at this point.
“C’mon, c’mon…”
The knight held the orb steady, patiently, as the golem appeared again from the sky, and struck the ground with a titanic crash. He stood patiently as it emerged from the crater, joints and body creaking and belching black smoke. He held still just long enough for the thing to stand up, to turn and look at him once again, at the orb of water now barely more than a point on his finger.
The jet of water was no thicker than a thread – the only reason Selen even knew it was there was thanks to her draconic eyes. It cut several lines across the golem, straight down, shoulder to hip, across its neck. For a second, it only tilted its head at the knight, almost like a quizzical animal. Then its head slid off its neck, its torso split in several pieces, and it simply collapsed, gears and magical engine spinning confusedly, as if unable to believe it was already dead.
Neither could everyone else, it seemed – not even the wind made a sound for several seconds. Then, the silence was shattered by the princess herself.
“WOOO YEAH! YOU GO!” Her cackle revitalized the coliseum, and cheers exploded from the crowds, a wave of applause rolling across the stands as the princess herself leapt from her seat, throwing her wand in the air and sending arcs of purple fireworks exploding across the sky.
“YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT, RYUGU!” She cheered, and the knight looked directly at her again, tired golds and purples meeting her mismatched midnight.
The knight raised a hand…and gave her a thumbs up. She choked on a surprised wheeze.
Then he fell face forward onto the ground.
“Oh…oh wait oh shit oh fuck wait someone get a medic down there-!”
…
The coliseum’s medic bay was crowded, of course, but the ceiling was thankfully tall enough for Selen to simply fly above all the other injured knights. She landed on a balcony at the very back, next to a room reserved specifically for the champion, startling the guard posted there. He hurriedly look away as Selen shot him a glare, whistling innocently and loudly. Sure that there would be no witness, Selen allowed her tail to sweep nervously across the floor.
Why am I so fucking nervous?
A flash of beautiful sunset eyes. Selen swallowed again.
Alright, alright…Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
She reached out and knocked.
“Coming.” The medic called out. Selen took another deep breath and shoved her crisis to the back of her mind. The guy’s already proven himself, and whatever else, he definitely doesn’t need to know he’s giving Selen her first sexuality breakdown in a while-
The door opened, and Selen looked down – and was struck dumb by the girl standing there.
Long blue hair cascaded down her shoulders, framing a tiny, soft, adorable face with wide sunset eyes. Her fins almost seem comically large compared to her face, shifting like ears along with her blinks and almost giving Selen a heart attack. A soft blush crossed her face as she dropped her gaze, and Selen felt the overwhelming urge to adjust her collar and dress and-
Well, that’s one less problem…
“O-oh, greetings, Y-your Majesty.”
…and one more, much bigger, one.
“Please, call me Selen.” She pulled on her tried and true bravado and prayed to whatever gods still listened that her dress was thick enough to muffle her tail thumping. “I don’t like to hear titles any more than I absolutely have to, and definitely not from someone who’ll be living with me.”
“Y-yes, of course, Y-um, Selen.” The girl shuffled back nervously, opening the door wider, and Selen sauntered in – before freezing suddenly.
“Wait a second, what are you doing out of bed?!” She whirled on her new bodyguard, incredulous, and was met with only a bright smile.
“Oh, the medic fixed me up alright, and I used some of my own magic on it too. See, look-” And Selen’s brain barely managed to process the girl reaching for the hem of her shirt.
“Oh no, that’s-!” The princess cleared her throat, swallowing the voice crack. “That’s alright, I know the healers are good. Though…I didn’t know you knew healing magic as well?”
“Oh, yeah.” The girl mercifully let go of her shirt. “You, uh, probably know about the Ryugu Apothecary…I always really liked watching the healers worked, and they taught me a trick or two…but, well, I was never really one for that life.”
“Really, now?” Selen’s eyebrow raised as she pulled a nearby chair over, settling comfortably as her knight went and sat on the bed. “What made you try out for the royal guard, then? The excitement? Family pressure?”
“Well, kind of…not really?” She twirled a strand of her hair with one hand, and Selen was once again taken by how incredibly soft and cute girl is. “I…wanted to challenge myself, a little, just see how far I could get…but, um…I thought that protecting a pretty princess wouldn’t be the worst thing to do with my life.”
Wait, what?
Selen stared, speechless, as the small girl avoided her gaze. It took her a beat to realize she was being entirely honest.
“We’ll…we’ll have to work on that.” She managed to croak out somehow, and her knight looked up at her in surprise. “Your…honesty. You’re my personal guard now. You can’t just go around saying everything you think…”
Realization dawned with a heavy blush on her face, and the girl ducked her head in shame, melting Selen’s heart right then and there.
“I’m sorry…”
GODS DAMN IT WHY ARE YOU SO CUTE?!
“It’s alright, we’ll have plenty of time later.” Selen cleared her throat a little. “I’ll, uh, I’ll let you rest for a little while longer. When you’re ready, just tell the guard, and he’ll take you up to meet us officially, alright?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Okay, good.” Selen needed to get out of here before she did something she’d regret. Standing with as much dignity she could muster, the dragon dusted off her dress and walked back towards the door, pausing just at the door frame just long enough to toss one look over her shoulder. Any witty one liner she might have had died on her tongue as she made eye contact with the small girl again.
“You did good out there.” The princess blurted, before slamming the door shut.
It was only a while later, back within her own chambers, that Selen realized she never even asked for her new bodyguard’s name. She buried her face into a pillow and groaned.
“This is going to be great.”