Ratiocination

Rupert was beginning to regret agreeing so quickly to be Prince Anthony’s advisor. It had been so long since the heir trials were last done that most of the standard trials would no longer work. The trials really boiled down to proof of physical, mental, and emotional prowess.

However, fighting a dragon no longer made sense for the physical trial as dragons had long gone extinct and the only other physical trial involved capturing a mouse without killing it which all cats could do these days. The mental challenges of old had a similar problem. The Pythagorean theorem was known to all cats, so reciting it was not a mental challenge for anyone. He didn’t even know what to make of the old emotional trials. Previously they were supposedly asked to shoot their dogs with a gun that had blanks? No one had dogs as pets anymore. All the dogs had gone to the human dimension ages ago.

So now, since Prince Anthony had demanded that he set up the trials, he was stuck creating completely new trials that would actually be worthwhile for this century. For the mental trial, he needed something that would force her to prove her ratiocination. “Oh,” he gasped as an idea came to him. He could have her write a computer program. There were always a million different ways to do that and how she did it would tell him a lot.

He was having a lot harder time figuring out appropriate physical and emotional trials. They just didn’t have anything challenging to fight anymore. Their civilization had become too urban. Once he would have considered having her fight the King’s guards, but they were all killed during the attack that killed the royal family.

Wait, maybe he could have one of the travelling guardsmen come and fight her. That might work. They took all the training of the king’s guards. They just travelled the land to keep the peace and pass along any possible invasion threats or what not to the king before they happened if they spotted any signs of them instead of directly protecting the king. If he remembered correctly there was a travelling guardsman due to report into the castle tomorrow. He would get him to be the physical trial.

That just left the emotional trial. What could he set up to engender an emotional response in her? He needed to see how she handled herself when under emotional stress. The closest any of the cats came to pets these days were the occasional human when the cats went to the human dimension, so nothing against a pet would work well since most cats wouldn’t have one. Perhaps he could get one of those fire sticks, it would have to be a disabled one, and tell her she had to burn down her house. That would definitely get a reaction and he’d be able to see how she responded.

Feeling as good as he could about his thrown together trials, Rupert wandered off to find Sammy and Prince Anthony, who should really be crowned King Anthony now, to inform them the trials would start tomorrow morning.

On the way, he spotted Marcie, a black cat, and asked her to set up Prince Anthony’s coronation for tonight. They needed to get him crowned before something else happened. Marcie meowed and hurried off to get it set up.

Rupert found Sammy and Prince Anthony in the main throne room where he’d left them originally. “I’ve got the trials all set up for tomorrow morning, Prince Anthony.”

“That’s great.” Tony responded with fake enthusiasm. He didn’t want to spend the night here. He just wanted to return to Gibbs.

Rupert didn’t know Prince Anthony well enough to know how thin a line he was walking on. “We’ve also gone ahead and scheduled your coronation for this evening, Prince Anthony.”

Tony really wanted to hang his head in despair. This was all a lot of pomp and circumstance for nothing. He had no intention of running a kingdom. That was why he needed Sammy as heir as soon as possible. She could take over running the day to day stuff while he returned to the human dimension and his mate, Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Unfortunately, he knew there was no way he was getting out of this ceremony. “I hope you have new clothes for me then.”

“Of course, Prince Anthony.” Sammy crisply exclaimed. “If you’d follow me, I’ll show you to your rooms which will have plenty of clothing choices for you to pick from.”

Tony nodded for her to lead the way and both cats left, leaving Rupert in the main room alone to finish setting things up and complete his other duties as advisor.

Tony turned around in his closet in awe. He had never had this many clothes, let alone this many beautiful clothes. Not even when he was younger and his adopted parents were still pampering him had he had this many clothes. He didn’t have the slightest idea which outfit he should wear for the coronation.

Sammy’s lips twitched amusedly at Prince Anthony’s reaction to his walk in closet. She tried her best to keep her expression neutral, but alas she was still young and her lips kept twitching. It was something she would have to work on.

Tony spotted a blue-green cape that matched his eyes. He just knew that he had to wear that for his coronation. Picking out a white suit that would make his black fur stand out and his blue-green cape look amazing, Tony went into the bathroom to get dressed.

Normally, he wasn’t shy, but he wasn’t used to being around other cats and wanted a minute to compose himself. He wished Gibbs were here. Gibbs always knew how to make things better and get his head back in the game.

Brushing at invisible lint in an attempt to make himself look absolutely perfect, Tony finally left the bathroom. While he’d been changing Sammy had been replaced with Rupert. “If you’ll follow me, Your Majesty, we’re all ready for the coronation ceremony.”

Tony taking a page out of Gibbs book, simply grunted and followed Rupert.

Rupert led him back to the main room which while still partially destroyed had been cleaned up as much as possible and cats filled both sides of the room. They’d left him a path down the middle of them to the throne, however.

Rupert paused at the entrance to the main room. “Announcing, Prince Anthony, heir to the throne.”

Rupert whispered to Tony, “Go stand before the throne,” when Tony made no movement after Rupert’s pause and announcement.

Tony walked regally down the cleared path, his eyes taking in each and every cat on his way. He stopped before the throne to wait for whatever happened next. He hoped the ceremony was quick as his stomach rumbled causing a number of chuckles amongst those close enough to hear.

Fortunately, things appeared to be on his side for now and one of the older cats made a speech about how sad it was that they lost the entire royal family, but that not all hope was lost for Prince Anthony had been returned to them and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo that Tony frankly stopped paying attention to. Finally, the old cat wound down and gestured Tony to step forward to receive his crown.

He then made Tony repeat a bunch of promises after him before finally laying the crown on Prince Anthony’s head making him now, King Anthony. A roar went up amongst the cats on both sides as they eagerly celebrated having a King again. They only hoped that he would last longer than the previous 6 kings after Anthony’s dad had lasted.

That was it. It was done. Somebody then brought out a huge feast of food and everyone gathered around to eat it and to greet their new King. More names were tossed out at Tony than he knew what to do with and he really hoped that Sammy passed all her trials tomorrow as he didn’t think he’d be able to stand another night in this place.