Work Text:
For Owain, the world had been stripped of its colour for a long time. He had become accustomed to the dull and bleak obligation, the never-ending sacrifice of himself for his people and his ruler. As he sat staring out at the kingdom they had been rebuilding from the ground up, his mind ran to the inevitability it would all happen again. Death, destruction, overwhelming loss. From the moment he knelt in front of his first monarch - their sword at his neck - he knew this was what he signed up for. A life of separation from his fellow men if he wanted to keep his sanity.
When he looked to the horizon, his eyes graced a now familiar sight; Kitty. Owain didn't quite understand how this strange arrangement came to be. She merely slipped into his life one day, and as much as he would loath to admit it, he would be rather beside himself if she left. It had become a simple routine; she would appear on his skyline and then he would meet her at the river to go down to the beach for their lessons.
They were meant to be sworn enemies; it was an indisputable fact he had not even flinched at since he arrived at Bannerfall. The Reds were brash, unkind, and hell-bent on his home’s demise. But she wasn’t, and now he had sworn to teach her the intricacies of knighthood. He supposed there was some symbolism in that. Owain, a Blue Kingdom knight, having meetings with a Red Kingdom rogue in a place that was neither his nor hers.
Treason, that is what it truly was. Worst of all, he couldn’t bring himself to admit it.
Taking his mind off of his treachery, he thought of what he had planned. He aimed to teach her literacy today, along with perhaps a match of farkle to improve her numeracy skills as well (without her realisation). While he didn’t believe that she truly was a ‘cat-turned-woman’ as she so claimed, Kitty clearly didn’t have much of an education. If she was to truly want to become a knight, she must learn. She would amount to little more than a squire if not pushed beyond her comfort zone.
As he wandered his way to the riverbank, he looked down to his armour and thought about how they met. The resemblance to a lion was meant to be representative of his home, though it seemed no one understood that. Instead, it had only encouraged Kitty to believe they must have some sort of connection as fellow felines.
Suddenly, he felt a sharp shove. He internally rolled his eyes, realizing that Kitty was trying to - as she would say - ‘soggy’ him again. This little pet peeve of hers (that being getting wet) had turned into a constant game of cat and mouse that was played in between them. It seemed to usually occur as an odd greeting or when she got bored. At first he had seen it as nothing more than an inconvenience. Now however, a sense of excitement stirred at the thought of getting her back.
He never thought that he would ever experience fun like this again, after devoting himself to the crown.
Perhaps he was wrong.
Feinting falling over, he used some fancy footwork to move behind her. He pulled out his shield and proceeded to bash her into the river. She squealed, somehow not expecting the retaliation, before falling into the water. Owain waited a minute for her head to pop up, and when it didn’t he was instantly filled with panic.
Now, Owain usually prided himself of being a well thought man, but when it came to her, he didn’t seem to think clearly at all. Impulsively, he jumped into the river after her, scrambling to make sure she was alive. If you asked him why he did this, he would simply say that it was his duty. There was no war between the kingdoms at that time, and further casualty would be cruel and unnecessary. But, if you asked him on a deeper level, he might be reminded of what Queen Eloise had said to him that day when he requested a visa for the rogue; “So you don’t think this has anything to do with the fact that the big kitty seems to have some level of affection for the smaller kitty?”
Kitty suddenly popped up from beneath the water. “Naughty lion!” She giggled as she hit him around his helmed head. Against all his better judgement, he laughed heartily, and so the cycle began again.
Life was bright once more.