Chapter Text
It had been a week since Autumn woke up in Grimshire and suffice to say Autumn was not expecting to be meeting her soulmate today. The only thoughts she was thinking this early the the morning was finding out why she had been awoken by such a loud horn. Either there was trouble, or she had been deprived of even more sleep tonight. She quickly threw on her clothes and headed down to the docks, her mind racing through the possibilities.
As she headed down there, she noticed her soulmate string was also leading to the docks. It was red and tied around her wrist, and she had been told by her family all about how it was connected to her soulmate. In normal circumstances she would take notice of this, but she was too wrapped up in her current situation to think of it much.
She finally reached the docks and saw the crowd, the empire ship, and the soldiers. She rushes to the edge of the crowd, trying to look through them to see what's going on. She sees some rabbit soldiers up front, and a nobleman mouse talking to Theo, but details are difficult to make out between the numerous bodies blocking her way.
"Is this everyone?" The nobleman asks.
"Yes sir, please proceed." Theo tries to stay calm, but he has the disposition of a Wolf with his tail between his legs.
The nobleman quickly introduces himself as Gustavo Goldwhiskers and explains the Defender's Ration to the town. Autumn is shocked, she's barely set up her farm and now she's expected to provide a week's worth of food for the army every week? It's absolutely ridiculous. But through her frustration she notices the string pointing towards the docks, and it almost looks like it's pointing taught towards the nobleman. But the crowd's in the way so it's hard to tell. Is her soulmate seriously here? Now of all times? She's bewildered to say the least.
She tries to make her way to the front, but the crowd is tight. Frustrated, she decides she needs to try something else. She wraps her paw around the extended red string a few times, and pulls on it.
"Now as for the other rations-" Gustavo pauses, and looks down at his paw the moment she pulls.
No, it can't be. That must've been some sort of mistake. She pulls again, and he's cut off mid speech again right as she pulls.
Nononono this can't be happening. The man who's coming to extort her village is her soulmate. She can't even….she doesn't even know how to process this. What kind of cruel joke is this? She wouldn't even call herself picky when it came to romance, but this was simply unacceptable.
"As for the other rations…" Gustavo continues, slightly shaken but undeterred.
Autumn grabs onto the string with her other paw and pulls harder. She doesn't even have a plan, she just knows she has to stop him from talking, and this string is as convenient of a tool as any.
Gustavo's is pulled forward, stumbling a step. People in the crowd start to whisper. He looks around across the crowd, clearly convinced that he must be going mad.
"Sir?" Theo asks him.
"I'm fine." Gustavo hisses "Now-"
She pulls on the string as hard as she can, yanking him forward and he doesn't gain his footing in time, tumbling to the ground. The guards and village finally seemed to have figured out what's going on. There's scattered laughter and snickering.
"I think his soulmate's here!" One of the guards cackles.
"-It's just like in the stories." One of the villagers says excitedly.
The villagers look to each other, trying to figure who his soulmate is. In the back, she largely escapes notice.
Gustavo stands up, aggressively shaking the dust off his trousers "Nonsense! I am Gustavo Goldwhiskers, second son of Lord Manuel Goldwhiskers! I am from a long line of pure blooded nobles and I am noooot-" She pulls him forward again "-tied by fate to some peasant!"
She starts reeling him in like you would a fish, walking forward as she continually pulls the string. People part ways for the both of them, and Gustavo, having lost his balance, barrels towards her. When she realizes he's not going to be able to stop in time, she stops pulling and reaches out her arms to catch him.
He quite literally falls into her arms, and to keep herself holding onto him she has to turn around until she's dipping him as if they were in a dance. Their strings turn gold and warm up, like they had been sit next to a fire. Now everyone can see their strings, now everyone knows that they are bound together. It should be sweet, it's supposed to be sweet. But she is not forgetting what he was just doing to her village.
If she's stuck with a soulmate like him, she might as well make the most of it.
She smiles wide and with fake enthusiasm says "Hi! My name's Autumn, I'm your soulmate, it's so nice to meet you."
"W-what?". Gustavo stutters, staring up at her with awe and confusion.
"Congratulations sir" One of the guards snickers.
"When's the wedding?" Another jokes.
"Congratulations Autumn….I think." Percy says.
"Oh dear." Theo worries.
Not wanting to keep holding him in this position, she sweeps an arm underneath him, lifting him up so she's carrying him bridal style.
"Oh wow, you're just the perfect carrying size. Also you're really cute. Did I mention that? You're just the cutest."
Gustavo blushes aggressively, stuttering too hard for Autumn to know what he's trying to say. While he's too flustered to notice, Autumn takes a few steps to the side, approaching the edge of the docks.
"If anything, I think you're actually a little too hot. Why don't we cool you down?"
She very quickly turns and throws him far into the water. Gustavo screams loudly as he flies into the water, going silent as he goes under the water with a loud splash. The dock erupts in laughter for several seconds, and Autumn feels very proud of herself for a whole second before realizing she doesn't have a plan for what to do after this.
"Paws up!" One of the guards barks the order.
Autumn really did not think this through. She spins around and tries to put on her best innocent face "Aw come on, you wouldn't arrest your boss's-"
She gets yanked backwards by the wrist before she can finish her sentence. She's pulled so fast that she doesn't even realize what's happening till she's underwater. Cold water rushes into her open mouth and she struggles, choking as she thrashes around. She briefly sees sunlight before she's pulled back into the water. It's too much chaos for her to orient herself, to know what's going on, and she keeps getting pulled by the string.
She needs to go up, but she's not sure which direction is up. She kicks her legs frantically, hoping that she will make it somewhere. Then she feels a paw grab onto her arm and yank her into the surface, the sun blinding her.
Her stinging eyes catch a glimpse of Beryl, as she holds onto Autumn's arm, swimming quickly towards the shore. Autumn still feels that pulling, but it's far weaker than Beryl's pull. It feels like it takes a long time, but couldn't have been when Beryl brings her onto the shore. She kneels on the sand, coughing and spitting out water from her lungs. In the distance she faintly hears a splash, presumably Beryl going back for Gustavo.
"Autumn are you alright?" Percy says.
Autumn didn't see or hear him approach, but her senses are pretty messed up. She spits out some saltwater and wheezes for a moment before she can respond "-will be" before she coughs several times.
Gustavo gets dragged next to her. He's even worse off, practically vomiting up seawater as he lays on his side, shivering like a monster passed by.
The two of them stay there for at least a full minute, spitting and wheezing trying to get the water out of their lungs and air back inside. But finally they start to be able to breathe properly. Autumn stands to her feet and immediately sees several bunny guards staring her down.
"Sir, what should we do?". One of the guards asks.
Gustavo wheezes "Take me…back to the ship."
One of the guards helps him up and he slowly is walked back to the ship. Autumn and the whole village watches him leave, half expecting him to stop and order her to be killed. But he doesn't. All he does is stare at Autumn longingly as he walks across the pier. And Autumn feels a pang of pity for him, an emotion she was not expecting to feel.